Halloween at Preschool

Anna and I joined Daniel for a little Halloween celebration at preschool today.

The kids arrived in their costumes, did a little art project, . . .

. . . then paraded onto a stage . . .

. . . and performed a musical number (which Prince Daniel didn't sing a word of) . . .

. . . for their adoring fans in the audience.

Then they all bowed and curtsied.  Are they cute, or what?

OK, 'nuff of that.  What's next?

Spooky Family Dinner, and a Nap

We headed out to my parents' home for dinner tonight.

In addition to the usual guests, it was fun to see Aunt Lisa (dressed in festive October orange), who is in town for a few days.

Mom made her traditional Skull-Island-shaped meatloaf  (which I have once again failed to photograph) and Loch Ness Monster Jello salad, and I brought some gingerbread skeletons for dessert (thanks to Pinterest for the idea, and Nauvoo missionaries for the gingerbread recipe).

Phillip crashed on the couch before we even got to dessert.  He's been working on a big presentation for days, and was pretty wiped out.  Good luck tomorrow, Sweetheart!

Trunk or Treat 2013

Our ward held its annual Trunk-or-Treat this evening.

I dressed Anna as an angel, Daniel wanted to be a prince (though the crown was so big that everyone asked if he was a king, and he got a little tired of correcting them), and Joy decided to be Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode I.  The face paint took me nearly an hour, but hey, it's a small price to pay for granting a child's wish.

Before we left home, Joy lamented that there were no Jedi around to fight with.  Phillip quietly got his light saber out of storage and brought it to the activity, then when we arrived at the carnival he whipped his saber out and challenged Darth Maul to a duel.  To everyone's surprise, she dropped her double saber and ran away crying.  Apparently Darth Maul doesn't like unexpected confrontations.  She recovered quickly, though, and we had a great time.

The carnival had plenty of fun games to play, including this ring toss hosted by our bishop.  Prince Daniel missed with all three rings . . .

. . . so Jedi Master Daddy offered to show him how it was done.  He missed all three times, too.  Apparently the Force was not strong with him tonight.

Darth Maul and I took the "Donut on a String Challenge" (yes, folks, I'll do just about anything for a free donut) . . .

. . . then we set to work Trunk-or-Treating.  Our little angel had no concept of what that meant before tonight, but she caught on quickly.

Once we got home, the Trunk-or-Treaters spread out their loot to trade for what they wanted most.  I remember doing that with my brothers when I was a kid.  Ah, the memories.

Big New Additions

About a week ago, I connected our camera to the computer to import photos for the first half of October . . . and there weren't any.  I think that's mainly because our red Chrysler bit the dust at the end of September, and the quest for a replacement vehicle kind of consumed our lives for the next few weeks.  Long story short . . .

 

. . . we've joined the minivan club.  Our whole family loves the extra space, but I'm still getting used to how huge it is.

Speaking of big new additions, this box arrived on our doorstep a few days ago.  The kids were content to use it as a seat or a jungle gym, . . .

. . . but its actual identity was "bunk bed component container."  Joy gets the top bunk, Daniel gets the bottom, and Anna gets the big crib (which Daniel has occupied until this week - don't tell the kids at preschool).  Anna's former bed (our portacrib) will move to our bedroom just in time for Baby Boy to start using it in the coming weeks.

All Sorts of Creative

For our home evening activity this week, we made crayon rubbings of autumn leaves I collected.

It was interesting to see how different family members approached the project.  I made dark smudges, Phillip and Joy used a lighter hand, and Daniel just wanted to draw his own balloon-shaped leaves.

The kids had distinctive ways of signing their artwork, too.  Daniel did a Picasso-ish montage of the letters in his name . . .

. . . and Joy signed three times--first lower case, then upper case, then doodle case.

I hung all four pictures on our door afterward (along with a couple of Daniel's preschool art projects). 

Speaking of creativity, today Joy used an app to make digital drawing of apple trees and blueberry bushes under a starry sky.

And hey, why wait until Halloween to wear costumes when you can dress up your little sister any time you want to?

Pumpkiny Goodness

It's the first official day of autumn, and you know what that means.

It's time to make the year's first batch of pumpkin cookies!

The big kids helped me measure some of the ingredients . . .

. . . then we all enjoyed the fruits of our labor.  Yum!

Baby Pictures

A woman at church is training to be an ultrasound technician, and this week she offered to perform some free ultrasounds on me so she could get some practice.

In addition to the usual 2-D images . . .

. . . she also performed some 3-D ultrasounds of our little guy.

He has a nice smile, don't you think?

And speaking of babies, my friend Siobhan was in town last week, and I learned that she's expecting a baby boy, too. :)