October: Ethan's Last Day in a Carseat

Prior to Ethan's birthday this was a typical scene if we were arriving home late...


Apparently the only thing that changed on his birthday was the kind of seat.

October: Trunk or Treat & Carnival

Because Halloween fell on a Sunday our ward decided that it would be important to have a bigger Trunk or Treat event complete with food, a carnival, and trunk or treating. The primary was put in charge and myself and my counselors had a lot of fun preparing for the even. Here are some of the carnival activities...


Halloween Boo-ling...


Pick the candy off the witches cape...


Halloween fish pond...
We also had a pumpkin ball toss, ghoulish golfing, ring toss, and dancing on the stage to Halloween music.


I was expected to be dressed up but Brian really got into the evening appearing as a lovely inmate with the coolest mullet hair ever!


For dinner we had a chili cook off.


Then the games began....

This is Ethan the transformer with his buddies Joe and Rowan.


Vicky was as beautiful as a gypsi as I was ugly as a witch!


Lizzy was a rock star diva and was thrilled to be there with Nyah and Natalie.


And Sophie the High School Musical Gabriella was inseperable from Saydee and Emma.


Harry Potter Andrew could hang with Nic and Gavin indefinitely, never getting bored. It was a wonderful event and evening! We had a huge turnout and the kids felt like they had a Halloween!

October: Elizabeth's "I'm mad mommy!" Look

Oh my goodness, get Lizzy to take a bath, curl her hair, and put on girly clothes and she looks like Taylor Swift! As a mom I would prefer she stop getting taller and keeps her tummy covered.



This is her, "Don't hate me because I am beautiful look!"

October: Ethan's Birthday Pizza

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year we celebrated Halloween with a big Trunk or Treat festivity on the 30th. But this also happened to be Ethan's birthday so on the 29th we celebrated Ethan's birthday feast. He requested Pizza at Bruno's with his Nana, Grandpa, and Rajagopal family.

My "little" guy is now 4 years old. He can eat as much pizza as his 9 year old brother!


Sophie loved the company!


For my blondies, it was all about the pizza and soda!

October: Ethan's Preschool Pumpkin Day

Once again I volunteered in Ethan's classroom. He loves when I help in the classroom. He shows me all of his amazing skills including how good he is at putting together geometric puzzles.


He also makes some amazing play-doh creations such as snakes, pizza's, pies...


At the end of preschool they got to go out on the playground and pick a pumpkin from the many that were hidden on the playground.


He and his classmates were pretty proud of their pumpkins!

October: Elizabeth's Soccer Season

Elizabeth surprised me this fall season in soccer. Not only did she fully participate in practice, she loved it and wanted to play as many minutes as possible in games! Since I was pregnant Vicky asked a parent of one of the girls to also help with our soccer practices. Coach Ceasar was loved by all of the girls.


Lizzy's passing skills were significantly improved this season and her conditioning far superior from last year.


Lizzy was defensive minded and she was aggressive to the ball.


Plus she loved hanging out with these friends.


I was a proud mom of my little "Hot Cleat" girl!

October: Annual Rajagopal Halloween Feast

Oh it is great to have fun friends. We went to the annual Rajagopal Halloween dinner and were blown away with Raj's fun Halloween themed meal including:

Ribs on the bone:)


Homemade or twice eaten mac n cheese.


Mummies in a blanket.




Spider web 7 layer chip dip.


Chocolate cake cemetery.


White chocolate covered strawberry ghosts.


And this is a cake Raj made for a friends daughter's bday which was a haunted house. It was an amazing feast!

October: Classic Sharon

Only my friend Sharon Rajagopal could get us to dress up and look absurd during primary. This is obviously to get the children to sing. The victim this week was my friend Tracey parks. She was such a great sport!

October: Andrew & Ethan Sleepover

The boys wanted to have a sleepover. So they both got their old sleeping bags and stacked them side by side in Ethan's room. Andrew is such a wonderful big brother and loves to let Ethan share in some adventure with him.


I hope they both never grow up!

October: Elizabeth's Harvest Party

I am the room mom in Elizabeth's class this year. This requires me to be in charge of each of Lizzy's school parties. At Lizzy's party we had a dance contest where the children had to dance until the music stopped. I had downloaded a bunch of halloween music which was just perfect!


We also made some very creative bagel snacks that were made to look like pumpkins! Jordan Sollee is Lizzy's friend and in her primary. She made a great pumpkin!


Lizzy's looked good too. She tried to put as many snacks on there as possible.


We also had the kids look at some objects on a cookie tray for 30 seconds and then we took the tray away. The children had to guess what objects were on the tray.



The kids loved our candy corn relay race. We did boys against girls.


The kids had to carry candy corn on a spoon over to a pumpkin bucket. When time was up the bucket with the most corn won!


I was 20 weeks pregnant and still fitting my regular jeans. And of course, Ethan was an honorary 2nd grader.


Lastly we made 3-D Halloween cards. The kids were pretty creative and loved this art project.


Overall it was a fantastic party that the kids really seemed to enjoy. I also ended up having some great additional parent support so it couldn't have been any more perfect!

October: Sophie's 1st Grade Field Trip

Sophie's 1st grade class was able to go to White's Country Farm for their annual harvest field trip. The children first were treated to a giant blow up obstacle course which they loved!


Then they got to feed some of the animals.


After animals and washing hands they were treated to a fresh country apple and some hide-in-go-seek in a corn maze with their teacher.


Lastly, a trip in a wagon out to the pumpkin patch where they each got to choose a pumpkin. The teacher held on to their pumpkins at school for a week and they each got to weigh, measure, and observe their pumpkins for a science project. They even got to smash one open and watch the mold appear.



After many evaluations of pumpkins Sophie finally found her PERFECT ONE!