Five for Friday

1.  Monday was Veteran's Day...ahhh...a 3 day weekend....an extra day off from work and school.  The kids talked us into going to Denny's for breakfast.  I told them only if they would be good while we went shopping afterwards for clothes for our family picture.  Both things were accomplished!  The rest of the day was spent hanging around and relaxing.

2.  I had preschool co-op at our house this week.  We talked about Thanksgiving, pilgrims and food.  One of the boys has a sister that is Sienna's age (who is also homeschooled), I invited her to stay as well...Sienna was very excited to have a playdate.

3.  We found out this week that Jenessa was nominated to be on the all-star soccer team.  So, in addition to her regular practices on Monday and Wednesday this week, she had another one on Friday afternoon.  She will have her last soccer game on Saturday morning and an all-star game on Saturday afternoon.

4.  On Wednesday I had some extra time between dropping Kessiah off at dance and Jenessa's soccer practice starting.  We spent some time at the playground...which the kids LOVED...I admit, I'm not a mom that loves the playground!  So, of course, they thought I was the best mom in the world!

4.  The girls are practicing Christmas music on the piano now...it is fun to hear it.

Five for Friday

1.  OK, I am starting to realize (finally) that my life is super busy...and is not going to slow down any time soon...if ever!  This week we even had a few extra things going on besides the usual gymnastics, Mason's preschool, Logan's preschool coop, library/piano lessons, soccer.

2.  For Family Home Evening this week we did our (mostly) annual Thanksgiving tree.  I enjoyed some of the things that we came up with this year.  Everyone got 5 leaves and had to write something different on each leaf.  Some of my favorites were...Mason was thankful for Papa (I guess he still remembers when Papa and Nana were here while we went to Disneyland), Logan was thankful for Daddy taking him camping (not sure why he was thinking about the father and son campout from the Spring!), Logan was also thankful for the candy that he got at Halloween, Sienna was thankful for her family, Jenessa was thankful for memories, Kessiah was thankful for knowledge, I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to homeschool my children

3.  Kessiah had her dance recital this week.  She did a great job (even if we thought the recital was a little long because the place where she takes dance does several other things...so there were numbers by the voice teacher, piano teacher, guitar teacher, and dance teachers, plus a raffle that took at least 30 minutes!).  She had a dress rehearsal on Tuesday...Ryan took her to that since he had a meeting on Wednesday and couldn't go to her recital.  I dropped the youngest 4 of my crew off at someone in our ward and took Jenessa to the recital on Wednesday.  It was held at the Elk's Theatre...a very historical location in our area.

4.  We had homeschool coop at our house this week since the Mecham's are at Disneyland.  That meant I've felt extra pressure this week to have my house clean and presentable...not easy when I have kiddos making messes behind my back when I'm cleaning a different part of the house!

5.  We had 4-H Community meeting this week.  November's meeting always includes a pie contest.  So we held our cooking club that afternoon (it didn't work out for anyone else to come!)  Kessiah made a coconut cream pie and Jenessa made a peach glazed cheesecake.  I was really hoping this would be the year that I could actually sit through Community Meeting...but my little guys simply make that impossible!  I spent 99% of the meeting in the hall.  I didn't come home in tears, (like I have before) just frustrated and unsure of how to make this work this year.  Last year I took a movie for the kids to watch in the car every meeting...maybe I'll have to do that again...except I'm a leader this year and I'm supposed to report on the clubs I'm in charge of during the meeting.

Saturday Edition

We had a couple of extra things going on today besides the usual soccer games.

Kessiah and Jenessa had a piano recital with tasty treats for everyone afterwards.  I loved Corbin's shirt which said "Will trade sister for candy!"

Ryan and I went on a mysterious group date.  (I'm so glad that Kessiah is old enough to babysit now...with Jenessa they are a great team!)  It was a fun scavenger hunt type activity and we ended up at the Haws's house for a bonfire and snacks.  There were several things we had to do along the way like an obstacle course, a "Fear Factor" activity, a "Minute to Win It" activity, eating some really hot salsa, pulling light sticks out of a pond, and counting windows on the stake center.  Our team came in last!  But we had fun!

In the Fear Factor activity, Ryan had to pull some rubber worms out of a pie tin of whipped cream.

Five for Friday

1.  This was a BUSY week (and the condition of my house this morning proved it!).  We skipped gymnastics on Monday because Corbin was not feeling well that morning...he was fine after lunch.  We had Mason's preschool, Logan's preschool co-op, homeschool co-op, Relief Society meeting, and piano lessons/library.  Soccer practices were cancelled on Wednesday because of Halloween!

2.  Monday night for Family Home Evening we carved our pumpkins.  Well...Ryan, Kessiah, Jenessa, Sienna and Logan carved pumpkins.  Corbin, Mason, and I painted ours!

3.  Tuesday for preschool Logan had a Halloween party.  Sienna got permission to go as well...she was feeling a little left out since Kessiah and Jenessa had a Halloween party for Activity Days and Logan was having one with preschool.

4.  Wednesday was Halloween...and the way the kids were acting you would have thought it was Christmas!  They were very excited!  We had a trunk or treat at the church and then Kessiah, Jenessa, Sienna and Logan went around the neighborhood with Ryan.  We have so much candy in the house right now!  Kessiah missed most of the trunk or treat because of her dance class (she has a recital coming up so she really needed to go!)  Corbin found it very interesting that he could walk up to someone and hold out his hand...and they would give him a piece of candy! 

Please ignore the fact that I still have spring butterflies on my wreath!

5.  Ryan had to work on Friday morning.  I tried to get the house back in order and tried to keep the kids moving along with the things they needed to do...sometimes that takes a lot of effort!

Five for Friday

1.  Yes, it was one of those weeks of getting back into the routine after having a wonderfully fun week away from home.  I'm trying today to get everything unpacked and get the laundry caught up today!

2.  We had a fun activity with our homeschool coop.  It was our project week for our explorer's unit...so we went to Watson Lake Park and explorered!  The kids had a great time and it was a beautiful day!

3.  Kessiah had her first 4-H photography meeting this week.  They met outside at the courthouse in Prescott (a really pretty setting).  The rest of us played on the grass, ate snacks, colored, and looked at books.

4.  Mason had an eye doctor appointment this morning in Mesa.  Ryan took him down so I could get our school week finished up with the girls.  Ryan said the doctor thought another surgery is likely as he feels like his head is tilting again (I agree!)  This afternoon we had to divide and conquer because Logan had a birthday party at Freedom Station (Jaydon Montierth) and Kessiah had a rehersal for her dance recital....so we thought!  It ended up being cancelled and we didn't know it!  We all ended up back at home for family movie night.

5.  Logan has decided that he is ready to learn how to read.  (I wasn't planning on starting phonics  until January)  So I started Hooked on Phonics with him yesterday.  He is so excited!  We'll take it slow and see how it goes.

VACATION!!

My wonderful parents came to our house this week and stayed with Mason and Corbin while the rest of us went to California.  We've never left any of our kids before like that...so it was a little weird for me!  But I'm really glad we did not have them with us.  At times I saw some little boys that would remind me of them and that would make me miss them a lot...but I remember what Mason was like this summer at the fireworks, the balloon glow, and Lagoon...and I know that he would have been miserable!

We left on Sunday after church and checked into our hotel.  On Monday morning we were ready for our first day of fun and frolic at Disneyland!  We spent Monday and Tuesday at Disneyland, Wednesday at Sea World, Thursday at Universal Studios, and Friday at Disneyland.

We had a great time, I was able to go on many rides since we didn't have the little guys with us.  I didn't have Logan get on Space Mountain or the Matterhorn ...but he went on nearly everything else at Disneyland.  There were a few things he didn't go on at California Adventure...like Tower of Terror and the Screamer.  And I used Logan as my excuse for not going on the Ferris Wheel (I hate those things!)

We had a great seat for the Shamu show at Sea World.  We were right in front in the middle so when the whales came up on the platform we had an awesome view.  And even though we were in the soak zone we didn't get wet.  We did, however, get soaked during the dolphin show!

Five for Friday

1.  Another great and busy week.  Preschool for Logan and Mason, gymnastics, soccer, dance, library, piano.

2.  We started a new unit in our homeschool co-op...we are talking about Explorers.  I have the 11-13 year olds this month...there are only 2 of them (Kessiah and Matt).  It has been a good group for us to participate in, the kids look forward to it every week.  We had our book club meeting this week as well (we do a book club every five weeks), we discussed Charlotte's Web.

3.  We had a service/goods auction at Relief Society this week.  I auctioned off a pan of cinnamon rolls for this Sunday morning before conference and another auction for FHE treats every week for a month!  I won some cute Halloween decorations.  I was really saving for a photo shoot...which I lost by $10!!  So, I didn't win anything else because the photo shoot was at the end and that's what I really wanted!

4.  Early Friday morning Corbin woke up crying, when I went in to see what the problem was I could immediately smell that he had thrown up!  I cleaned him up, cuddled with him, and had him sleep the rest of the night in the port-a-crib in our closet.  A couple of hours later, I found out that Kessiah had been sick all night as well!  So, Friday did not go quite as planned so they could recover!  Hopefully, no one else will get it!

5.  Time to get out Fall/Halloween decorations!  I love this time of year!