Halloween Festivities

Halloween started in September for us because we decorated distract ourselves from the loneliness of family leaving after Seth was born. i love our Halloween decorations and books but i was thankful to put them away on Saturday and move on!

natalie debated for a long time on whether to be lucy from the chronicles of narnia, or dorothy from the wizard of oz, but when she saw this costume at target she was sold. and besides, toto is her almost constant companion so it just makes more sense =o] caleb was going to be the tin man or the scarecrow or peter, but those were all just spin-offs of natalie's ideas and when he saw this captain america costume also at target there was no turning back. jenna was content with this hand-me-down ladybug (i think she would have worn anything cute if we talked it up). and we thought seth was going to be a lion as either the cowardly lion or aslan, but then the kids saw the "what does the fox say" video on youtube (okay i showed it to them) and when we saw a fox hoodie at target in seth's size we couldn't resist. they all enjoyed their costumes for weeks before the actual night of halloween and i think we will always do it that way!

we went to a halloween party a local homeschool group had in someone's backyard. i just looked it up online and didn't know anyone going into it but it was close so i thought we should just check it out. wow.  never. again. it was pretty sketchy. and no one was there that i felt comfortable hanging out with. when we were driving home natalie said "that wasn't really what i had expected. i mean, i'm sure they were trying their best, but it wasn't too great. i thought maybe i would make some friends but... nah." lol oh well. lesson learned!

we went with natalie's class from her old school to a pumpkin patch because we had already paid to go and the teacher said we could just meet them there. SO FUN!! when we were getting out of the car some of natalie's friends spoted her and shouted her name and she looked so happy that they were glad to see her. they did a tour of the old farm that caleb and jenna weren't to keen on, but other than that it was great! 

a hayride behind the tractor. 

a tour through the vegetable and herb garden. 

a petting zoo (not pictured is a cow, pigs, goats, sheep, bunnies, and a dog that jenna LOVED)

silly halloween fun

the actual pumpkin patch (you can see the citrus orchard in the background from the original farm)

their pumpkin selections 

seth slept the entire time (i think all of my kids while babies just got overwhelmed and would sleep in survival mode to cope while out in crazy public places because they have all done this)

natalie with her friends

and her old classmates. i'm so glad we got to go! it was good closure for her i think. 

then came our ward halloween party. we were going to crash the diamond bar ward's party on friday night, and then go to ours on saturday, but it turns out we fed the missionaries on friday instead. good times all around. 

here are the kids at the party with some of our best friends the rogers. their dad is our home teacher and their mom is my visiting teacher and we are all pretty much just peas in a pod. it is great!

here are the kids painting their pumpkins 

(jenna only painted her hair once and it was with yellow so i consider that a success!) 

carving the pumpkin for a jack-o-lantern- natalie HATES the smell but we wanted the seeds to roast so the tradition continues lol

and this is the only lame shot we got of them all lol (the footprint painted one is actually a decoration from seth's shower =o])

we made caramel corn (not the best batch i have made, not gonna lie, but it was still fun =o] )

we ate our classic dinner of halloween mac n' cheese and "ghosty broccoli" (cauliflower)  

and changed into our costumes just in time for our friends to arrive to trick or treat with us! jenna and seth lasted for our caul-de-sac and street but then christina and i came back to the house to hand out candy and put them to bed while the dads took the older kids out for a while longer. 

they got home and did a trading session with isabelle and rachel before they left. i think they got enough candy to last until next halloween. ugh!

natalie asked me to take one more picture of her before changing out of her costume. adorable. 

and that's a wrap! thankfully, we are now moving on to bigger and better holidays!

O October!

we have had a full month and are loving every minute of it! okay, maybe not the sleepless nights. but everything else is awesome!

one family home evening we decided that we needed to do a deep cleaning of each room starting with the guest bathroom. the next day i was cleaning the walls and realized that no amount of scrubbing would help them because they were horrible when we moved in. so i decided to touch up paint them instead. turns out i am a horrible judge of color because the paint i found in the garage it didn't match at all! the touch up paint job turned into an accent wall and then an accent corner ha ha! all said and done i think it is a huge improvement though.  

jenna is becoming more and more of a playmate for the older two kids. it is so fun to see her really participating! here she is in her staring role of queen amidala during a star wars play the kids put on for me and seth =o]

just a cute sunday picture of the kids one of the days before seth went to church. 

natalie continues to lose her teeth- she is smeagol no more! lol

to me, newborns are a lot of work for like not that much fun actually. they become 200xs cooler and turn into a real person when they...

start to smile!!! we loved him before, but man is he a blast now!

seth went to church for the first time =o]

here is jenna reading him a story before we left. priceless, right?

the ladies in my ward threw a shower for seth- so sweet!! it was so fun to get out of the house and we received so many kind and cute gifts. he slept through the whole thing, bless him! 

the sister on the right julie (one of the girls that i visit teach) hosted it at her house. 

my visiting teacher and fast friend christina on the far right made seth...

this adorable hat! easily my favorite gift of the night =o] we feel so blessed to be in a ward once again that has welcomed us with open arms!

the biggest news though, because of how much it has changed our daily lives, is natalie's homeschool experiences. seriously, i can't think of anything negative about it! we LOVE it!! natalie had a print assignment for art and here is her template. she calls it "butterfly at dawn" =o]

caleb has gotten into the habit of participating in natalie's art, music, history, science, and literature comprehension lessons, but the rest is hit and miss. jenna loves the music lessons! she doesn't care about the rest, but we are talking about the girl who won't sit through an episode of mickey mouse clubhouse (which she LOVES) without causing some kind of trouble. =o] here they are building Mesopotamian villages out of legos, which was an optional enrichment activity after her history lesson. sometimes i can handle coordinating the extra stuff and sometimes i can't. either way i think the curriculum is great! 

at least once a day, usually during "school", something like this happens. bored jenna is no one's friend. 

for Red Ribbon Week her school did a door decorating contest with the theme "the best me is drug free". so natalie decided to make a poster of her body filled with good things instead of drugs. some are painted pictures by them and some are magazine cutouts. (this is our little friend Rachel. we have had friends over a few times a week all month) 

they had a different way to dress up each day. this is crazy socks day so we would remember to "sock it to drugs" lol

we went on her first field trip to the Getty Museum and had a blast! the kids all loved it and seth slept in the baby pack the whole time like an angel =o]

after the guided tour with her class we went to the hands-on family room and the real fun began!

despite this picture, we all had a great time (caleb said "i'm being a party pooper mom!" as this picture was taken lol)

so there you have it! our (non-halloween version) october! i'm so THANKFUL it's november because that means we are so close to seeing my family!! =o]