Halloween 2017 Photo Album

Halloween 2017!  There is no family theme and I don't feel even a tiny bit bad about it.  I love what the kids came up with.  I enjoy it other years when we do something all together as well, but this years was low-key and great fun.

I'm daunted at the thought of commentary on all these pictures, so, I'll just throw them up here and enjoy looking back at fun memories.

I adored Cannon as a Hobbit-- Frodo Baggins.  Cannon wore this costume to dance last week and some of the girls called him "The Hip-Hop Hobbit" and that just cracked me up.

George the mad-scientist.

Faith borrowed her Hermoine costume from the Schramms.  Many thanks!

Elinor went trick-or-treat with Sierra.  She is a gal in our ward with special needs who Elinor has really enjoyed since she was very young.  Elinor said it was one of her best Halloweens to get to go with Sierra.

I teased Beth Miles about wearing some spider earrings to Primary and she gave me this lovely spider ornament to wear as a necklace!  NEVER!

At a Halloween party at my cousin's house and my cousin Jason showed up as Gandalf to Cannon's Frodo!

Abe was sporting Clark's homemade Karate Kid shower costume.  Bethany made her jelly fish costume as well.

Peter's trick-or-treating was somewhat short-lived because he was... shall we say... not polite.  He would say trick-or-treat and thank you, but the problem was people would put treats in his pumpkin and he would take them out, hand them back and say, "Me not like that kind!"
Heaven help us.

The sign was Bethany's addition to Greta's costume.

He would have liked to worn his green froggy costume, but alas, it was too small.  He settled for the fire fighter costume, but his heart wasn't really in it.

D&D  on Halloween is ever so slightly more socially acceptable on Halloween than on other days of the year, so for one night, and one night only, it moved upstairs from the seclusion of the basement.

And finally, inspired by a photograph taken of Abe's family around 1984...

Abe is in the fetching plaid jacket on the right.
May I just say, I know the pain of outfitting a large family for a family photograph.  To find that many suit jackets and blazers that are the right sizes for that many little boys... my hat is off to my wonderful mother-in-law.

We used up a lot of parental capital in getting our teens to go along with this picture.  After the  Fox sweatshirt costumes last year, I was surprised there wasn't more outright refusal.   Truthfully, I though about mutiny myself, but it meant a lot to Abe and now that it's done, I admit, I like them.

The teens threw themselves a Halloween party.

Those are good odds for that lucky young man!

Pumpkins and Piano

Elinor and her duet partner Olivia with their piano teacher Shari.   Elinor and Olivia played two duets and a concerto each for Federation and they both received Superior ratings! 

Months and months and countless hours of hard work really paid off and she is finding a lot of joy and satisfaction in playing the piano.

Daddy and Greta.

Mommy and Greta.  This is her selfie face.

Abe took the younger kids to get pumpkins.

We must have gotten too busy during October because we didn't do some of the fall activities we enjoy-- like visiting Gardner village and going to see the scarecrow festival at Thanksgiving Point.  It is quite a trick to get everyone's schedules coordinated.  Excuses, excuses. 

But Sunday evening we did do our pumpkin carving night.

We love to listen to fun Halloween music while we carve.

These guys and Elinor do way more than their fair share of the pumpkin carving.  Some of us (yours truly) don't like pumpkin guts.

Bethany is also mostly useless when it come to pumpkin carving.  She has other gifts, so it's okay, but I knew she wasn't going to be in any of the carving pictures.

Cannon attempted to help with his pumpkin carving, but we found we were missing all our paring knives.  Kids were probably digging with them in backyard.  Last year we had three, now we have none.  That should concern you if your kids regularly play at our house.

George working on designing his pumpkin.

Elinor was a master pumpkin gutter.

We've had a LOT of sickness at our house this past week and it looks like we're all clear as of yesterday.  Happy Day!  But all day on Sunday Faith was way out of it.  We moved the couch close to the kitchen so she could be with us but still rest.  While the die hards kept carving pumpkins, the rest of the gang watched What About Bob.  Faith likes to give herself and other people the nickname of "Bob", so we hoped it would make her feel better. 

The finished products!!!! The pumpkin with "Mom" is actually Elinor's -- it goes along with her fake "Mom" tattoo with her jailbird costume.

I'm not a pumpkin carver, but I do really appreciate the artistry!

Peter loved his white "ghost" pumpkin.

Peter Talks and Greta Walks

Peter's speech has come a long, long way from his screaming, grunting, non-speaking days.  He talks all the time now.  And we can even understand most of what he says.  It's very frustrating to him that "Alexa" doesn't understand most of what he says.

He's worked really hard to get her to understand him when he says, "Awexa, tehw me a yoke!" (Alexa, tell me a joke!)  He sits right by her and laughs his head off at the punch line of each joke she tells him.

George got his first Kiwi Crate in the mail last week and it's been a very happy thing on a week when he's been sick and couldn't play or go to his classes.  We made a stethoscope, sewed felt organs, and still have making x-rays with stickers to make.  How fun for us!

These really are perfect for George who loves tinkering and building!
And the really great thing is our online school program we do pays for this as his part of his science curriculum.

Faith and Cannon do a Tinker Crate that's designed for older kids.  They can do them completely on their own-- great for following directions and they love making them.

Baby Sith Lord made an appearance at our house this week!  Elinor put her sweatshirt on her and the light saber followed.  She loves to be photographed.

Greta had a big week!  She learned to walk!!!! We knew she was close because she could really cruise with the baby walker, but like all our babies, she wasn't going to even attempt walking until she was sure she could do it.

One hour later she was pretty steady on her feet.  She was quite proud of herself.

My baby loves.
Although if I ever hug them both and call them my babies, Peter says, "No, me big boy!"
Except when he wants a drink in a sippy cup instead of a cup.  Then, "Me just little."
How convenient.