Happy Halloween

On Saturday Corey took the kids to pumpkin patch to buy pumpkins. Then they went to the community Halloween festival for hot chocolate, donuts, and a costume contest. He's a good dad. I was glad to say home with Katharine. Owen checking out the mud on his shoes, Peter dressed as a black Ninja.

While Corey took NOP, Wayne had asked some of the kids to go to his house for a raking party this past weekend. Corey was gone with kids and the toddler I had was no good, but thankfully Mel came up on Saturday to visit, and she and Wes went to rake leaves. They had a fun time goofing off together, trying to rake fast and furious. Wes got a blister he was working so hard. There's a lot to do around here, and some things the kids want to do, I don't care about. They wanted me to put up more Halloween decorations, I told them I got rid of all of them a few years ago, which is true, so Daniel put up stuff he brought home from school. Cute. Kinda sad too, but cute.

I'm glad they owned it. I told them to wait for Mel to be able to carve the pumpkins with them on Saturday, but they went ahead without her, and without me cause I didn't want to do it. So they all look like they were done by little kids, and they were, and that's just fine. 

Natalie did the barfing one. 

So, today is Halloween. That means the Halloween parade, yay...

It was crazy cold. Corey and Wes were still at home, so I left Katharine and Peter with them and I walked down. I went on a walk this morning and was amazed by these white and green leaves. Like the white was so white, I honestly thought they had been painted. 

The toddlers don't want to be standing outside anyway. Neither do I, but it's more bearable without little kids fussing that they want to leave. All of these dutiful parents and caregivers. 

I thought this sign was sad. Back in the 80s, we were allowed to bounce balls on the school's brick walls. Times have changed.

Ok, finally time for the parade. Captain America!

Owen is Red from Rainbow Friends, which I know nothing about. But he was ok with this Elmo costume that I got from the thrift store and adjusted, so I was happy.

Natalie was Cleopatra. Holding out her hands asking "Where's KATHARINE?!?!" Sorry, I left her. 

Once Natalie walked past, I was outta there. Then I prepped myself mentally for when the kids got home and would need help getting ready to trick or treat. BUT, then, Corey and I decided we should go on our annual pre-Halloween bike ride instead! So I put Abi in change of costume and make up, which she was happy to do, and Corey and I took off, yay! We left at 3:30. It was great to be in the canyon, but it was suuuper cold!!! I got 4 achievements. 

We were able to make it to the ruins despite the snow. 

It was fall weather again back at home. We got a black permanent marker and drew jack o lantern faces on brown paper bags and called it good for their trick or treating sacks. 

The kids enjoyed pizza with neighbors and then they scattered - Natalie with Lani May, Daniel with Austin, Owen was with Isaac I think... Corey and I were texting each other about where we were and who we saw last and hoped that we still had all the kids. I came with Katharine, then Corey took her home and I finished with Peter. 

He's cute. It was fun to take him around. 

Some of the houses he wasn't too sure about!

Natalie accidentally left her Cleopatra costume on the bus, so she had to come up with a quick costume after we got home, cause I told her I was not going to call or bother anyone from the school district bus system.

She did the costume that Mel and Wesley did - Wes went down to Provo for a college dance party with JM&E. I'll try to get pics of that later. Wes and Mel were bigger versions of Natalie, so they looked like this - 

Only taller, and in a darker room with a lot of other people dancing. Now it's time to see what spoils the kids came home with...

They shared with Katharine, she got all sticky, then we gave her a bath, and went to pickup Sophi from a friend's house out at Churchill. Joseph came up with a date and we were able to meet her, Deborah, she was nice! They followed Owen and Daniel around for a bit and got hot dogs and scones from our neighbors. Some of them really go all out, it's fun. We all eventually made it home and now we're going to turn off Harry Potter and go to bed. You got that, Katharine? BEDTIME!

Oh, right, we need to read scriptures first...

Holding her little Book of Mormon, such a good girl. 

Hope it was a good Happy Halloween for everyone. Goodnight.

Free Candy Tomorrow

Corey and the kids are downstairs watching Chariots of Fire. I gave K a few white chocolate chips on a bench, which allowed me to make my get away upstairs. I thought I'd blog for a few, but now I'm feeling tired and just want to lay down... Let's see if I can get anything recorded here... Corey gave a great lesson at church today. It was a 5th Sunday lesson, and the Sunday School presidency was in charge (C is SS President) so he led the discussion with all the adults and it was super great. It was a lesson on resiliency and helping our kids be more resilient (and how we adults and parents can be more resilient too!). He shared about some insights from Louie Zamperinni in the book Unbroken, and how there's a lot of bad news in the world today - and how we can go forward with faith and not fear! I especially liked this video by Big Think with Jonathan Haidt on Why modern America creates fragile children. Corey gathered a lot of great information. And speaking of going forward with faith... Ethan is dating someone, and it's looking pretty serious.

He and Bella are super fun and cute together. 

They joke that Ethan is the male version of Bella, and she's the female version of Ethan. They seem to like each other! Will be fun to see what happens! They met on July 1st at a fireworks show and have been pretty much inseparable since then.

They both work at the MTC, so that's fun too. She served a Spanish speaking mission to New Hampshire. We all think she's great. (Yes, she's the girl with Ethan in the photo at the airport when Hyrum came home). Update... Hi. It's Monday now. I didn't finish blogging this post, as you can tell. What has happened today... Abi had Lyceum concert. Corey went to go see it - 

He took his dad with him. I stayed home on kid duty. 

They performed something announcing the new youth theme for next year - 3 Nephi 5:13: I'm a Disciple of Christ. I'm teaching a youth Sunday school class now, Sophi's age, so I was excited to get a jump on that scripture and am so excited that we'll all be studying the Book of Mormon next year! And just a few more pics of moments - Katharine with a nutella face this morning. 

Owen asleep on most mornings... 

He is the first one up every morning, so crashses during scriptures, and we usually just leave him there to move himself if he wakes up sometime during the night. Today I attempted to organize the fridge. Post it notes, labels for where things go:

Yesterday I kept the kids hostage by taking away all phones. It just seems like there should be one day a week where we are all present and not texting friends. And with phones away, they spent time reading the blog books. 

Daniel reading some scripture stories in a cartoon treasury book. 

Wes learning some hymns on guitar...

Singing sweet ballads to his sisters.

His lovely sisters like Natalie!

Who was dressed up like Fancy Nancy (she was looking for inspiration trying out different halloween ideas.) 

You're cute Natalie! The taped nose is a nice touch.

(and other times not so cute!)

Katharine practicing drawing tonight. 

Putting the lid back on the pen! 

Katharine! How'd you get so smart?

She's very careful when drawing, not as careful when eating. She takes good care of pens, and she throws top ramen all over the floor. From today at lunch. We think everything she does is cute though. 

Lucky the Butterfly

The weather has turned cold! It was even snowing yesterday morning! Our last ride was Tuesday morning. It's so dark in the morning, that we left a bit late, and Wes called at 9:40 to see if we were close to being back (W had a 10 am appt) so Corey hurried home (he's much faster than I) and I took my time and stopped for a few photos, enjoying what might be the last of fall.

I was sorry when I saw the forecast of cold temps because I had 4 chrysalides inside. These are from 4 eggs I found at the end of September, which I knew would be late eclosing. I felt like I had used up all of my family's patience with caterpillars and I needed to start being a homemaker more around here, so I gave those last eggs to my friend Terry. She took good care of them and I thought I was done with monarchs for 2023, but then Terry told me she was leaving for Texas, and wasn't going to be back until December. Thus the 4 eggs, which were now 4 chrysalides, have been returned to me. I got them back last week on Monday (10/16). Of course as chrysalides, they are not hard to care for, but I was watching the weather with some concern for these soon-to-be butterflies. One of the chrysalides was sooo tiny tiny. Terry said that it formed it's j-hook when it was in the 4th instar! It changed to chrysalis on the 15th, so we thought it would be the last to emerge, but it eclosed Wednesday and was the first of the four. I called her little lady. I made a little home for her to sleep in Wed night and fed her some apple and clementine juice yesterday morning.

So that one was fine. On Wed another one was dark, but it was looking weird, looking like it had mold inside it or something... 

I've never had one with cloudy areas like that, but this has been my year for chrysalis problems. I was concerned, but nothing you can do but watch. I missed it emerging, but when I did notice it, it was hanging upside down with it's wings stuck. I helped pull off the chrysalis, and said a prayer that I wasn't too late helping it... I was glad that it wasn't freaking out, like one that I had that was stuck last year. It was holding still and it's wings started to expand... was hopeful, but wow they looked super strange...

Definitely something wrong... When the wings dried, the left side top wing was out ok, ends of the bottom wings were crumpled, the right top and bottom were stuck together and crumpled. All the tips were clear without scales. So this poor guy is not going to be able to fly. 

So it looks like we have a pet. Lucky for this insect, it came to home where butterflies are prized. So it gets to be a pet for Katharine. 

He's a lucky bug, I think? Although maybe no bug wishes to be a pet for a one year old. 

I promise Katharine will be gentle with you, little flightless butterfly. Is that a good name? Lucky? I thought it should be named Crystal at first, cause of the clear wings, and couldn't tell if it was male or female cause the wings were messed up. But I knew you could also tell by the abdomen, if it has pincers or a little indent, but it was a little tricky to see at first. I have since zoomed in, and it has pinchers, so it's a male. So instead of Crystal how about Chris/Crys? Christoff? A Disney Frozen name could be appropriate, since it's so cold right now. You can see the snow from yesterday in the pic there behind Katharine. The snow didn't stick to the ground long, but it looked like a blizzard for an hour there. I think we'll go with Lucky. Lucky seems more our style. It's short like Jerry, and has a long e sound in it, like most of our family names. When you're a butterfly, you usually only get a name if you're a non-migrator. So Lucky is stuck here with us, and Little Lady and the two other chrysalides escaped the snow and were sent off to St. George yesterday. Fall break weekends are over for both school districts, so I wasn't sure I'd find someone quickly, but I asked the neighborhood group me before taking to facebook. Luckily one family in our neighborhood was going St. George for a baseball tournament, yay. She came by for one butterfly and two chrysalides yesterday. She sent me these today - as they headed out on the road south. 

I didn't know their plans, so I hotglued a stick to a rock, just in case they couldn't watch it and needed an option of just leaving it in the bushes at a park. Little Lady in the back with their kids, you can barely see her form in the mesh square cage, the same one we used last year.  

Little Lady after arriving safely in sunny St. George.

I'm glad the butterflies are in a warm climate, and hopefully my good intentions didn't mess them up, and they will figure out that they need to migrate. Past good intentions in 2017, 2022.

So it's cold here. I'm mourning that it's too cold to bike. Maybe I could do it in snowboots? My toes get cold riding down when it's in the 40s, so we'd really freeze with it being in the 20s. Owen and Daniel  and die hards and rode their bikes to school this morning, I rode with them with Peter in the trailer. Cold cold cold. Took a picture of Natalie on bus duty with Safety Patrol. Not wearing a thick coat but still smiling! I was feeling more like her friend on the curb.

Katharine with her pet this morning. After K's bath last night, Natalie dressed her like it's summertime. 

Katharine always kids off her blankets though. She apparently likes being cold. We fed Lucky some clementine juice on an apple this morning.

I think it's really cook to watch them eat, and their probiscis move around.

Fall is almost over but I'm still here talking butterflies. I wonder if Lucky will live as long as migrators? I'll be impressed if he's still here at Christmas. He's a pretty chill little guy. Just hangs out on his stick and wonders if this is all there is to live? It's me, Peter, Katharine and Lucky here during the day. Peter playing Legos - building really cool sets. 

And telling wild stories to Wesley!

Peter always has a lot to say. I'm striving to be more present with him and to listen. 

It was mostly a regular day around the house here for me, P&K. Abi and Lily had a GMS Mozart Rehearsal, and Corey picked them up from that and then we went out. Went to one of our decade long favorites, India House on State Street. We ordered our usual: Butter Chicken, Shrimp Coconut Korma, and Peshwari Naan. This time we got both medium spicy, so brave of us. Tomorrow is a community halloween festival and Abi has a concert, should be a busy day kinda, I'm glad that soccer is over though. I better go to bed so I can be present tomorrow. G'night.