Trick or Treat 2011

We did so much trick or treating this year. Remember how I have that problem where I can't say no, because I want to be involved in all the fun stuff. Well, we ended up trick or treating just about the entire day. The kids loved it though.

First we started out at Provo Macey's. They do a thing every year where the kids can go around to all the different departments and trick or treat. It's really fun. We met up with some of our Provo friends and some of our Springville friends, so we had large group and they had a great time together.

Nathan, Carson, Kaitlyn, Adelia, Lincoln, Ivan, Sam, and Tyler

Suzy even had mercy on me and let me call this trick or treating adventure "H is for Halloween" and check Letter Day off the list of things I have to do this week. (I was very appreciative, because it's going to be a very hectic week, and now Tuesday is more free than it was going to be originally.)

After Macey's, we headed to Aaron's work. The kids got to go around to and trick or treat at all the desks. Then one of Aaron's co-workers had set up a little Halloween fun in one of the back rooms. The kids got to decorate a paper bag with Halloween stickers, color a picture, play toss the bean bag into the ghosts mouth, and decorate a cupcake.

We went home for a quick 2 hour lunch and nap break (Adelia ended up being the only one who slept). Then we were right back at it. We met up with our friends the Shaws.Both Lincoln and Ivan adore their little boy Sam, who is Lincoln's age. Springville does a Main Street trick or treat, where all the shops on Main Street close down and set up tables in front of their stores to hand out candy. So we walked up and down Main Street. It was a gorgeous day, and our astronaut costumes were a little on the warm side. But the kids had a great time.

Lincoln, Ivan, and Sam

We got lots of compliments on the kids' astronaut costumes. I thought they turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. The helmets are made out of trick or treat pumpkins. And for the shirts, I just bought plain white shirts, then Aaron found the NASA logo, Orion Mission, American flag, space shuttle, and name badge patches online, and we printed them onto iron on paper, and then just ironed them onto the shirts. Lincoln was thrilled that his had his name on it (the other kids' do too).

Funniest moment of the whole experience...an older kid who was walking behind Lincoln and Ivan, said to Lincoln, "Hey, are you guys twins?" To which Lincoln replied, "No. We're astronauts." I laughed so hard, I couldn't even answer the kid when he turned to ask me if they were twins. 

After Main Street, we went and picked up Aaron from work and started working on dinner. I made Green Spaghetti, which I called Monster Moss Spaghetti and Lincoln called Slimy Noodles. :) Ryan and Melissa came over and brought a spooky salad. Aaron made french bread to go with. It was yummy.

Aaron, Adelia, Lincoln, Ryan, Melissa, and Ivan

Once everyone had eaten, we got the kids back into their costumes. We had Melissa take a picture, and Ryan got in with us, wearing his awesome yellow spandex costume. The diaper that went with was so awkward and so hilarious.

Ryan, Krystal, Ivan, Lincoln, Aaron, Adelia

Ryan and Melissa generously stayed at our house and manned the candy bowl, while Aaron and I took the kids trick or treating around the neighborhood. I was so excited to go trick or treating for real. We've never lived in a neighborhood before where people went door to door. And we live in such a wonderful neighborhood for it. It was fun being out and recognizing so many of our friends and neighbors, and to have my primary kids come up and say hi to me and show me their costumes. Again, I felt this awesome sense of community that I haven't felt apart of since we lived in Texas. I love our neighborhood, how many times can I say that lately? :)

My astronaut children with their moon buggy, and Mission Control Dad. 

We didn't have time to dress the wagon up this year, but we still took it with us. The kids had so much fun going up to people's doors, and I loved going around to all the different houses that we knew and chatting with people and listening to the boys tell about their costumes. Originally we weren't going to have Adelia trick or treat, she was just going to go along for the ride in the wagon, but people kept coming out of their house and down the sidewalk to her to bring her candy, so Aaron just started taking her up to the door too. She LOVED it. She knew exactly what was going on, and was very pleased not to have to miss out.

She wouldn't keep her helmet on either, so for the most part she went around in a beanie. Some people mistook her for a boy this year, but I didn't care. I'd much rather have a few people mistake her than to have to put up with awful fairy wings or princess dress. We'll see how many more years she lets me dress her up like her brothers. :) I love dressing up together as a family. I hope that's a tradition we can keep up over the years. (In case you missed it, Aaron and I were Mission Control this year. We had awesome jackets with a Mission Control logo, authentic looking name badges, and even a headset with and ear piece and a microphone. At one of the parties we went to, Aaron even had someone ask him if he really worked for NASA.)

New Library

This morning we went to the ribbon cutting for the new library. It's such a beautiful building. I can't wait to go back when it's not so packed and crazy. This is the only picture I got of the kids at library because my camera died.

I thought it was fun to go to a ribbon cutting though. It made me feel like a real citizen. I guess I've never really felt like one anywhere else before, because I always knew we were only temporary. I love Springville though, I really feel like we've settled in here and made a place for ourselves. I was happy that I recognized quite a few people at the ribbon cutting, which really made me feel like I was part of a community, or a bigger whole. I liked it. Anyways, yay for Springville and yay for new libraries.

Ward Party

At our ward Halloween party, Aaron and the teacher's quorum were in charge of the fish pond. I took the kids around to do all the other fun carnival games. They got lots of funny prizes, like these lips of Adelia's. Then we ate chili, and had a truck or treat. It was fun, and the kids had a ball. I told them it was practice for real Halloween.

Decapitated Chickens

We've been running around like crazy people lately. I'm not really sure why. I feel like there is somewhere we have to be every day. We have not been sticking to our schedule at all. So, needless to say, I have a preschool unit, sitting about 3/4 planned out that I haven't had time to finish or implement. We're working on it though. But all things preschool have not gone out the window. I just don't have any really cute lesson plans to share. Lincoln and I have been working on sounding out 3 and 4 letter words, and also adding to a sum of 10.

For reading we've been going back and forth between the 1st Stage Bob Books and some flash cards that I made. I'm not a huge fan of flash cards, but Lincoln memorizes stories too quickly and I noticed that he was starting to have the Bob Books memorized. I switched to Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss, but he has that one memorized too. I wanted to see if he really could sound out all the words I thought he could, or if he was just using an excellent memory for stories to fake it, so I printed up these flash cards of every three letter word you can sound out phonetically that I could think of. It's a long list. And, just for the record, he can sound them all out. Not all in one sitting, his stamina for it isn't that long yet. We just go through the stack until he says he's tired, then we stop. But we've gone through all of them several times and he can do them all. He still gets little b and little d mixed up quite a bit, but I have a fun lesson (again half way put together) planned to help with that, if I can ever get to it. Lincoln likes when we do the Bob Books better, even though they are harder because he has to put a thought together, not just a few sounds of one word. But he likes the pictures. He thinks they're funny, and always likes to add more onto the story than what's there. I think he's going to have to get the second set for Christmas.

For math we started out with me writing a couple problems on a white board, but since we were only doing sums to 10, I felt like I kept using the same problem over and over again. So I went and found some free online worksheets, because I figured they'd use all the different combinations you can put together to make 10 and use each combination equally. I take about 3 problems at a time and write them on the white board for Linc. Some days I give him a bag filled with those rocks you put in flower vases, and he looks at the problem and says, ok the first number is three, and he pulls out three rocks and put them under the number three, then he'll say, three plus two, pulls out two more rocks and puts them under the two. Three plus two equals...1,2,3,4,5(as he counts the rocks) 5! Other times, I have him do basically the same thing, except with the abacus. For some reason the abacus way goes MUCH faster. Either way, I like him to use manipulatives so that he can "see" the math he's doing. I want him to really understand that the numbers he's working with have a value. That 3 actually means, 1,2,3 things. We generally do about five problems a day, unless Lincoln asks for more at the end. He does about half the time. He must be his dad's child :)

We've also been trying to do some fun Halloween stuff. The other day we made finger puppets (I used the patterns off of kaboose.com) and I had the boys make up stories with them. It was funny some of the things they came up with. Here's a sampling:

Grandma Lemmon's Owl Cookies

When I was a kid, my Grandma Lemmon used to always make us owl cookies around Halloween time. I finally got around to getting the recipe from my mom so that I could make them for my kids (and visiting teaching ladies) this year. They were a hit all around. And not too hard to make, although the directions are a little confusing. I had to draw pictures of some of the directions in order for my brain to wrap itself around them. Then Aaron decided to help me out, and used his high tech computer skills to make my recipe for me. :) Love him.

Here is the link to the recipe Aaron wrote up for me. Enjoy!

Jack O'Lanterns

Later in the day, Kelly and Esther and Asher came over to have dinner and carve pumpkins with us. We always love having them over. My kids think Asher is about the coolest thing there is. They love to play with him, and talk about how he is a baby. Adelia like to touch his head. I think she's just impressed that someone else around here is her size. :) I didn't get any pictures while they were here. We were all too absorbed in carving pumpkins. But here are my kids' finished products all lit up on the porch. Sorry for the horrible picture, it's quite hard to take pictures of Jack O'Lanterns because if you use the flash, you can't see how the candle makes them glow, but if I don't use the flash my little point and shoot has a hard time focusing.

Lincoln's, Adelia's, and Ivan's

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday Aaron and I took the kids to a pumpkin patch that we drive past every day on the way to Aaron's work. The kids had a blast. I wish we would have planned to spend more time there. I really think we could have stayed all day and the kids would have been happy. 

They had a little petting zoo there with sheep, donkeys, a very large pig, a llama, and a wombat (mini kangaroo?) I think Ivan would have stayed at the petting zoo the whole time if we'd let him. He was really into feeding corn to the donkeys.

They had a hay bail maze and a hay bale pyramid. These were Lincoln's two favorite things. He wanted to climb to the very top and be high up in the sky. Aaron climbed up with the boys, and I stayed on the ground and chased Adelia through the maze. We all had fun.

She's so stinkin' cute, isn't she? She's not much of a baby anymore, I guess. And she's definitely a cheeser.

Ok, I guess I did climb to the top of the pyramid with the kids. I was so nervous the whole time that they were going to fall off and crack their heads open. Bales of hay aren't the most stable things on the planet. 

Adelia's favorite thing was the corn kernel sand box. Yup, instead of sand it was just a big box of corn. Cool. In the picture, Lincoln is making a corn angel. :)

The very last thing we did was wander into the patch and pick out our pumpkins. We have a rule with our kids that they can have any pumpkin they want as long as they can carry it out themselves.

My cute family at the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day for it.

How I Became a Pirate

 One of our favorite children's books is "How I Became a Pirate" by Melinda Long and David Shannon. The story is pretty great, and the illustrations are incredible. We probably read it at least once a day.

The other day one of my friends posted on Facebook, that she had extra tickets to a local theater that was putting on a musical rendition of How I Became a Pirate. We, of course, took her up on her offer to fill those extra tickets.

My kids had never been to a play before, or even to a movie theater, so I don't think they knew quite what to expect. What they did know was that they were going to see some pirates, so they were excited.

All three of them were enthralled with the show, even Adelia. And I have to admit, so was I. The performance was really well done. The songs were funny. The acting was good. The script stuck really close to the book. And the length was perfect (about an hour) for the kids to sit through without getting bored.  My only regret was that Aaron couldn't go with us because he was at work.

The daytime show was for school groups, and so afterwards they had a question and answer period, which I thought was awesome. A little bit too old for my kids just yet, but a really good idea nonetheless.

Here's Lincoln in front of the pirate set-up out in the lobby. Ivan and Adelia weren't interested in being in the picture. We had such a great time, my kids talked about it all day long. I want to go again! If you're in the Orem area, you should really check it out at the Scera Theater. I think it'll be playing until November 4th.

 

Oh ya, and did I mention that we spend the entire afternoon playing pirates? This is a "pirate ship" made by scooting all the kitchen and folding chairs together and spreading a blanket over top. Lincoln even drew a treasure map, and Ivan ran around yelling, "I've found the perfect digging spot! I've found the perfect digging spot!", over and over again. Adelia was thrilled to be in the boat with the big kids, she waved the pirate flag, and swabbed the decks.

Stress, What I Would Change About Myself, and Rice Pudding

Last night I hosted a Mom's Night Out for our homeschool group. We have them once a month, and take turns having it at different people's houses. Usually there is some kind of learning of a skill involved. For example, I've attended one on couponing/money saving ideas and one on books, where the woman presenting taught us about different resources that are out there for finding the books your looking at using in your curriculum, how to find them cheaply, and how to pick books for different age/reading levels of kids. Both were awesome. Last night I presented on crock pot cooking.

I was majorly stressed out, and my husband could not for the life of him fathom why. "Isn't it just a bunch of ladies getting together to socialize?", he asked me. Yes. It is in deed that. But these aren't just any ladies. If I had invited over a group of good friends who I've known for a long time, I would not have been stressed. It wouldn't have mattered if there were a few hand prints on the bathroom mirror, or a couple dirty dishes in the sink, or if my desk was a little bit untidy. My good friends, I know, would already know that I do my best and would like me anyway. But I don't know the ladies in my homeschool group that well yet. Not that I think they're the judging type, but I just can't "let go" with them yet, I guess, because I don't feel like I know them well enough.

Maybe I should back track and explain a little bit about me first. I am not a person who likes to be out of my comfort zone, especially socially. I'm introverted, which means, that even though I like being in social situations, I prefer to hang back and watch, until I feel really comfortable, before joining in, or putting myself out there. (People always ask the difference between introverts and extroverts, so I've included the chart below.) I'm very new in our homeschooling group, and also pretty new to homeschooling. So I don't really feel like I have any idea what I'm doing yet. I feel like everyone in the group has way more experience than I do. Even though I'm beginning to feel like I know some of the people, I haven't made any really close friends yet, and I do a LOT more listening and taking frantic mental notes, then I do talking.  And basically, I idolize the women in our group. As a whole, they are all of the things I want to be as a homeschool mom.

Introvert	Extrovert
Interacting with others drains energy	Interacting with others increases energy
Prefers thoughts and ideas over people and things	Prefers people and things over thoughts and ideas
Needs a quiet time to recharge	Needs external stimulation to recharge
Thinks things through before speaking	Speaks before thinking
Likes to know a lot about a few subjects	Likes to know a little about a lot of subjects
Has a few, very close friends	Knows lots of people and considers them all friends.
Absorb, reflect and expand on what they learn	Files what they learn and move on
Prefers doing things by themselves	Prefers doing things with others
Listens more than speaks	Talks more than listens
Appears calm, reserved, aloof	Appears peppy, energetic, involved
Will speak extensively only on a subject that they know well	Will speak extensively whether they know the subject or not
Sometimes will have their mind go blank when asked to speak, specially under pressure	Have no trouble coming up with words
Speak slowly or hesitantly trying not to speak until the thought is fully formed and validated	Speak quickly or talk through their thoughts out loud
Get lost and disorientated in the mist of multiple conversations, like at a party	Get energized in the midst of multiple simultaneous conversations
Sometimes are accused of being a 'party-pooper'	Are often a party organizer
Withdraw during extreme stress	Get agitated and seek out others during extreme stress

 So back to my stressing out. Not only am I inviting a large group of women over to my house who I don't know very well, but they are also my role models. AND on top of that, I, in my ignorant state, am attempting to try to teach them something that I don't know very much about in the first place. And did I mention my 3 children and how it is practically impossible to get my house clean all at the same time? And how, since I was teaching about crock pot cooking, I was frantically trying to cook as many things in the crock pot as possible, so that there would be a good variety of things to sample?

My husband did not understand. I should have had him try to imagine that he was having his boss, or someone who was very proficient in his field of work, over to our house for dinner so that he could tell them about his latest research, or something along those lines. How would he want the house to look then? What would he want me to be doing with the kids during that time? But I didn't think of it until the middle of the night when I was supposed to be sleeping.

In the end it turned out fine. The ladies didn't really want to talk about the crock pot anyway, they wanted to discuss pressure cookers, something I know absolutely nothing about. But luckily, one of the ladies there did. I gave a small, mostly boring spiel on the crock pot. (In my head it was going to be so good too. I'd put in funny parts, a few personal stories, etc. But then I froze up, especially when I felt like no one was really all that interested in the crock pot. If I could have presented it the way I practiced in my head, they might have developed an interest, but I choked!) And then we got to eat and socialize to our hearts content. I took lots of great mental notes on what I want my future homeschool to be like. And I laughed a lot at the funny stories people told about their adventures with their kids.

Mostly, I sit back and wonder if there will ever be a time when I don't feel like I'm on the outskirts of the group. I wonder if I'll ever be able to chime in on conversations about curriculum, and philosophies, and new ideas. I wonder who -if any- of these women will eventually become my real friends. Don't get me wrong, everyone is super friendly and really nice, but I wonder if that will ever develop into a good enough friendship where I would feel comfortable calling one of them with a question, or letting them see my house in its true, very messy, state, or sharing with them my concerns about what my kids or myself are struggling with. For me, having that kind of a relationship takes time. Lots of time.

And I think this aspect about myself is silly. I wish I could be more open in a group of people. I wish I could speak my mind better, and not be afraid of it. I've never been good at small talk, starting conversations with strangers, or putting people at ease. I hate this about me.

But...one positive thing I got out of preparing for the crock pot class, was this AWESOME slow cooker rice pudding recipe. I love rice pudding, and this was so easy and SO SO GOOD.

Slow Cooker Rice Pudding

8 cups milk (I used half soy milk, and half fat free cow's)
1 cup long grain white rice
1 cup sugar

then:
1/4 cup heavy cream or half and half
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

The Directions.

I used a 4 quart slow cooker. Spray the stoneware insert with cooking spray, then combine the milk, rice, and sugar. Stir well and cook on low for 4-6 hours, or high for about 4. It took longer than I expected for my rice to become bite-tender---I did low for 3 hours, then high for another 2.

When the rice is tender, mix in a large mixing bowl, the eggs, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Scoop a 1/2 cup of the hot rice mixture into the mixing bowl and whisk. Keep adding 1/2 cup at a time of the rice and milk mixture into the egg bowl until about half of the milk and rice mixture is gone from the slow cooker. Then pour everything back into the pot. Stir well. This is called "tempering your eggs"---you have to do this step, or your eggs will scramble on you when you add them to the crock.

Cover and cook on high for 1 hour. Stir well, then take the lid off of the cooker and unplug it. When the rice pudding is room temperature, you can refrigerate it. Some people like their pudding hot or warm, and some prefer it chilled----it's completely up to you.

First Feast

Spent most of the day up Payson Canyon. BEAUTIFUL! If I had to pick a spot right now to build a house and spend the rest of my life, it would be at the mouth of Payson Canyon. All the leaves were in the height of their glory, and it was a gorgeous sunny October day. Days like today are the reason I love fall so much.

But why was I up Payson Canyon? For the First Feast, of course! Our school group does a First Thanksgiving reenactment every year, where we bring authentic (ish) food that they had at the First Thanksgiving. We have it outside, so as to be more realistic. (That's why we do it in October, so we still want to be outside.) 

Everyone was given the option of dressing up (or not) as either and Indian or a pilgrim. Some people had really awesome costumes. Others, like us, improvised. This morning I gave my kids a quick This-Is-What-Thanksgiving-Is lesson and had them color Indian headbands, and then glued craft feathers on them. Then we strung pasta necklaces. But it did the trick, and the kids had a great time with them. And they actually wore their "costumes" the entire time we were there. I was impressed.

Ivan and Lincoln and their Indian gear.

After the delicious food. They had different activities set up for the kids. They got to try their hand and writing with a quill and ink, grind corn in a mortar and pestle, listened to Indian ghost stories around the campfire, and (the boys' absolute favorite) shoot bows and arrows.

Oh! I almost forgot. The authentic dish that I brought was called Sweet Potato Spoon Bread. It turned out fabulous. I am going to have to do this for the real Thanksgiving. It was sooooo good. It tastes a little like pumpkin pie.

Sweet Potato Spoon Bread
SERVES 8 TO 10

3 large sweet potatoes
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 cups milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup light-brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup honey
4 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream

1. Heat oven to 400°. Bake sweet potatoes until soft when pierced with a knife, 40 to 60 minutes. Let cool. Peel, and discard skins.

2. Reduce heat to 350°. In a medium saucepan over medium heat combine cornmeal, milk, butter, brown sugar, spices, salt, and 1 cup water. Cook, stirring, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

3. Butter a 2-quart baking dish. Place cornmeal mixture, sweet potatoes, flour, honey, eggs, and cream in a food processor. Process until smooth; pour into dish. Bake until golden brown, about 45-60 minutes, until a fork comes out clean. Serve.

FHE: Pumpkin Seed Service

I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile, and I'm just finally getting around to making it happen. Sometimes I feel like a lot of whining and complaining goes on at our house. The two cures for this that I've thought of are gratitude and service. We'll probably be focusing a lot on gratitude next month, so I wanted to do something service oriented, to see if we could get the focus off of us and onto something better. Helping someone else. Tonight was my turn for the FHE lesson, so that provided the perfect opportunity to implement my idea.

I used Word to make the front and back to a pumpkin, and some pumpkin seeds. (Click on the links for the printable pattern.) Then I cut out the pumpkins and stapled them together, leaving the top open, to create a pocket to hold the seeds. Then I cut out the seeds. On each seed is something I thought my kids were capable of doing as a service to someone else. There are a couple blank ones for them to write their own idea on.

For FHE we sang "Give Said the Little Stream" and then I had Aaron tell a few examples of service that the Savior performed while he was on the Earth. We talked about how service is something we do for others that helps them in some way and makes them feel loved. I read the scripture on the front of the pumpkin (Mosiah 2:17) and we talked about how when we serve other we are really serving God. We talked about how every person on Earth is one of Heavenly Father's children, and so when we help one of Heavenly Father's children it makes Him happy.

I explained that every day for the rest of the month we were going to try and serve others. Every day I'd let the kids pick a seed, and we'd try to do whatever the seed said. Once we'd completed the task, we'd get to put the seed inside the pumpkin. We want the pumpkin to be full of seeds by the end of the month.

Tonight we picked the seed that said "Write a card for someone who is sick." and we made a nice card for Aaron's Grandpa Jeffs, who is in the hospital. We had a good time working together on the card. I hope the rest of our month goes as well. :)

Ghost Feet

I stole this idea off of a friend's blog. My kids love hand and foot print art, and these were so cute, I couldn't resist. I added the poem to each one, and then hung them on the outside of our front door for decoration. 

Lincoln drew on his own ghost faces, I drew Ivan and Adelia's ghost faces.

Fall Leaves

Every year in the fall we take a family drive up the canyon to look at leaves. This year we live in a new place, which means a new canyon. We went up Hobble Creek Canyon, and it was beautiful. I don't know if we just picked the perfect time to go, or what, but the colors we saw this time were the best we've seen in years. My little point and shoot does not even begin to do it justice.

Lincoln called to talk to my mom tonight and this is what he told her, "Gramma, we saw leaves, in the forest! And cow pies, two of them!" When we got out to walk around and gather leaves, we did indeed see two cow pies. And I only pointed them out to the boys so that they wouldn't step in them, but apparently, they were a highlight.

We gathered red, yellow, orange, and a few green leaves, so that tomorrow we can do our annual autumn collage. That will be fun, and Lincoln must remember doing it last year because he was really excited about it. Ivan was all about finding leaves. When we let him out of the van he started marching and said, "Were going to hunt some leaves!" I have cute kids. :)

Family Fotos

We had our family pictures done in April and I love them. But Aaron and I were noticing the other day that our little Adelia, who was very much a baby at our last shoot, has grown up so much these last few months, and is no longer a baby. I'm kind of a family picture freak anyway, and I've been wanting to do pictures in the fall because it's my favorite time of year. So when Aaron's sister Stacey called up and mysteriously told us she was working on something Christmas and needed a family picture and a single shot of each of the kids by the next day, we took advantage of the timing, and arranged a last minute photo shoot with Aaron's brother Ryan. I'm so glad we did. The pictures turned out awesome, especially the single shots of the kids. No more talking, I'll just show you what I mean...Thanks Ryan for doing these!

 Trying to teach Ivan how to smile normally. Usually he'll say cheese, but end up scowling.

We were using Adelia's baby to try and make her smile, that's what she's reaching for in all of these.

How do I even choose which ones to frame?