Letter G

Letter G had lots of fun activities! We ended up not having preschool on Thursday because I was busy shopping and cleaning getting ready for a guests, a baptism, and a birthday.

Monday, we started the week off with a painted handprint ghost. She drew the cute little face on it and it turned out perfect.

Then we played with cars and made a garage out of Legos.

Tuesday, we started off with a paper plate giraffe. First, she painted the plate and cut out the pieces. Then we let it dry and she painted the brown dots on with a cotton ball.

While her plate dried, we played Stop and Go with the emphasis on Green and Go.

Then we did a gold coin hunt.

Wednesday was a gumball machine craft, and she loved putting as many stickers on as she could. I told her she could put them all over but she liked putting them in lines.

Friday, she picked some grass though was not a fan of that because it was wet and would stick to her hands. I had her trace the uppercase and lowercase G and then I put the glue on so she could sprinkle the grass on them.

Then we did some goldfish counting to end our fun G week.

Halloween

It's Halloween! It is always fun to have traditions and holidays to celebrate with my family.

First up we had our ward trunk or treat. The youth were in charge of creating a spooky "Sleepy Hollow" themed hallway for kids to walk through on their way out to the trunk or treat. I took charge of it and I'm not really a fan of Sleepy Hollow, but I read a synopsis and was able to get some great ideas with which I could work with. I love doing things like this because I can envision it in my mind and I love seeing it come to life.

First, I worked with my old counselor in young women's because I knew she would have a lot of the things that I would need to keep my budget down and she is always good to work with because of her creativity. The first area of the hallway was inspired by the Old Dutch Church in the story that has a graveyard. The old fence was something Nate found on the side of the road, then I painted the church (which I spent more time that I should have but it turned out so good!), and then I painted a few gravestones to go on the walls and then my counselor had gravestones that the youth were able to add more paint and moss to them. 

Then the second part was in the story there is a bridge that if you cross then you are safe from the Headless Horseman, so we had a bridge that Nate got scraps from wood and created for me and we used fabric and twinkle lights for the water under it. Then I got 20 pumpkins for the youth to carve for the pumpkin patch for the kids to wander through. I painted some cornstalks and extras pumpkins for the wall.

Then the last inspiration was from the Van Tassel mansion. The youth cut out some bats that we used all throughout. I cut out the carriage from a black tablecloth and painted the Van Tassel sign.

I painted the spooky mansion and then we created old, dead trees out of brown paper. We just added a few pumpkins and other details to add to this room. I had some young women come help with set up in the morning and then I got the rest done in the afternoon. It turned out perfect! I really love how it all came together and it was a fun creative project to work on.

This year our trunk or treat was a tri-ward one and it was successful though I felt there were too many people for the meal part. Everyone had a great time! McCall was Rapunzel, Baylor was a butterfly, and Paige wore a blow up unicorn costume. I actually didn't even end up going out to the trunk or treat. I had to stay in the hallway and let people through, and then as soon as everyone went through I worked on cleaning up so we weren't there too late. Nate was supposed to hand out candy but he ended up getting roped into helping clean up the gym and then came to help me, so we brought home a very large bag of candy. :) Paige was amazing and led her sister through the trunk or treat and they each came home with a large bag of candy.

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins. It was a fun family evening, and I love how traditions connect us together. McCall drew her own face on her pumpkin and Nate helped her carve it. She had no interest whatsoever at all in touching the guts of the pumpkin. Baylor pretty much carved her pumpkin all by herself with a little help getting all the guts out. Paige of course carved a Benson Boone inspired pumpkin and I just found something simple online to try out.

Baylor touched the gut but her face says how she really felt about it. :)

McCall loved getting seeds out with the spoon, and we tried to get her to just reach her hand in, but she never touched the guts with her hands.

All finished!

These two had lots of opportunities to dress up. First with the trunk or treat and then for school on Halloween. For Baylor's school, they could dress up as their favorite character, and she picked Rumi from KPop Demon Hunters. She used what clothes she had and the hair made it perfect and she loved it. For Paige's school, they were supposed to dress up as something that starts with the first letter of their first name, so Paige picked a pretty princess. She made the tutu the night before and she looked perfect.

 

My parents arrived on Halloween morning and will be here for a few days. The day was spent getting everything ready for the Halloween festivities and a birthday and baptism the next day. We had our traditional sandwich dinner and then it was time for trick or treating. For trick or treating, the girls were the cutest fruit- Paige as a pineapple, Baylor as a strawberry, and McCall as a watermelon.

The Keene's joined us for the very rainy night of getting as much candy as we could. It was a very wet night, and the kid's costumes were covered by coats. Oh well! Baylor and McCall didn't last as long, maybe next year, but it was nice that my parents could take them back for a bit so Nate and I could go until Paige was done. The girls got lots of candy and it was a successful night despite the rain.

Happy Halloween!

October

The leaves on the trees this time of year are gorgeous! We wrapped up track, and we are now onto gymnastics for Paige. Baylor is going to take a break from swim lessons and start back up in January. McCall loves doing preschool. Life is good and I can't believe that we are now into holiday season. The days are long but the weeks and years go by WAY too fast.

Baylor's fish finally died. Lucy has hung on for a long time, and I thought she was going to die over the summer since she was swimming sideways but whatever it was, she recovered and just a few days before she died, we were talking about how long she has lasted. Nate and Baylor gave her a proper burial.

The girls all got to hold a sweet, tiny little baby. Nate's cousin adopted a baby and he is the cutest and the girls were in heaven and now we all want another baby.

Earlier in the month, Celina got free passes through the library to go to the Seattle aquarium, and she invited us to join her. It happened to be the week of parent teacher conference week for Baylor, so she had a short day every day. I would have loved to stay at the aquarium longer, but we enjoyed every minute of it. I drove up to Seattle by myself with McCall and even parked on the street. This girl that was raised in a small town is making strides. :) I went to pay, and it happened to be a holiday, so I even got to park for free. McCall loved all the fish, and we even got to see the new part of the aquarium which was incredible.

Paige had a track meet every week in October and did excellent. She enjoyed it all and even tried out javelin. She continued to do hurdles and long jump. She improved so much over the season.

The moutain was out at this track meet, and it was stunning!

We showed up to cheer her on and she had classmates and teammates all sign her arm. It was fun to look at, and it is fun to see your daughter love school and the things about school and have great friends and see that she is a great friend.

We had a young women activity at my house that was kind of last minute in planning, so we had a fun cooking night and made homemade pretzels and smore cookies.

Paige had what she thought was her last track meet. They take the top 16 from each event and in long jump she was number 18. On the following Monday, she found out that some people had dropped out and so she was going to districts! She had practice on Tuesday and then the meet was on Wednesday. It was such a good experience for her. She did awesome and she loved cheering on her teammates and being there for the whole thing. She ended up placing 7th out of the 16 that jumped, which was incredible!

Also on Wednesday, we had a combined activity with another ward where the youth helped with some decorations for the trunk or treat hallway that I have been working on. The youth decorated gravestones, cut out bats, and carved 20 pumpkins. It was fun to shop and have a cartload full of pumpkins. Paige didn't start jumping at her meet until 5:30 so I got home from the track meet at 6:35 and had just enough time to gather everything up to make it the activity on time. So, I didn't eat dinner until 9:00 that night but the whole day was a success even if it was very busy.

The girls have been waiting for this day! There was enough leaves and Nate had time to blow the leaves into a big pile for them to jump into. They loved it and had so much fun, and Eliza was even here to join in on the fun.

I'm sad that I was zoomed into the pile too much with the camera and I missed the jump, but Nate is always looking for ways to make me laugh. 

These two sure had fun and would jump into a big pile of leaves everyday if they could.

We are looking forward to all the fun at the end of this month. We had a successful trunk or treat, and I love how the hallway turned out and then upcoming we have trick or treating, my parents flying out, and Baylor's baptism!

 

Letter F

Letter F was a FUN one!

Monday, we created a paper bag frog. She painted the bag all on her own and then I drew the different pieces to tape on, and she cut them out. She drew the eyes on and loved the tongue that we added.

Then I created a matching with uppercase F and lowercase F with frogs and lily pads. The matching ones were the same color, so she had fun matching the colors and seeing what a big F and little f looked like.

Tuesday was our fish day. First, she painted a fish's scales using celery.

Then she went fishing. I printed lots of things that start with the letter F onto little fish. Then I put paper clips on them, and she went fishing with a magnet on a string.

Wednesday she cut pieces of foil and glued them on the uppercase F.

Then she played in foam (shaving cream). She was not a fan of this and did not like her fingers being messy. I tried to help her draw shaped in the foam, but she had a disgusted face the entire time which was entertaining for me. She did play with some Paw Patrol characters in it for a bit since the characters could get foam all over them as long as it wasn't her fingers.

Thursday, we made a fancy feather fan. First I cut a paper plate it half and when I showed it to her, she said it was a rainbow. So, when I asked her to color it, she used all the crayons to create a rainbow.

Then she decorated it with gem stickers and last we taped some feathers on it. Last, we taped a popsicle stick for the handle so she could use it as a fan.

Friday, she did finger painting to make a flower. I made my own with her so she could see it was okay to paint with her fingers. Again, not a fan of stuff on her fingers and the picture on the bottom is how she really felt about it. :)

Then last she had to free some Frozen characters that were frozen in ice. Dad was a home to help and kept hot water for her to use. She poured water on it, painted on it with hot water, and tried to pick at it with a screwdriver. She eventually got them all out. I was impressed that she stuck with it and then she was happy to play with the character in the water for a bit.