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Halloween was beautiful weather!  We spent the morning at the park with friends,

  

Stopped by Grandma's work to show her the kids' costumes, 

 Said hello to Grandpa fixing his roof, while Carter tried to touch the tree on the swing (I have memories doing the same thing at my grandparent's house as a kid!)    

(wow, Meg loved those "chompers"!)

We stopped by my grandma's to take her some candy corn and had to check out her latest quilts, 

(I tried taking a picture of everyone but they'd rather look at her than me.  :)

And then after packing and loading up for the trip, Meg decided to change OUT of Rapunzel and INTO Elsa (that she wears pretty much every day anyways) to trick or treat to our neighbors before we left. 

Here are the kids getting the courage to climb up the steps to Miss Ruth's house…

  

And only 2 of them made it (Meg is in my arms.  :)  She is a convincing witch on Halloween!  :)  Zach was already in his team sweatshirt in the car ready to go… baseball tournament here we come.  

Since there was no school on Halloween due to the end of the quarter, the kids celebrated at school on the day before.  Zach's entire class dressed up as zombies to dance to Thriller.  You can see how excited he was about that.  (His costume was a nametag that said "Hello, My name is Jim.")  Meg, on the other hand, was totally costumed up despite the fact that she was just watching the school parade.  

Zach and Grandma joined Meg and I for the parade: 

     

 That evening our ward held a trunk-or-treat.  Although our kids definitely do not need trunk or treat candy plus trick or treat candy, it worked out great since we could leave a little earlier for our St. George trip on Halloween night.  It was fun, too, to meet some of the neighbors we didn't know who have little kids.  

Emma and Carter loaded up, while Meg abandoned her pumpkin to carry our neighbor's Elsa dress cape like she had seen someone do in the parade at school.  :)  Zach got a layer of chocolate in the bottom of his bucket, and called it good – he is not crazy about candy so that will last him longer than Emma's stash!  

     

We ended the day almost feeling like we'd had Halloween already!  

Meg chose to be Belle for her preschool Halloween day – funny girl.  She had been waiting for Rapunzel forever and then ???  She was super cute and super excited though!

     

(Enjoying an after-school Halloween "book club" on the front porch in our beautiful fall weather!)

And lately she has been walking Stella to go meet the kids on their way home… I love the progression of these (and how in the last one she is balancing an "upset" Stella on the bar of the stroller like I do with her sometimes…)  Gosh, she is adorable.  

     

Meg's darling ballet teacher had a parent day for Halloween… we got to stay and watch, and the girls got to dress up for ballet that day.  (Meg thought Rapunzel hair would be too tricky to dance in, and didn't want to wear the dress without the hair, so she was a ballerina butterfly mouse.  :)  This girl loves to dance… and it was so fun to watch her!  (Her favorite part was leaping and shouting "Boo!")

     

        

 

Emma did a great job, and it was such a nice night to appreciate music, hard work, and people who teach an appreciation for music!  Emma loved having all of her grandparents there to see her perfom!

  

   

…to carve out the pumpkins!  Somehow we got really busy right before Halloween (oh yeah, we just stayed really busy since baseball hadn't ended!) and it was tricky to find a time where everyone was home to do it!  
We ended up squeezing it in between dinner and Emma's piano recital… luckily, everyone scooped their own guts and the 3 big kids carved their own!  
Everyone was happy, and we make it on time for the recital.  I'd call that a raging success.  

Meg making Nate hold her ballet library book just right so she could look at it while she danced…

Meg made a handprint "efelant" project at school and told me about the process of making it over and over again… what will we do when we don't have a 3 year old around here for entertainment?!

After dance, she helped me put up our halloween decorations, and to save Witchy's jewelry from getting lost by being removed fifty times a day, I told Meg with a smile that the witch would turn her into a pumpkin if she took her ring and bracelet off.   For the rest of the day she asked me, "She won't really magic me into a pumpkin if I take her ring, right?!"  :)

Carter having an after-school popsicle (after the walk in the heat this was an everyday occurence!) and showing off his fishbowl art project:  

  

We met our just-back-from-the-Carribbean cousins at the farm…

One of my favorite pictures of all time.  We were at Zach's baseball practice far from our house.  Carter in his ever-present helmet, Meg reading her princess magazine from the library, and Emma (with Meg's leg warmers on her arms as the night got chilly) making a Cinderella skirt for Meg as shown in the magazine.  They are such good kids.  

Date night!  

Baseball games in Alpine in beautiful weather with grandparent fans…

The girls tried out their halloween costumes at a neighborhood halloween donut party while Carter was at a birthday party and Zach was at baseball.  

   

Carter all of a sudden decided that he loves football.  He also loves wearing a helmet.  Man, I love that kid.  

We went straight from ballet one day to Target and Meg was starving, so I stopped next door at Panda Express to get her some fried rice.  She had eaten it before and liked it fine, but this time decided she LOVED it.  Now every time we pass a Panda Express she says, "There's the Panda!  I love that place."    

     

We took a quick (windy!) field trip to Wheeler Farm when I taught the letter F for preschool:  

At music class, we sing a song about putting on glasses and looking in a book… there were a few days where Meg took that quite literally while she sang the song over and over…

I proved to Zach that it is possible to smile even when you are doing homework that you hate…

Meg got her first pair of butterfly wings, and she and the neighbor kids spent several afternoons hanging out in their wings… seriously, it was the cutest.  

 Little miss butterfly flew the whole way to the school without a single complaint… I am thinking she should wear the wings when we hike!  :)

We had a monarch butterfly "pet" that hung out on our flowers in the front for weeks!  Meg and I loved watching it!  

 After-school watercolors…

Emma's last soccer game… it was a fun season and she has really improved – both at goalie (which she loves) and on the field!  Also, she is the hardest working player at practice every single week.  

Meg "walking" her dog Butterscotch to pick up the kids after school…

Here are the kiddos after Zach's last primary program… an on-the-ball mother would have managed to get a picture before Zach changed out of his church clothes, but I am not that on-the-ball mother.   Each of the kids said an article of faith for the program and they all did such a great job!  

Just a regular Sunday afternoon…

 Meg and I made an enormous batch of pumpkin muffins!  She was quite the little helper!

And as baseball continued despite the colder temperatures (and at locations so far away we couldn't drop Zach off and go home in between) we had dinner and a movie in the back of the car… I kept wondering why I hadn't thought of this sooner!  

A timeline of events:  

Friday – kids bring home photo order forms.  I look them over and choose what packages to get.   I make a mental note about picture day on Tuesday.  

Saturday – I send an email to Zach's class about October calendar items.  I include a reminder about picture day on Tuesday.  

Monday – I see photo order forms again.  I read email responses to my calendar email.  

Tuesday morning – we wake up late.  Emma comes to me having chosen her own clothes.  I look at her shirt and say, you should probably put another shirt over it.  She picks one she wore for family pictures nearly 2 years ago that is on it's way to the too-small box.  I smile and send her down for breakfast.   I pick out Carter's clothes… the comfiest ones in his drawer since he is all about comfort… (laundry was done but not folded or put away so our pickings were slim.)  These include an old Phillies shirt of Zach's that was the faded style when we bought it.   Zach of course is wearing his standard athletic shirt and basketball shorts, although he was down to only matches of black socks.  As I hurry kids out of the car at school, so proud that we've made it before the bell, I notice that Carter's hair (which, when not this far past a haircut, doesn't require much maintenance) is totally sticking up on one side.  I smile to myself and think, "probably should have combed Carter's hair!!"  As I drive away, I notice a girl race across the crosswalk with a cute dress and curled hair.  I think, "wow, some people go all out for school!"  

Tuesday 2:00 pm – I realize (can't remember what made me remember) that it was PICTURE DAY.  The kind where they line up the kids on the stage for class pictures, not the kind that they put all the little individual pictures on one page for a class pic.  I remember vividly what the kids went out the door in and the state of their hair.  I text Nate, my mom, and my sister for moral support.  Meg asks me why I keep shaking my head and laughing.  

Tuesday 3:45 pm – kids come home.  They say, "mom, you forgot it was picture day!"  Both Carter and Emma tell me they ended up front and center in the class pic.  Awesome.  Luckily I have naturally cute kids who can pull off parent-induced picture day wardrobe problems.  I take a picture of my own to look back at and laugh.  

Thursday morning – laundry is all put away in drawers, Emma puts on her cutest dress, Carter wears a nice shirt, we are ready early enough to do cute girl hair and comb un-cut boy hair.  it is not picture day.  c'est la vie.  

My sister got tickets to the conference center for women's conference, so Emma and I went with the girls to the meeting and to dinner downtown.  I expertly backed the suburban into a perfect getaway spot, we hurried through city creek with our umbrellas in the pouring rain, and we settled into our seats with plenty of time to spare.  

     

This was the second General Women's meeting where girls 8 and up were invited… and it is such a neat thing to be united with young and old and draw strength from each other.  It was a blessing to share that with these ladies!  We followed the meeting with lots of laughs and (finally) some delicious food.

During General Conference the next weekend we enjoyed bingo (putting the lazy susan to use with conference treats was so exciting for these 3!), 

painting (I didn't sign off on this… but it was conducive to listening…),

and for some of us, just a little nap.  (Yeah, the Sunday afternoon session got her.  :)

I absolutely love conference weekends!!

Love baking with these girls!