I am 13 days behind updating, but better late than never, right?! Things have been pretty crazy the last few weeks so here's a picture overload with an update.
Our family has been enjoying the cooler weather and have visited Lagoon Frightmares for fun a time or two. We finally decided to wait in the crazy long line to experience the updated Terror Ride. Sarah and Daniel were not fans.
Don't let the bored face pictures fool you. They were pretty scared afterward so we had to go and do some fun things to settle them down. Of course a few fun photo ops are in store:
We also went through one of the kid spook alleys where they got candy. Luckily, they gave some to Matthew, too. We tried to explain that he was too old, but he didn't want to listen and went through anyway. Aaron and I were too tired to try and fight with him about it so he got his candy along with Sarah, Noah and Daniel. What can you do?!
More photo ops:
We took the kids through another kid spook alley they had and in one area you had to dance with the dressed up employee to get the candy. No one volunteered so Josh took one for the team and 50's danced with her so everyone else could get the candy.
After leaving Lagoon there was a couple in our ward that still had some grapes leftover that I very much wanted. Thankfully, I still had my whole family with me to pick them off the vine. It really didn't take long to fill up two 5 gallon buckets with so many people picking. I was so grateful and excited to make more grape juice!
I also got suckered in to buying a Halloween costume for Sophie. To be honest it really didn't take very much convincing, though. She is going to be a lobster for Halloween and she was not amused about wearing it as you can tell--haha!
Aaron and I went out to lunch the other day at Moe's to try it out since it just got built by us. They had all kinds of different salsas to try with your food. Since we had some extra chips leftover we grabbed some extra salsa for the kids to try out at home. One of the flavors of salsa had the supremely hot Carolina Reaper pepper in it which we had the kids try. This was a quick picture as soon as the heat hit Daniel and Josh right before they ran to get a drink to help calm the fire down. They were good sports in trying it out. We did warn them beforehand that it had the Carolina Reaper in it, but they were still game to try it out. It was HOT!
It's a sad day in the fall when it is time to clear the garden out. Aaron was pulling out the chicken wire to find that a cucumber had grown through and around the wire. That's pretty crazy!
At the beginning of the year Matthew won a Scheel's gift card that truly has been burning a hole in his pocket. We finally got a chance to go down there for him to pick something out. Of course with a family like ours, we cannot pass up a photo op. Here's the kids with the bear:
Here's the kids in the monster truck (yes, Josh was pretty squished since it was only a one seater--haha!)
We also rode the Ferris wheel. We went in groups of two. Here's Daniel helping Noah get on:
Aaron is not a fan of Ferris wheels (to be honest I am not, either, but I took one for the team this time) so he was the picture taker. Here's all of us on or chairs from the middle to the bottom:
Matthew ended up using his gift card on some supplies for walking Sophie. He chose a light up collar that flashes at night and a chew toy for her. He really loves that dog!
Josh and I made it to our annual Frightmares scary house night. Since Josh and I are the only ones in the family that like really scary things we take a night to visit all the scary houses at Frightmares. Here we are getting ready to go into a 5 spider (which is the scariest) rated haunted house.
We went through all five scary houses and did a few rides before Lagoon closed for the night. It was a fun night with Josh.
Of course he can't pass by a photo op:
I finally was able to get to the grapes we picked after a few days. I was excited to get 18 quarts. I would have had 21, but I accidentally knocked over 3 full ones which spilled down the sides and front of my stove. Talk about a huge mess! Aaron and I thoroughly cleaned the whole area, but we are still finding sticky spots in random places. What a mess!! Oh well, at least I was able to get quite a few quarts minus the three that spilled.
I have still been working. I worked three days last week and unfortunately, Daniel had a field trip on one of the those days. I was glad Aaron was able to fill in for me as a chaperone for Daniel's class. They had a fun time at the Capitol Theater watching a shortened version of the Nutcracker by Ballet West. I told Daniel he didn't have to wear his suit coat and that his white shirt and tie would be fine. However, he is Mr. Fashionista and wanted to look his best. Here's the handsome guys:
Last week I got to have this cute guy as my buddy. Sophie was really jealous. Every time I sat down with him she would force herself in my lap as well. Drew is such a cute and sweet little guy. It makes me miss having a kiddo this age. I got to watch him all morning and into the afternoon until I had to go to work. I LOVED it!!
That night Josh had a band concert as well. I was still at work so I missed it which makes me sad. I am glad they have another concert in December that hopefully I won't have to work at the same time.
The next day was Friday and I got to watch Drew all day. I even got to watch his sisters after they got home from school. Luckily, my kids are all their same ages so they just paired off with their buddy and played most of the afternoon. That afternoon we had Activity Days where we had a fun Halloween party. I got to teach the girls how to paint a Halloween picture of a cat which I think they had fun painting. Luckily, it was warm enough we could paint outside!
After painting and while their pictures were drying they had a donut tied to a rope contest to see who could eat the donut the fastest. It is kind of like bobbing for apples minus all the icky sharing of germs--haha!
Then I had picked up some pumpkin shaped pizzas that we ate. After all that the pictures were dry and we got to see how different everyone's pictures turned out. There were a bunch of girls, but I will only share Sarah and Beth's picture. Here's my Sarahbug:
Here's Drew's sister, Beth, who got to join us for Activity Days that afternoon as well:
That evening we got to go to the Clinton City Pumpkin Walk. The Youth Council got to volunteer to put this together. Josh had been there a few hours helping when we got to stop by and see him. First we got to see all the luminaries and jack-o-lanterns.
Josh dressed up as Napoleon Dynamite to pass out candy to the kids that came to the Pumpkin Walk.
After the Clinton Pumpkin Walk we drove down to the Syracuse Pumpkin Walk. We have gone to this for 14 years. We love this activity and enjoy going every year. Josh wasn't with us this time because he was still helping out at the Clinton Pumpkin Walk. Here's a photo op:
They also had a few of the Star Wars characters you could get pictures with. I fit in nicely with my Chewbacca sweatshirt--haha!
They had so many carved pumpkins!
Now being in a household of mostly boys who really love potty humor Daniel couldn't pass up this photo op of a poop emoji pumpkin. Sigh--what can you do?! Why do boys think things like that are so funny....
Here's a few of Aaron's favorite pumpkins:
There were some really intricately carved pumpkins that were impressive to look at:
The Cross Country coach has been getting advice from another team in the school district that is really good. He got some tips and decided to try them out which meant a whole of more of running. Last week the coach challenged all the kids to run 6.5 miles every day starting Monday and finish off the weekend by doing a half marathon. Josh didn't even bat an eye and just did it. However, he did want to do a planned half marathon for his 13.1 miles. We looked and the only one around was the Black Island Farms half marathon. Josh wanted to participate bad enough that he used all of the money he had earned over the summer to pay for his entrance fee. As we dropped him off Saturday morning he was a bit nervous, but excited.
Aaron and I stopped by every two miles to cheer him on. Here's one of our cheering stops:
About this time Josh was getting hot so he took off his white shirt and through it at us. Good thing we were there to get it!
Towards the end of the race we went and picked up the rest of the kids so they could cheer him on, too:
Part of the race was on the walking/biking trail that runs right by G&G T's house so they were able to walk over to cheer him on with us, too:
At the end of the race Josh was still looking pretty good. In fact looking at his mile times after the race, he actually was 30 seconds faster per mile on the last few miles. That's pretty good!
It was cool because they announced his name and city when he finished. Wahoo, Josh!
He ended up coming in second place in his age group (ages 1-18) and 11th place overall in the race. Wahoo!
He got a commemorative glass with the date and race printed on it. Way to go, Josh!
The poor kid--there was no rest for the weary. Since Josh finished the half marathon it meant we got super discounted tickets to go through the Black Island Farms corn maze and play on their courtyard activities. Since Josh wanted a few minutes to sit down right after the race, we started out by going on the hayride tour of the farm. While waiting to board the hayride the kids had fun playing on the farm style basketball game.
Going on the hayride:
After the hayride we spent some time playing with the beanbag toss. The kids were surprisingly good at the beanbag toss!
Then we took the kids to ride on the corn train. Josh didn't want to which was fine--I don't think his long legs would have fit inside the cart:
Then we played on the farm style musical instruments:
Noah and Sarah had fun crawling through the various tubes:
Then we headed out into the corn maze. There were 3 phases and we did them all. It was fun to climb up the bridges to see where we were in the maze. Josh was not a fan of the stairs because his legs hurt, but we still made him keep up with us--haha! We are so mean!
The maze was pretty big! Here's the kids going down another bridge in the middle of the maze:
Sarah is a Daddy's girl and Aaron loves it! He loves it when she will come over and hold his hand.
Another tall bridge:
After completing the maze we did some more courtyard activities. Daniel LOVED doing the lasso toss. I don't think he'd be a very good cowboy, but he had fun trying to rope the pretend calf:
The rest of the kids loved going down the different slides. Here's Sarah and Noah playing on one of the slides:
Noah tried rolling down the slide, but he ended up just bouncing down the slide instead which hurt. I'm such a mean mom because I was too busy giggling when I was trying to give him loves after he came down. Sometimes I really wonder what goes through kids' minds! Don't worry he was running off to go down the slide after about 30 seconds so no harm no foul, right?!
They also have a super tall slide that you needed a burlap bag to slide down. Everyone tried it out. Here's Josh:
Noah:
Matthew:
Daniel:
Me:
Sarah:
Playing on the buried tires:
Climbing the hay stack:
Playing in the corn box which was just like a sand box with corn. Sarah let her brothers bury her. Let me say I am still finding dried corn kernels throughout my house since they got in her socks, down her shirt, in her pockets, in her shoes, etc. What a mess, but I guess it was worth it--haha!
After we finished at the corn maze and various courtyard activities, we came home so Aaron and I could get ready to go out on a double date with friends. I can't tell you the last time I have been on a double date without kids so we were looking forward to it. We went to a play at the Desert Star Playhouse down in Murray. We saw Wicked-er which was pretty hilarious. It is a spoof on the Wicked play. Here's our double date participants:
After the play we headed over to Leatherby's for some dinner and dessert. For dessert Aaron ordered the banana split which was GINORMOUS!! Amazingly he was able to eat it all. Even more amazing is he kept it down and still likes ice cream--haha! I had a few bites and it was pretty delicious. Here's his banana split with three huge scoops of ice cream:
We had so much fun on our double date. It was nice to have uninterrupted adult conversation!! Thanks for inviting us Einzingers!!
We made our last visit for the year to Lagoon Monday night. We let the kids choose their favorite ride and rode it (Aaron and I sat out a few rides since two of the super spinny rides they chose would have us feeling quite sick the rest of the night). On the way to one ride we stopped to watch the Hackenslash show for a few minutes. The show was rated 3 spiders so the kids weren't too spooked by it. It is a bunch of face mask wearing chainsaw wielding dancers acting out different scenarios. Here's Sarah and Daniel:
Josh was nice enough to hoist Noah on his shoulders so he could see, too. Just look for the tallest head in the crowd and that would be Noah's:
We also stopped by some more photo ops.
I can't believe Lagoon is now closed. It was a fun season for our family!
Yesterday was Halloween. It was so fun to go to the kids' school parade. We got to see Noah as a skeleton, Sarah as Hermione, and Daniel as a pirate.
Daniel was too cool to smile for his picture as he walked by in the parade:
Noah was a cheeser and held up the whole line to make sure we got a good picture:
Sarah only half way acknowledged us, but I will take it--haha!
To get Sarah's hair frizzy like Hermione we braided it and she wore it braided in to 4 different French braid buns for two days. It worked great. In fact when I took it out of the braids she kept telling me to do something to calm it down. I did spray some water on it so it wasn't so poofy. She had the perfect Hermione hair for Halloween--haha!
Last night the kids were excited to go trick or treating. Daniel had decided he didn't want to be a pirate and that he wanted to be an old man instead. Luckily, I was able to get the very last gray hair spray paint at the store and find a cane for him to use at DI. I bring to you a very grumpy old man:
Sarah was still Hermione and her hair was still plenty poofy by trick or treating time, too:
Noah was quite upset that I didn't let him wear face paint at school other than a bit of back eyeshadow around his eyes and nose so he was pretty excited when I let him wear full face paint to go trick or treating. The face paint we bought he made me copy the picture from package to put on his face. No pressure or anything--haha!
Although Matthew is 16 he still really wanted to go out trick or treating in a costume. I let him, but he had to go with me and Noah and we just went around our neighborhood. I made him wear his coat under his costume because it was a bit chilly that's why he looks a tad pudgy around the midsection--haha! I was shocked by how everyone knew who he was. It was crazy, but I was glad. He had a great time and was so excited to show off Sophie in her lobster costume. He made almost everyone walk out their front door to see her. Sigh--what a crazy kid!
Josh dressed up, but stayed home with Aaron to help pass out candy. In between trick or treaters Josh wanted to watch a scary movie so they settled on watching The Sixth Sense.
Daniel and Sarah went with friends this year. Daniel's group was pretty serious about their trick or treating. They even planned out their route into three different neighborhoods to get candy. They had it printed out on a Google maps search with their path marked. I was pretty impressed!
Here's their group:
Here's the three grumpy old men:
The kid in the middle even went as far as actually shaving his head to make him look like he had an old man hairdo. That's quite a commitment to the part!
Sarah didn't too shabby either. The container I gave her to put her candy in got filled up so her friend had to lend her a pillowcase so she could get more candy. We are seriously stocked for candy for the next little while to say the least!
One last thing is about something that happened Sunday. Matthew was really having a hard day on Sunday with following directions. It made for a pretty difficult time before church started and during sacrament meeting. Aaron and I were really struggling with trying to get Matthew to follow directions, to sit quietly and stay seated. Matthew kept trying to get up off the bench and when we would hold him back he was getting really upset and trying to head butt us among other things. We really had our hands full. After sacrament ended I was headed to Sunday school. Earlier that week the Sunday school teacher had asked me to talk about our blog books and how it has helped us with keeping our own family history. I was more than happy to help out. However, as I was headed to Sunday school a sister stopped me to talk for a minute. I was still pretty stressed about what had happened with Matthew during the previous hour and she could tell. She pulled me aside and said that I was doing a wonderful job with him. She also told me that she had had a sister a lot like Matthew who threw tantrums growing up and it was hard. However, she said that looking back her sister was a wonderful blessing that brought their family closer together despite the challenges they faced. She then gave me a big hug and said that Matthew is a sweet boy and that we are doing great and to keep doing what we are doing despite the challenges that it brings. After hugging her I burst into tears. I was so thankful and needed to hear that right then. However, if you know me whenever I cry my face immediately gets puffy, splotchy and red and it takes at least 30 minutes for me to look 'normal' again. It is totally genetic because my mom is the same way as well as Sarah, too. We can't cry without our faces getting red and splotchy and staying that way for a long time. Gotta love it (not really). Unfortunately I had to give my part of the lesson looking like I was quite verklempt. Hopefully everyone just thought I was pretty passionate about keeping up my family history instead of crying about Matthew's frustrating behavior earlier. **SIGH**. In trying to look on the bright side of things it is truly frustrating times like that that help me appreciate when things go smoothly without the head butts!
Well if you made it to the end I applaud you! These past almost two weeks have been jam packed with craziness!! Until next post!!
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