. . . A Special Day

We are in the process of painting the exterior trim of the house which is seriously the most fun job ever. Not.

But the kiddies were getting antsy about having nothing to do on a Saturday while Ryan, Jessica, Mitch and I painted so I gave Jeff the camera and told them to take lots of pictures.






I forgot to tell you, Alana lost her first tooth last week. She was pretty excited and pleased with herself.

This happens a lot around here. Good old Tessa.

You are getting off easy, there were 116 pictures on the camera by the time we cleaned and put away our paint brushes. Sorry there's none of Peter, he was there but all the pictures of him were weird and blurry and he had a shamefully dirty face, his mother should have been paying attention to him. . .

Zoo It

I got to go on a field trip yesterday with Jefferson's 5th grade class to the Phoenix Zoo. These were the kids in my group. I have to say just as a brief side note, fifth grade boys are weird and one of them, we'll call him Glasses, to protect the innocent, said the strangest things. I spent most of the day just marveling at his oddness. I think at the end of this post I will quote one of the more interesting things I heard him say.

I was happy to see the meerkats, they are so cute and they hadn't been in their enclosure the last few times I was at the zoo.

The big cats were all just beautiful, we got to see the tiger, lions, the jaguar and lots of other smaller varieties. The jaguar was my favorite, she was lovely.

Giraffes.
Groundhogs, seriously cute eating their little carrots.

A huge Golden Eagle.

The wolves were pacing around, I'd never seen them that active before. I guess the cool weather perked them up a bit.

The monkeys were very spunky, the zoo people brought out these rug squares with jelly smeared on them and the monkeys were very excited about it. I thought this "jelly" looked like barf. The monkey seemed to enjoy it though.

Jeffer enjoyed "milking" this fake cow.

The boys had to have their picture taken with this dragon. The real komodo dragon was warming under the lights in his little house, he was pretty big and cool looking.

Okay, so what that kid said, "Did you know scientists don't even have a good explanation for why the earth flooded when they killed Jesus' son?" I honestly didn't know what to say in response. Where does one start? I had literally met him 2 minutes before he said that to me and I was a bit baffled. After spending the day with him I realized that that was pretty much par for him. So my response to such a question was a non-committal, "Huh."

Just because they were weird doesn't mean we didn't have a good time. We did have a really good time, we covered almost the entire zoo which is pretty impressive and the boys were fun to hang out with.

WeBeLoS

Jefferson received his Webelos badge last night. He's been working really hard to get it all done before he turns 11 next month and he has done really well.

He pinned my pin on me and didn't poke me. He's had a lot of practice though.

He'll receive his Arrow of Light in January since there won't be a December Pack Meeting. He is pretty happy with himself. And he's been going thru his candy poster today at a record pace.

It will be five more years before I have another Cub Scout. That's kind of sad but also happy.

Itches

I've had two particular itches lately that both got scratched last night. The first was that for the past several months I've been noticing that my children annoy me. I've not particularly enjoyed being the peacekeeper, judge, warden, and parole officer to a bunch of people who can tell I don't love it. I'd stand back and look at this big group of people who are getting bigger and LOUDER every day it seems, and I'd think, argh. I didn't realize how stressed I felt about it until Jeff's teacher suggested he read to me to up his reading level, he read me White Fang and I enjoyed spending that time with him so much, I found that I was more patient with him and we were more friendly towards each other when we spent that time together. So I pressed my luck and I started reading Anne of Green Gables with Leah. Traditionally Bug and I butt heads a bit. But I loved reading with her, I found her charming and funny and sweet. And I loved sharing that wonderful book with her, I found myself looking forward to it as the best part of my day and I think she looked forward to it too.

Don't think I didn't think of how I could get books and read with Tess and Alana too, but I realized that I don't happen to have two solid hours per day to spend lying on my bed reading the classics with my wonderful children. So I lamented my lost little daughters and how I hadn't found that connection with them in a while. So that is my first itch (remember the itch from the beginning?), it was that I wanted to connect with Tess and/or Alana. Hang in there folks.

On to itch #2. This time of year I get a bit antsy for song. I need to sing. I have to gather Annie, Whitny and Audrey or some suitable replacement if one of those ladies are unavailable or across the country, and we have to find or make a four part harmony Christmas song. We have to practice it at least twice at someone's house, this practice will consist of mainly laughter, talk about children, compliments are freely given about how good we all still look, and then there's a lot more laughter. We manage to run thru the song once or twice. My eyes tear up thinking about how much I love those practices and those girls. We sing the song at someone's Sacrament meeting, or Relief Society, or Relief Society Enrichment Christmas Program (what do they call those now? Relief Society Christmas Program Meetings?). Anyways, there will be a performance or two of the song we "practiced" for 4 hours. It will be lovely and I will get choked up at an inappropriate time in the song because we sound so pretty and I know we won't get to sing together for a long time again. But my Audrey girl is far away. My Whitny sister is too busy. And my Annie friend is swamped. So what do I do? How do I scratch my songy itch? And how could I possibly have scratched both of those itches last night?

We went over to Ryan's parents house to play last night and Arnon has been helping me choose music for a couple of Christmas related occasions that I was asked to prepare songs for. Arnon is a huge blessing in my life, little did I know that when I married my Ryan he would come with so many wonderful bonus prizes. So Arnon is our talented accompanist and I'm so grateful to her. We rehearsed our family song and it was lovely, then Tessa sang "Could I Hold the Baby?" and I was so very happy because that girl can sing. I'll admit, when my babies were born I had visions of a family singing group and I am just ever so pleased that they all are tuneful and that one of them will sing with me without being bribed, threatened or tricked. My Tessa loves to sing.

And here's the part where my itch got scratched, Arnon suggested we sing a song from the Children's Songbook and we lighted upon "Mary's Lullaby" and Tessa started singing the melody and I thought, what the heck? I'll try the harmony and see if she can hold her own. She held it. She did it, I even sang the descant and she still held to her melody like a champ. I was giddy. I am still giddy. I am so grateful that I found something to bond over with my sweet little Tessa, and I am also grateful to have a singing buddy who lives with me and likes to sing with me and probably won't move to Toledo. Hallelujah!

Morning at the Museum

This morning we got to go to the Arizona Museum of Natural History. My Uncle had an event for his clients and we were lucky enough to get invitations too. We've been several times in years past to this museum and it is always lots of fun and there is always something new to see and do.

There were little stations set up all around where we could collect rocks, magnet rocks, arrowheads and shark teeth. Awesome. The kids ate it up. Here's Leah with her magnet rock earrings.

I heard Tessa say, "This is how GG's ears feel!"

Alana was quite pleased with herself.

A pose outside a pueblo.

The obligatory jail house picture, I can never get a good one because it's all dark and there's all those bars and cramped quarters in there. What were they thinking when they built them?! Probably something like, How can I keep this criminal uncomfortable and contained. . .? But I do like how Peter's name is scratched on the wall, I didn't notice that when we were there.

They had lots of fun playing with the green screen and watching disembodied heads and limbs on the tv monitor. Good times. Maybe they'll be weather men and girls. We found Lindsey and David and their kids and Jessica and Mitch and Oliver there too. Everyone was having a wonderful time.

Peter discovered the green screen. He liked it a lot. He got a bit freaked out going thru the Lost Dutchman's Mine and when the flash floods happened, but he liked all the rest of it, especially the cookies.

We had a really good time so we're giving a big shout out to Uncle Phil and Aunt Lynn - Thank you! We loved it :)

For Funsies

Pumpkin Carving

Grandma and Grandpa L provided pumpkins for the darlings to carve which they did with great enthusiasm. They each took a knife to the poor unsuspecting gourds and they had a great time. And as an extra bonus, nobody got stabbed.

Arnon took pictures of the slaughter, I mean carving.

I love this one. Five little pumpkins sat on a fence. . .