Pumpkin Parade

I thought it would be extra fitting for a Friday the 13th in October to blog about the fall festivities happening over here!  First up we have Alex's "pumpkin parade" for school.  I don't remember any of the other kids doing this in 1st grade, but I loved it!!  Each student was supposed to choose their favorite character from a book and then decorate a pumpkin to look just like it.  No carving was allowed (it makes the pumpkin rot too quickly) -- just paint, fabric, glitter, glue and/or any other craft materials needed to make the transformation.

I thought it was such a fun idea that obviously I decided all the kids would be interested in creating their favorite character as well.  And they were!  Or at least they were at first.  Things starting fizzling at the end when expectations weren't realized in the reality of the makeover, and in the end only Grace, Alex, and Jane were completely happy with how theirs turned out.  {Although, in my opinion, Grace's shouldn't even count because it wasn't based on any real book character.}

 Sophie was attempting "Auggie" from Wonder, but ultimately scrapped her whole project because she's kind of a perfectionist and was really upset when her vision wasn't matching up with the execution of her design.  I understand the feeling.

Nevertheless, it DID keep them all occupied and mostly happy on General Conference Sunday when I rolled out the big guns and gave them all their little {pie} pumpkins and got down the paint and craft supply bins.  Alex decided to go with Captain Underpants and the resulting pumpkin was hilarious and adorable, even if the cape did fall off in his back pack when he brought it to school yesterday.  He didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal and refused to do anything about it -- like ask his teacher for help gluing it back on, but it's bothering me much more than I'd like to admit!  Hahahaha.  I just like things to look the part, dang it!  Haha.

 Jane decided that painting popsicle sticks brown would be the perfect material for Matilda's hair.  

 

 Jane's finished "Matilda."  With which she was pleased as punch.  :)

Grace's finished "80's character."  Whatever that means.

Along with the pumpkin, he also had to fill out a "Character Report" and his efforts on that were classic Alex as well.  One of these days I'll get him to care more about the quality of his handwriting and his work, but for a 1st grade report, it's probably par for the course.  Haha.

One last pumpkin to round this post out, is THIS little pumpkin at his Fall Festival at preschool.  It was adorable to see his picture frame that he had decorated that day, and the shot that the teachers took of his class on their "hay ride" was hilarious.  I just love that little ragamuffin child of ours.  ;)

Happy Friday the 13th!

Tacky Tuesday

If anyone had ever told me that Ethan would be voluntarily dressing up for something called "Tacky Tuesday" during the high school's Spirit Week, I would have laughed in their face.  Hahaha.  But dress up he did, and I have the photo to prove it!  ;)

Unfortunately for the poor little lamb, his after school stress fracture check up sank his high spirits when he was informed that he will need to be in the boot for another 6 weeks.  BOOOOOO!  To say he's not happy about this development is an understatement.  But what can he do?  {Spoiler alert -- he can terrorize everyone in the house while defusing his frustration, is what he can do.}  Hopefully, everything will look better come Thanksgiving time, and he can give his boot the boot.  Hahahaha.

Since we're on a medical theme here with this post, I'd just like the record to show that I have FINALLY turned in all the paperwork and medicine needed for the 4 out of 6 children who require such attention, and the school nurse can finally cross me off her list.  Haha.  It's probably for the best that everything is now stashed safely away at school considering Jane's asthma was flaring up all weekend long and I actually kept her home from school yesterday to take her to the doctor.  I was concerned she might need prednisone, but fortunately she was sounding better once the doctor had a chance to listen to her after a breathing treatment. 

 (Epinephrine, Benadryl, albuterol, spacer chambers -- the works!)

As for children NOT sounding better at the doctor's office, I'd have to say that Isaac throwing an absolute freak-out, temper tantrum, screaming fit in the middle of the visit would certainly place him in the sounding-pretty-terrible category.  Once he really started flailing and in the process flung a pouch of applesauce all over the wall and floor, the doctor actually suggested we go outside for a walk while waiting the 20 minutes after Jane's breathing treatment.  I took it for the subtle hint it was to get the noise (and mess) out of the office.  It was a rough morning.  All's well that ends well, though, and Jane is sounding much better today and EVERYONE should be able to make it to school tomorrow.  :)

 (Trapping him in the car until he had rained his tantrum out was the only way to get him to calm down.)

Let's Make a Deal

Grace is my queen of "deals."  This afternoon's example had her begging me to give her some money to go to the high school football game this evening with some friends.  Little does she know that I probably would have just lent her the money anyway, but I was certainly entertained and tickled pink by the idea she came up with to "earn" money instead.  And just what was her outside the box suggestion, you ask?  Coupons.  You know -- like the kind they make for Mother's Day.  Hahaha.  Since she wanted $20, she convinced me to make a deal that would allow her to create 20 coupons for me in exchange.  After I indulgently said sure, she went straight to work using cardstock, sharpies, and Google to help her come up with 20 different ideas of things she was willing to gift me with.  The best part of all, is that this coupon book is easily worth more than $20 in my estimation.  I might even go so far as to say it's priceless.  But I'll let you be the judge:

1. A day of no arguing/fighting
2. Surprise {She's not sure what this one's going to be yet. Hahaha.}
3. Diaper duty for one day
4. One shower pass 
5. Dishwasher pass
6. Isaac duty
7. Hug pass
8. Foot massage
9. Night off cooking
10. Free 2 hour babysitting
11. Help with yardwork
12. Whatever you want
13. Help fold ALL laundry
14. Clean car
15. Snuggle chat
16. Breakfast in bed
17. Chore of your choice
18. Movie night
19. Control over remote
20. ????  {I'm just now counting them up and realizing there were only 19!  Hahaha.  I'll have to make her write up another one when she gets home from the football game.  ;)  }

Her only stipulations are that they expire at the end of the year and I can only use one per day.  Sold!  Haha.  

 Free cupcakes in the Square downtown this afternoon.

In unrelated news, Isaac and I had a rather lovely outing this morning/afternoon when I headed downtown for the packet pick-up of my race tomorrow morning and then met up with Scott for lunch afterwards.  Isaac was not the hugest fan of being trapped in the stroller at the Expo, but luckily Netflix and Moana were enough to keep him distracted and contained while I got all my goodies.  After collecting everything and making our way towards the town square, we rendezvoused with Scott for a delightful little lunch date and then headed on home. 

 That little face, though!

I am a little worried about tomorrow considering my plantar fasciitis was super aggravated by a speed workout I did a couple of weeks ago and then it flared up again after the school 5K last Saturday.  Not to mention, I've been having more heel pain today than I'd like as a result of my last easy run of 2 miles yesterday.  But I can't throw in the towel now!  I'm doing the Queen Bee again this year, only I'm skipping the half marathon -- it was just too hard to schedule in the long runs during my training, plus every time I ran more than 5 miles or so, my shin splints and other issues would start flaring up.  Rather than give up on the season completely, though, I decided to do the 4 miler instead. Now I at least still have a fall race to run.  Once I finish those 4 miles tomorrow, however, I think I'll need to give running a little rest.  ;)

Picture of the Day

This kid -- he's too much!  He's not even two yet and has already started to boycott naptime.  In the last week, he's refused to sleep more often than not, but today it caught up with him.  I was in the middle of shampooing my hair this afternoon when I heard him banging on my bedroom door and fussing.  After a couple of minutes, I didn't hear him anymore and assumed that Ethan or Grace had come up to get him.  I should have known, however, that they weren't going to interrupt their precious screen time to come and entertain the toddler until I was done.  Hahaha.  Seeing him asleep outside the door once I was finished was kind of hilarious, even if it was WAY too late in the afternoon for him to be crashing.  Thankfully, Grace was able to "gently" wake him up after I came downstairs (her words, not mine), and he still went to bed tonight at a decent enough hour.  I tell ya -- sometimes parenting feels like one long and drawn-out experiment in sleep training.  Haha.  We'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.  ;)

Fun Run

Well, we've had quite an exciting weekend!  Ethan's and Sophie's dreams were realized on Saturday with their triumphant performances in the school festival 5K and Alex and Jane surprised us all by sticking with it and finishing the whole race!  Haha.  The fun continued throughout the rest of the evening as games were played and cakes were won and the only real downfall was that I made a critical error in not getting a wristband for Isaac, too.   Thankfully, Grace was able to keep him mollified with cupcake after cupcake from the cake walk, and after hanging around for the full two hours of the festival so that Ethan and Sophie could verify their wins and get their medals, we were on our way home!  :)

 (Stretching pre-race.)

 How cute is this shot of Alex and Jane??

 I should add that Grace ran the 5K as well, making it a full family affair this year!  Scott pushed Isaac in the stroller while running with Jane for the first half of the race until Ethan was finished and then handed him off so that the people around them would no longer have to hear the "devil screaming baby."  Hahaha.  His nap boycott on Saturday rendered Isaac a perfect mess of a toddler while being trapped in his stroller.

 Ethan won the whole race!  He finished first overall with a time of 21 minutes and something seconds.   Sophie was the fastest 5th grade girl and finished in around 30 minutes, she said.

By the end of the evening, this kid was so punch drunk!

The running bubble burst this afternoon, however, when I got a call from the trainer at the high school saying that Ethan still can't run without limping {he's been dealing with shin splints for the last couple of weeks} and that he should probably get an X-ray to see if he has a stress fracture.  So that's how we spent our evening!  After picking Ethan up from practice, we drove over to an after-hours clinic for X-rays and then waited and waited and waited to see a doctor who finally confirmed that YES, he has a stress fracture and will need to wear a walking boot for the next two weeks before going back to be re-evaluated.  Boo!  He's pretty bummed about missing the last couple weeks of his cross country season -- and he's oddly worried about not being able to participate in gym even though he has a doctor's note and a BOOT -- but he's taking things better than I expected, and hopefully he'll be on the mend soon.  Never a dull moment around these parts!  Fingers crossed that the rest of the week is less eventful than the start.  ;)

Spirit Week

The elementary kids just finished off a week long salute to Spirit in order to get them ready for the annual 5K Festival and Fun tomorrow afternoon!  Monday was kicked off with crazy hair day -- of which I apparently didn't think to get any pictures -- so you'll just have to go ahead and picture Alex with a spiked up mohawk and Jane with a bubble pony tail on top of her head to look like a unicorn.  (And I recognize that that probably doesn't even make any sense, so I'm sorry there's no visual aid.  Hahaha.)

Day two was bring in bottled water or sports drinks for the 5K on Saturday and I totally forgot to go to the store and stock up, so we weren't really winning at Spirit this week until WEDNESDAY when it was spirit wear day and all three elementary kids got REALLY into the action.  There was "face painting" with markers, lots of school colors, and a ton of excitement in the air.  It was one of the only days this week where everyone was up early for school and ready to go in record time.

Thursday was donate mac and cheese day for a local food pantry and today was crazy sock day plus wear-your-grade-level-shirts and "Final Friday" (of the month) as well.  So basically today was kind of a mini field day.  I think.  Whatever may have happened, the kids were excited, that's for sure.  Hahaha. :) 

Once everyone was home from school this afternoon, we headed right back over TO the school for packet pick-up and to let the kids sign the finish line banner that will be hanging at the race.  Everyone was super excited to get their new shirts and we only had to chase after Isaac a few different times, so all in all it was a super successful outing!  Hahaha.

Tomorrow should be a lot of fun and the weather is supposed to be absolutely PERFECT.  Sophie is really hoping for another grade level win (so she can be the fastest girl in her grade, 3 years running -- get it?  Running??? Hahhahaha) and Ethan is hoping to win the entire thing.  Jane and Alex are also attempting the 5K tomorrow and the results of that effort will be interesting to say the least.  Jane has never made it the full 3.1 miles and Alex has never tried it at all.  So, we'll see how the two of them hold up.  ;)

In closing, and in a perfect segue from Spirit Week, I'm also super excited for General Conference this weekend and the chance to hear inspired and uplifting messages from our church leaders.  It's always my favorite weekend of the year!  Over the past couple of weeks, I've been re-listening/re-reading the addresses from April's conference and there were so many that really spoke to my soul.  The following are worth a read/listen if you aren't familiar with them yet:

Our Father's Glorious Plan, by Elder Weatherford T. Clayton
The Power of the Book of Mormon, by President Thomas S. Monson
A Sin-Resistant Generation, by Joy D. Jones
Whatsoever He Saith Unto You, Do It, by Elder L. Whitney Clayton
Songs Sung and Unsung, by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

And that is that!  This weekend is going to be a good one!  :)