Halloweeeeeeeen!

Uncle Albert hooks us up with Galaxyland tickets every Halloween. It's a major highlight of their existence- especially Charlie's. This was Hazel's first year getting in on the action. She's just like the rest of them- not afraid for one moment. I sort of sneaked her on the kid dragon roller coaster and then got worried she'd be terrified but she loved it and didn't want off.

I was watching Ezra on the bumper cars and literally was laughing out loud by myself like really hard. He was weaving around like a superstar- it was SO WEIRD! The other kids were all jammed in the same place, stuck and he just cruised by everyone going round and round with one hand on the wheel. I got a video bc we have some uncles and a baba that would be extremely proud.

This fall we planned a cousin Halloween party. 

I love this picture of Scarlet and Ezra waiting for their cousins to arrive.

Jenny scared all the kids half to death- †he adult entertainment.

Scarlet rocked her witch costume for the third year in a row.

Ezra fit in nicely with the cousins Star Wars theme.

We bobbed for apples and Jacob lost a tooth in an apple!

We did donut on a string, carved a pumpkin, had a treasure hunt, made hotdog mummies 

and had a bondfire, then went out trick or treating. 

Fall Festivities

 We can always count on Jane for a spectacular center piece.

 Ezra and his pal. They both love to play trains.

 Ezra has been in Darth mode.

 Jane and her good friend from our neighborhood- two peas in a pod. She's Dutch so we stopped by the Dutch shop so she could show us around. We left with salty black liquorice candy. It's was so salty I had to yell out my car window to recover... 

 Scarlet is a lone olive ranger in our family. She LOVES them so much that I give her cans of olives as toothfairy prizes.

 This is the day we found out Ezra could spell his name. Not sure how he figured it out, but I'm assuming it was Mrs. Carols aka Scarlet.

 Playdo mats are genius.

 Our handsome apple eating boy.

 Charlie has been chugging through the Harry Potter series this fall. I love how he takes his basket outside packed with a blanket, book, and snack.

 Loved this darling note from Scarlet.

 And this one from Ezra.

It was delightful teaching Ezra the Christmas story this year. He understood it instantly, as though the beauty of it all made perfect sense to his pure child mind. 

Fall Has Arrived

We've been wanting to stop at this spot for years!

 We had a beautiful time enjoying the fall colors in the river valley.

 We did a pond study at the Nature Center. 

 I love how the littles learn from the older kids.

  They were scooping out all kinds of creatures.

 Our favorite part of Fall is General Conference. 

We have established some fun traditions to help the kids listen. 

 Jared and Linda came over to watch a session with us, which was nice. Jared of course got a crazy tickle to death attack from the kids- I was worried he was going to have a heart attack. 

Then afterwards, Linda taught them their first Family History class. 

It's been awesome to see the kids get excited about family history. Just this morning, I found Jacob teaching Ezra what he knows so far. We are lucky to have such an expert teacher :) 

I've been reading We Walked to Zion to supplement the class and of course I make sure they get their family history homework done. We've also started writing in our journals every Sunday as part of what we're learning about record keeping and keeping the Sabbath day.

 This was what the kids woke up to Sunday morning of General Conference. I stayed up late counting all their tally's from the first 2 sessions then counted out their loot.

The Littles

 She loves her hand-me-downs from her pal Daisy. 

This little cutie calls sparkles "freckles".

 Peeling and peeling and peeling and peeling...

When your big brother does your hair...

 Pumpkin muffins and Halloween ghosts.

Playdo mats are cool!

I walked in to find Ezra on "J" in playdo letters.

I've been trying really hard to make time to get these littles to the library regularly. The big kids went all the time but it's become a lot trickier to get there these days.

Apples and Bikes and Fairy Soup

Every year around harvest time Timmy says the same thing, "I'd be happy if all we planted was onions and zucchini."

 Fairy Soup

 Ezra has started an intense obsession with Darth Vader. He marches around in his Darth cape and mask humming the Imperial March. He's never even seen Star Wars? Take note of his awesome drawing- first he colored the Darth coloring sheet, then he drew his own :)

We finally got to have Belly over for some fun cousin time. I loved how she spent time playing with all the kids so naturally- she played K'nex with Charlie and dolls with Scarlet and trains with Ezra... And now I know that at bedtime Scarlet likes the light off and Belly likes it on :) It was extra fun to have her on such a beautiful fall day. She got to be here for the annual rake and jump party. The only thing that would have made it better was if Henry had come too.

 I think we have another animal lover on our hands. Hazel reminds me so much of Jane when it comes to animals. She spends hours with Obi the bunny.

We had another gorgeous fall day at Grammy's picking apples. She has the most magical apple trees. Everything Grammy touches turns into beauty I think (for example, see hydrangeas below).

We didn't leave an apple in sight by the time we finished.

Who else grows giant balls of hydrangea wonder?!?!

Ezra learned to ride his bike this summer at exactly three and a half years old. He caught on SO fast!! I guess that's what happens with big brothers to keep up with. 

Scarlet worked hard learning how to thread the sewing machine, then after she became familiar with that we worked on the pedal pressure. 

Before long she was finishing her first project- a bandana tablecloth!