Rachel's birthday

Rachel had done a pizza and a movie party for 3 years in a row. No sense in changing it now. She decided they'd watch Gnome Alone, so we went with Gnome cupcakes. I think they turned out pretty cute for just a little work.

After cupcakes came a lot of fun presents.

Then it was on to the movie.

 Unfortunately we didn't drag out the first part of the party long enough so we were left with a full hour after the movie before parents showed up to take the kids home. Much too long when you have little kids that need to get to bed without a bunch of loud girls running around. We managed to contain them with a game or two of tellestrations that turned out very funny.

A friend snapped a picture of Rachel's last time being sung to for her birthday in Primary (though we didn't know at the time that it would be her last time).

 With her birthday 2 days before Thanksgiving we saved the family party for the day before Thanksgiving so we could celebrate Ben's and her birthday together and have some of the Campbell clan here by then, too.

 Todd's family gave her (and therefore us) two fun games: Azul and Tak. We've enjoyed playing both games quite a bit. She felt good and showered in love and gifts with her birthday. A month later Grandma Knight was bringing her home from school and Rachel was saying how 11 was kind of a blah age since you don't get to do anything cool. But that just happened to be the day that President Nelson announced the changes allowing all kids turning 12 in the year to start YW and going to the temple in January. So Rachel was super excited when she heard that and now thinks 11 is a pretty awesome year. We are all very excited to have her join me in Young Women and get to go to the temple. Well, all except maybe Annie, who is a bit jealous of the new and exciting things Rachel gets to do.

November excitement

November was exceptionally busy. We pulled out our Thanksgiving decor (and turkey hats) and moved forward through the month.

Crazy Ryan keeps us laughing.

 Ryan was in soccer club for the 2nd quarter. We would pick up Rachel from band, then have a half hour to kill until soccer was done. This huge chair is at the kids' school, so one day they chilled on it for part of the time we were waiting for soccer club to finish up.

 Ryan, the adventurer and monkey bars enthusiast ended up having his hands slip on our monkey bars one day and landed right on one of the wood pieces that is at the foundation of our playset. It definitely left a mark.

 I got tired of the chairs I had re-covered a year and a half ago always coming off because the screws had kind of stripped the plywood on the bottom of the chairs. So I decided to try and make my own seats. The black wooden seat is the new one, the striped seat is the old (dirty) one.

 Turns out I managed it pretty well. After the success with the first one, I got 3 more done to round out the set. Add the tie-on cushions I got from Walmart and I have basically new chairs.

Annie and her best friend, Laura, were going to get baptized together since their birthdays less than 2 weeks apart. But then they switched the November baptism to Thanksgiving weekend (which was great for our family to be able to come to it), but didn't work for Laura's family, so Laura ended up getting baptized a different week than Annie. Annie was happy to go support her (along with their friend, Bryce).

 Rachel got to participate in a really cool program called Starbase in October and November. Once a week for 5 weeks she got to go on-base at Davis Monthan and do a whole day of some science/technology hands on learning. They launched rockets they had built and had 3D printed part of, engineered a plane to save an egg (Rachel's team won), learned mapping and went geocaching, did some chemistry experiements, and something else I can't remember right now. Such a cool program I'm glad she got to be a part of.
She had so much fun geocaching we downloaded a geocaching app and went out for a few caches ourselves. There are a lot of micro caches in our area that have nothing but the logbook, but they really loved finding the one larger one that they could take something out of, and leave something of their own in it.

 Rachel being goofy:

 I ended up with at least 20 pictures of her on my phone.

Since there was no school for Veteran's Day, we were able to have Peyton and McKenzie stay over for a sleepover when they came out for Sunday dinner. Spontaneous sleepovers are even more fun than planned ones. Before we went into town to meet Justin to pick them up the next morning we went out for a special treat of donuts.

 Megan and Peyton are best buds and love doing everything together.

 We got to go to Ryan's first grade concert the week before Thanksgiving. They did a great job, but boy, am I glad I don't teach first grade.

 Mrs. Radspinner, Ryan's awesome teacher, has a special place waiting for her in heaven for her great patience and love she shows to her first graders every day.

 She is the perfect teacher for Ryan.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we watched a friend's kids so she could go be a nurse at the cub scout camp for the day. We pulled out the bouncy house for a little organized fun and the kids had lots of fun with it. Especially the little guy.

 While we played with friends at home, Rachel had a math competition.

 They did a great job and had some fun. Rachel decided to play up the "math nerd" in her and added tape to her glasses. Nerd.

 Megan is now officially riding her two-wheeler. She prefers her balance bike for longer rides because she is not confident starting on her own on the bike with pedals, but she's a great biker, getting better every day. And loves riding her bike. She asks me usually at least a couple times every day to go out and bike.

 And she usually wears her helmet. Just not in this picture for some reason.

Annie and Ryan had a doctor's appointment that I ended up taking Megan along to. I think Annie worked herself up to being sick because she was so worried about getting a flu shot so she didn't even have her well check because she looked like she might puke at any moment. But since Megan happened to be along she (to her chagrin) got a flu shot along with Ryan.

 (This picture was before she knew she'd be getting a shot.)
Besides the shots, we left the doctor with orders for another Celiac panel for Ryan. He was tested in March and it came back in the weak positive range, so we were told to load him with gluten for 6 months, then come back and retest. We just got the results back from this second test and it is still about the same level--a weak positive result. Next step is a referral to a GI (his previous one that we love retired!:( ) and after that it is likely that he'll be eating gluten free again. But we've got to wait until then so if the doc wants to do an endoscopy for a definitive diagnosis it will be accurate. Ryan told me last week before he even knew we were re-doing the blood work that he thinks he should stop eating gluten because it makes his tummy hurt. It would be easier now than it was when he was 3. Especially if he feels the difference. But for now we wait for the GI appointment (3 months out, unfortunately).

Annie's birthday

Annie turned 8 at the end of October. She was super excited to get an 18 inch doll from Grandma Knight, complete with Halloween, Christmas, and Easter outfits.

 She also got her quilt that I made for her.

 I decided before Rachel turned 8 that I would make her a quilt and now it's becoming a tradition. I had Annie pick out her colors at the beginning of the year, but she mostly didn't get to see all put together until her birthday. It's my third quilt I've ever made and it's not close to perfect, but it's good enough for Annie. When I went to Grandpa Jolley's funeral I ended up bringing home a box of Grandma Jolley's old sewing stuff--pins, scizzors, quilting patterns, rotary cutter stuff. So using some of that to make Annie's quilt made it extra special, to have a piece of Grandma, the master quilter, helping me out.

Megan and I surprised Annie by bringing her lunch on her birthday. Annie (and Megan) loved having us eat with her in the cafeteria.

After Halloween was through we had Annie's friend party. Since Halloween is her favorite holiday (because it's close to her birthday and because she's the biggest sweet tooth I know), she wanted to have a costume/Halloween party. We played pin the eye on the monster. Lacking preparation we used a sweatshirt for the blindfold, and it worked well enough.

 Check out Megan's hair:

 The swing set was quite the hit with the kids after they had had their turn pinning the eye or after they got out of the egg races.
Annie conducted the egg (eye ball) races.

 They had to keep an egg (painted like an eyeball) in the spoon while they raced to the finish line.

The last game we played was musical chairs. Annie had ordered (with her own money) a box of Halloween prizes and favors and gave them out to the winners throughout the party. At the end she had a round of musical chairs for everyone who hadn't won a prize yet and as they got out they got a prize.

 One of Annie's requirements for her party was CANDY in a Piñata. We made the piñata to look like Mike Wazowski on Monster's Inc.

 Again, lacking preparation in getting a blindfold, we used the jester hat pulled down over their eyes as a blindfold. It worked well. But the piñata still didn't quite make it through the first round--Rachel knocked it down before the last kid (our neighbor Alexxa) had a chance to have a turn.

 Then it was inside for cake and presents.

 Annie requested a monster cake.

 She was overjoyed at the Hatchimals, Lego, and other presents she got.

8 is great! Happy birthday, Annie!

Halloween

Halloween was the beginning of one and a half months of craziness. Megan was Super Girl.

 Ryan carved his own pumpkin (with a little help).

 The girls did their own pumpkin with Rachel doing the detail work.

 The mouth has 3 mini Jack-O-Lantern faces carved in it.

Ryan didn't want to wear his regular costume to school, so he decided to go as a vampire engineer. He dressed like his dad, complete with badge, and added the vampire teeth.

 Peyton and McKenzie came over to join us for our ward trunk or treat and trick or treating in our neighborhood. Annie was a bat, Ryan a ninja, Peyton a cat, Megan was super girl, Rachel a black cat, and McKenzie was a leopard.

 I love how Ryan the ninja mostly blends in in the picture. If you don't know he's there your eyes just pass over him.

Let the candy overload begin:

The rest of October

After Fall Break, we got back into our regular routine for a short while before the craziness of birthdays, and holidays started up at the end of the month.

 Ryan and Annie finished their Reading Fair projects. Ryan did his on Mighty Truck and Annie did hers on The Princess in Black. Both of them did a great job. I'm sad I couldn't find a picture of Annie's project because she made an awesome castle.

We went to the kids' school to help out at their day of service. We picked weeds and had fun helping clean up around the school.

 We got a new fridge in October. It's nice having a working ice maker again.

 The kids were happy to get out the Halloween decorations. We have these blocks that say "Happy Harvest," except that the kids liked to play around with them a lot.

 Jacob's favorite version of the blocks was "HAV THERAPY" with a couple blocks left over.

Jacob and Ryan went on a bike ride and came home with some pretty awesome "helmet hair."

 Jacob reading to the kids.

This book is pretty cute on its own, but Jacob is the preferred story teller/book reader because he changes the stories to make them more exciting/crazy.

Fall Break Week 3

We kicked off the last week of Fall Break with a hike in Sabino Canyon. Megan had dance class that morning, so she went before we headed off.

McKenzie and Peyton had stayed overnight at Grandma's house since they had Fall Break that week, too (they just get one week), so we all headed up there together.

 The kids were great hikers, and with the more than usual rain this fall, there was plenty of water at Sabino Dam.

 With the cooler weather we had not encouraged the kids to wear their swimsuits, but that didn't stop most of them. I think Megan and Rachel stayed dry, but the others waded in deep enough to get wet. Or slid on the water slide rocks. McKenzie especially was excited about the slide rocks and went repeatedly. Megan has formed a super love of Peyton and they are super buddies every time they get together. They spent a lot of the time on the hike and at the water doing stuff together.

 The last week of Fall Break I finally got to one thing on my to do list: sorting through the kids clothes (and cleaning out their rooms and toys) and getting out winter clothes (long sleeves and pants). Megan was super excited for some "new" clothes and wanted to show them off with her goofy face.

 It was Ryan's turn to conduct Family Home Evening, so he put together this "stand" to conduct from using our lap board for the laptop and a stool, and the remote for the microphone.

Everyone wanted to use it, so Ryan promised he would set it up for them every week.

When I was picking Annie up from gymnastics she saw this hawk catch this bird. We pulled over right next to it to get a closer look. It's a Coopers' Hawk, I think. Shortly after I got this picture he tried to fly to a tree, but the bird got away, and he was left to chase after his dinner again.

Since we weren't able to go on any big trip over break, we decided to do a mini vacation and headed up to Phoenix for Friday and Saturday. We went to the Arizona Science Center, which had some cool stuff, but some parts required too much learning and not enough doing for the younger kids to enjoy and they got impatient in a few areas. Megan did like this play lab that had a few dress up items to become a scientist.

 There was a cool water play area, but with Megan's aversion to getting wet she wanted to watch from the other side of the glass for the first bit. There was a water cyclone and tracks that you could send balls along, some of which ended in the water cyclone, as well as other cool things.

 She did go into the water area eventually and played a little with the water controlled percussion instruments, but mostly stood against the wall out of the splash zone enjoying watching all the craziness.

This lifesized shadow box was pretty cool. The kids had fun getting behind it and doing different poses and playing around.

 We had lunch at the restaurant they have on site. It had several GF selections, including Brownie Bites, so Jacob was able to have a good lunch right along with the rest of us. The girls got cake pops for dessert and Ryan got an emoji cookie.

 The kids were ready to leave the science center earlier than we had anticipated, but it worked out just fine. We got to check in to the house we were staying at through AirBNB and had time to swim in the (freezing) pool, and sit in the nice hot tub there before dinner. Then we had dinner and movie night. Megan enjoyed the few toys they had in the house.

 Rain started during the night and when we checked the weather forecast we saw that it was the remains of a hurricane moving in, so we decided to try and beat the storm and skipped out on our plans for Saturday in Phoenix to start driving early. The rain was pretty heavy for one section of the freeway home, but for the most part it was ok. Since we had missed our Saturday activity in Phoenix, we decided to stop at Jump and let the kids play for a while there before we officially were home from our mini vacation. It was Jacob's first time there, and he had a good time, too.

 This little boy thought Rachel was super cool and everywhere she went, he followed. It was kind of funny to see. He was probably Ryan or Annie's age.

 Jacob the photobomber:

 Photobomb!

 Rachel discovered that candy corns can turn her into a vampire!

It was a fun-filled 3 weeks of break. We managed to get ONE thing on my to do list done, but lots of fun was had, so we'll call it a win. Now it's back to school and back to the regular routine. Thank goodness. :)