Trunk-or-Treat

On Friday night we had our church Trunk-or-Treat.  It ended up being pretty chilly that day (high in the 50's with lots of cold wind) so the party got moved indoors.  But we went out at the very end for some trunk-or-treating in the cold.  Landon was not too excited about wearing his costume until everyone started saying "Oh Landon, you're a cute Scooby-Doo!"  Once he saw that people knew he was "Doo" then he was okay with the costume.  Savannah was Barbie and Connor was a fireman. 

Landon had no clue what was going on, but once we got outside I told him to say "treat" at the first car and he caught on real quick.  "Treat!" and then "Oh tank You!!!"

 

 Jacob was Obi-Wan Kenobi and Zach was a Hogarts Wizard from Ravenclaw (from the Harry Potter books).

 

 All of the kids love passing out candy almost as much as getting it.

I hate spending money on costumes, so I was really excited about finding their costumes for good deals this year.  I got Landon's costume last year on clearance after Halloween for $2, and he just happened to start loving Scooby Doo a couple of months ago.  Jacob's & Connor's costumes I got at yard sales for $2 each, in almost perfect condition (I LOVE yard sales in Texas!!!).  Savannah's & Zach's costumes came from second-hand stores for $5.

Dinosaur Exhibit

This past Saturday Dallin and Connor had a special outing together.  Connor loves learning about dinosaurs lately, and there was a traveling fossil exhibit that came to the high school down the street.  Connor enjoyed seeing all the "bones," but especially liked that he got to do something fun alone with Daddy.

 

 

 

Around the house...

Here are some random happenings around the house in October.

Landon enjoyed getting the house decorated for Halloween.

 Connor and Savannah built themselves a "fort" in the playroom one day.  Connor is always so happy to be included in anything the older kids are doing.

 Landon likes to build towers, with anything and everything.  He built this tower with the toy buckets, and right after this picture it fell over, buckets opened, and it made a ginormous mess.

 Landon idolizes Jacob.  Whenever Jacob is sitting down Landon is immediately right there next to him.  He loves to "talk" to Jacob because Jacob is so sweet about responding to him, even though you can only understand about 15% of what he is saying.  It is nice that they have such a good relationship because Jacob is getting to the point where he can babysit, and Landon totally loves that.

Like I said, Landon always wants to be right next to Jacob and involved in whatever he is doing.

 

 Savannah's hair is finally getting long enough to do some fun stuff to again.  I'm so happy because one of her good friends at school always has her hair braided and Savannah has decided that she likes me to fix her hair cute again sometimes.  Yay for me!

First Choir and Orchestra Concerts

                      

 Jacob had his first choir concert on October 9.  He seems to really be enjoying it so far and was excited to have us all come and watch him.  Landon was really loud and I had to take him out in the hallway for the last half of the concert, so I'm leaving him with friends for the rest of the concerts this year.                 

 

 Jacob's first orchestra concert was on October 18.  He is learning to play the viola this year.  They haven't learned to use the bow up to this point, so the entire concert was plucking.  The main point of this first concert though is to teach them all of the concert procedures and they did a great job with that.

 Jacob is at the very far right of this picture, in the back.

 

Great job Jacob!

Rockin' Out at the Chalk Walk

On Saturday, October 6 I took Savannah, her friend M, and Connor to the downtown annual Chalk Walk.  It's one big party in the street.  These are some of the kids' favorites.

"Scrat" from Ice Age

 Finding Nemo

 Angry Birds

  

We also saw some friends who had entered that the kids were excited to see.  Here is one of their babysitters, Jamie, working on her cat face drawing.

 Our bishop from church owns an art school and helped start the Chalk Walk in Round Rock.  He did a piece that was later auctioned off.  This was when we saw it at around 1:00pm.

 Here is the finished product (picture taken by a friend) just a few short hours later.

  

More friends and their beautiful ocean sunset.

 Savannah & M petting the pony.  The pony ride was super expensive, but I think they were just as happy chasing this one around while it was on its "break."

 There were lots of fun free activities also.  The girls hula-hooped and we watched a few dance numbers as well.

 But all Connor wanted to do was play the drums.  This company was letting the kids rock out for a couple of minutes each and Connor was in heaven.  He'll want to go back next year just to play the drums.

 

 

 Savannah took a turn as well and had some fun.

 

Savannah's Seussical Musical

Last night was Savannah's 2nd Grade Musical - "Seussical Musical."  They started practicing for it on the first day of school.  Savannah was so excited because she had the opening line that started the entire musical, and she did a great job!

 Her favorite was song was "Green Eggs and Ham."

 

 

 

Top Bunk Fort

Jacob has been asking me to rig up a fort for him on his bed for years.  But I couldn't figure out a way to do it because the fan comes just a bit over the ledge of his bed.  After months of contemplation this is what I came up with.  Jacob LOVES having a bit of privacy when he wants it.

 I bought a package of Command hooks that stick to the wall.  When Jacob gets to old for his "fort" then they'll easily come right off.  I put 4 across the long wall and 1 on the opposite wall.  I took an old twin flat sheet (a fitted sheet will not work as well) and cut a little hole where each of the hooks was.

 Near the window I turned the hook sideways.  I should have angled those on the other wall a little too, but didn't realize that until after I finished.  The sheet kind of slid up over the top of them, so I added some masking tape to the end of the hooks to hold the sheet in place better.  But it is still easy to take the sheet off. 

 When he wants to "close" the fort he just takes the sheet off the last hook and it falls down to create a "door."

He hasn't actually taken the fort down.  At bedtime he just unhooks it by the window and stuffs the bottom of the sheet hanging down behind the bunk bed.

Dorito Face

Doritos at our house require a bath after dinner.  You can't see the orange that is in his hair, his ears, or all over his pants.  But he will eat almost anything if I bribe him with a chip after.