I drove on a couple field trips for Jack's class this month. First we went to Ravenswood, this older property in Livermore with apple orchards and rangers who taught the kids what life was like here in the early 1800's. The kids got to make apple cider, ride a "Bone Shaker" bike, and play old fashioned games. They learned a lot and seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.
Later in the month, we went to Settler's Day in Sunol, where the kids learned similar things about life in the area a couple hundred years ago. They also went on a hike and saw a gopher snake and a tarantula in the wild.
Jack said to me that he'd never realized how nice it was to have a mom drive on the field trips, that he always thought it was fun to ride in someone else's car, but now he saw how much extra time he got to spend with me during the day and he was really glad I was driving. Melt my heart!
We all enjoyed listening to General Conference. Todd's parents came up for the weekend with a car full of peaches from their trees and watched and listened and learned with us. Hazel worked hard on this puzzle throughout.
We dehydrated peaches and froze peaches and made three different flavors of peach jam (plain, spiced, and peach-plum) over the next week or two.
Todd and I test drove convertibles on our date night. We tried out the Mini, the BMW, and the Audi. The BMW was our favorite. My heart beat faster, my mouth was even watering as I drove it, it was such a dream come true!
We got caught up in the idea of owning one and brought our kids for a second test drive the next weekend. Jack fell in love, but Hazel thought the four seats were impractical for our five-person family (sadly, so true) and Gemma didn't enjoy it because the sides come up high and she wasn't in her booster seat, so instead of having a wide open experience, she felt she couldn't see anything. The girls' lack of enthusiasm dampened ours, and we have since calmed down.
Gemma lost her other front tooth, so she's had this adorable jack-o-lantern smile all month long.
Our ward Halloween party included a cake contest, which Hazel and Jack each entered. Hazel made a delicious pumpkin bundt cake almost entirely on her own, and the boys made a cool-looking poison apple (chocolate) cake. Happily, they tied for second place!
For a family night activity, Todd taught the kids how to use a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Hazel was very uncomfortable, but the other two thought it was cool.
Gemma was awarded Student of the Month for always being kind and helpful to her classmates.
Todd and Hazel planned an ambitious Halloween party to invite friends too. We had a huge group (around 20 kids) over. Besides wearing costumes and eating pizza, we had lots of fun activities for everyone to do.
Todd and I decided last minute to dress up as VSCO girl and boyfriend. It's some trend that's driving Hazel nuts at school, so we thought it would be funny to play on that. Her friends were impressed, ha!
Everyone tried to keep a balloon from popping as long as possible. Kids love balloons.
We played the egg game, blowing an empty egg shell across the table and trying to get it to not fall next to you. That''s always a crowd pleaser.
The biggest hit of the night, though, the crowning jewel, was the elephant game. In teams of two, you wore a nylon leg on your head, which had a tennis ball in the toe.
The first teammate tried to knock over apples from the tops of cups, without knocking over the cups. When you got three down and reached the other side, the second teammate raced back, knocking the cups over. It was hilarious to watch and to play!
We had a huge windstorm one night. Our neighbor's tree fell. Todd came to the rescue with a chainsaw and let the rest of us tag along to help as well. It was satisfying work!
We made our annual visit to the pumpkin patch so the kids could play in the giant corn box. They love to fill each others shirts and see how fat they can get, and they also like to bury each other like they're at the beach.
I went to the eye doctor for the first time in twenty years and got a pair of reading glasses. Apparently, even though I have a hard time reading street signs and restaurant wall menus, I'm slightly farsighted. My eye muscles get worn out from focusing to see things close by and are then tired when I try to look far away. Theoretically, if I wear glasses now when I read or work on the computer, I'll eventually notice that I have an easier time seeing things far away. I'm hoping it really works that way!
The bumpy pumpkins we picked up from the pumpkin patch were too thick to carve, so we painted pumpkins this year. I love how they turned out!
Gemma was a cat this year, as she's been having so much fun observing and mimicking Ginger and Nutmeg. Hazel was her favorite Harry Potter character, Luna Lovegood, and Jack was Dobby the House Elf.
I haven't decided if I was being brilliant or maniacal, but I roasted giant pans of vegetables for our Halloween dinner before we went out trick or treating.
