Halloween 2021 Part 1

 

Oh! Halloween 2021, you did not disappoint!  We had way too much fun enjoying every Halloween tradition and amusing ourselves with multiple costumes for multiple occasions.  It's not that we don't have plenty of "real life" to occupy our time and thoughts.  It's more like someone has a great idea and then we all sort of get on board and get carried away.  We can't help ourselves and we don't even try to:)

The festivities began last weekend with the older kids' annual Halloween party.  Faith was the inspiration for this group costume when she decided to be Rex (Rex Kwon Do) from Napoleon Dynamite.  Which of course led to Cannon recreating Napoleon-- which led to George channeling Kip, Peter nailing Uncle Rico, Greta as the cutest little Deb ever, and lastly Clark wanting in on the action with a hilarious Pedro.  

2015 vs. 2021

"What are you going to do today, Napoleon?"

"What I feel like I wanna do, GOSH!"

Click here to see Cannon do the full Napoleon dance.  Highly recommend!

Peter slayed me as Uncle Rico.

"How much you wanna bet I could throw a football over them mountains?"-- Uncle Rico

"We chat online for, like, two hours every day.  So I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious."-- Kip

"I'm trying to earn money for college."-- Deb

"If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true."--Pedro

I made a somewhat unimpressive Cruella Deville.  I thought the white spray hair color would go further than it did.  So the top layer was white (ish) but the under layers weren't very white.  Oh, well.  No matter.  it was fun.  Abe was a 1980's yacht rocker.  What is a yacht rocker, you may ask?  It is a fair question.  I mean, not everyone is a super fan of early 80's soft rock-- a genre known as yacht rock-- because wearing a sailor hat was a thing back then.  A lot of things were things back then, that really don't make any sense now.  They probably didn't make much sense then either.  But Abe is proudly sporting a legit, Members Only jacket.  Be jealous.  You know he is going to wear it just normally now.  This costume was a dream come true for him.  And it will make another appearance later in the Halloween festivities.

Faith's swim team friends.

Elinor made an appearance as Kim Possible.  It worked!

Never too old for musical chairs:)  No injuries this year and no broken charis!

There's karaoke....

...and then there is performing missionary karaoke!  Are you kidding me?

Click here to hear "I Won't Say I'm in Love"

Bethany and her Nauvoo YPM companion together again getting Rick rolled.  Click here

Gardner Village 2021

 

On a rare night, when the boys didn't have dance because it was their fall break, we bundled up and visited the witches at Gardner Village.  Faith's friend from the swim team, Alyssa joined us as well.

They're pretty funny together and they proved once again that swimmers' sense of fashion is... well...they don't really have a sense of fashion.  And they like it that way.  At least they wore pants.

We had a running family joke for years about Clark and his girlfriend...

This year George moved in on Clark's girl!

We got ice cream and fries at Arctic Circle afterward.  Sweet potato fries are my favorite!

George and another of his marvelous science experiments.

Last Friday night the Deacons (Cannon's church youth group) did an outdoor movie in the backyard.  

Looking sharp!  Cannon wore his new suit on Sunday.

Greta was a little frustrated after her violin practice and Faith swooped in with a big sister hug and made it all better:)  

My favorite picture of the week-- we curled Greta's hair for church and she was delighted to find that when the curls came down by the sides of her face, she was just like Jane Austen!  I think she thought of the hairstyles in Jane Austen movies.  This seriously warmed my heart:)  #raisethemright

Here's a picture of Bethany at her place of employment up in Logan.  She teaches lots of music lessons-- mostly violin, but a few voice lessons as well.  She loves it and lucky the kids who get her for a teacher.  She is also Greta's violin teacher, although she mostly does her lessons virtually.  

On Monday Abe drove up to Logan and spent some time with the girls-- lucky for them both!  They ate at Angie's and then Abe got to go see where Bethany works.  

This evening Abe and I had such a marvelous time at an art show and Kenneth Cope concert our friend Andrea hosted.  The north balcony of her home gives the best view in the city of the renovations on the Salt Lake Temple.  

Puzzle Me This

What do walking, watermelon, and puzzles all have in common?  

That's right-- I LOVE THEM!!!!! 

This post is dedicated to my love of puzzles-- jigsaw puzzles, to be more specific.   In no particular order, here are my top ten life lessons learned from "puzzling"

1.  There is no rush.  You can take as long as you want to complete a puzzle.   In fact, feeling rushed will diminish the joy of puzzling.  You will not enjoy puzzling if you think it should be progressing faster than it is.  Move along at a pace that engages your brain, but is pleasant to you.  

2. You can take time to do something you thoroughly enjoy, just because you enjoy it.  It doesn't have to be "productive".  It doesn't have to serve a higher purpose, although I would argue that it does both of those things.  It's okay that not everyone enjoys puzzles.  If you love them, you get to do them.   

3.  You can only put one piece together at a time.  Well, that's not entirely true.  Sometimes you put a whole junk of pieces in their place together.  But usually, it is one connection point that clues you in that two bigger parts fit together.   In life, this is akin to just taking the next step.  I would say taking the right step, but no.  Just take the next step.  (see lesson #10).  You can only focus on one piece at a time.   

4.  You will see things you couldn't see before.  At first, all the tree pieces look the same.  As you study them you start to see more.  These leaves are slighter brighter green.  This curtain pattern is a slightly different angle.  An ever so slight difference in the shade of blue in the sky piece,  The more carefully you examine the pieces, the more distinguishing marks you will find.  If you are working on a certain area and not finding success, move on.  Come back to it later and you'll see more than you saw before. 

5.  You will get the answers when you need them.  You start with the parts of the puzzle, like the edges, that you can easily see.  Then maybe the pieces with lettering on them.  Then the easily distinguishable pictures.  You'll probably do the hardest sections of the puzzle last.  Line upon line, or rather, piece by piece. You can look and look and look for the piece you need and not find it anywhere.  And later, when you're not even looking for it, it will materialize.  It is much easier to find a piece when you know what you're looking for.  

6.  You WILL figure it out and you will complete the puzzle.  And like I said in lesson #1, it doesn't matter how long it takes.  When you get to those hard parts, you don't panic.  You just keep puzzling. You keep trying.  Or you may take a break and let your brain and eyes rest and then come back when you feel up to it.  You know, eventually, your brain will figure it out.  

7.  There is no right order to place the pieces.  If it's not an issue of right and wrong, a commandment from God, then you get to do things how it works for you to do them.  There is more than one way to skin a cat and more than one way to put a puzzle together.

8.  Share the puzzle love.  When you've completed your puzzle, you have gotten what there is to get from it.  Don't store it, don't sell it--you simply pass it along to a friend so they can soak up all the joy!  And as you generously share what brings you joy, others will likely join the sharing what brings them joy and you get twice the joy!

9.  It takes all kinds.  Did you know there are organized minds out there that sort all the puzzle pieces before they start piecing them together?  I'm not one of them.  There are people who like searching for pieces, but don't like actually placing them?  Can you imagine such a thing?  There are people who like puzzling with other people?  Some people like painting pictures that other people like designing and cutting into puzzles so that other people, like me, can spend hours and hours piecing back together.  It takes all kinds.

10.  You will try a lot of wrong pieces before you place the right one.  Every piece that doesn't fit gives you more information and helps you find the  right one.  You can try the wrong pieces as many times as you need to.  There is no rush.  

Now go do a puzzle and pass it along when you're done:)

 

Good Things of Fall

High school swim season is back!!!!!  Faith had tryouts at the end of September and she pretty well killed it:)  She came out as the top-ranked girl at Riverton.  I guess all those hours and hours in the pool are paying off!  She was pretty happy! So now she practices with her high school team at 5 am every weekday and with her club team six days a week at 3 pm.  And it's still not enough for her.  She counts down the hours till she can get back in the water.  

And, of course, THIS is happening right now, too.  Nutcracker season is busy and awesome.  One month till Central Utah Ballet's production opens.

The costumes are going to be so beautiful in this production!  I'm so excited.

On October 1st the kids started making napkin/tissue ghosts in preparation for Halloween.  This is a long-standing Fox kid tradition.

George used his mad-creative skills to fashion a cardboard vampire-- another long-standing Fox tradition.  It makes my heart happy how many traditions have been passed down from the older kids to the younger kids.  

Writing comic books was all the rage at our house last week.  Here is Peter showing and reading his creations to Greta.  I love it when kids get engaged in a creative/learning project that's even better than what I might have planned for them for school.

I especially loved when Greta wrote a song entitled "I Love Cats".  Her love of Cats has not waned and  I hope it never does.  Although, I suppose it would be strange if, as a teenager, she still meows along to the hymns at church.  

Several years ago Cannon shared with us his surprise to learn that this was a handicap sign.  He had thought it was an "emergency potty" sign.  We've gotten a lot of laughs from that over the years.  So the other day I was on a little walk, while Greta was at dance class, and I came across what is clearly an emergency potty sign!  I was highly amused. 

Last Saturday I went on a date with myself. It was a perfect, beautiful fall morning and I walked to the high school to watch a few hours of the marching band competition.  I don't have any children in the band, although my friend's son is in it.  Rather I just really love marching band, having been a serious bando in my day.  So I went by myself and reminisced my band days and thought of my dear friends who I still love and think of often. 

I don't think marching band gets enough credit for the positive impact it has on young people's lives.  It takes a tremendous amount of time, work, and discipline, and it pays off big time.  I had such a lovely, relaxing time and Riverton High School won first place in its division.

Faith had her concerto and duet recital and Federation performances this week.  This was Sariah's last recital because she is a senior this year.  I have a very soft spot in my heart for Sariah--she was one of my first piano students.  I'm so proud of how far she has come with piano.   They both did great!  Here are some videos of their pieces.

Concerto

Carnival for Two

La La Land

Abe and I got to go see The Secret Garden at Hale Center Theater this week.  How lucky are we?? Oh, I love this play so much!