Topher thought Sophie's carved pumpkin was so cool that he wanted to do one of his own. This is the pumpkin he brought home from his kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch. He drew the design and I wielded the knife. I was afraid he would put up a fight about not carving it himself, but he was happy to have me perform the surgery.
Saturday was gorgeous and warm. Bryan and I spent several hours outside working in the yard (both of us) and power washing the sidewalk (Bryan, see the example in the first picture below). While we worked Cooper, Sophie, and Topher got lots of fresh air and exercise. Cooper and Sophie modified baseball to work for two people and Topher learned how to climb the tree!
We might get snow this week, so I love that we were able to take advantage of this beautiful day.
Sophie's class carved pumpkins for their Halloween party today. We've carved very few pumpkins as a family, so this was especially fun for our girl. She was happy to show off her design when she got home.
Today started out cold, but ended gloriously warm. Topher, Sophie, and I spent a good chunk of time outside after school. They used that time to build a scarecrow for our garden. I confess that it looked more like a scarecrow before I took the shirt off of it, but it was a shirt that still fits Topher and is in his current wardrobe rotation. Even though I took his shirt, I let him keep his plastic bag head.
We had our church Trunk or Treat tonight. We brought:
A firefighter,
He's down two more teeth! One on the bottom came out on Saturday and the remaining front tooth on top came out on Sunday on the way home from church.
According to Bryan, I remodeled the kitchen today. I did alter it, but only slightly. In my haste I failed to take a before picture, so I had to go looking for one. On Peter's birthday last year I caught a glimpse of the area I changed.
See that scalloped piece of wood above the sink?
Well, it's not there anymore.
I'll be making more changes to this room, but for now I'm thrilled to have more light in the kitchen!
We just got home from our first costumed Halloween party of the season. Phoebe's costume required some makeup. She says she's a "creepy baby doll."
The Homecoming dance was last Saturday evening. Peter didn't want to take a date, but he did want to go with a group of friends. They didn't have their plans sorted until just before the dance. As far as I'm aware there were no fancy dinners beforehand, everybody just showed up at the dance.
Cooper had expressed interest in going, definitely by himself. We got him a ticket with the rule that he needed to have a group to go with. Up until an hour before the dance, he didn't have one. He finally agreed to hang out with Peter's friends and they both got ready.
They had fun, but nobody did much dancing. Cooper found a friend from church who had made a similar last minute choice to go, so he had a group of people separate from Peter.
I was totally out of commission with a migraine, so Bryan did all the driving and picture taking. I don't think they intended to match each other, they just wanted to both be a little more casual. You can always tell when Bryan is the photographer because the camera is eye level with Peter.
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Topher has been wiggling his front tooth for a few weeks. It was so loose one day last week that his teacher sent him home from school with a special tooth box to stick under his pillow. He wiggled and pulled on it throughout the afternoon, but it just wasn't ready. That evening he brushed his teeth and the tooth came out!
Topher came home from school last week and told us that he's getting married. He pinky promised that he would marry a girl in his class named Charlotte. But don't worry, it won't be until he's a grown up.
Yesterday he was really troubled over something. I asked what was wrong and he said he didn't know if he should marry Charlotte or Madison or Fiona, or if he should just marry all of them.
I told him he has many years before he needs to make the decision. But when he does, just marry one girl.
Phoebe had her first art club meeting this week. In order to join she had to draw and submit a self-portrait. She finished it at school and didn't take a picture, so I didn't see how it turned out. But I did find this one that she started and rejected as not good enough.
This surpasses anything I could draw, by a significant amount. Even though it was rejected and is unfinished, I think it's beautiful.
"Mom, this is you. See how fast you're running? And this is me. See how fast I'M running?!" -Topher, who clearly understands that more legs equal greater speed.
Between the first two Saturday sessions of General Conference we all went outside to do yardwork. Bryan manned the edger, Peter ran the lawnmower, and the rest of us attacked the weeds. Our big goal was to remove the small trees that had grown in the shade of our giant pine tree. It took us a bit to get there as we gathered sticks and pulled weeds in other parts of the yard. We finally began work under the tree. We'd been pulling weeds for about five minutes when Sophie announced that she'd found something.
Yeah, that's poison ivy. I'm impressed that she recognized it right away. Our work in the yard was cut short and everyone that had worked under the tree had to go leave their shoes and clothes in the garage and then go shower, just in case we'd come in contact with it.
We'll leave the removal to a professional.
