October!

October was a busy-fun month. I can scarcely believe it's over.

Here's the fairly thorough low-down...

10/2 - The first nephew I ever had turned 14! (Isaac, who is Erin & Barry's son.) He's growing up to be a fine young man.

10/7 - My Grandma Pinney's birthday. She's my mom's mother, and has been living with my parents for the past few years. We went over to celebrate with some Mexican food, cake and ice cream.

10/8 - I got to babysit two of my nieces (Ruby and Maisie) and a nephew (Fletcher) while their parents went to see Bill Cosby. Ruby is 7 months old and the cutest little thing ever.

10/11 - My mom took family pictures of us at the Boise Depot. That is always an experience. We only ended up with a few passable ones. I guess that's all we need, right? It's just tricky getting five people to keep their eyes open all at once.

10/14 - Ryan and I took his sister and her husband to my sister's Chicks n' Giggles (improv comedy) show downtown. My brother, Gavin, is currently participating in the group as well. Ryan's sister was shocked that my sister could be so zany on stage. She said she wondered how Megan and I could even be related. Hmmm... Guess she hasn't seen "that" side of me yet in the 11+ years I've known Ryan's family. Anyway, the show was a lot of fun. I love having hilarious siblings.

10/21 - Jackie, Bethany, Haley and Malory came over to our house to decorate cupcakes for the upcoming Halloween party at Shirley's. Cora and her friend also helped. I did a few, but mostly I was monitoring the frosting situation. The kids did a great job on these!




What a grand activity for a Friday afternoon!


10/22 - Shirley's Halloween party started at 5pm. We got there, ate taco soup, then played games, including a cupcake walk. After dark, most everyone slunk through Shirley's awesome spook alley. She'd decked out the garage with all kinds of creepy things, complete with sound effects. She did a great job, but the kids didn't act scared, so she felt like it was a waste of time and energy. It wasn't, though. She is always so good at creating neat stuff. I was very impressed with how it turned out.

Earlier that day, I planted a whole bunch of tulip, daffodil and crocus bulbs in our front yard. I placed them in the bare spots betwixt the remaining summer flowers. I really hope they come up in the spring. This was my first time working with bulbs, so I'm not sure how picky they are about soil conditions, and if they care who's handling them and what-not.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, Ryan took pictures of Oliver helping me.



I worked for 2-1/2 hours. My arms hurt like the dickens for a few days after that. I hope "no pain, no gain" applies here.


10/25 - Ryan and I took the kids to The Farmstead (corn maze, etc.) for the first time. The last time I went to a corn maze was probably the fall of 1999, maybe even the year before that. Sad, I know. But traditions have to start somewhere, sometime, so I suppose all's not lost. I wish we would have gone before the weather turned cruelly cold, but we didn't.

The first thing the kids did was jump on this enormous inflatable pillow.



Two of our nephews and Ryan's sister came along with us. (Not pictured: Ryan's sister)

Cora mustering all of her height.


Janey on the hay ride.


Messy Royce, Oliver and Ethan. These boys have a lot of fun together.


We didn't take any pictures within the maze, but we finished it without any tears of frustration rolling down our faces. (Thanks to Curtis Stigers for the classic song lyric I just borrowed and slightly altered.)


Who doesn't enjoy a game of tetherball? Here are Cora and Jane giving it their all. Just before this, I played a round with Cora and won. I felt so alive.


Cora sitting on the side of the cornbox. It's like a sandbox, only with dry corn. I think they should have a creamed cornbox next year. That way, if you get some in your mouth, free dinner!


Aboard the ever-popular cow train.




Jane, Ryan and Oliver slowly sliding south.




The only evidence that I was there is this pic of the back of my wavy head.

10/26 - I went on a horsey ride with Maria in the Boise foothills. (We rode separate horses.) It was so fun, even though I was a little nervous. Maria wanted to make sure I got a real ride, so she got us cantering a few times. That's fast, according to me. I may have wet my pants a bit, and I thought for a brief moment that my neck might snap, but other than that, it was exciting! Maria's horse was kind of hard to keep up with, so I urged "my" horse to trot at times. That made for a lot of bouncing, which showed no mercy to my underside. All I could focus on was the sound of myself rhythmically slapping against the saddle at full force. That sound, mixed with all the other bouncing going on, made me laugh. Then the thought of someone laughing while horseback riding made me laugh even more. Everything seems funnier with Maria. We wanted Renee to come, but she couldn't that day. There will come a time. Oh yes...

10/28 - Oliver's 4th Birthday! He'd been antsy with anticipation ever since Cora and Jane's August birthdays. The week before, when everyone was coming over for cupcake decorating, Oliver asked me, "Is it going to be my birthday when everyone gets here?"
I said, "No, your birthday is comin' up next week."
Oliver: "I thought it was comin' up right now."
Me: "It's next week."
Oliver: "It is next week!"
Somehow he managed to wait 6 more days until his big day.
We planned to take him and the girls to Pojo's after school, then come back home for cake, ice cream and presents. It worked out nicely.

I only took two pictures at Pojo's. I've come to realize that I have WAY too many pictures of the kids. I think the digital world has gotten a little out of control, at least for me. I have so many oodles of pictures that they've almost lost their meaning. Sifting through them all is kind of mind-boggling. It makes me appreciate the much more manageable number of pictures my mom took of our childhood. A few here and there. Enough to prove that we were alive and well, but not overkill. Like me, now. I got to thinking if I took 100 pictures every month, that's a dozen hundred every year! I can't wait to pull out the eleventy thousand photo albums when my kids' dates come to the house. From here on out, I'm going to be more choosy about my picture taking sprees.

On that note, here's my birthday boy.



He likes to wear clip-on ties with his superhero outfits. =) He used to put one on no matter what shirt he was wearing.



I took closeups of the cake I made, so I felt obligated to post one here.


Oliver and his slack-jawed sisters.





I guess in some ways I like having a huge assortment of pictures.


Present time! I found these cute gift bags and thought they seemed appropriate for a Halloween-time birthday.

He got some action figures and stuff. He seemed pleased.

The next day he said the sweetest thing. "Mom, I'm happy that you letted me have a birthday." He paused and asked, "Am I still 4?"

I love my Oliver.


10/29 - We had our ward Halloween party. They had people bring soup or chili for dinner, then there were a few carnival-type games going. The costume parade was fun to see.

After the party, I went over to Maria's house to watch "Teen Witch" with her and Renee. I finally brought Maria her housewarming gift. A hand towel for the guest bathroom.

She and I came up with this idea over the summer when I was helping her paint their guest bathroom. It really doesn't need much explanation.

I found some felt, iron-on letters at the store. I was thinking of actually getting it embroidered somewhere, but I'd hate for them to steal my idea. ;) What do you think, should I try and market these? Who knows, it's probably been done.


10/31 - Halloween 2011

I got one of these for each of the girls at the beginning of the month so they could wear them a few times. There weren't any available in my size, dang it. I wouldn't be surprised if this is what my bones look like.


Here's what we scraped up for costumes...



A purple and blue fairy, Supergirl, Thor and... can you tell what I am?



I saw this idea on the cover of a magazine. I was hoping Cora or Jane would go for it, but no such luck. For a while I couldn't decide what I wanted to be. When I realized I would have a valid excuse to wear my black and white checkered bloomers in public, I knew I was going to be the paper doll!


It was a fun little project. I traced a blouse and skirt of mine onto poster board, cut it out, spray-painted it, then added my own personal touches.


I got some elastic and hot-glued a length of it to the back of each piece so I could basically step into it and pull it up. I'm happy to report I didn't have any wardrobe malfunctions the entire night.


I got lazy with Jane and Oliver, but they made their own choices. I prefer putting together costumes, but sometimes it's just easier to buy the dang outfit and call it good.


Pretty purple lashes I got for her.


I liked how she looked.


Mike and Megan! They (with 4-year-old Fletcher) came candy collecting with us, along with Gavin's family and my mom. Ryan unexpectedly got the night off work. The other pharmacist offered to trade shifts with him so he could be with us. This explains his reason for not having a costume. At least, it's a good excuse. ;)


Gavin, Maisie and Maren. Baby Ruby was tucked snugly in her stroller. She was the red Angry Bird. Maren made all the hats and Maisie's entire bird costume. Wow! I don't think she even had a pattern.

Oliver and Fletcher. My boy is indeed my boy. After every house, he'd ask excitedly, "Are we still going (to the next house)?" Lucky for him, trick-or-treating is in my blood. Even at my ripe age I find it difficult to pass by a group of houses with porch lights on during candy-giving hours. The kids want to go home before I do. I think I may have a problem. A candy problem.

One other thing I have to add is: I can't believe all the moms I heard of who didn't let the kids keep any of their candy come Nov. 1! What is the point of going trick-or-treating if you don't let the kids have any of it? Yeah, the moms offer money as a trade, but what the heck?? It's called wrecking Halloween.


The kids nearly filled their pumpkins to the top.




Cousin Malory came with us too.







Halloween is fun. I love all the costumes and candy and creepy things. I hope everyone had a bootiful October!