Costumes

Tonight was the Halloween party at church. We took a couple of mimes and a cheerleader with us. The mimes dressed exactly alike right down to the hat and gloves. This picture was taken quickly before we dashed off because we were running a little late.

They had a tunnel of boxes set up in the primary room to make a maze. There were holes cut into the boxes so that as the kids crawled through the youth could grab at them. If you knew the way, it took less than a minute to get through it all. They had a toss game with a jack-o-lantern, a moon bounce, pin the wart on the witch, a craft to decorate a foam bracelet and several boxes set up where you could stick your hand in and feel eyeballs, intestines, etc. They finished off the night with trunk or treat.



Just wanted to share a whole picture of the cheerleader costume. I like the skirt for it. It is a bit big but my model was either asleep or at a friends house most of the time I was sewing.

First quarter is over for the kids. They all did awesome! We had 2 with straight As; 1 with 1 B and the rest were As; and 1 with 1 A and the rest were Bs. We are proud of the effort they have put into school.

Andromeda Strain Recipe

Each quarter Ben has a report to do for Language Arts. The first quarter he did a book report on the Andromeda Strain. The requirements for this report were like none I have ever seen but he came through on the recipe he wrote for the book.

The Andromeda Strain Pizza

1. Preheat oven to Piedmont Arizona.

2. Defrost one bag of Dr. Jeremy Stone.

3. Stir together 3 cups of Dr. Charles Burton.

4. Let the dough rise and sprinkle 1 teaspoon of Dr. Peter Leavitt, Dr. Mark Hall, and Dr. Christian Kirk.

5. Add 4 ounces of death.

6. Stir in 1 cup of sickness affecting the people of Piedmont.

7. Finally, add in a cup of suicide from all the pain that the sickness is causing.

8. Line the pizza with NASA, who is searching for the cause of the sickness from their satellite.

9. Bake in oven for 50 minutes.

10. Add in 2 survivors of the sickness, old man Peter Jackson and infant Jamie Ritter.

11. Remove the pizza from the oven.

12. Chop some tests to run on the survivors.

13. Find out why they survived.

14. Allow the pizza to cool for 10 minutes and it will be ready to eat.

A little of this, a little of that

The girls had a birthday a week ago, which was very low-key due to not having a party with friends. I guess there is less excitement as they get older. They look forward to it but there isn't all the chatter there used to be about what they want, what they want to do, etc. They had one cake (ice cream) this year with 18 candles on it.
The kids were outside riding bikes recently and Stephanie made it known that she needed a new bike. We went shopping for a new bike a couple of weeks ago and after 5 stores, she settled on this bike. One of the pros for this bike is that if she is riding when it is wet out, the rim/fender on the back part will help protect the water from spraying up her back.
Becca gave the girls Twister for their birthday. They had a lot of fun playing it that night and a time or two since. It is definitely a game that brings lots of laughter.The kids were off from school Friday so I took them shopping for Halloween costumes and the girls needed new shoes for church. We started off at Halloween Spirit and saw nothing we could use. The girls already have ideas in mind of what they want to be and surprisingly, there wasn't one thing we could use there. Ben wants to be something scary that would include a mask (because he doesn't want to be recognizable) and the couple of costumes he pointed out to me wouldn't work because he can't wear a mask at church and the costume wouldn't make sense without it.

We went to the shoe store next and picked up shoes for the girls. Becca ended up with 2 pairs so she would have close-toed shoes if it was wet out. She wore these to church on Sunday proudly. It is the most heel she has had. I like them because the heel is thick so she won't have balance issues.We went to Joann's so I could buy a pattern and fabric for Becca's costume. Then we went south to hit some outlet stores. We found black pants that Stephanie and Jessica need for their costume, new pj bottoms for Becca, a shirt for Ben and all three girls got shirts like the ones below. I had to take a picture of Jessica and Stephanie because they wore their new shirts to school today along with the argyle socks we bought. They are proud of their matching skills.I think Becca may have really scored on our shopping expedition with the new clothes, shoes, and a new dressy outfit. After several hours of shopping torture/driving, I treated them to TCBY. They have never been to one and enjoyed their waffle cone. It is probably a good thing that the nearest one to us is 40 mi. away or we would be tempted to go often.

Sorry to say that I can't remember the funny things I intended to post but pictures are good and there are several of those.

Conference and Fishing

The girls decided to do a little fishing several times today. It was too hot earlier in the day so they waited until conference was over to really spend any time out back fishing. No catch today but it is nice that they tried.

Rad, Ben and Stephanie ran a couple of errands between sessions of conference and ended up missing the first 40 minutes of the second session. Half an hour after they were home Stephanie suggested that when you hear a word said 10 times you get a 5 minute break from conference. I love the way she thinks. Becca was the one to stick through the 4 hours today. She is a good example in our family trying to do what is right.