Halloween

Okay, it's the week between Christmas and New Year's, so I have a few days to finish out the year of posts!  Let's see how I do. . .
  
Halloween was not too stressful!  I'm not sure what the difference was this year, but we had a pretty good time.  The Saturday before Halloween, Elise (and the rest of us) were invited to a classmate's superhero birthday party.  Little kids in superhero costumes are the best.  It was a bit unusual, too, because the family (who are Evangelical Christian) incorporated a very sweet lesson about how Jesus is even better than a superhero.  The birthday boy's dad is Cambodian, so the food was pretty awesome, including this fish soup that supposedly takes forever to make.  (Elise said it was the best soup she'd ever had.)
  

Evan and his friend, Andre, were big fans of the dressing up.

  
That night was the ward Trunk or Treat.  I'm pretty sure this event is a bigger deal than Halloween for my kids, since it's their chance to show off their costumes to their friends.  We started calling it "Sarahween" in honor of Elise's obsession with getting her friend's costume-approval.  Connor was the Grim Reaper, Elise was a peacock, Evan was a pirate with a SWORD, and Corinne was a chicky.
  

Trunk-or-Treat

  
On Halloween night, we carved pumpkins, then went trick-or-treating in a nearby neighborhood with a bunch of friends.  Connor and Daniel both had very cumbersome costumes, so I stayed behind with them as they shuffled along.  Cute boys.
  

   

Connor's, Evan's (with Dad's help), and Elise's

  

Grim and Stay Puft (Neither could see very well.)

  
Evan had a Joy School Halloween party, but I forgot to get pictures.  Here's his craft, though.  He did it all by himself!
  

Caught Stealing Elise's Candy

   

"Vacation Week"

Part of my school plan for this year was to schedule out the weeks we're doing schoolwork in advance, and to allow for weeks off, so we can either catch up or do all the fun field trips and activities we never have time for.  Our first vacation week was in October, and it wasn't as glamorous as I'd imagined, but it was still awesome.  
  
On Monday, we went to Target to buy clothes, then had lunch at Chuck E Cheese.  It wasn't quite as relaxing as before, because Corinne wanted to run around and play, but it was super cute.  Afterwards, I went to Elise's ballet class for "Parents Day", and saw proof that they are learning something there.
   

Evan and Corinne, in case you can't tell.

  
Wednesday, we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  The kids got to pet sharks and stingrays, feel anemones and starfish, and hold Lorikeets in the aviary.  Evan decided that jellyfish were his favorite animal.  He kept dragging me back to look at them over and over.  We even bought toys from the gift shop at the end, it was pretty special!
  

  
Friday was best of all.  We went to the dentist!  Corinne had her first dental appointment, and was pretty well behaved, given her stranger-danger and dislike of holding still.  Evan was great; he used the big chair this time, and let the hygienist do a full cleaning.  Shockingly, nobody had any cavities, although Connor is supposed to get started with some orthodontics in the next year or so.
     

Stuff with Friends

In late September, Evan and Corinne got a mystery illness.  They'd throw up, then be fine, then be feverish and fussy, then fine again.  After a week, Ryan started to get a sore throat, and tested positive for strep throat.  At that point, the little ones had rashes, and I put two and two together.  The pediatrician said they had classic scarlet fever!  Anyway, after a bunch of antibiotics, everybody felt a lot better.  In the meantime, (before we knew they had strep) we took a trip to the Arboretum in Arcadia.  Dad was feeling lousy, and the kids decided to mock him in his sleep.
  

  
After dropping Evan off at Joy School one morning, I backed into some guy's car.  I was pretty disgusted with myself.  Luckily, the damage was minor, and the owner said not to worry about it.
  

  
Now that there are at least seven LDS homeschooling families in our area, I decided to invite everyone to attend a park day on Fridays.  There is already a Friday park day for our ward after school, so I just tacked this on earlier.  On the first day, however, we got delayed by a rattlesnake!  We've had them before, but never in the backyard where the kids play.  Connor was walking around the pool as a consequence for something, and he saw it coiled near the sliding glass door.  We called animal control, and I had Connor watch it (to make sure it didn't go anywhere) until the guy arrived, which took quite awhile.  When our friends heard we had a rattlesnake, they sent their kids over to have a look.  Yeah, we were careful :-)
  

The rattlesnake was hiding under that piece of paper.

The officer gave a great lesson on snake safety.

We eventually made it to park day!

Monopoly and Dress-Ups

 
We had a couple of "late-overs" with the kids' friends.  Once was while the parents were at a late Dodgers game.  Connor and Isaac played Legos most of the night, and all the other kids ate candy and jumped in the crib.  The other night was a movie night with Elise's best friend and her sister.  Connor was gone to a birthday party, so it worked out really well.  We've started a Friday tradition of movie night for the kids while Ryan and I eat our take-out dinner in peace.  It's like a mini-date, but with a lot of popcorn vacuuming at the end.
  

Watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

Corinne finally got enough hair for a topknot.  I love how proud she looks!
  

Apples 'n Stuff

We made it out to Oak Glen this year for apple picking!  It was earlier in the season than other years we've done it, so there were actually apples on the trees.  That said, we spent most of the time attempting to pick raspberries.  It sounded like such a good idea, but the rows of raspberry plants were infiltrated with weeds that Evan called "pokey bushes." Our socks and clothes quickly got covered with sharp, thorny burrs.  Eventually, all the kids dropped out, and Ryan had to finish filling our carton all alone.  The apples were good, though, and of course we had to stop for cider doughnuts!  
  

The day was hot, and the raspberries were very ripe.

The ones we ate right away were good, but the rest fermented on the way home!

Eating Apples

Corinne found some wind-fallen apples in the grass.  (We let her eat them.)

On the way home, we stopped at Bass Pro Shops in Rancho Cucamonga just to look around.  Corinne wanted all these pop-guns for herself.  
  

  
On the way out of Rancho, Ryan saw a "famous cars" car show in a strip mall parking lot, and had to jump out and get some pictures.  Only Elise was game enough to go with him!
  

  
The second week of Joy School was at our house, and it went pretty well.  The kids finger-painted with pudding and we did a bunch of stories and activities related to the five senses.  I did discover, though, that three-year-olds can't concentrate with my older kids around, so I've decided to banish Connor and Elise to my bedroom on Joy School days.
   

I went to check on her during Joy School . . 

Elise started ballet!  She did a class at this same studio a couple years ago and loved it, so we switched back for this school year (instead of gymnastics.)  She gets to be with her best friend, Sarah (although they talk a lot more than they should.)  Connor picked basketball class for his activity this year, but I still haven't gotten any pictures (sorry Connor!)
  

  
I found these August pictures on Ryan's phone the other day, so I'm just going to throw them in here.  Corinne went swimming in our pool for the first time, and loved it!  She even liked the baby floaty (yes, it's actually Lincoln's, but we stole it!)  Unfortunately, like all our kids, she liked to climb out and tip it over, so we didn't leave her in for very long.
  

    
And some other stuff..
  

"Downtown"

The Ward Newsletter guy got this picture during Elder's Quorum