Happy Halloween!

Call us hum bugs but we stayed home tonight. After the dress up party at the library last Tuesday, then a party at our friend's house on Friday, and the Church Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday I figured we had had enough of this holiday. And the kids certainly have enough candy to last them a while - especially since we usually only let them have one piece after lunch and another piece after dinner. I guess I should have taken pictures after each party because most of the kids changed costumes. But here they are on Saturday - little baseball player (she was the same for all events), pioneer girl (who actually wanted to go bare foot but once we were at the Church she was sorry she didn't have a jacket), the vampire (who was so happy he found his orange teeth to complete the costume but then didn't wear them very much), Mulan, police officer, and cowgirl.

Wild Turkeys

We came home from the library story time Halloween dress up party last Tuesday and saw a flock of wild turkeys in our neighbor's yard across the street. I ran inside to get the camera and took some pictures with my telephoto lens. When I went back inside and looked at them I wasn't happy at all, so I went back outside to cross the street (without my kids, who were absorbed in their new library books at this time) to get some better pictures. I think there was about 20 turkeys in the flock so it really was a lot of fowl. It's always neat to see wild life so close - especially if you feel safe that they won't charge you or anything like that. (I had to be careful around the moose in my yard in Alaska.)

Ben got all excited and wanted to get out the b-b-gun. My goodness!

You live where?

Oh, we are the two-story salmon colored brick house on the west side of the road. You know, the one with the wood wall around it. We've heard the neighborhood is going bad so we wanted to protect ourselves. Just kidding. The neighborhood is fine. We just know we'll need a lot of wood to keep our house warm through the winter - if it's anything like last winter - and we are being prepared. Last year Kevin built a fort around the garden in the backyard. Much less visible but it was a trek through the snow to reload the basement wood storage area. So we decided to put it out front and see if that was easier. It also makes a great fence for the kids to keep them from going into the road. I just thought I'd let you see how it's going. Of course, we're not done yet, as you can see from the pile of split wood and the other pile of not yet split wood. (These pictures were taken Friday and Kevin did more work Saturday so the yard already looks different than what I'm showing you here.) Kevin has been hard at work gathering all the wood from different locations and then splitting it all. I have split some but my main job has been stacking the split stuff with the kids as my helpers.

Notice what he's wearing... He found a use for those old flight suits he used to wear. That's nice because we have about 20 in a box just waiting to be worn. It makes it much easier to clean up when he's done because most of the saw dust and stuff is on the flight suit and not on his clothes.

These are heavy pieces of oak that he had to cut up just to be able to get them to the splitter. It was amazing how heavy they were, and how big some of them were. That hole in the wall behind him was filled on Saturday so it's now a complete wall. But there is more wood - split stuff on the left side and the rest on the right. I'll post more later.


The wall goes around a ways but isn't quite as tall as it is in the front.

Here's a look at the second portion that is on the other side of the driveway. It will be added to as well, so it will go farther back and we'll see how much we end up using through out the winter.
It was really bugging me that you couldn't see what it looked like now so I went out and took a picture of what it looks like now. You can see we all have a lot of work to do.

Flu shots

So we went to the clinic this morning to check on Kemiah's elbow that was hurting. It got fixed and the doctor mentioned that she needed a flu shot, if we wanted one. Oh yeah, we all do. So I asked if they'd be able and willing to do us all - 6 kids and one adult. Yes, we were all in the exam room. Fortunately, they were willing to do it for us so that I didn't have to come back in another time. The kids didn't want the shot but 5 of the 6 did great. Marissa hid and was much more vocal than the others. I'll focus on how great the others were - they were FANTASTIC! Kemiah and Xiomara didn't cry at all. Emily started but stopped herself. Domonique cried but recovered quickly. Ben said a strong OW! It was really a great visit! I had talked to Kemiah as we got her shoes on to leave the house because the last time we went to the doctor's office she was terrible. This time she was great and I actually walked out thinking, "we had a great time!"

Now everyone mentions their sore arms (mainly the older three). Ben said, "I'm glad I wasn't Lamoni's father because I bet his arm really hurt." I thought it was great that he could think of it that way.

(Lamoni is a king from the Book of Mormon. His father, king over all the Lamanites at the time, found out his son was friendly to a Nephite, their hated enemies, and was going to kill him. But the Nephite friend cut the king's arm with his sword. So Ben decided that probably hurt more than his flu shot does. Click here if you want to read more about the story of Lamoni and Ammon - from the beginning.)

Clever kids

The conversation over breakfast went something like this...
B - I could lick the toast and then put it back and then a stranger would pick it up and take a bite. That would be gross.
M - And his face would turn green and ...
E - And what if it was a robber? You could lick all the toast. Then they would come in and say, "This is a nice family to leave food out." Then they would take a bite of the wet toast and run away.
B - They would tell all their robber friends to stay away from our house.
E - Then we could tell our neighbors and they would leave out soggy toast.
M - Then we could make Michigan safe.
E - And then would could tell all of America.

Note how my kids figured out how to save our nation from robbers while they were eating their breakfast this morning. If only we could solve our thievery problems with soggy toast.

(I'm not sure now who really said exactly what but this gives you an idea of the moment.)

Price Nature Center - Autumn colors

The weather turned warm again last week so, last Sunday (10/9) we decided to head out to the Price Nature Center for one last walk through the woods before the cold weather came back. Besides, I was itching to get some autumn pictures with all the wonderful colors. It was so nice to walk through the woods, listening to the birds and the crunching of the leaves.









Kevin shook a skinny tree until it was leafless. We really enjoyed watching all those leaves fall down around us. It was really neat.


One of their favorite things to do is to collect acorns as we go. This time they really got into it!


If you want to see what it was like at the beginning of Spring (when we first went there) you can go to this post because I finally finished it or you can go to this post, which was our second trip to the same place.

Art Museum

We went to the local Art Museum (back on the 29th of July!). They have free day on Fridays so we'll probably go again, as we get into the cold, winter weather, but it really didn't do much for the girls.



Until we made it to the interactive area. They got to try all different types of things so it was way fun.


They had a big plexiglass window frame that you could draw on - with the idea of drawing what you saw but my girls just drew whatever they wanted to draw. Then the marker would wash off with a wet paper towel. I almost want one of those at home.


They found books to read - of course they did.


Domonique was loving climbing on these soft blocks.


You used the light table and some colored, transparent, plastic type paper. (I can't think of what it's called.) As you over lapped the different colors you would make new colors. It was neat.


Here's a look at the back of the building. There was a pretty garden area to walk around.


My girls! We had a nice time together, even if they didn't really notice the paintings on the walls.

Ben was at a friend's house so he missed out. I guess we'll have to go again.

It's Autumn Time!

If you can believe it, we had some time one afternoon this week to play (after school and stacking split wood). It was so fun to watch the kids play - even though they had different ideas as to what they were supposed to be playing. Ben eventually fired them all because they weren't doing what he wanted to do. They just enjoyed playing in the leaves!






And this is what they did with them after they collected them. Yes, we had a stinky fire so I didn't let them add any more to it but they had fun and took showers when they came inside.


These are some flowers that Ben grew from seed that he got at the library. No of the other kids' flowers survived (probably because I didn't transplant them fast enough). It started out with one little bloom and now it has a bunch. What fun!

Question and Answer

I was laying on the couch and asked Xiomara to come give me a hug. She snuggled up with me so I asked, "What are you going to be when you grow up?" Kemiah quickly answered, "A grown up." Ha, ha! Then Xiomara said, "I'll be Marissa's children's aunt." Yes, yes you will. What funny girls. I was watching them play house, feed their baby dolls, and that sort of thing. It was a nice moment to enjoy.

I didn't have to do it!

Emily has had a loose tooth for a while. It's her third. She had me try to pull it out about a week ago, but it wouldn't come so we left it. Today all the kids went in for their check-up/cleaning at the dentist and he found the loose tooth. I told him we wouldn't mind at all if he pulled it, so he asked Emily if she wanted him to pull it. She said yes and opened her mouth up. He put some stuff on it to numb it a bit, then tugged and it came out. She came home from the dentist looking like this...

It was so much easier for all of us. She made sure I knew where the tooth was because she didn't put it directly under her pillow. I told her I'd tell the tooth fairy when she came looking for it. The kids all smiled and knew I was pulling their legs but played along anyway.

They were all great at the dentist, by the way. Ben mentioned that he didn't like the fluoride rinse so she gave him the stuff in the molds. He thought that was much better. The older kids need to be better at brushing and the younger ones are doing great. No cavities! It was a nice trip and the dentist commented on how great the kids were! I do have a bunch of wonderful children, if I do say so myself!