Gardner Village

Over UEA weekend, I got a lot done.  I cleaned the carpets in the whole house.  I made about 10  more freezer meals.  I read and played with my kids and took them to see Meet the Mormons.  It was very touching.  On Monday, Ella, Gabby and I didn't have school but Michelle did.  I offered to let her stay home so we could go do something fun.  But she decided that she shouldn't miss safety patrol and she shouldn't miss math so she went to school.  See, she is such a good kid.

So while she was at school, Ella, Gabby and I spent an hour or two at Gardner Village visiting the witches.

 There was someone there doing face painting.  The girls love to have their faces painted, so I let them do that.  Gabby got this beautiful, elaborate butterfly.

 Ella got this gorgeous blue design painted on her face.  It really was beautiful...just like my sweet Ella.

A fun outing with two cute, fun girls!

We Love....Waffle Love

A couple of my neighbors love Waffle Love, a truck that travels around and sells waffles with yummy toppings.  The waffle truck is sometimes just around the corner from where we live...but it only seems to come close by while I am at work.  Or once this summer I heard about it just after it was gone.  So until a couple of weeks ago, I had never been.  Well, my kids had dentist appointments and when I realized that the waffle truck was going to be just around the corner from the dentist about 15 minutes after our appointment would end, I decided we HAD to go!  So we waited in line for our chance to try the waffles...and they didn't disappoint.  Michelle got one with chocolate sticks and bananas.  Gabby and Ella shared one that had caramel and ice cream.  Then I got the berry one which had raspberries, strawberries, biscotti and whip cream.  Then we did a bit of sharing as well.  They were delicious!!  And super filling.  I could barely finish mine.  Oh, but it was seriously so tasty.   We will definitely be back.

 Gabby and Ella showing off their vampire teeth they got from the dentist.

 Look how good these look!   And they taste even better.

Book Club: Murder Mystery

Book Club was at Darla's house on October 30.  Along with our book discussion, we did a Murder Mystery.  It was a lot of fun.  Each of us was assigned a part and came dressed as that part.  It was awesome to see what each of the ladies did.  Super fun.  Nicole couldn't make it, so Darla's daughter, Darci, attended. She also made this awesome cake:

Darla as the Wicked Witch of the West...Bonnie as Captain Barbosa

Bad picture...but me as Catwoman

Bonnie as Captain Barbosa and Kim as Darth Vader

All of us in the It's Not About the Book (INATB) Book Club...minus Nicole...plus Darci...such great ladies!

Kemra as Professor Mysterio

Jackie as Doctor Horrible

Becky as the Grim Reaper...cool addition, she had added names of fictional characters who have died on her scythe

Darci as the Queen of Hearts

Angie as Cruella de Ville and Darla

Bonnie and Penni as The Riddler

Marla as Biff

My enemy Poison Ivy, I mean Liz  :)

 We had a great time acting out our parts and trying to decide who killed Lex Luther.  We also enjoyed visiting and discussing the Agatha Christie books we read.  Great book club!

Officers Hollow

Each year, the University of Utah does a trick or treating Halloween activity in Officer's Circle at Fort Douglas.  Every year, we have other commitments and can't make it.  But this year, the activity was on Saturday, November 1, and we were able to go.  The activity is free and lasts 3 hours, but we were only able to be there for just over 1 hour.  Still it was fun.  You trick or treat at each house, and each house was decorated with a different theme, mostly based on Disney movies.  There was a Finding Nemo house where you fished for your treat.

 There was, of course, a Frozen house where you sang along to "Let it Go" with sparkly microphones.

 There was an elaborately decorated "Alice in Wonderland" house where you climbed through the rabbit hole and played a game of croquet to get your treat.  Another house was all about robots.  Each house was amazing.  Outside there were other activities as well.  Because we weren't there for that long, we didn't get to do all of the activities.  The girls did get their faces painted, but we didn't paint pumpkins or design Day of the Dead masks.   Michelle did get a balloon shaped like a dog, but the other girls were getting their faces painted and didn't get any balloon art.   Our cute friend, Sofie, was able to come with us.  Right at the end, as the girls were getting their faces painted, it got really cold and windy.  Gabby was especially cold and got anxious to go home.  But still, all in all, it was a fun time.

Halloween

Halloween was great fun this year!  It was so nice to have it on a Friday and not have to get up early for school the next day.  And on top of that, the weather was wonderful!  Truly one of the nicest Halloweens I remember since having children.

My friend and coworker, Michelle, made this cute Halloween wreath for me!

 We came home from school and raked up leaves and put into these jack-o-lantern bags.   The night before I wasn't home, but Alfredo carved pumpkins with the kids.

Gabby's pumpkin is on the left and Ella's is on the right.  Gabby's is eating a green pepper.

Gabby was Princess Twilight Sparkle, an equestria girl, from My Little Pony.

Michelle looked so beautiful and so grown up as Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

Ella was a polka dot monster...and such a cute monster she is!

I love Halloween!  I love getting out in the neighborhood and seeing so many friends and neighbors.  I love going to the Gustafson's. They do a spook alley in their garage and backyard.  Most of the young men from the neighborhood help out as monsters and spooks in the spook alley.  This year Gabby was even brave enough to go through the spook alley...as long as I went with her. Michelle and Ella went through twice.  And talked about it all day on Saturday.  The Gustafson's also give out cotton candy.  It is one of the happening places in the neighborhood...and you run into lots of people you know there.  Another great house to visit is the King's home.  Laurel makes scones and hot chocolate.  So delicious!  I feel blessed to know so many wonderful people in our neighborhood and found myself wishing that there was some way to foster the same feelings of friendliness and safety and fun on other days throughout the year.  As we walked up to each house, my children would ask me who lived there.  Many I didn't know...but many, many of the houses I did.  It has been a blessing to get to know so many people in the area.

My kids counted their candy on Sunday and had between 90-100... so they did pretty well.  Plus, by then, they had already eaten some.  

Parent teacher conferences

September 24-26 was SEP conferences for Michelle, Ella, and Gabby...and for me at my school.  It was a long, busy week, but I was happy to meet with their teachers and hear how they are doing. (And for some crazy reason, I started this post back then and then never finished it or posted it. So it contains a mix of what I learned then and what has happened since.)   So far this year is off to a great start for all three of them.  Gabby loves both of her teachers, Miss Finerfrock and Miss Mary Lou.  She is doing well in all areas...except apparently she was talking too much during Spanish class...talking to her friends in English, not Spanish, and not listening to directions.  Then she would get frustrated that she didn't know what to do.  So she got in trouble a few times.  But she has gotten much better, and she is making good progress in both languages.  She is beginning to read better in Spanish and use/understand more Spanish all the time.

Ella is doing very well.  Her teacher, Mrs. Darden, said that she was virtually the only student who didn't experience any summer slump in reading...her DIBELS reading score was the same at the beginning of 4th as it was at the end of 3rd but on harder texts.  She is doing well in every area, and her behavior is good.  She wants to get even better at Spanish reading, so she set a goal to read for 20 minutes each night in Spanish, along with 15 minutes of reading in English.

I was excited/nervous to go to Michelle's parent teacher conference to meet her teachers (since she is going to Hunter now, I don't know her teachers) and to see how she was doing.  Her teachers (Mrs. Pate and Mrs. Olsen) both seem very nice and had positive things to say about her work ethic, behavior and performance.  I was especially happy to see that she is doing so well in math...she has an A-.  Since math is her hardest subject, I was quite pleased.  I shared with Mrs. Olsen, her math teacher, that math was her hardest subject and that I think that was at least partially because half of her math has been in Spanish throughout her schooling.  Her teacher said that if math was her hardest subject, she must be a really wonderful student because she was doing well and didn't seem to struggle.  That was really gratifying to hear.  I know there are still areas of math that need some work, but I am so grateful that this move to Hunter has been such a positive experience for her.  She has made friends, enjoys her classes, and she has been so responsible.  She is home for nearly an hour each morning after we leave for school/work and most mornings she gets her violin and piano practice done before school.  It has been a huge blessing for me, and I am so pleased with her good choices.   She was chosen to be on safety patrol, and she is enjoying that.  (And I am so thankful for amazing neighbors who take her to school each morning and for a friend/neighbor that lets her come home with her daughter each night and spend an hour or more there daily.)

I feel so thankful that my children are learning, progressing and having positive experiences at school.  What a blessing!

First Lost Tooth

Gabby lost her first tooth today.  She was eating a piece of Halloween candy and felt something weird...looked at it and there was her tooth.

She was pretty excited to have lost her first tooth.  She even took it to church in a ziploc bag to show her friends.  She can hardly wait for the tooth fairy to come.  Let's hope the Tooth Fairy isn't far away in Australia or South America tonight and unable to make it until tomorrow night.