Halloween

I informed the kids that during the nights, some angry goblins were trying to get into our yard and house so I went out and took care of it. I am, after all, a secret goblin slayer of the highest order. 

As a bonus to keeping my family safe, I also had goblin parts to cook for breakfast. 

Goblin eyeballs

Goblin fingers

Friend Goblin brains

Goblin snot to drink

They loved it!!!!

Right before we walked out the door for school, someone knocked a cup of kefir smoothie off the counter and it spilled across the floor, up another cabinet and I even found it on the wall behind the stove. WOW!

I performed my motherly duty and watched the school Halloween parade and tried to take pictures but I rarely get a good one. They just keep walking and its always blurry. Bryce wouldn't even look at me so I don't even have a picture of him.

Sydney spent the entire week flip-flop-flapping around, trying to decide what to dress up as and how to coordinate with friends. Finally, Friday morning, she decided on tourist and was rather flustered. I gave her my hat to wear, Dad's shirt to wear and drove her to Walmart for binoculars on the way to school instead of riding the bus. But phew! She made it and she looked adorable.

This year, I invited my parents out to have dinner (Taco soup) and to see the kids in their cute costumes.

The kids are getting to the age now, where Syd and Park are invited to parties and are not home to trick or treat with the rest of us. Luckily, Syd's party started later and she went trick or treating with the younger kids. Parker was off with friends but I snagged a picture of him before he left.

Mom and I went to visit Edna on her porch for a while, while Ster and Dad handed out candy. I could hear him wishing everyone crazy mixes of holidays, like Merry Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving and Trick or Turkey.

The kids did the usual candy sorting and counting and that was a wrap. Fun all the way around.

Rachel's birthday and jack-o-lanterns

Rachel's  8th birthday was on Monday and that means she got a birthday party, which is a big deal because I only do friend parties on the 5th, 8th, 12th and 16th birthday. So we celebrated with friends on Friday. 

On Thursday, she got kind sick, tummyache and fevery. So I kept her home from school and after a good nap, she felt a lot better, so I took her out on some errands and this happened.

We had fun preparing for a Halloween themed birthday party. We froze spiders in ice cubes for an extra creepy drink with our pizza dinner.

We played lots of fun games like Bingo, Pictionary and Monster bowling with these cute tin cans I painted.

We also painted stenciled bats on black paper. 

You can't see the spider ice cube in her drink, but its there. That's why she's making a face!

Rachel has a good group of friends.

One of her favorite presents, she insisted on getting a picture of. Legos!

Rachel may have had her birthday party a few days after her actual birthday, but we did celebrate as a family on her actual birth date.

After a special dinner and cake and ice cream, we carved jack-o-lanterns!

In order:

Camille (with glasses), Rachel (with Dad's help), Hash (with my help), Parker (Electro Clan from Michael Vey) and Syd (Super Syd)

I roasted the pumpkin seeds afterward and we feasted on them all week!

October stuff

We celebrated October birthdays at Grandma's house with the cousins. It was a lot of good fun!

Uncle Mike put on an awesome skate boarding demonstration. He had a captive audience!

After the cousins went home, the rest of us went downstairs, snuggled on the couch and snuggled up to watch the BYU game. It was a great game and then, with 5 seconds to spare, the channel got changed and we couldn't figure out how to get it back. So we all ran upstairs to Grandpa's shop and saw the last seconds. It was quite funny in the moment.

Rachel got these crazy glasses at school. 

She wore them non-stop for several days and even took them to ballet!

Sydney closed out her Freshman volleyball season in October. They played in the silver bracket in the championship tournament and all the games were so close they had to go to a 3rd game. In the end, they went up against the other Westlake freshman team (and smoked 'em.) Sydney has improved enormously as a player this year and had a lot of fun with Coach Li, from Hawaii. 

Finally, our ward had a Fall party and we were supposed to dress up for a wax museum as one of our ancestors or bring something that represents them. So I told the kids about their 3 times great grandpa, Skunk Williams. And then we put a white streak in each of our hair. It was awesome!

SKUNK WILLIAMS STORY:

Thomas Andrew Williams, the son of Steven Williams and and Emma Jane Hillard, traveled across the ocean and the planes with the "3d company or Captain Darwin Richardson's Company" as a young boy, arriving in Salt Lake on September 30, 1854.  He spent most of his adult life in the Ephraim area.  Indians were always a source of concern to the people of Ephraim during this early period.  They had to build a stockade and were constantly on the look-out for possible attacks. On one occasion, he and some other men went up Salina canyon to cut timber.  They started taking rifle fire from Indians and Thomas was hit.  A bullet split his scalp across the top and down the back and he lay unconscious.  The men thought he was dead and were about to leave him in the canyon.  Lewis Larson persuaded them not to leave him.  They put Thomas on his horse and tied him so that he could not fall off.  The horse took him home, but as the horse reached the yard it fell down and died.  It too had been shot.  Thomas lay unconscious for over six weeks.  He had thirty-two stitches placed in his scalp.  New hair grew back as white as snow, and from that time on he always had a white strip down the center of his head.

Ellsworth Farm - Fall Break day 3

There is a little piece of heaven near St. Anthony. I don't know if anyone else knows that, but its there. It called the Ellsworth Farm. And we got to visit over fall break. 

The Ellsworths have a darling, blind little calf named MooMoo. Cousins held off on feeding her until we came so we could join in. 

The kids had so much fun exploring the farm, riding the 4-wheeler, and playing games. I had fun talking with Aud and basking in the warmth and spirit that is always in their home. After dinner, we helped them clean the church, which was a special treat. 

We also went fishing at a neighbor's place. Next year, the Ellsworths will most likely have their own pond! Yipee!

Rachel was the first and only person to catch a fish. She was pretty excited about that!

The rest of us had fun watching the water and trying not to get our lines tangled.

Thanks, Ellsworths, for a fantastic over-nighter trip. We had a blast and will be sure to come back!