Happy Halloween

The boys dressed up as Mad-eye Moody, Lucius Malfoy and Baymax.  They went to school on Thursday dressed up and were very disappointed that the school wouldn't let them take their staff and walking stick/wand.  Then, last night we had our truck or treat at the church which was so fun.   Tonight the kids have opted to watch a movie instead of trick or treating.  They said they got plenty of candy so we are good with that.  Nathan has been busy with some costume accessories.   He made Jarom's mad eye and staff and Josiah's walking stick/wand.   My contribution was finding clothes/shoes/wigs at second hand stores.  

Mad eye Moody and Malfoy

The eye actually moves around with Jarom's movements.  The staff is made out of an apple tree branch that had a perfect skull look to it.  The walking stick is used also as a wand just like Malfoy in the book.  The wand fits into the  upper part of the walking stick.  

The skull head of staff

The snake head on the end of the walking stick/wand.  This is carved out of wood.  

Mad-eye Moody's wand.  Nathan made it this evening.

This is our collection of wands.  There are lots of curses and spells being uttered around the house.  

The cutest Baymax out there.  He already had the fist and mask from his birthday so this was an easy put together costume.

Sadie as a jelly fish.  

Halloween fashion show

The beehives were in charge of our combined young women activity last night.  It was decided that we would bring random costume pieces and some odds and ends so they could have a fashion show.  I thought it turned out great.  They even had a red "carpet" to walk down.  We voted on five different categories. 

This was the first round.  Bryanna, Sadie, McKenna, Wing, and Arynne

This was the second round.

Their awards were a gold C3PO building block figure (golden young women award).   I had ordered some other figures (each being different) online for something else but instead received 8 C3PO's.  It wasn't worth sending back to China so I used them as our awards.  I know cheesy idea but it worked.  

Pumpkins turned jack o lanterns

I wasn't sure we could fit pumpkin carving into our schedule.  We barely squeezed it in Monday night.  Sheesh whatever happen to more relaxing evenings that I think we used to have?  This is always a must for our kids.  They love to carve pumpkins.  

Elijah drew his face and I cut it out.

Jarom claimed his pumpkin earlier on in the summer and it happened to be by far the biggest pumpkin we grew.  You know it is tough work when the tongue has to assist.  

The finished products.  Jarom's has an arrow through it in case you can't see it. 

pumpkin patch

Elijah and I joined his preschool class and went to a pumpkin patch.  

driving the truck

the pumpkin he picked out

feeding the goats

our little group pushing and pulling the wagon

We have a fence

The house behind ours has been empty for years.  It is a foreclosed home and every so often someone might come inspect it or mow a 1/3 of the lawn.  Needless to say the blackberries are taking over the place and trying to take over our yard.  I was finally able to take a day last week to clean it up.   Our fence has been lost in the mess and it has bugged me for a year.  I usually keep up with the overgrowth.  I think it upped our yard square footage by getting this done.  I love working outside in the yard it is very invigorating.  

The best helper

Last Friday was devoted to cleaning up this mess of a garden and picking up the branches we cut off the cedar trees.  It took Elijah and I all day long to do this.  We started at nine and finished at five.  We did take a break for lunch.  Elijah is a great worker and it was fun working with him.

He insisted that he cut the corn stocks off just above the root instead of me digging them out so he could pull them out easier.  I figured either way I am going to have dig so he did it his way.  It was so funny when he would get one cut.  "booyah I got it",  "Yes I am so strong",  "Whew I got it".  I wished I had recorded his first one because he went on and on about it.

We found five more scrawny corn cobs that Elijah took into the house.  He came back several minutes later and said he husked them so we could eat them for lunch.  I asked him if he put them on the counter.  He says "no I put them on dresser and locked the door so they would be safe".  Sure enough when we came in the house to eat lunch they were locked safely in his bedroom and the other two were on our night stand.  

He was watching me saw little branches off of the bigger ones so they would fit in the trailer better.  I turned around and he was cutting one himself.  It startled me and I told him he probably better let me do it.  He said "I can do this and I won't cut my fingers."  "I will be very careful mom".  His favorite line is "I got this."  I let him try one and he is very good with the saw so he ended up cutting several while I continued to load them.  At one point he says "I am so good at this mom so I am stronger than you."

The hard work paid off.  The garden looks better and we don't have a bunch of branches littering our yard (at least for the rest of that day).  

Nails

Elijah has been losing nails.  He lost one and half finger nails that turned bluish black a few weeks ago.  Yesterday I noticed this after his bath and it came off this morning.  He must have mashed those digits somehow but not sure how since he didn't complain about it.