(better than nothing right?)
had my first Relief Society enrichment night as a member of the committee. And I was the only member present that night so it was really kind of my idea and project. Way to debut. Tons of fun, great turn out for our mini-world tour with several sisters showcasing food and culture from places they've lived.
We spent a Saturday camping and canning with my parents. We joined them at their trailer at a campsite, arriving just in time for dinner and a movie night. Then the next morning Grammy and I set to work peeling and canning pears. Daddy chased after the girls and Papa assisted, playing with girls and running the canning stove. We canned pink pears (a family recipe/tradition) and for the first time, did apple pie filling. L loved helping me peel and core the apples with our fancy gagdet. All in all, the food in great and we had a ton of fun.
Husband's kid-sister was sworn in as a lawyer, having graduated, passed the bar and all the other hoops she had to jump through. We left the girls with a friend, attended the ceremony and went out for a celebratory lunch afterwards. Husband's brother's family is in the process of moving so his wife brought their two daughters (while Brother stayed home to pack). So we got a chance to cuddle and play with our nieces during the ceremony and lunch. Sweet baby C took awhile to warm up to all the new faces but eventually let me cuddle her and she feel asleep against me. :)
October was my turn to host bunko. So Daddy took the girls out for a little dinner date and had a movie popcorn night while we played downstairs. I love these amazing ladies and thoroughly enjoy our night out together.
For kid sister's birthday, we took her and Grandma out for a sushi dinner. Our crazy little minion girls were pretty good about trying new food and LOVED eating with chopsticks.
I usually don't get to stay and watch L's ballet class (juggling the other girls and errands at the same time). But I did stay to watch, just to see how she was doing. She makes me melt, so eager to impress her teacher and to make friends and still full of childlike impish-ness. She's fascinated by the barre and her reflection and easily distracted. (not any more so than the other kids, I just thought it was funny.) But when she is focused, she's amazing. Her positions and grace and pointed toes come so easily and naturally that watching her move is simply beautiful, even as young as she is.
We had a family party with Grandma's side of the family, pirate themed. So we dressed up, shared costumes with cousins' kids and had a blast. The girls loved running around with cousins, climbing trees and doing the climbing wall again. Grandma had some fun team activities for us, designing our pirate flag and building ships. We had a great, laid back bbq and lounged around chatting with cousins and catching up. L picked out our contribution for the snacks and we made pirate boats, filling clear cups with blue jello and fashioning a ship with an orange slice and flattened starburst candy for the sail. They were pretty cute and I was so proud of her creativity. A chose to bring goldfish crackers, half of which were promptly devoured by E.
We attended the ward Halloween party, dressing the girls in their Halloween costumes and taking our pumpkins to be carved. The big girls bounced around to the many carnival games while E clung to daddy. We love our new ward but there's still a lot of unfamiliar faces so we chatted casually and munched on the refreshments (we contributed pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that the girls helped me make). We set about carving our pumpkins. L and A did a great job, telling us exactly what they wanted and trying to do it themselves as much as they could. (E needed more help of course). And then we spent the night roasting the seeds in butter and salt (always a favorite).
We spent an evening up north attending one of our niece's birthday parties. We arrived late (due to our later church block) and joined the party downstairs. Much to their delight, the girls discovered the bounce house and went crazy, bouncing and playing happily. Eventually we settled them down to eat and watch as cousin opened her gifts. They were thrilled to see their cousins and ran off to play as much as they could while Daddy and me (mostly me) just lounged around talking with the other adults. I got to cuddle my newest nephew, about 9 months old. Instead of cake, the birthday girl chose cookies so as the variety of cookies made their rounds, I held a snickerdoodle, asking if he could have a little. Permission had barely escaped from his mom when he lunged for the cookie, snatched it up and shoved it in. His eyes doubled in size as he devoured it, dropping soggy chunks everywhere with all of us watching and laughing. so cute!
Less entertaining: finally getting some of our "to do list" with Richmond addressed and crew works have been coming to finish projects as promised. We are generally unpacked, mostly organized (just don't look in the basement) and even decorating. I love our new house and so easily feel like it fits us perfectly. And we've continued classes and reading on my newest hobby: trading stocks. Making very slow progress but it's all fascinating. Husband has been traveling less lately and the girls are thrilled with all the Daddy time they've been getting. And my classes at the gym continue. I'm not teaching as much lately and trying to change my workout some. I'm running the Vegas Ragnar in a few weeks. I'm not running much lately, preferring kick, lifting and other cross-training activities. But with the race approaching, I'm trying to change my workouts to better prepare. I'm also team captain this time so I've been doing a lot of the planning and coordinating for our team.
The really fun part of this week has been having Husband's brother's wife in town with her two girls. They came over for a long playdate on Monday. We had to move our picnic indoors because it was so cold but the girls had a ton of fun playing together. We brought all of our Little People sets into the living room and they played well together for a long time. They colored, did puzzles and played with barbies until Grandma, Auntie L and Daddy showed up with pizza for dinner and a movie. We played with them again on Tuesday, meeting for lunch at McDonalds and then coming to play at the park by our new house. For dinner, everyone met at our favorite restaurant for Mexican food and face painting by our favorite clown, Soda Pop. I told the girls they had to choose something different than their usual butterfly and ladybug so L chose a zebra and A was a pink tiger. E let Soda Pop paint a butterfly on her hand and their cute cousin was a beautiful butterfly. And much to their delight, even Grandpa got his face painted as Curious George.
Today, while L was at school, I took A and E to the Library Storytime Halloween party. A wore her Rapunzel dress and E fit perfectly into a pink flower/fairy costume we have. Our storytime lady is amazing. L has always loved it and was really upset when she found out she couldn't go anymore (since she would be at school). A was only half interested and E spent the whole time climbing up and down the stairs when we attended last year. But after taking a summer off, being a little older and better at readying stories, the girls are loving it! We've been attending weekly for the last months and A watches intently, doing all the songs and actions and activities. E insists on sitting in my lap but engages for quite a lot as well. Today was the Halloween party with a guest author (Krystyn Crow) reading her own books and some Halloween festivities. It ran long so we didn't stay for games but they loved the stories. The same author was here last year. A and L had listened but I didn't realize how much they loved that book until a few weeks later, I heard them singing a song. It took me a few days before I realized it was from one of the books (Bedtime at the Swamp) and have looked for it ever since. So today, she had copies of the book available and A got to meet her and ask her to sign.
other Halloween and general misadventures to come...
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