Thanksgiving, Christmas Decor

On Sunday Ben gave a talk in sacrament- I think maybe it was his first talk? He did a really good job reading at a normal speed and made everyone laugh with his joke "it doesn't really taste good but it's yummy". He tied it in by saying that was how he tried to show gratitude even though he didn't like the food. He got lots of compliments. Later, after church, we attended Jake's missionary farewell party (he was in our seminary class). His mom is an excellent baker and the treats were amazing. I chatted with a few people but I was glad Caroline was feeling better and was there. She was my main buddy until she had to leave for choir and then I had no one left to talk to. I wanted to go but Tyler had to talk to someone so I had some awkward waiting time. I hate parties.

Tuesday morning in seminary I got told by my liberal student that I should always use "they" if I don't know someone's gender (I called someone's dog an "it" because I didn't know its gender and that was apparently offensive). I made the mistake of responding that that is hard for me because I was taught in teacher school that "they" is used for more than one person. She then had to tell me how Shakespeare used "they" to cover multiple genders and it has been used throughout history as such. Ugh. I feel like she always takes off on these tangents that are just not for seminary.

Later on Tuesday I took the younger 3 kids to the Henry Ford Museum (Steven had school but they didn't). The museum had some fun Disney costumes on display and they also had a huge Lego city up. The Lego City was awesome and the kids all wished they had thousands of Lego's so they could make one too. It was a good little outing. 

At the end of our outing I bought them all candy sticks as per tradition and then proceeded to drop Lucy's while she was in the bathroom. This was not the only thing I dropped and broke that day. After our museum visit I picked up my pottery that I had painted with my friends. When I got home I decided to take it into the basement to show Tyler and I dropped the top part of it on the basement floor. Didn't even get a good picture of it before I destroyed it. Ugh.

Wednesday I had a lazy morning (we had cancelled seminary for the upcoming holiday) and then I did some prep for Thanksgiving dinner- the rolls and a pumpkin cake (because that sounded better than pumpkin pie to me). I struggled to get the dough to rise for the rolls but that just seems to be my usual problem her in chilly Micigan. In the end they turned out alright but I never feel like they taste as good as his mom's rolls.

Thursday was Thanksgiving so the day consisted of cooking and dishes on repeat. Ben helped me make the custard for the banana pie and he helped make the sweet potatoe casserole. After that he was done but he made for good company in the kitchen while he lasted. He's getting better at being helpful and not a pain, lol. I was glad we did Thanksgiving on our own, it helped it not to be so stressful and I enjoyed it being on the quieter side. We had lots of food- turkey (made by Tyler), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, stuffing (not my fav), rolls and Tyler's Christmas juice (aka dragon blood). Then we had banana cream pie, pumpkin cake and oreo pie for dessert. We were all properly stuffed and I did not take one single picture. '

Friday was another lazy morning and then I spent the rest of the day decorating for Christmas. We ended up buying new Christmas trees because all of our trees had dead lights. Also, with the seminary room taking over our usual Christmas tree spot, we really needed a slimmer tree. I found the 4 foot trees for the kids on a Black Friday special so I am not sure how long they'll last. But Tyler and I splurged on a new Christmas tree for us, it has LED lighting so I am really hoping it lasts for a bit. I tried something new with the ribbon because the branches wouldn't work for the way I used to do it. Then I felt like I needed to make a ribbon bow to match my new ribbon technique. I think it turned out ok, hard to see in the pic, but the kids insisted it still needed a star on top...

Friday evening Tyler and I went to go see the first two episode of "The Chosen" in the theaters. It was nice to get out and they were uplifting as per usual. 

Saturday Steven had his driving lesson in the morning. While he was at it I took the girls to the mall, they were dying to go. Unfortunately Lucy is actually not much for window shopping like Penny is. Lucy wants to buy all the things and she also doesn't really have the patience to stand around and look at things she is not interested in. After the mall, when we picked up Steven, he was really upset. His instructor had reprimanded him for driving too slow and Steven does not do well with correction. He kept trying to blame the instructor saying that the instructor was wanting him to drive too fast. Driving with him is going to be super fun.

Things

Sunday was the Primary Program. It turned out pretty good despite the Primary President constantly complicating everything. Lucy read her part super fast and she did a really nice job singing with Lizzie- I was impressed with her vocal skills. Penny was cute and said "relevators" instead of "revelators." She also sang well for her duet.

Monday and Wednesday night I took Steven to his driving class. In order to conserve gas I hung out in Novi but ironically I spent my time in stores and spent money on things I probably didn't need. Not sure how much money I am actually saving by not coming home. 

Tuesday night I didn't take Steven to his driving class because we unexpectedly had the May kids over for the night. There mom was having dizzy spells so she went to ER. All the May kids spent the night with us and then were with us for most of the next day. Having 8 kids around is a bit exhausting. They are overall really good kids but 8 kids equals a lot of mess and the mess makes me feel stressed. Defintely a "me" problem. 

Thursday the stake presideny came for to visit and teach seminary so that was kind of nice. We just got to sit back and listen. They took a pic of the class before they left.

Thursday morning I had a dentist appointment in the morning. The hygienist was super chatty so the appointment was a little long. We talked about how older people talk about health problems a lot...and then we talked about our husbands health problems. Lol. We must be old. Then we talked about school and how things have changed. And by we, I mean mostly she talked because my mouth was getting cleaned. I also got told that I need to wear a nightguard for my teeth because I am grinding them to death. I have one but it is soooo uncomfortable. I struggle enough to fall asleep that I just don't want to make it even harder.

Thursday afternoon I went to the gastro dr. She is quite certain I have a common case of IBS but ordered a bunch of test just in case. The blood test came back good. But she also ordered an ultrasound, a poop study and a colonoscopy. Not thrilled about these and already wondering if I shouldn't bother since she seems so sure that it's just IBS anyways. I'll most likely put most of them off until the New Year. We aren't even close to our deductible this year so probably best to put it towards next years deductible.

Friday we had the Mays over again and Lucy had her first volleyball game. I'm a little bummed that her friend Jenna is not playing this season so I can't hang with her parents during the games. But I actually enjoy watching volleyball and Lucy had some really good serves. Their team won so that was a good start to the season. 

Saturday Tyler went to Chicago with Lucy to watch his nephew Brennen play volleyball. They only got to see Brennen play for a few minutes- apparently he wasn't feeling well and had a bum ankle. But they did get to go see the bean, have cotton candy AND eat Chick-fil-a so that's a good outing right?

 Meanwhile I took Steven to his driving lesson- in which the lady only had to use her brake once and rated him a 3 out of 5- not bad for his first time on the road. While he was driving, Penny and I hung out in Novi. We went to Chick Fil-A and then walked the mall. We had an incident in Claire's where Penny dropped an eyeshadow case and broke it. We waited behind this family that kept stepping away to get more things, seriously taking forever, so finally I just butted in and said "my daughter broke this". They took it from me, put it in a cupboard and then went back to helping the other customer. I guess we got out of buying the broken eyeshadow case. We also had an incident where we went to go into an elevator while the doors were closing (a family with a stroller had taken a long time getting out) but the doors wouldn't re-open. They almost closed on my hand. Denied. But other than those 2 incidents we had a good time. There were quite a few toy shops that have popped up in the mall and they all had plenty of stuffies that Penny could swoon over.

Art, Missionaries, The Dining Room Play

Over the weekend I had bought some supplies so I could do some pour painting art because I had really enjoyed doing it with Debbie. I did a dump pour that weekend and the kids thought it looked like a lot of fun so on Monday I let the younger 3 try it out. They enjoyed it and I thought they picked good color combos. The only bummer is I used cheap canvases with them and the sides of the canvases ended up curling up. Won't be using those canvases again for a dump pour.

Monday night Steven started his first driver's ed class. The parking lot for the class was a driving test in itself. It is soo tiny and dead ends so there is no easy way to drop off and get out. I felt like my parking ability was being tested and I did not pass. To really show how awful my driving ablities are, on the way home I bumped a mailbox with my passenger side mirror- dang narrow streets in my neighborhood and oncoming traffic that did not scoot over. Let's hope Steven drives better than me or life is about to get even more expensive.

Tuesday Tyler and Steven had off work/school for Election Day. Tyler and I voted first thing in the morning. It is sort of depressing when most of the things you vote for don't win. Lately the economy is such a mess and everything feels a little bleak. I was hoping this election would give me some hope but not so much. Besides that, Steven had his friend David over all day, and I did some cleaning and then went out to lunch with Tyler. Just another exciting day in the Hatch home ;)

Tuesday night I had Bunco. I had some funny moments when we determined that if we kept talking about Real Estate (a couple of the ladies there are Realators) we had good dice rolls. I also kept telling people they were going to get Bunco's and so when one person I told finally did, that was fun. The only downer is was at the end of the game I ended up at a table with someone who is not my fav person. She told me how her grandkids never want to come to seminary and they often sit out front of my house refusing to come in. Not sure what she wanted me to say about that. Like, gee thanks, I am so glad they hate our class.

Wednesday morning I taught Hosea and I was worried about it because the analogy is slightly scandelous. I was also worried about an opinionated student derailing it. She did try but I think despite her comments, the lesson went really well. Wednesday nights are complicated now that Lucy has volleyball and Steven has drivers ed and then we have activities to rush to. This Wednesday wasn't too bad but the next one will be tricky because volleyball practice is later and so Lucy will have to choose between volleyball or her sewing activity. Can't be in two places at once.

Thursday while the kids were at school I went with Caroline, Caroline's sister, Grace and Melissa to a pottery painting place. Painting pottery is not my jam but it was still a pretty good time. Nice to get out of the house and spend time with people. It'll be interesting to see how the little ice cream container I painted turns out.

Thursday evening the sister missionaries came over for dinner. Sometimes missionaries can be super awkward and so I don't always love having them over, but these ones weren't too awkward. We had some fun conversations about sports and seminary and other things. Then Tyler grilled them on how missionary work has changed since he was a missionary. Our kids actually behaved themselves really well throughout it all and it ended up just being a really nice evening.

Saturday the younger 2 had Primary Program Practice and it was a bit of a disaster. They usually are honestly but the Primary president seems to really like to make things complicated- adding in unnecessary things like chimes, duets, and back and forth speaking parts. 

Saturday evening Tyler and I went to see one of our seminary students in the play "The Dining Room". Not a super good play. Each scene had a different family from a different time period around the same dining room table. Quite a few of the scenes involved cheating wives. Really weird to have high schoolers acting that out. I don't know why they have high schoolers act out such adult things. Our seminary student did a good job playing a little girl in one of the families though, she was quite funny. 

Halloween, Lucy turns 10, Bronner's

Monday was Halloween. The kids still had school work Monday which they thought was unfair because it was a holiday but they didn't have all that much work to do. When they finished their work, we spent the rest of the day getting things ready for Lucy's birthday party the next day. She wanted to do a "Nailed It" themed party so we had to bake some cakes. Then we went to the Dollar Tree to get some random things to use to make trophies for the competition. That was a fun little craft. We ended up with a toy baking mixer, a weird monster dog toy and a unicorn head. We spray painted them all gold and attached them to an upside down shiny cup. 

Monday afternoon I dropped Steven and David off in Milford so they could hangout with Max for Halloween. Then that evening the Mays and Eakins came over to trick or treat with us in our neighborhood. There was a light rain and I really like to hand out candy so I stayed at the house with Caroline and we passed out candy. We didn't get a lot of kids so I thought I was funny and I played the "Come Little Children" song from Hocus Pocus to try to draw kids to our door. It was not successful but in the end I did get rid of most of our candy (mostly because I gave everyone massive handfuls of candy). When everyone came back from trick or treating they tracked wet, muddy leaves all over the carpet which game me some anxiety. We also found a 3 Musketeer candy bar smashed into our rug, our wall and then a bit on the trash can. Not cool.

Tuesday was Lucy's 10th birthday. She of course opened presents as soon as she was awake. She was spoiled as per usual. From us she got a giant squishmallow, an art kit and a fitness watch. From my parents she got a desk with school supplies for her dolls. From Tyler's parents she got a Lego set and a pirate beanie boo. And from Ben she got a hamster and travel supplies for her dolls. She had fun that morning playing with her dolls and all the new toys she got for them. Then it was off to school for her and siblings. 

While she was at school I decorated her Minecraft cake, made frosting for the party and cleaned the house. Cleaning the house was a poor choice because it got destroyed at her party. Just more dirt and leaves tracked in and then cake crumbs added into the mix. Kids are messy.

I think overall Lucy enjoyed her party. They ate some food, paired up to decorate cakes, and then played outside while we picked winners. When they came back inside we presented the trophies. Lucy and Angelica won first place. They really took their time with their rainbow cake and it turned out really good. Penny and Luna got second place. They tried to get all the elements in their ladybug cake and did alright for 8 year olds. Peter and Reggie took last place. I think they were disappointed so I tried to cheer them up by showing them that their trophy squeaked (it was just a dog toy spray painted gold)...maybe a bad idea...Their cake was kind of a hot mess which was probably due to how fast they decorated it.

After we presented awards, we sang to Lucy, ate cake and she opened gifts. She rushed to the present opening and I got frustrated with her because she was being kind of bratty about it and people were dragging cake all over the house. I may have yelled at her in front of her friends. Not my finest moment. With the presents opened and the "Nailed It" competition over, I had no more plans for the night and we still had an hour left. I had been hoping they would just go play outside but the sun had already set and they just weren't interested. So the girls ended up watching "Nailed It" and the boys played on the Nintendo Switch. I let them seperate for a bit but then for the last half hour I had them come back together and play Cards for Humanity (family edition). It has so much potty humor that it was the perfect fit for all of the party crew and got them playing together again. It was a good end to the party.

Wednesday the girls had a sewing activity for church so we went and bought fabric for it. Since we were right by the bird shop I took the girls there to see the birds. The birds were a little less active but still cool. It got me researching how to take care of larger birds and realizing that is probably not realistic for us at this time in our lives. Since that's not realistic I have decided that we will breed our parakeets so that maybe we can train up some birds to like us. On Thursday we went and picked up the supplies to make a nesting box and then Tyler made one. It is now all set up and ready for eggs. We will see if my birds oblidge and how it all goes. Maybe we will have baby birds by Christmas.

Friday the weather was gorgeous so after running a few errands, I went on a bike ride to the library with the kids. Being outside in good weather is really one of my favorite things. That evening Lucy had her first volleyball practice. This will be the first season that her and Jenna do not have volleyball together. Boo. It's always more fun when I can sit with Jenna's family at games. We also had the parent driver's class meeting. That gave me all the fun info about the process Steven will be going through to get his license. I cannot believe that by Christmas he will have his level 1 license and actually be driving. Terrifying.

Saturday we took our annual trip to Bronner's. We always like to go before Thanksgiving to try and beat the crowds but holy cow it was crowded. Thankfully our kids are older so it wasn't too terrible- at least we didn't have to worry about losing them easily or having them break something- but we still had to try to maneuver through the crowds to get around. Here is a pic of the ornaments the kids ended up with:

Penny's is a marshmallow mermaid

Ben's is a marshmallow dinosaur

Lucy's is a marshmallow unicorn

Steven got a Nintendo remote

Afterwards we made a stop at Cherry Republic so I could get my favorite cherry chocolate covered pretzels and then we hit up Culver's for a late lunch. Overall a nice family outing. Just wish the boys knew how to keep their hands to themselves and weren't always messing with eachother. Do they ever grow out of that???