November Begins

Sunday was Halloween but I failed to take any good photos. It was cold and ended up sprinkling on the kids. Steven went to Milford with Max and David. The rest of the kids went trick or treating here with the younger 3 May kids. Tyler and Caroline's husband were nice and went out with the kids. Caroline and I stayed home and chatted while we passed out candy. Once again I ran short on the full size candy bars and ended up having to scrounge up things- a super old bag of Smarties and some Twinkies from the basement. Kind of a bummer for the hand full of kids that came after the good stuff ran out. I guess if I want to do full size candy bars next year I will need to buy more. 

Monday was Lucy's nineth birthday. Since she already had her party and cake it was a fairly low key day. She started off opening all her presents (at 7am sharp). Our big present to her was the ear piercing but we did get her 2 Minecraft Minifugres and one more pair of earrings (unicorns). Grams Hatch got her a huge pack of Roblox figures. Grams Brady got her a Beanie Boo and gave her some cash. And Ben got her one Roblox minifigure and a Minecraft Minifigure.

After Lucy finished her school work, her dad took her out to KFC for lunch. Next I took her (and Penny) to the mall so she could spend the Claire's giftcard that Peter had got her. She ended up getting a Beanie Boo with it and a Unicorn Pop-it. Then we went to food court and got milkshakes. After that the girls were actually able to play at the play area- it was finally open! 

For dinner she was content to have potatoe soup and we wrapped up her special day finishing off Season 2 of Lego Masters. She said it was her best birthday ever so I'll take that at as a win.

This week my project was to move out the stuff by the front door so we could get the lockers set up- mission accomplished! And I even sold the desk that was there. I also tried to decorate the top with things we had on hand to make it more homey. Still want to add some things but I have to find things that won't fall off and break. So far I am really happy with the lockers. They hide the kids crap perfectly.

Wednesday night Lucy had volleyball practice and Activity Days. Lots of picking up and dropping off but she's the only one doing a sport right now so I can handle one busy night. After I dropped her off at her activity I strolled Salvation Army- I do love thrift shops. I ended up finding an extra small but extra cute nutcracker. It will be a great addition to my collection.

Thursday night we went and saw our Seminary Student, Dean, again. He's the one who owns a flock of birds. I do love finger trained birds, they are so fun. His birds also talk and they can whistle the Star Wars song. Tyler and I are talking about getting one but I just don't know. As an adult I'm not sure I can handle the feathers and poop everywhere. Plus it's cold here and I am not sure where I'd put one. But it was a really fun visit.

Also on Thursday my kids made these lovely masks at school and kept scaring me with them. First I was driving along and spotted Lucy wearing hers in the rearview mirror. Then I was going to the bathroom and when I opened the door, there Lucy was, wearing the mask and freaking me out. 

So to counteract the creepy masks, I will show a picture of the girls making Poppy proud and wearing their jean jackets to school. Apparently snow jackets are "uncool" so the jean jackets are winning lately.

Friday night Lucy had her first volleyball game (after just one practice). The coach had us come early for no apparent reason. We ended up just waiting in the halls the whole time we were there early BUT Jenna is in volleyball with Lucy so it was nice to be able to chat with her family and catch up with them. I'm going to enjoy hanging out with them on Friday nights. The girls also played surprisingly well. I really thought it was going to be more a train wreck than it ended up being. Lucy actually hit the ball several times and even got it over the net when she served. Her team also won so that was awesome.

Saturday Steven worked hard so he could earn the rest of the money he needed to buy his Nintendo Switch. He is pretty happy that he finally was able to get it.