Pumpkins, Skeletons, Lucy's birthday

 On Sunday the kids carved their pumpkins...inside the house because it was raining for the billionth time. We have had so much rain lately.Usually I am super involved in the process, but this year they all scooped out the guts themselves. Then Tyler used one of his tools to help the girls carve their designs and the boys carved their own pumpkins. And I made dinner while they were all working on their pumpkins. It was a nice change of pace.

 

On Monday the kids didn't have too much school work so I wanted to get outside and do something but unfortunately it was raining again. So instead we went and saw the movie "Ron's Gone Wrong." I had discovered we still had a giftcard to the theater that we had gotten right before Covid hit so that was a pleasant surprise. The movie was fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

On Wednesday Tyler and I had a inservice training for Seminary at lunchtime. It was both good and not so good. It had some good ideas but also left me feeling like I should be doing more or doing some things differently. I am super hard on myself and also really good at overanalyzing every lesson. Anxiety is the worst.

After the seminary training, we met up with the Mays in Northville to see the skeletons. It was fairly chilly but still a good time. We played at the nearby park, posed with lots of skeletons, got some candy at a candy shop and then played some games that a store had set up outside. 

 

After we finished up in Northville we tried to pick up an archery target for Steven's activity that night but the store didn't have any so Tyler had to go hunt one down. By that time it was getting close to time for the activities to start so the kids and I picked up some pizza on our way home, no time to cook. I took Ben to his activity at the church and got to hang out with my friends who were there. Also got frustrated that this family keeps coming to church and activities even though their mom has covid. I know I am not a big person on taking precautions with covid but that feels a little much. Just stay home.

Then after I got back from the activity I did a spontaneous hang out with one of my friends. Honestly I was worried about her and the fact that her husband started his job in Indiana 4 months ago and they have a house there and she's still working on projects on her house here and hasn't moved. I thought maybe there was more behind it but after hanging out with her, I think it's just her usual crazy, lol. We're all crazy I guess...But apparently she thinks she'll have it on the market next week. After seeing it though, I have my doubts.

Thursday we finally had a sunny day with no rain so I got back to spray painting the lockers. I spent 3 hours spray painting those dang things. I was covered in spray paint(I looked like an old lady with white in my hair), got blisters on my fingers and still didn't finish. Thankfully Tyler has offered to finish them off, the weather just needs to cooperate. They are so close to being done.

Friday I decorated Lucy's cake. It is not perfect but it'll do. I was not up to the task of making a taco cake for her taco themed birthday so it is more of a fiesta cake with a taco themed topper. I did have to run to Kroger's at one point to get more sprinkles and Penny came along. I have had various errands to run all week with the locker project and this party and Halloween and I have found that I really enjoy when one of the kids will come with. I enjoy having that one on one time with them, we don't get that much.

Saturday morning the power went out. Seriously this year with weather and power outages has been crazy. I was real worried it would be out for Lucy's party but thankfully it came back on. The party was nuts as usual. She had four friends come, Peter, Reggie, Jenna and Angelica. I sometimes wish Lucy didn't have friends that are boys because girls are way less loud and crazt. Anyways, we started off playing "Don't Eat Pete"- taco version. This was a hit. After that we played a Taco game which the boys did not enjoy but the girls and I had a blast. It involved collecting ingredients for a taco. Next we watched a video on how to draw a taco and drew one. Even though the boys gave me grief about sitting down to do it, they seemed to enjoy it once they started. When we finished up with that Tyler came with an excessive amount of tacos and pizza. The tacos were not well received and we have plenty of leftovers. Our last activity was the Taco Pinata. Jenna hit it off the string and then Lucy broke the bat but despite the hiccups it seemed to be the most loved activity. We ended the party with cake and ice cream and present. Lucy said it was the best party ever.

After her party I took her to Rowan's at Target to get her ears pierced. I thought this would be a good choice over Claire's because they have a certified nurse but it was quite traumatizing. The nurse aimed too high the first time and had to redo that hole so essentially Lucy got pierced 3 times. She was not happy after the first and so it took a lot of hand squeezing and positive talk to get her through it. I guess the perk of getting 3 piercings was that they threw in an extra pair of earrings for her and gave her 3 lollipops. It took Lucy a long while to stop being sad and grumpy but now she keeps telling me how beautiful she is so I think she's happy about it.

Fall Y'all

On Sunday we decided to play hooky from church and go to Belle Isle. That turned out to be a poor choice. Apparently the island was closed for a marathon. So we navigated through closed roads and ended up parking as close as we could to the Detroit Riverwalk. We walked over to the Detroit River Lighthouse and tried to figure out what to do next. Apparently everything was closed Sunday (Belle Isle, our fav Detroit bookstore and the Outdoor Adventure Center. I think this was a good lesson that we should have just went to church. Anyways we ended up walking the Dequindre Cut Trail. The weather was a little chill but it was a nice walk. Overall good but I was glad we were with the men because there was a group of guys hanging out at one section, drinking and looking all kinds of sketchy.

After the walk we parted ways (we had drove in seperate cars). I took the kids home and Tyler, Mike and Grams got to go do a tour of the Detroit Masonic Temple. I think they enjoyed seeing it and learning about it and I was actually glad to be able to get some things done around the house.

Monday Mike and Grams had a flight to catch in the afternoon so we made the most of the time we had left together. We first got some more fresh doughnuts at Longs Orchard...

Then we took a nature walk at Proud Lake. One last chance for Mike and Grams to enjoy the cool weather and beautiful scenes before heading out. Also my children enjoyed shooting Mike with stick guns and trying to attack him with stick swords- they are quite violent. Hopefully all the bruises and scrapes my children gave him won't prevent him from coming back ;)

Then it was time to say goodbye. I always hate having to say goodbye to family. It's times like this that I wished we all lived in the same state. Since the kids didn't come with me, it was a quiet drive back home.

Tuesday was full of all the things: Seminary, errands, making over the lockers and catching up on household things. It was a busy day but Tyler was nice enough to buy me lunch so I did sit down for a minute. It's busy times like this that make me wish I had the kids in school full time and wasn't trying to cram all the things that need to get down into 2 days. 

Wednesday I dropped off doughnuts to Melissa as a thank you for subbing our seminary class. Apparently she had hurt a muscle in her neck and she was down for the count. She always seems to have health issues. I wonder sometimes, why that is, that some people seem to have more than their fair share of health issues. 

That evening Lucy got her chance to ride a horse for Activity Days. They really just learned about horse safety and then let the girls sit on a horse but she had a good time. She seems to get along well with all the girls in the Ward. I also chatted with one of the seminary parents and she told me how much the kids in her carpool enjoyed being with the Bloomfields and how I should ask for some tips and tricks from them. That sent me into a bit of a self doubting spiral. I struggle with confidence anyways and I am always feeling like I'm not good at teaching Seminary. When we asked the kids what they liked about being at the Bloomfields, they basically said her dog and her kids. So maybe they just liked the distractions and I shouldn't be so hard on myself?

Thursday I did some more work on the lockers and then that evening Tyler and I had a game night with the Eakins and the Bloomfields. Melissa's neck was still hurting so she was slightly loopy due to pain killers. The night was fun, even if we lost all 20 of our quarters to the loopy Bloomfields. The game essentially involved rolling dice to determine if you keep, or pass your quarters. I like games that don't involve skill because then you don't have to feel awful about losing. It's all just up to chance.

Friday night we had the Ward Trunk or Treat. This year Steven was an Identity Thief (he had people write their names on name tags and then he put the name tag on), Lucy was a unicorn, Penny was a horse and Ben was Mario. They were going to do a chili cook off for it but the primary president came down with covid after being around everyone's children Sunday so they cancelled the indoors chili cook off and just served pizza outside instead. For our trunk I made a shooting Target and hung it from the trunk. Then when kids came to our trunk they had to stand behind the target and Tyler threw candy at them. Kids are weird and they all thought this was fun. Unfortunately I planned poorly and didn't have enough candy bars so I had to go steal some from my kids. I was trying out full size candy bars this year because I am tired of always having so much candy leftover but I guess if I am going to do that in the future I will need more...not sure if we're that rich ;)

Saturday Ben and Lucy had their very last soccer game. Unfortunately they lost 3 to 4 but it was still a better season than last year. I feel like they had better coaches. I am glad the season is over because it sure was getting cold outside.

Michigan Adventures with Grams and Mike

 Monday we had a busy morning. First I picked up groceries and then I met with Penny's speech teacher and indeed, Penny has graduated from speech (even if she can't say 'graduated' properly). I wasn't surprised. It was also really, really nice to hear that she is above grade level in everything. Makes me feel like I didn't fail with homeschooling. After that meeting I took Penny to the doctor. She got real emotional about having to get a shot, just like the rest of her siblings. I also had some questions for the doctor but I feel like general practioners are just not super helpful. I guess their job is just to refer you to other people.

Tuesday night I had Bunco. It was Nancy's birthday and she always calls me "Jenny from the Block" (aka Jennifer Lopez) so I decided I was going to dress up like J Lo as my "birthday gift" to Nancy. Melissa offered to help make me over and we were having lots of fun until I realized I mis-remembered what time Bunco starts. I definitely made an entrance as I walked in late dressed as Jenny from the Block. Nancy loved it so it was totally worth it. 

Wednesday night my mom and brother flew into town for a late celebration of her 70th birthday. We were so excited to have them here in Michigan and we had lots of adventures to go on. The kids still had to go to school Thursday so we had some adventures without them. Our first adventure was to get doughnuts and cider at Long's Farm- this was a must on Grandma's list. There are very little things that are tastier than freshly baked doughnuts. We attempted to sit down and eat our doughnuts there because the weather was so nice but we were immeaditely attacked by bees and decided it was not worth the bees. We ate in the car instead.

Next we drove out to Lansing so Grams could vist the Delphi Stained Glass store. Grams got the things she needed and Mike was real impressed by the artwork on the walls. I worked hard to keep my eyes open in this pic, can you tell?

On our way back we drove through Kensington and took a quick stop at the Nature Center. Grams was too tired to walk a trail but we enjoyed the scenic views and saw some cranes walking around.

Then we picked up the kids from school, brought them home to change out of their uniforms and headed to Greenfield Village for Halloween Nights. Tyler missed a turn on our way there and that added about 20 mins to our trip so we didn't get there as early as I had hoped. I had hoped we would have time to get a snack or bite to eat before our scheduled train ride but no such luck. So basically we got there, did a potty break and then loaded onto the train. We had some perfect weather while we rode the Ghoul Train. The Ghoul train essentially was a train ride with obnoxious spooky sounds playing and every once in awhile some spooky sites to see- skeletons in a canoe, a grim reaper by the fence, some witches around a fire...

As we got off the train the weather took a turn and the rain came down. Thankfully I had brought some cheap ponchos that helped but the rain started really coming down and the ponchos didn't offer perfect protection. We eventually found a patio to hang out under.

After a bit the rain calmed down some and we were able to get back out there and see the things. We got to listen to a humrous fortune teller tell someone else their future, found some fun photo op's, went in a spooky covered bridge that was guarded by a troll, took pictures with scarecrows that scared the pants off the kids, listened to singing vampires and pumpkins, saw a tortured bride ghost, heard the story of Hansel and Gretel as told by the witch's sister, watched a little skit done by Captain Hook and Smee, we met a vampire and Little Bo Peep and we ate some yummy kettle corn and caramel corn. So even though we had a rough patch with the crappy weather, there were still some fun times had.

Friday Tyler took off work so he could go adventuring with us. It was raining all over Michigan but after much searching I discovered the storm was missing Midland, Michigan so to Midland we went to see the Dow Gardens. We ended up having perfect weather as we toured the gardens. The kids enjoyed the canopy walk and were more brave this time with the rope net- probably because they had Uncle Mike to impress. Grams liked all the beautiful glass flowers that were throughout the park and they even had some real roses still blooming.

When we were done at Dow Gardens we took Mike to Lake Huron so he could say he saw one of the Great Lakes. The water was a gross shade of green but still it was a pretty view and the kids had a lot of fun chasing seagulls, playing with sticks and just being kids. By the way, do you like Ben's hat? He calls it his "furry friend."

Our last stop on Thursday was Bronner's. We decided to go ahead and buy the kids their new ornaments as per tradition, rather than make another trip out there in a few weeks. Ben chose his traditional snowman one (this one had a cape and top hat), Lucy chose a unicorn lollipop, Penny chose a slushee and Steven got Steve from Minecraft. Mike was able to find some things for his kids and experience the world's largest Christmas store!

When we finally got home we were all exhausted. We ordered some pizza and maybe we should have called it a night BUT Tyler, Mike and I decided to go see a movie. We saw "Venom: Let There Be Carnage." It was a little silly and over the top but entertaining. And it's always nice to go to the movies.

Saturday we left the kids behind and Mike, my mom and I went to Hell. When we got there, there was a guy singing "Welcome to Hell" and he sounded just like Dracula, it was actually pretty awesome. Mike and Grams got some souvenirs from Hell and then we strolled around outside. There were a couple booths selling things and Grams just had to buy a Halloween lantern from this cute family.

After we went through Hell we went to Ann Arbor. Grams is also addicted to the chocolate cherry covered pretzels that are sold at Cherry Republic. We got our yummy things there and then strolled downtown. We had lunch at Taq and it was really good. I had a waffle taco with chicken and bacon and syrup. It was surprisingly a good combination. We also went to the "Nickle Arcarde" which was basically just more shops. It was a good outing and made better since it didn't have the presence of impatient children.

After Ann Arbor we were done with our adventures for the day. We ended the day eating some dinner, watching "Lego Masters" with the kids and then forcing Grams to watch the first "Venom" movie with us. She didn't love it but she was a good sport about it.