a thanksgiving story

"Run Turkey Run" by Jacob

Jacob wrote and illustrated this book a week ago Sunday when he was bored. I can't help but laugh every time I read it. He loved reading his book to Matthew, but I'm not sure Matthew could fully appreciate his humor.

In case anyone needs a translation: "Run Turkey Run" It is the day before Thanksgiving. And turkey escapes. The End.

manicotti mania

I'm happy to say that I have successfully survived the last RS weekday meeting of the year! We chose to do a "progressive" dinner. Along with each course, we asked a sister to share her thoughts about a certain blessing -- family, friends, country, and temple. I took on the assignment of the main dish. I chose manicotti and french bread -- for 50 people. I made a gazillion tubes of manicotti and opted to buy the bread just because I couldn't do it all. Thankfully, one of the leading ladies on my committee helped me stuff those things or I wouldn't have made the deadline. I had lots of leftovers. We're manicotti-ed out. Good thing for a freezer. The whole evening was really great except for one person choking (not on the manicotti) and another person puking (again, not the manicotti). At least they were OK. I learned that church buildings really need to have a bag of kitty litter and some clorox wipes readily available in the janitorial closet.

i'm losing it

I think I'm officially losing my brain -- the part that remembers stuff. I completely forgot about pack meeting this week. It was written on my calendar, I had talked to den leaders the day before about awards, I had reminded Ryan the night before, and Mark even asked at noon (the day of) if we had someplace to go that evening. I realized we had all missed pack meeting during family prayer the next morning -- weird. I also completely missed Jared's piano lesson yesterday. Again, it was written on the calendar. However, Jared came home and didn't have homework (which rarely happens) and it was a nice day, so he went outside to play football and I completely forgot about piano lessons (not that he minded missing). I realized this mistake when the kids were going to bed and we were reviewing the day. Frankly, I'm a little freaked out by my not remembering stuff like this because I'm normally very good at it. Is there something wrong with me? Am I getting alzheimer's? Am I getting old? Is my plate (life) a little crowded right now? I'm going to stick with the last one, thanks. In the meantime, I'll be looking at my calendar more frequently.

the longest day

Sunday had to be THE. LONGEST. DAY. EVER. Consider the fact that the time changed (and the kids internal clocks didn't), the kids were still charged from Halloween sugar, it was fast sunday (so we tend to get the hungry-grumpy's), AND we don't go to church till afternoon. By 8:00 a.m. everyone was up, the little kids had had some breakfast, and Matthew had already had his first meltdown. To help pass the time Jacob learned to blow bubbles with his bubble gum, there was lots of wrestling, and a few rounds of Uno and Sorry. By 7:00 p.m. we were ready to send the kids to bed because it was so dark outside. But we didn't. We waited until our "normal" bedtimes. FINALLY.

halloween

I just wasn't into Halloween much this year and neither were the kids, until it was actually time to go trick-or-treating, of course! I have to say I loved the costumes this year because the kids just pulled stuff out of the box and I didn't have to spend money on anything or sew anything! In fact, no one decided on what they were going to be until about an hour before going out! Here's what we came up with:
Matthew as Tigger:
Jacob is all action and raring to go...what is he?

He's a karate kid! He also wore the padded helmet when he went out and about. (Gotta love getting more use out of Jared's old karate uniform and pads!!)

Ryan was all about the candy and would have gone trick-or-treating dressed as himself if I hadn't insisted that he actually wear something that somewhat resembled a costume. He opted for all black clothes topped with a hooded black cloak and tied with a karate belt. A ninja??? Who knows. Jared decided he was too old to actually go trick-or-treating, but he was way excited to help Matthew knock on a few doors! And hand out candy.

The return -- what's in here?

Matthew loved watching all the candy fall out of his pumpkin. His first choice of the evening was a box of Nerds.

Jacob and his cache:

Ryan was on a quest this year for more candy than ever before. Here's what 5 pounds looks like:

All three boys helped sort Ryan's candy into piles on Sunday morning. It's a good thing he is willing to share (and trade, of course!)