October in Review (and a little September)

 I found a few more pictures on my phone from September.  We went to Bishops Pumpkin Farm while the grandparents and cousins (and aunt) were here for Noah's baptism.

 Hayride.  April was nice and even let her girls take their pumpkins home in their suitcases.

 April promised Madi and Noah a milkshake if they could pick up one of the giant pumpkins.  They were hopeful, but realized they weigh hundreds of pounds and couldn't even budge them.

 Story time with grandpa Bruce.

 On a walk to the creek.  Grandpa Rob is so patient and always has a kid hanging on him or on his shoulders.

 

My mom was a trooper and went along with all our adventures in a boot (she had surgery on her foot a few weeks prior). 

 I decided one day that I wanted to add wood paneling to the mudroom.  I love how it turned out.  All that's left to do is seal the wood bench and secure it.

 Noah got some sweet cards and presents from his aunts and uncles.

 

Getting mugged on by his dad before his baptism. 

 October was a busy month for us. I was a parent helper for Ava's field trip to Bishops Pumpkin Farm (we had multiple pumpkin farm trips this year).

 I hosted a 'Hypertufa' Girls Night Out party. 

Made yummy boston cream pie muffins and pumpkin bars.

 

Couldn't resist these Halloween chips.

  

I was too busy making the cement mixture to take pictures, but this is the big one I made that night. (used fencing wire to get the lines)

 

Here it is planted.

 

Speaking of succulents, here are the pots we made/planted at the beginning of the summer.  Some of them are flowering and changing colors right now.  They look so cool.

 Lots of tomatoes and cucumbers last month.  We went out of town last week, so I didn't pull out the plants and came home to TONS more tomatoes.   Can't believe it's the middle of November and we're still getting tomatoes.  Crazy long tomato season this year.

 

Crappy phone picture. 

Noah started scouts and loves it. 

 First pack meeting.  He earned his bobcat and swimming belt loop and pin.

 Got our flu shots. The kids were so brave again and didn't cry at all.

 Grant got to dress up for school and have a costume parade.

 

Ava eating a hanging doughnut at our ward fall festival.

  

I decided to dress up as a witch and have fun with some make-up.  The kids thought I was pretty cool (too bad they don't feel that way most of the time).

Noah was a favorite everywhere we went - Bob Ross. He was a little nervous that nobody would recognize him, so he made a tiny name tag and paper clipped it to his shirt. :)  Of course most of the adults knew immediately who he was.  When we were trick-or-treating on Halloween almost every house we went to someone laughed and commented on how cool his costume was.  He thought he was pretty cool afterward.  He told me, "everyone loves my costume, I didn't think people would know who I was".

We took the boat out for one last ski trip the later part of October. Due to the California drought, most of the lakes are pretty dry and closed, so we drove up to Bullards Bar (about a 1 1/2 hour away).  It was beautiful.  We had the lake to ourselves.

 

Bullards bar is in the middle of no where/marijuana country, so our only lunch option was a nasty tiny gas station. Yuck! 

We let the kids play on the sand hills (that's how low the water is - usually up to the trees), and Adam told Noah he couldn't bring home any junk/treasures (he somehow can find large amounts of junk wherever we go).  I saw that smooth log and thought it would be a cool side table or something, so I disobeyed and brought it home. :)  It's currently a plant stand.  The wind and water did all the sanding for me to make it smooth. Win-Win.

We took Noah's friend with us.

We've been making lots of fruit leather this summer and fall (apricot, pineapple, persimmon and strawberry).

My mom gave me her canape bread pans, so we've had fun making our lunches out of shaped sandwich bread.

It's citrus season here, so we've been juicing like crazy.  It's hard to go back to concentrate when you can get the fresh stuff.  I need a few more citrus trees!! Valencias are 40 cents/pound right now (cheaper than buying the concentrate)!

Went with Grant on his pumpkin patch field trip.  They went to a different pumpkin patch than Ava.  This little boy was his "pumpkin patch buddy".  They were supposed to stay together, and Grant was right on top of it.  If his buddy got out of his sight, Grant was so concerned.  I remember being this way when I was younger.  Poor boy, can't relax when he has a responsibility to do.

I am the 'garden mom' for Ava's kindergarten class.  I helped all the kids plant their garden last month.

It's fun to see these pictures, because now it's all filled in and some of the plants are ready to harvest.  I'm going into the classroom after Thanksgiving to help them harvest and taste some of it.

General Conference madness.  Eli and Adam sleeping listening intently to conference while the kids dump out everything they can create masterpieces.

We don't usually have school on Halloween (they conveniently plan a teacher prep that day), so we used the off time to carve our pumpkins.  The kids drew what they wanted on paper, transferred it to the pumpkin and I helped them with the cutting (they had to gut it themselves).

Noah's was a solar system jack-o-lantern.

 Grant wanted scary.

Noah's candy loot.  Quite a few houses giving full size candy bars this year. Most of this is now in the freezer, trying to hide from our lack of will power.

One with Ava finally.  She wasn't being very cooperative for pictures.

And our favorite treat for Halloween (finalized that morning) was selling our Salt Lake house!!!  YEAH!!!!