An Early Halloween

For years and years we've gone to the church's Candy Carnival.  This year, Halloween is on a Monday.  Ian has his last game, Genna has vaulting, and I absolutely refuse to take Things 1, 2, and 3 to the church alone.  The entry free to the Candy Carnival is one bag of candy plus a food donation to Backpacks 4 Kids per kid.  Seven bags of candy PLUS canned food? No thank you! Lucky for me, my kids are easy to work with.  I offered to buy large amounts of candy for our own consumption if we could stay home tomorrow night. Deal.

The fun started last night with the older four staying up with me to watch the old Ghostbuster's movie.  I figured that since I couldn't remember any risque parts of the movie, my younger kids wouldn't understand nor remember any of them either.  They were there all right.

"I picked this one just for you!"

 Lula's pumpkin is Pinocchio.  She has been caught three times sneaking candy.  She slipped out of the house and was found eating candy in the van.  She got in her sister's candy bag and helped herself for awhile.  And then she was caught getting into the decoy bag that the same older sister left as a trap.  She lied each time.

 I made some monster food for dinner tonight.  Snotty boogers pretzel dip...

...and mummified hot dogs...

We lit the pumpkins...

Daniel's

Ian and Shane's

Genna's and Fiona's (I bet you can't tell which is which)

 The meanest thing I did was make them play games to win all the candy I bought.  I thought about just setting the bowl of candy out and letting them eat it Hunger Games style.  But I figured Ian would dominate.

Catching chopsticks (and someone thought I couldn't possibly find a use for 100 pairs of chopsticks!)

 Jason had some M&Ms earlier today and I tell you, this boys gets CRAZY on sugar.  He was crawling all over me, biting and licking me! I have never ever seen him so insanely crazy.  He got some more candy during our little party and he got a little crazy again.

(I included this picture only because Ian is scaring Lula in the background)

 We played lots of quick short games that I found online today, plus a few more the kids made up on the spot.  Once, Genna noticed that her bag of candy corn was missing.  I showed her the picture I had just taken of Jason and asked if that was her bag of candy:

He is a bit of a squirrel and likes to hide things in various places around the house.  His favorite hiding places are the garbage can (I have to pull all sorts of non-garbage out all day and I'm pretty sure he threw away the DVD remote), the middle drawer on the blue desk, and the heat vent hole in the school room.

And that is where we found the candy!  Did you notice a lack of Heidi pictures? Oh, she was there all right and she was the loudest person in the room!  But for some reason, I didn't get anything but a blurry picture of her trying to steal Ian's candy with Jason...

Trunk or Treat!

The local elementary school hosted a trunk or treat event tonight.  

Daniel: Transformer. Shane: Magician. Lula: Princess. Fiona: Witch. Heidi: Clown. Jason: Giraffe Gen: Ingalls Girl.

This mom wouldn't buy new costumes this year, can you tell?  The girls were excited to do their little sisters' makeup.  Fiona did Heidi's clown makeup.  What it looked like originally, I can't tell you. I didn't see it until she smeared it all around.

But with the Scary Clown scare around here (where the school district sends out notifications that there will be extra security at schools because of machete-wielding clowns), I guess Heidi was a scary clown.

She is the only kid that won't stay with our group.  Keeping track of her in a crowd in the dark is something only Super Mom is capable of. She easily goes into sensory overload, so yeah... we were done with the whole event in an hour.

I dressed up as a Mombie (a mom zombie) because at least four kids woke me up last night for various reasons.

No costume needed. Mark jumps and gasps when he sees me every morning. No kidding.

Red Wing Roundup

This weekend Genevieve had her first vaulting competition at canter.  She was able to skip Beginning Canter because she can mount the horse by herself and she can also stand at canter.  I was unable to go to Saturday's competition because of lack of childcare, but a friend was able to take her and she made a video for us:

Because Jet spooked and started bucking like that, Genevieve was disqualified from Compulsories.

Every day is a new day!

She persevered and didn't give up and wasn't even upset with Jet.  Today I left the kids at home with Mark and went to see the Freestyles.  We had to wake up at 4:30 and leave by 5:30 to be at the stables on time.  I couldn't see a thing; it was so dark!  But after we were there for awhile, the sun came up and revealed the beauty of the equestrian center.

A good sign!

Genevieve did great in her Freestyle:

And then I went and hung out with the horses for awhile:

Jet pretending he is a moose.

What I love most about vaulting is the camaraderie between the girls and coaches.  I haven't seen or heard of any Mean Girls.  If a girl needs help, someone is there to help her.  If a horse is lame, four teams offer theirs.  If a girl is disqualified, she is hugged and hugged.  I even heard of an older sister that was so upset about the disqualification that she was going to plan a sit-in protest so Genna could have another chance.

After the Freestyles were done, it was time for the center piece of show! The Halloween Costume Freestyle!  Genna's was great:

Genna is no longer a big fish in a small pond.  She is competing with girls that are several years older than she is and that have been competing at Copper (her level) for awhile.  Copper, I believe, is the most competitive level because this is where the greatest number of vaulters.  Their talents and interest peak at this level and only the truly dedicated continue on to Silver and Gold...

So even though we do not vault for the ribbons, I was happily surprised when Genna placed 4th in Freestyle.

Pumpkin Patch

What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

After a disastrous trip to the library for Homeschool Art, where the little ones and I made it a whole 20 minutes in the children's section before I locked us in the van, we visited the pumpkin patch.

Wanted to sit on the hay bale for the picture and didn't get her way

 Sadly, this is the last year Shiloh Farms will be having a pumpkin patch.  We went two or three times in the eight autumns we have been here and I'm glad we were able to go one more time.

Shane started orchestra this week.  He is learning to play the violin. 

Jason was sleeping when we were picking out our pumpkins.  Pulling all the books off the library shelves is exhausting and he needed a nap after screaming in his carseat for an hour.

Did you notice Heidi's absence? She is much like Maria in The Sound of Music, but that's a post for another day. I'm hoping to have my very own pumpkin patch next year!

Brace Face!

Hard to believe such a pretty smile needs braces!  But if you look closely, you will see her front teeth are shifted slightly to one side.  Genna has two adult teeth vying for one small space (created by a naughty baby tooth) and they are trying to dissolve each other's roots to claim the territory.  The braces will shift her teeth over and make room and will be done in a year.  Goodbye paycheck!

Stormacolypse

I used to really look forward to storms, especially if the power went out.  I loved getting cozy by my fire, a knitting project or book in my hand.  The kids would play flashlight hide-n-seek when it got dark and board games by lantern light. 

Then my trampoline blew away and we had to replace it.  And I no longer like storms.

I prepped like crazy for this storm that was predicted to have hurricane winds.  I precooked a ton of meat so Mark and I wouldn't starve (thanks, Whole30-those cases of Top Ramen looked pretty good in Costco).  I made sure we had plenty of water for flushing, cleaning, and drinking.  We got enough coffee ground to last a week.  I washed all the laundry (but didn't bother folding it-that can be done without electricty). I worried that the trampoline would blow away and wished Mark would weigh it down with something super heavy... like the house or something...

But then nothing happened.

Nothing but THIS DUMB TREE

I still need to fold that laundry...

Jason Jigs