Quiet Time, Sarah's pretty walls, Halloween, Dates

Every Sunday we 'let' the kids have some chill out/quiet time (notice the use of the word let?)  Anyway the kids can either take a nap or play on iPods.  During one of these quiet times Josh found a photo design ap that I had downloaded a while ago, but had forgotten about.  Here's a few of the creations he and Daniel made with it during quiet time:

 Nice mustache, buddy:

Hey as long as I get my quiet/recharge time I am usually a happy camper so if this is what they decide to do during quiet time and stay quiet about it, I don't care.  Maybe Josh could teach me a thing or two about that ap since I haven't ever used it.

 

 Sarah had dance Wednesday and they were having a Halloween costume party.  Sarah wanted to wear her Snow Wipe (as she calls it) dress up costume instead of her actual Halloween costume.  I didn't care so here's my happy little Snow Wipe Sarahbug with her dance leotard on underneath:

 Halloween morning was pretty hectic.  Thankfully Aaron was able to stay home to help me get everyone ready that morning.  Matthew was a little miffed that his teacher announced that Jr. High does not have Halloween parties especially when he saw all of his siblings dressing up in their costumes to go to school in.  Poor Matthew--he has a hard time understanding this growing up thing :(.  Anyway, while Aaron and I were trying to get everyone ready Sarah took advantage of the lack of supervision.  She grabbed and pen and went to town on the Cinderella mural in her room.  When  I finally got a chance to sit down she came running over to me and said that she made her wall look so pretty.  I immediately hopped up to see what, exactly, she was talking about.  Sure enough she had colored on her wall with the pen.  Do you think she made the wall prettier?

 Maybe it ads an extra oomph to the mural? She was so proud to show it to me, but then got quite upset when she saw my not too happy expression on my face.  I couldn't get too mad because she was just trying to be like me and color on her walls.  I just had to sigh and hope it will come off with Magic Eraser.  The bad thing is that she used a ball point pen so even if I get the ink off, there will be permanent indentations where the pen marks were drawn on the wall.  Good thing I love my little girl.

 Anyway, we headed over to the kids' school a few minutes later.  When Noah saw we were bringing a chair for Grandpa T to sit in he insisted he needed his chair as well.  Here's Mr. Noah Bat waiting for the school Halloween parade to start sitting in his chair that he just had to have, but kept moving it everywhere.  There were a few times he scooted it out into the middle of the Halloween parade--the little stinker:

 Here's my sassy pants Cinderella girl who wanted to be Cinderella at the school Halloween party.  She gave me a quick wave as she walked by:

 Josh was a zombie:

 Daniel was too busy to stop for a picture so here's the best motion picture I could get.  He was going so fast he didn't even have time to tie his shoes.:

 When Sarah got home from kindergarten she was so excited to show me all the treats she got from her party.  I was just glad to see her hair had stayed in...mostly.  Her hair was one major experiment that morning.  I guess it just goes to show you that if you use enough bobby pins and hair spray you can get anything to stay:

It was pretty crazy when the rest of the kids got home from school that afternoon.  They were on sugar highs from all their Halloween parties.  The craziness didn't end it just continued the rest of the day.  We met up with some friends, the Einzingers, for dinner and then went trick-or-treating with them around our old neighborhood.  The kids were excited to get their face paint on.  Sarah was a strawberry, Matthew a pirate, Daniel zombie, Noah bat, and Josh was a zombie.

 The two brave dads offered to take all nine kids out trick or treating.  I didn't complain because it left me and Erin back at the house by ourselves.  Wahoo--uninterrupted adult conversation (minus the trick or treaters, of course :)).  It has been ages since that's happened.  It was nice!!

Our kid group started coming back about 45 minutes later.  I say started coming back because the kids came in waves.  First Josh and Hailey showed up at the house, then the big Sara and Daniel came, then Beth and my Sarah came and then the dads with Noah, Emma and Matthew.  The older kids weren't ready to be done, yet, so the dads took them out some more.  My Sarah, Noah and Emma were completely done with trick or treating though.  It was chilly and Sarah had tripped and fallen about a dozen times so she was done walking around.  The candy just wasn't a good enough incentive anymore.  Sarah was glad to be home so she could help hand out the candy to the trick or treaters.  She was a good example of how a little power can go to your head, though.  She turned into the candy Nazi telling and making sure each trick or treater got only one piece of candy.  It was funny.  When the older kids got back everyone was cold and tired.  We had some hot chocolate and everyone gorged themselves on candy.  There were wrappers everywhere.  Here's a small sample of what the rest of the kitchen looked like:

We had lots of fun spending it with friends!!  Thanks Einzingers!!

 

The Einzingers have a neighbor that goes all out for Halloween.  He starts setting up his new Halloween theme every year about 6 weeks before Halloween.  Last year it was a Sanitarium, this year it was a zombie fest.  When I say he goes all out he really goes all out.  He has remote controlled mannequins that do different things like walk around, or hang from the fence and shake and yell, or the best one is an old fashioned wheel chair with a bloody zombie sitting in it that follows you around.  When it was time for us to go home Aaron took me over to look at the house.  Even as an adult it still was creepy even for me.  I can see why a lot of people come from far away to check out this house.  It's pretty awesome.  The picture doesn't even do it justice or show half of the mannequins he uses.

 The next day the kids had off from school.  Matthew started begging me about 8 am to go out and do something fun and didn't stop until we actually got out of the house to go somewhere.  Everyone had their own suggestions on where they wanted to go, so Josh came up with a good suggestion.  He proposed that everyone wrote down two activities they wanted to do on small pieces of paper.  We then put them all in a bowl and draw out two activities and that's how we'd decide what we would do that day.  The first activity was the Dinosaur park/museum.  We have been here quite a few times, but it was fun this time because Josh and Daniel actually stopped to look at things and read about them.  I was quite impressed. Usually they just run through the museum and then want to go outside like the rest of the kids, but not this time.  It was fun to talk about all the different things we saw.  As you can see Sarah and Noah are looking out the window while Josh is looking at the displays:

 After seeing the inside of the museum we headed for the duck and fish pond outside.  We didn't see the fish, but saw lots of ducks that wanted to be fed, but we forgot to bring the bread with us--DOH!

 The outside of the Dino park was under construction so we were only able to see a small part.  We did stop and eat a picnic, though:

 Then the second activity was the train museum--Matthew was in HEAVEN!!!  Here's all the kids climbing on the inside of the boxcar:

Saturday morning Aaron's cousin was getting married in the Draper temple.  To make things easier to get ready to go to the wedding we came down to spend Friday night with G&G T.  They were kind enough to let Aaron and me go on a date.  We went and saw the 3D movie Gravity.  Do you know how long it has been since I have been to a movie that I have chosen for myself and not for the kids?!  It has been at least 6+ years.  We had to take a picture of us sporting our 3D glasses just to help us remember what going to a movie without kids is like :):

 We also went out to dinner and then started browsing for Christmas present ideas for the kids.  It was so nice to have a date.  Thanks G&G T!!!  The next morning we had to leave by 9 am to get to the Draper temple.  It was so nice to be able to see the sealing with my husband sitting by my side.  I love going to sealings because I was so nervous/scared/excited about my own sealing I don't remember much so it's nice to get a reminder.  Aaron also loved visiting with all his cousins--some of which he has not seen for 20+ years.  When we got back G&G T had been busy.  Grandpa had taken the three oldest boys to Home Depot to do their Saturday project which this week was a toy wooden boat.  Since Grandpa only took the three oldest kids he was kind enough to bring a boat kit back for Sarah to make at their house with her.  When they got back from Home Depot they also did a Thanksgiving door hanging craft for their bedroom doors.  The kids had lots of fun.  It was a great weekend for everyone!!  Thanks G&G T!!

 This past Sunday was fast Sunday.  That meant Matthew got to do Fast Offering collections.  When he got up he came over and told Aaron that he wanted to do Fast Offerings without him.  Aaron didn't quite know if that would work out, so when it was time he took Matthew to the church.  Aaron then found one of his leaders and explained to him about Matthew wanting to do it without Aaron's help.  The leader was more than ok with that, so, nervously, Aaron turned around and left.  Matthew got to come to our house to pick up the Fast Offerings.  He was happy about that.  After Fast Offerings Collections were done Matthew came home and I guess things went ok.  No news is good news, right?!  Actually our friends a few houses down from us said he did great.  I am hoping it really was ok.....you just never know....  I think all the weekends' activities caught up to Sarah and Noah during church, though.  They both had to be taken out of sacrament because they were being little stinkers.  I was never so ready for quiet time as that afternoon!!

Yesterday I was cleaning up when Noah begged me to come snuggle with him in my bed.  Now how can you refuse that?!  He even got his pillow pet and blanket laid out on my bed so he could get snuggles.  As I was snuggling with him I noticed how LONG his eyelashes are.  My boys got all the luck in the eyelash department--too bad it doesn't mean much to them.  I would LOVE to have those long lashes on myself along with his big, blue puppy dog eyes!!  No wonder he is so dang spoiled ;)!!

 Have I mentioned how much I LOVE getting snuggles from my little guy?!  Just don't notice the huge amounts of dust on everything and dirty dishes in the sink yesterday because I was busy getting lubs from my Bubba boy!!