trip to New York

Alfredo took a trip to NYC and DC with 2 friends a couple of weeks ago. He had a great time. Here are quite a few shots from his trip (although there are about 200 more!) This time, I'll let the pictures tell the story:

a love hate relationship

My dishwasher and I apparently have a love-hate relationship. It loves to not work for me...and I hate it when it stops working. Seriously, it's as temperamental as a donkey. It will work for several weeks, making me so happy, and saving me so much time. Then I guess it gets tired. So it stops cleaning my dishes. I mean it still runs, but the dishes all come out dirty and with both food and soap all over them. I get frustrated and don't use it for about a month. Then I have a day when I'm really in a hurry and decide to use it... and it works! Right now we are in a phase where it is working (cross my fingers!!! knock on wood!!) and I can't believe how much time it saves me. My kitchen gets cleaner so much faster if I don't have to wash every dish by hand. It's amazing! I figure I should have another 2 or 3 weeks before it gets tired again, and boy am I going to enjoy them!! :)

tom turkey

Tom Turkey doesn't want to be eaten for Thanksgiving dinner. So every kindergartner at Ella's school tries to hide Tom by disguising him. Ella and Michelle had lots of clever ideas for how they wanted to disguise Tom...as a tree, a pizza delivery guy, a butterfly, and several others. So I took Tom to work with me and copied him and the whole family got to be involved...

Here are our Tom Turkeys:


Gabrielle's


Michelle's is disguised as a peacock.


Mine...the pizza delivery guy


Ella made 2...one for school and one to keep at home... a zoo with many animals and one that she just colored.

Artwork

Ella brought home a stack of artwork and projects that she has made at her afterschool program. They really do a lot of fun things...including swimming and making crystals and playing outside and having a ton of fun games and toys ...and lots of crafts. But I can't keep it all. I will save a few things, but when she brought home about 10 things today, I decided I'd photograph them and put them here so we can remember them but not have to save them all.

Here is her great artwork:

Trick-or-Treat... I've got wet feet!

Nearly everyone here trick-or-treated on Saturday since Halloween was on Sunday. And Saturday was rainy. Temperature wise, it wasn't that horrible, but Ella had on "ruby slippers" as part of her costume and soon her feet were wet and cold and she was miserable. Michelle had recovered from being sick and was able to go trick-or-treating (although she got tired and cold faster than normal also), but Gabrielle had a fever and was throwing up, so she stayed home. No Halloween celebrations for her this year...at least she's only two. And she's seemed very happy to just see all the decorations.

This year Michelle was a dragonfly and Ella was Dorothy.

And this year Chester got in the Halloween spirit as our little devil dog. Seems appropriate...he's learned how to jump the fence and now has to be tied up when we are gone to keep him safe. Naughty dog.



Alfredo also tried the costume out on Gabby. She was going to be a giraffe but never did get that costume on (which is okay...it's a leftover from one of the other girls several years ago).




The positive thing about Halloween (besides the candy. Who doesn't love candy?) was being able to trick-or-treat with friends.





Another fun thing about trick-or-treating was going to our neighbor Laurel's house. She doesn't just dress up and hand out candy. She goes all out...with hot chocolate and scones for the trick-or-treaters and their grownups. Hot chocolate was especially appropriate this year...and we will be sure to visit her house every year from now on. What a fun tradition!



Oh, also a couple of days before Halloween, we painted and carved pumpkins.

Halloween Carnival

Jackson had a very fun Halloween carnival on Friday night. It was so great to see how the community comes together to put it on. All the food and nearly everything else was donated by families. And then local ward youth and University of Utah students ran the games and the haunted house. It was a lot of fun...and very busy.

Unfortunately, Michelle got sick on Thursday and couldn't go. She was so disappointed because she'd been looking forward to it for months.

But Ella had a great time...


There was a costume contest and Ella saw several of her friends.
Kids decorated pumpkins and had a display.


They got their faces painted.


They went "fishing" and had haunted hula hoop contests.

There were also crafts to make, a "spooky" haunted house, a bean bag toss, a cake walk, Halloween Bingo, a pumpkin walk (like the cake walk but you won a pumpkin) and other games. We didn't even have time to go to all of the games, but it was sure fun. I also saw a former student who is now in college. She was there painting faces, so that was fun. And since one of my best friends has her daughter in Ella's class, I got to hang out with her all night. It was great.

Gobble! Gobble! Read all about it!

A few Thanksgiving books you might enjoy:

More Snacks! By Joan Holub, illustrated by Will Terry (easy reader)

Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes and illustrated by Doris Barrette...All the things two young children are thankful for. Beautiful illustrations.

The Night Before Thanksgiving by Natasha Wing and illustrated by Tammie Lyon...Just like the Night Before Christmas...but with all Thanksgiving things... "The turkey went in, And as more cousins came, I laughed and I shouted and called them by name...."

Thanksgiving is Here! by Diane Goode... A family has a traditional Thanksgiving gathering...

The Littlest Pilgrim by Brandi Dougherty and illustrated by Kirsten Richards
Mini just wants to help but everyone thinks she is too little. Will she find a way to contribute?

Hide and Seek Turkeys... a counting book where little "turkeys" hide

Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley and illustrated by Holly Berry... the story of the first Thanksgiving.

The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern and illustrated by Joe Lasker... the story of the first Thanksgiving.