Halloween Preparations

Halloween of course, starts several weeks before Oct 31. Here is a sampling of our scary October festivities.

My sister, Lisa, has started a great new blog. She posts fun ideas to do with pre-schoolers.

http://totsmarts.wordpress.com/

It has great links to videos, print-outs, and craft projects. Making "monster masks" out of brown paper bags from the grocery store, was one of her ideas. Sylvia and I had a blast decorating the monsters, giving them extra eyes, and wild hair made out of pipe cleaners.

When the mask was done, we clicked on the you tube link to the song Monster Mash, and danced around. Below is the link to a fun cartoon animated version of the classic Halloween song.




We even got the older kids to dance a bit. I must say though, that the dancing is more monsterly and fun with a mask over your head.

Since we only had two masks, we shared them around. Sean was at home working that day, and was lucky enough to Monster Mash with us.

Sean's talents were also called upon for pumpkin decorating...

...and cookie baking! Always good to have a versatile husband around for holiday fun.

Sprinkles are a must whenever Sylvia decorates sugar cookies. They are her signature item.

The older kids also had fun with the frosting.

Noel decorated a Deathly Hallows cookie (from the seventh Harry Potter book).

I think Asher's cookies looked the scariest... although they all tasted very good - escpecially with hot chocolate!

Field Trip to Babcock Hall

One day in this fall, we went on a fieldtrip to the famouse Babcock Hall, up on the University of Wisconsin's campus. We took a short tour of their dairy plant. Here Noel is taking shots of the dairy production floor below.

At the time we were there, they were making chocolate milk. -Giant vats of chocolate milk. This is probably what set off Asher's current chocolate milk cravings. The most difficult part to watch, was a guy dumping bottle, after bottle of chocolate milk onto the floor, to run down a drain. Apparently the do a first run, when they are squirting it into the plastic bottles. If they are not filling to the proper level, they reset the machine, and just dump those bottles out onto the floor.

My favorite memory of the day, was kicking back with the kids in the ice-cream shop on the first floor. I am so glad everyone is old enough to eat their own ice cream without spills and drips everywhere. The best flavor (or so I thought) was a pumpkin pie scoop that Sylvia ordered. It was creamy, and perfectly spiced! We are going to try to make some of our own pumpkin pie flavored ice cream at home.

Noel's photos at Devil's Lake

My daughter, Noel, has a great eye for beauty. I am amazed that she can capture the feeling of a moment with color as well as black and white. Here is an example of a shot she took at Devil's Lake in color.

While I was trying to get Brad and Liz to pose on top of a boulder, Noel shot a great series in black and white of them from the side. I love how content and happy they are in this series. This is the kind of joy I want to have in 30 more years.

Devil's Lake with Grandparents

I knew the trees would be a beautiful backdrop for a family photo. Still, with the perfect background, it was difficult to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time. This is the best we could do.

The trail was steep, and required frequent stops by the adult hikers in the group. Somehow those kids just trotted along up the trail, sword fighting with sticks as they went.

Hiker Brad was in fine form, and let the kids experiment with his camera. We got lots of fun action shots.



The view from the top was great. Sylvia and Liz looked especially photogenic together.

We found a really odd insect crawling around on the boulders at the top. I had heard of stick-bugs, and seen them in books about animals that can camouflage themselves, but actually seeing one outdoors was pretty amazing.





Noel is our familes artistic photographer... here is a nice one she did of Sylvia while we were climbing around on the rocks along the trail. Sometimes Sylvia would lay down, and have a boulder bed, covered in leaves.


After we hiked back down, the kids found a bunch of cat- tails by the road. They taught Sylvia how to explode them into clouds of white puff.



Asher demonstrated how to jog, and leave a trail of white puffs behind you.



We watched the sun set on a sandy beach area along the lake. The kids had a "who can make the biggest splash with giant rocks" contest.



It was a great day. I can't believe we almost missed all the fun because it was a little drizzly at the start.


Here is a shot of the handsome man I am married to, as we watched our offspring toss boulders into the lake.

Nauvoo with grandparents

Brad and Liz came to visit this October. We all (except for Noel, who stayed home with the dog) took a trip down to Nauvoo, Illinois. The weather was beautiful.

My favorite part was being together in the temple.

We also had a nice walk down Parley Street, with beautiful views of the temple and the Mississippi River.

We got a good shot of Brad and Liz, sitting by an old well.


I think Sylvia's favorite part of the trip was taking an hour long wagon tour through the countryside. We bumped up and down a dirt road, being pulled by two big draft horses.
Getting to pet the horses after the ride was the best thing ever.



On Sunday, before we drove home, we visited Carthage Jail. The kids were impressed with seeing the bullet hole that went through the door. The tour wasn't as croweded as the one we went on when we visited 3 years ago, so we got to see more of the inside of the jail.


A fun memory, which we don't have pictures of, is waiting in a little garden, sitting on benches, waiting to go into an evening play about the history of Nauvoo. The kids had a great time, sneaking through the bushes, and playing night tag through the paths and behind the bushes. The evening rang with laughter. I love our family.

The Trip - Day 18

July 27, 2011

At least it was a beautiful place to wake up to. I got up early, and took Maya for a run on a trail by our campsite. I let her off leash once we got into the back country. She loved it. She dashed up and down the hillsides, leaping down into the dry-washs, and then scrambling back up after me as I went down the trail. It was fun to run with her.

We explored farther up the trail than the kids had gone. At the top was a partially excavated Hadrosaur. Sorry, I didn't run with my camera, so no pictures of it.



Later we went on another nature trail, deeper in the park. We spent a long time exploring the bluffs, and digging in the dirt.


Sylvia loved it. She held my hand tightly as we edged along some thin trails along steep slopes.

The boys had a good time digging chunks out of a vein of coal. Mattias took it back to the campsite, and tried to start a fire with it... but to no avail. We will have to figure out how to burn coal another time.



There were lots of neat rocks, chunks of iron, and fossils. Asher said this was his favorite part of the trip. He said playing in the coulie next to our campsite was like playing in a playground. Maybe we'll make a geologist out of him yet.



After a couple hours of exploration, we climbed in the van and headed home. People were traveling well, so I just kept on driving. We had planned to split this drive into 2 days, but I was ready to be done driving. After 17 hours, we pulled into Stoughton at 3AM and surprised a very sleepy Sean.

This trip was worth every cent, and every exhausted moment as a single parent. I loved seeing our families, and the beautiful areas we stayed in. It was basically the perfect trip. The kids were excellent, the dog traveled well. If Sean had been with us, it would have been like heaven. - Well...there is always next time.

The Trip - Day 17

July 26, 2011

We had such a good time with Becca's and Daniel's families. It was tough to leave, and know that we will miss all their birthday's, holidays, and Sunday dinner get togethers. I miss being able to drive down to Rexburg for a weekend. I wouldn't want to live there - although Daniel is determined to convince me next visit that Idaho mountains are better than Montana mountains.

We packed the van, gave out a last round of hugs, and started driving.



10 hours later, we pulled into Makoshika State Park, on the far eastern side of Montana. Mattias had wanted to spend more time exploring the badland area, so this seemed the best place.

The boys set up their tent, and took Sylvia to explore on a trail close by our site.


The badlands are beautiful at sunset.


The kids came back with their hands loaded with treasures. Asher had discovered prickly pears. I told him you could eat them, so he worked on shaving the spikes off. It took a while, and his hands became full of needles. After a small freak-out, I drove him down the road a mile, where there was a water pump to wash his hands under. He has now sworn off prickly pear experiments.





Sylvia came back with some yucca leaves. She said they were like swords and cut your legs as you walked down the trails. She spent the rest of her time trying to mow the grass in the campsite with them.




We got to bed at a decent time, only to be roused around 11pm by some fishy looking transients, stumbling into our campsite. They started loudly setting up their tent, only 5 ft away from mine - and in our site. I went out to tell them my kids would be up early eating breakfast right by their tent, so if they wanted to sleep in, they should re-consider their location. They said they would be leaving around 4... but they moved their tent to an empty site across the road anyways.

They were rough guys, and I was worried that they were on the run from the law, and I had just seen their faces and knew about their getaway location. It was with this worry on my mind, that I then heard a group of motorcycles roar into camp and about 50 feet away at the outhouse. Then there were gunshots. I lay frozen, glad that none of my kids were over there. They must have been shooting onto the bluffs behind us. One of them yelled to shoot at the outhouse, so they started that. After a while they roared on up the road, and back again... it was a noisy hour. None of us got much sleep - but I prayed a lot, and wondered if I should start carrying a pistol like Brad had when we were hiking.