Where did November Go?

I still don't know how it can already be the end of November. Where did this whole month go?

 It was spent taking exit polls on Election Day. Sophie needed to do this for her Humanities class. They are studying Government this semester.

 We also celebrated Grandma's birthday by visiting with her and riding the old steam train in Railtown.

 We rode in the first class car which is the car specially made for some rich man to use way back when. It has only recently been restored and put back into use for the public to ride.

 Sophie has also been doing quite a few Science experiments. She is currently doing Chemistry and gets to use some common household supplies to do experiements with. This one require fire along with alcohol and money. Those three made quite a combination. Henry of course was the firebug and despite the alcohol burning off he decided to burn the bill anyway.  Don't give that boy a match or a lighter.

Mostly we have been doing lots of school work. 

Soccer ended a few weeks ago so we have been taking some of that freed up time to head to the park to play tennis. 

We also have a piano recital coming up so the kids have been practicing a lot recently. The songs of Christmas begin early when preping for a recital. 

 At Sophie's recent visit to the Orthodontist (Yes the braces are off but she still goes in for checks on the retainer) she was presented with this bunch of balloons and a gift certificate for a bike shop. She won the trianual bike raffle. Evidently when you come to the Orthodontist with clean teeth and evident good dental hygene you are entered into this raffle. Her name was picked and she gets to go pick out a new bike. Since the shop is in our old town we are going to have to make a special trip into the city to pick out a bike soon.

 Thanksgiving at Grandma's means lots of time on the tire swing.

 Hikes with the cousins.

 And more time out on the tire swing.

 We brought some friends up to Grandma's house this year. Their kids fit right in with large group of cousins that were there and everyone had a great time.

November was a whirlwind. I don't know how to slow things down so I can get more time to post here. I guess we have the problem of living and being busy which leaves us little time to sit and write well thought out, witty posts. Sorry to anyone who comes here looking for updates on us. I will try but so far this is the best I can do for now. 

Pumpkin Carving on Halloween

 I am only a few days behind posting pictures of our Halloween.

We have had four pumpkins sitting on our front stoop for a few weeks. Almost every day Molly would ask when we were going to carve them. Each time I had to tell her we would do it on Halloween. So finally when the day arrived, they got right to business early that morning.

 The porch wouldn't have been first pick as the place to carve pumpkins but they had already gotten started before I knew what was going on. It was also starting to rain so I guess it ended up being as good a place as any.  At least I didn't have those pumpkin guts in my house.

 Peezy escaped onto the porch to see what was going on. She is an indoor cat who really wants to go outside so she got a little outside time while the kids were out there carving.

 Here is Henry's creation. He wanted to make his barfing. YUCK

 Here is Ian's.

 Molly's pumpkin was drawn by Ian but carved by Mom.

Sophie tried doing some words on her pumpkin. "Something Wicked This Way Comes".

 Fun times carving pumpkins. I then had four pumpkin's seeds to clean and toast. We will be eatting those for quite a while!

 We weren't all that creative as far as Halloween costumes go. I didn't sew or buy anything for their costumes. They just raided the dress up clothes or costumes from previous years. It was a good thing Henry still fit into his skeleton costume.

 Out of all the princess dresses we have around this is the one Molly decided to wear for Trick or Treating.

 Ian was Harry Potter for about the 5th time.  The robe is still working as a costume and he has a great Harry Potter wand and glasses so why be anything else.

 My cat loving girl decided to be a black cat. The ears and tail were the only pieces of costume I purchased this year. We were going to try to make them but when you have a coupon for 50% off at Michaels why bother.

 Here they are all ready to head out trick or treating. Sophie actually sat at home to hand out candy while they others went around our neighborhood.

Plenty of sweets came home so all were happy!

We had a great Halloween. Molly can't wait for next year!

YW in Excellence - Faith Value project Completed!

At the end of October the YW had their Young Woman in Excellence meeting. This is where the girls get to each stand and talk about what they have been doing for Personal Progress. About two months ago the Mothers were told to also complete a project and be prepared to share what they did as well.

Sophie has now been in the Young Woman's program and working on Personal Progress for just a little over a year. She hasn't completed any of her Values yet. She works on her personal progress but hasn't focused on just one value enough to complete all those experiences for that value. Her goal for this meeting was to finish the Value of Faith. This ment she needed to complete a 10 hour project as well as a few of the smaller value experiences.  Since Mothers were asked to also complete a project we decided to work on this one together. So for about the last two months we have been memorizing The Living Christ.  We attepted this a few years ago and I remembered some of what we had worked on then but since we didn't keep it up it had faded from our memories.

I added this project to our normal morning scripture reading. We would go line by line and add a line or so each day and repeat what we had learned each day.  I used the pictures that we had used before that I got from Discover the Scriptures. Having a visual is so helpful for me. I needed to go through the pictures in my mind as I would repeat back.  We finished our memorizing a few days before the event, so we just made it. Sophie was able to get her Faith ribbon. She was so excited to finally have one of the values finished.

Molly tagged along with me to the event. She certainly enjoyed the refreshments and balloons after. Even Molly memorized parts of the Living Christ.  She would jump in during our reciting every once in awhile to say it with us.

Piano and Joey

 

This is Molly's new friend Joey. She is a big pink sock monkey that she was given a few weeks ago as a late birthday gift from her Grandma. Joey along with a kid size rocking chair showed up at our house and Molly immediatly fell in love. Now this rocker is her offical chair for scripture every morning and FHE every Monday night. She doesn't stay in it but at least she has a designated seat that is only hers. 

 Henry is doing very well with his piano practice. I have to remind him to practice every day but he doesn't do just the minimum that the piano teacher expects. He will sit at the piano a lot longer and pick through the other songs in his book.

 At the moment the piano teacher is having them practice Christmas songs. So the Holiday season is already in the air as we hear We Three Kings,  Up on the House Tops,  The Little drummer boy, Angels we have heard on High and a few others over and over as each of the kids takes their turn at the piano.

Even Molly is taking lessons and decided to  play Jingle Bells. We hear it over and over again as she gets ready for the December concert.