A Serious of Unfortunate Elinor Deaths

Elinor is very flexible and sometimes her stretching positions look like she has met an untimely death.

This one is "Fell from a twenty story building".

"Fell from a moving vehicle and lost a leg."

 "Accidentally strangled herself"

 "Smooshed by a steamroller"

"Flipped over the handlebars of her bike"

"Landed wrong in a hurdles race"

Sometimes we have too much fun.

Girls Pref 2018

Bethany and Connor went to Girls' Pref this evening.  You may recognize their costumes as Wendy Peffercorn and Squints from the movie The Sandlot. 

 In the movie Squints has a huge crush on Wendy Peffercorn, the lifeguard at the pool he always swims at.  He has a plan to jump off the diving board in the deep end (he can't swim) so that Wendy will have to kiss him when she gives him mouth to mouth resussitation.

My compliments to Connor for an excellent reenactment of the smile Squints gives his buddies when his plan actually works!

 Then Wendy escorts Squints and his friends from the pool and they aren't welcome back.  It was worth it to Squints an in the end they get married have nine children.  So all in all, it was a good plan:)

They were pretty cute! 

Cameron and Breanna were the cutest "old people" ever.

Paige and Levi were zombies.  Well, Paige was a Zombie.  Levi's shirt said he was a zombie... but I don't know.

They had a fun day at Classic Fun Center, dinner at our house, the dance, and then watching a movie. 

The Halloween Party 2018

The girls had their Halloween party last night.  As always, it was delightful to enjoy the company of so many of their wonderful friends.

I mean seriously!  How cute are they?  I think Woody (Ben) was born to dress up as Woody. 

Bethany and Connor-- or rather "Sandy" and the old guy from Up.

Kylie and Gentri-- "Wednesday" and Pugsley.  They are fabulous!

Some of my favorites!

More of my favorites!  

She may have been born in the wrong decade:)

Swim friends-- Elinor and Janie

Please tell me you catch the reference here--- Bob Wallace and Phil Davis from White Christmas.  As if I didn't love Jacob and Enoch enough already!

Mr. Mouseketeer is a friend of Bethany's from orchestra-- and he is a remarkable pianist who is now hired to entertain at all our parties.

I never quite figured out what their costumes were, but they were coordinated and adorable.

I love so many things about this picture.  I love how connected so many of these kids are in so many ways-- neighborhood friends childhood friends, new friends, siblings.  These were the last kids to leave and there was such a happiness and openness with them.  I really do feel so fortunate to get to know and interact with each one of them.

One of the silliest/funniest parts of the evening was Faith and Tristin-- AKA Chums-- AKA The Love Doctors.  They are 12 and 13, but they specialize in giving love advice to teenagers who need help.  Some teenagers have too much love, some have too little.  They can help everyone.  Their consultations are free and extremely confidential.

They've quite the collection of clients.  It helps to have access to so many teenagers through older siblings.

And the thing is... their advice is pretty good.  Clearly they have a gift.

Peter, Cannon, and George hanging by the fire.

I love how Enoch is holding Greta while playing ninja destruction. Teenagers are teenagers and they can be moody and unreasonable and lacking in good judgement.  But they are also enthusiastic and exciting and friendly and fun and good and I consider myself very lucky to get to spend time with them.

Greased Lightnin'

All of Bethany's wildest dreams have come true!  She has dreamed of our family doing a 50's Halloween for the last eight years.  Clark wasn't ever too keen on the idea and on the years we couldn't agree on a family theme, everyone just did their own thing.
With Clark on a mission in Texas, everyone one else agreed that this was the year for a greaser Halloween.

Little boys in greaser costumes are definitely one of my favorite things.  George is particularly slaying this look.
Abe did the artwork on his t-shirt.  We debated the name of the guys gang-- in the end we went with the "F" Birds because... well why not?  It's Halloween and you can't get away with a name like that every day:)

 Too much fun.

Awww yeah!

Smolder!

You can only imagine how much fun we had planning these costumes.  It is one of the very best joys in my whole life to be surrounded by these beautiful, smart, fun, delightful daughters.  I had no idea how much I would enjoy them.  

My favorite is Greta's face in this picture-- she's working it just like the big girls.

To Andrea who shared her time and skills to embroider the jackets--- THANK YOU!  It's ridiculous how many talents she has developed, but I love it!

The Foxy Ladies-- Look out!

It was fitting that for Bethany's last Halloween at home (before college anyway) she should finally get to have her dream costumes!

We adore our littlest Foxy Lady!

Pumpkin Palooza 2018

Thursday night was pumpkin carving night and Abe was in fine form.  Usually Clark is his right hand man-- a loyal and true pumpkin carving work-horse.   Without Clark, the job of carving 11 pumpkins was much more daunting.  But tradition called and Abe answered.

 Out of sheer love for Abe, I gutted a few pumpkins.  You may recall, I do NOT enjoy carving pumpkins.

Faith stepped up and was very helpful.

Elinor has been more helpful in years past... but then she discovered boys and texting... and oh, well.  It was nice while it lasted.

The finished products!!  My favorite is the Texas pumpkin in the middle-- that's obviously Clark's pumpkin.  Other notable pumpkins are the palm tree on the left-- that's Bethany's in honor of the South Pacific play, the "BW" pumpkin on the top right-- that's Cannon's Ballet West pumpkin, and lastly, the "CHUMS"-- that's Faith's in honor of her best friend.

Abe always says they aren't that great, but they are so much better than I could ever do and they are so personalized to each child.  Of course, he doesn't have to carve pumpkins for lazy children who don't want to carve their own pumpkins,  but he does it because he loves them and we all enjoy seeing the finished products.

Gardner Village 2018

We took a little outing to go see the witches at Gardner Village this week.  The weather was lovely and the witches were delightfully spooky.  The downside was it was fall break around these parts and it was quite crowded.  I guess we're not the only ones who know how fun it is.

The very best part was totally unexpectedly meeting up with more Foxes!

This witch was awesome!  Her makeup was so good and she was dancing all around and shaking kids' fingers and telling them they were too skinny.  

Peter, Greta, and Edra-- cutie little cousins.