Sunshine after the Rain

We had a dark rainy day yesterday. In vivid contrast, we woke up this morning to bright sunshine and a cloudless blue sky. This reappearance by the sun was a happy invitation to come out of hiding and enjoy the gorgeous weather. Grant, Benjamin and I spent the morning playing outside and we were anxious for the older kids to get home to play with us. As soon as Carston, Jackson and Peyton got home from school, we pulled the bikes and cars out into the front yard. It was hot enough outside that everyone requested drinks early on. I brought out juice boxes, which are a special treat at our house.

When I came out to give the kids their drinks, they had already pushed all of their bikes into the shade and were waiting on the grass. They were a pretty happy crew sitting there sipping apple juice with the promise of more time outside to enjoy their bikes and the sunshine.

This was the only picture I took all afternoon in which Benjamin is looking toward the camera. I had to trick him to get him to look at me.

Jackson made me smile. His bike is too small for him now, so he doesn't ride it often. He kept sneaking back over to the shade to enjoy another sip of his juice. He is able to ration food in a way that most of us are incapable of doing.

Peyton is serious when she rides her bike! She was pushing herself to go as fast as possible. For added excitement, she cut corners and quickly shot through tight spaces in our neighbor's carport. She got frustrated with herself when her performance was less than she anticipated.

The kids quickly discovered that our neighbor, Henry, has a sloping driveway. They kept pushing their cars or riding their bikes up into his carport so that they could turn around and cruise down his driveway. Grant enjoyed this the very most and only put his feet down to stop himself right when he reached the edge of the curb, only inches from entering the street. He knows how to push limits! When I wasn't pushing Benjamin in the police car, he pushed it around himself following his older siblings. He thinks he is one of the "big kids". ( Notice Peyton in the backyard zipping through an opening in the brick of the carport.)

Here comes Grant, rounding the corner to make his assent back up Henry's driveway in order to enjoy another effortless ride down the driveway. I love that carefree smile.

Oops, I got in Peyton's way! This was her look to tell me to move it or lose it.

Jackson figured out it was more fun to cruise down the driveway with his feet up.

Carston caught on and enjoyed this method a few times.

Benjamin kept up the serious work of pushing this car around for a good hour, without taking a break. That is determination!

I took this last picture of Carston as we were reluctantly heading back indoors to eat dinner. The shadows were starting to cover the driveway lessening the heat and making it even more enjoyable to be outside. The kids weren't ready to go inside, but the night time ritual dictates that we eat dinner at a decent time or I have all kinds of difficulty getting everyone to bed.
Goodbye, Mr. Sun. We hope to see you again tomorrow.

All for Nothing?

It has been pouring rain all day, putting our newly raised backyard to the test. It appears that our pond has simply moved closer to the house. We'll see how long it takes for it to disappear. That will be the real test, but for now I am slightly trepidatious and hope that paying for all of that dirt wasn't a waste. At least I won't have to water the dirt tonight....watering is done, dude.

Grant doesn't seem to mind having the water closer to the house.
Who doesn't love a good rain puddle to jump in?

Eating a Ghostly Dinner and Going Batty

We had witch fingers and ghosts for dinner tonight. The garlic mashed potato ghosts were a hit, but Carston insisted that I should have used something besides raisins for eyes. I was supposed to use black beans, but didn't feel like opening a whole can. The witch fingers are actually Frankfurters. I found them at Whole Foods this morning and they made me nostalgic for my mission, so I bought them for dinner. They just happened to look like fingers if you cut them in half, so I did. The spaghetti and eyeballs and the brains (mac-n-cheese) we ate last week didn't go over as well as one might think. Carston said that thinking of his food as eyeballs or brains made him sick. I have to agree. Actually, he didn't want these Frankfurters to be fingers either. He decided they were worms. He then proceeded to ask me if eating worms is what makes witches' faces green. I love his questions!

Dessert was pumpkin cheesecake.

The kids loved it, except for the crust. They scraped the filling from the graham cracker crust and left the crust sitting practically perfect on their plates. I like to make pumpkin pudding rather than pumpkin pie myself. I think we'll have that next Monday.

Benjamin insists on eating everything by himself and he makes a total mess doing it. He has ketchup all over his face from his frankfurter. He then mixed that loveliness with pie which got all over the floor, his shirt, hands, chest and face.




After dinner we had a regular family home evening lesson and then went totally batty! We read stories about bats and made a few. I worked for awhile this afternoon to get ready for the bat crafts. I liked how the bats on the clothes pins turned out. They are hanging on the drapes behind the kids. The kids also colored their own bats and we cut them out and glued them together. They are now hanging on the wall with our jack-o-lanterns from last week. It was a fun way to decorate our house for Halloween. I think we'll have a ghostly encounter next week. Isn't Halloween fun!?

General Conference Weekend

We have been looking forward to General Conference for months. The kids love the idea that you get to watch "church" on television. We also have some fun conference traditions.
The only hard part about this conference weekend was that we were missing Mark!

At the beginning of the Saturday afternoon session, Grant automatically went over and sat down to watch. It really touched me that he was interested.

At that same moment, the other kids were enjoying a conference snack at the kid's table. We buy all kinds of treats that we don't normally get for conference snacks. The kids get to choose treats they want to try that I have never bought before and they choose treats I won't buy when they ask. That sweetens the deal for them and for me too! It is our semi-annual splurge.

This picture was taken during one of my favorite moments of conference. It was during the Saturday afternoon session while the children's choir was singing. Every time the choir sang, all of my kids would burst into song as well. It was so sweet to watch them enjoying primary songs. They were also interested in watching the children singing. It was the only time they all paid attention. You can see that Benjamin was also attempting to join in the song. He ran straight for the television and was fully belting the song, but not exactly using words.

The kids had a fort built bright and early Sunday morning, one of our favorite conference traditions. They were ready for conference hours before it started. When Daddy is home, the forts are a little more majestic but this is one they made all by themselves. I spent the rest of the day fixing and completely rebuilding this fort. We also had quite a few arguments over who was ruining it and who wasn't allowed in it anymore.
We had conference breakfast and enjoyed the fort until conference started. I didn't include pictures of my rubber eggs, because they didn't look quite as nice as the ones Mark makes. He is usually our conference breakfast chef and he cooks everything to perfection and arranges the food on our plates like artwork, visually delightful. It always tastes great!
We really missed him.

Aren't they all so cute! I loved these pictures. This last one was taken at the end of the Sunday afternoon session. Everyone was getting tired and they actually laid down for the last few minutes. Peyton and Grant were very particular that their blankets be perfectly positioned. I was worn out as well. I think we all felt a bit cooped up, but we enjoyed listening to the words of our prophet, apostles and other church leaders. I was grateful for so many talks that touched my heart and seemed directed right at me. I know Heavenly Father is so mindful of us.

Watering the Backdirt

A week ago yesterday, we had two loads of "river sand" dumped in our front yard. It took four men five hours to carry it by wheelbarrow into the backyard and spread it. Our backyard has been sinking into oblivion over the past two and a half years. That is what you get when you move onto a massive delta. We live in a sinking city!
Every time we had a Louisiana downpour, which is often, our backyard would become swampland, complete with local insects and birds. It was fun for the kids to "swim" in
but it has gotten more muddy and out of control, so we decided to take action.

After the dirt was spread, we had seeds for grass spread over the top. Thus, I spend at least thirty minutes each evening watering our backdirt (it isn't really a yard right now). I used a sprinkler at first, which I moved every ten minutes, but it wasn't getting all of the dirt and I felt like I was spending more time moving it around than it would take to spray everything myself. There have been a few nights when I have been exhausted after getting the kids in bed and still had to go out to water, but for the most part it has been nice to be out and enjoy the evening weather. The kids play while I water and then we go inside for our bath and bedtime routine. Here are some pictures of our lovely muddy but level backyard.

I know it looks like I missed the dirt and hit only the fence. After I have watered an area, the fence is covered in dirt that has splashed up from watering. If you know me well you can understand that this bothers me. So, I clean the fence quickly after I finish an area.

I like that our back lawn is also enjoying the watering. Some spots that were drying out have become lush and green again. The kids call my watering "gardening" so that I feel good about my efforts. Hopefully, I'll be posting pictures with beautiful green grass in a few weeks.

Lil Quincy & Pig's Bouncing Castles

We went to the Esplanade Mall this afternoon after I picked up the kids from school. I had an errand to run and hadn't had time to get it done earlier in the day because of my doctor's appointment and Peyton's therapy appointments. So, I decided that we would make an afternoon of it and play at Lil' Quincy & Pig's Bouncing Castles as well. Every time we walk into the mall, the kids ask if we can play there. We have done it a few times now and have enjoyed it every time. It is always the best when it isn't busy. For most of the evening, we were the only ones in there. I took around ninety pictures. All of my kids love action shots so they call me over any time they are taking a crazy dive so that I can capture it on camera. They make me nervous with some of their stunts, but the only injury of the evening was Jackson falling off the side of one of the bouncers onto the tile. He landed on his head, so I almost had a heart attack. Luckily, he managed to escape with only a slight headache, no blood or goose eggs, which was miraculous!

Benjamin represented the safety patrol in the toddler section. He carried this sign around a few different times.

This car was a favorite throughout the evening.

I am starting to wonder if we should have purchased a larger trampoline for our backyard. We have a six foot trampoline and the kids like it, but every time they get the opportunity to jump on a larger trampoline they have a great time. They spent a lot of time jumping on this trampoline. They were jumping high, diving and trying new tricks.

Benjamin liked this slide but it was slippery enough that he ended up on his back when he reached the ground every time. He only went down a few times before deciding he didn't like to be that out of control.

Carston didn't stop running, jumping, diving, sliding and bouncing the entire two and half hours we spent at "the bouncing place" (that is what the kids call it).

I loved watching Jackson laugh and smile as he tumbled around.

Peyton has a knack of finding places she isn't meant to bounce and then spending all of her time there. Her favorite place was the basketball hoop. She jumped on the bouncer and hung on the hoops to her heart's content.

Grant has no fear and takes giant leaps rather than bouncing. He doesn't just jump, he uses as much force as he can muster and throws himself headlong. I was grateful for the bouncers! He always pulled off a great landing. He was all red and sweaty when we headed home. He takes after his mom (I get red in the face while I exercise) and his dad (anyone who knows Mark knows that he can sweat with the best of them).

I spent most of my time following this little guy around. Benjamin loves to think that he is a big boy and can do whatever Grant can do. He spent some of his time on the trampoline falling around while Grant jumped. I had to add the pictures of his basketball skills. You can't tell but he made almost every shot. I guess that isn't too hard when you stand just below the basket and muscle it in without even jumping. He loves to play ball! He didn't spend too much time on the bouncers, but I pushed him around in each of the cars and he ran around chasing whatever ball he was playing with for the moment.

We were exhausted when we left right at bedtime. I knew we were staying too long, but didn't want to make the kids leave when they were having such a fun time. I finally decided we had to go because Carston, Jackson and Peyton have school tomorrow and I was afraid we would have some meltdowns before I could get everyone in bed. There were some tears and unhappiness from the kids, but I had more of a meltdown than anyone! I didn't realize how worn out I was until I had to drag five tired kids, who were unhappy to be leaving their beloved "bouncy place", out to the car. Then I had to get all five dirty children bathed and finally into bed by myself. Now that everyone is asleep (they were asleep almost before their heads hit the pillows), I am feeling calm although I am so tired I can hardly think straight. Oh well, it was worth it.

P.S. Our ghost, Stella, brought individually packaged Halloween Circus Animal cookies to everyone tonight. She is a gem :)!

Our Ghost

We have a ghost visiting our house each night in October. She is helping us count down the days until Halloween. Not only is she a friendly ghost, but she loves to make children happy by leaving them treats. The kids decided to name her Stella. The original name was to be Casper, but I insisted that this ghost is a girl. Last year some of my friends had a friendly ghost visiting their home to leave treats each night and I loved the idea and decided to start this tradition at our house as well. Thank goodness for creative friends!

Stella will be leaving her treats in the kid's Halloween pumpkins every night until Halloween. Tonight they carefully placed their pumpkins on top of their dressers, wondering what she would bring them once they were asleep. Their excitement was tangible and made me feel as happy about Stella's ghostly visits as they were feeling. Carston and Jackson insisted that they leave their door open to make it easier for her to get into their room. They were concerned that the squeak of their door opening would awaken them and cause her to vanish without leaving her treat for the night. I assured them that she could open their door without waking them up.

After leaving her treats, Stella goes to our Halloween countdown calendar and removes the piece of candy in the pocket for that day, our gift to her for her visits. She gets one candy each night and on Halloween we'll leave her a special treat for working so hard all month. This simple solution to our candy countdown will help us avoid any fights that might have occurred over the one piece of candy available each day and the kids can look at how much candy is left to see how much longer it will be until Halloween. Besides, Stella might just be a round pregnant ghost who loves treats.

Once the kids were fast asleep, Stella quietly slipped through each of their doors and left them some chocolate treats in their pumpkins. Stella KNOWS chocolate and left some of her favorites. The door to Carston's and Jackson's room squeaked open when she entered but they didn't move a muscle. They looked so peaceful in their sleep.

Even taking pictures didn't awaken them. I love the peace written in their features as they sleep. They are so innocent and pure, my little angels.

I can hardly wait for them to find their treats in the morning and come running to show me!
Yes, I even like them when they are awake! After all, they are some of my very best friends.