a little lagniappe: This and That: the October Edition

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

This and That: the October Edition

Another month has come and gone! Before we head full tilt into the holiday season, I thought it would be prudent to cover the happenings of the past month. Unfortunately, I don't really have a polished narrative to sum things up, so you're just going to have to suffer through some incohesive bullet points instead. Hahahaha.

When last we left off, Scott and the girls were about to embark on an adventure -- a Jonas Brothers concert! Hahaha. By all accounts, it was a hit and I'd like to think it was made extra fun with the merch that Scott ordered for the big night. After worrying it wouldn't get here before the concert, we were all happy when their Jo Bros shirts/sweatshirts arrived in the nick of time that very afternoon! The fact that the girls had no school the next day added to the festivity of the evening and made it not such a big deal that they didn't get home until close to midnight.

Sophie and Jane were insistent on doing "sorority poses" for the camera. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean.

Isaac has discovered Sharpies. And "outline" lettering, as he likes to call it. Thanks to these newfound interests, I've been finding "artwork" in all kinds of places lately, such as: the kitchen table, his sweatpants, a porch pillar, and a stair riser to name a few. I think I've managed to convince him at this point that Sharpies are permanent and won't wash off, but I guess only time will tell.

A sample from the stairs.

While we're on the subject of Isaac, he legit made me laugh out loud a couple of Sundays ago while I was trying to keep him quiet and occupied during sacrament meeting by engaging him with some math. I had remembered how well it worked with Ethan when he was around the same age and thought I'd give it a go. I started with some addition problems, and then some subtraction problems, and even taught him a tiny bit about fractions. But the piece de resistance was in the word problems that we did at the end. Specifically HIS word problem. After giving him couple to solve -- an example being: If Isaac has 3 hot wheels cars and Alex gives him 5 more for his birthday, how many will he have all together? -- Isaac wanted to write his own for ME to solve. The end result was one I was not prepared for and resulted in a quickly smothered guffaw after reading what he wrote: "If I had 6 fingers and Alex cut 3 off, how many would I have left?" Hahahahahaha.

The word problem. 😂😂😂

Working on coloring in some fractions before things took a turn for the macabre. Hahahaha.

Another Ethan pastime that has been picked up around these parts lately is cup stacking. After doing some stacking in PE (I think), Alex came home super stoked the other day and wanted to do some more. Needless to say, he was pretty excited when I told him that Ethan had gotten some for Christmas a few years ago, and he was even more excited when he unearthed them in Ethan's closet.

A week or two before Halloween, Sophie decided to create her own costume from scratch. The end result was a very avant garde portrayal of a rain cloud. Hahaha. Seriously, though. I was pretty impressed with the ingenuity of her design. After covering a card board head piece with a bunch of polyfil stuffing, she repurposed some of the crystals hanging from our dining room chandelier into "raindrops" that she strung around the piece with fishing line. To finish the look off, she had Grace take her to a consignment shop where she found a grey formal dress that she gussied up with some more polyfil. It was pretty spectacular when all was said and done.

The headpiece.

In other Halloween-related anecdotes, Ethan sent me some pictures of painted pumpkins they made for a family home evening activity a few weeks ago. Although the pumpkin titled "Vincent Van Ghost" was created by someone in a different group, I thought it was too clever not to include in the post. Hahaha.

"Vincent Van Ghost" (a Halloween variation of a Starry Night)

I mean, come on -- this is pretty clever, right???

This was the pumpkin that Ethan's group painted. He was very surprised when I was able to determine that it was supposed to be Shrek.

And finally, the ward trunk or treat took place the day before Halloween and we couldn't have asked for more beautiful fall weather! Grace, Sophie, and Jane (along with the other young women) helped with setting everything up and then running the booths when the party started. They did a great job and everyone had a blast.

How cute is the flyer that Grace created for the party?

Jane helped man the Lollipop Pull booth.

Sophie helped with the Fishing game.

Grace was in charge of the Ring Toss.

Scott/the Bishopric worked the fire pits.

There's nothing like a good Cake Walk. Amiright??

A Parade of Costumes

Time for the actual trunk or treat! It's such a relief that -- at this point -- Isaac is able to recognize candy he's allergic to and can speak up when it's dropped in his bucket.