Watch Out Tom!

A turkey shoot out! I saw this idea from Frugal Fun for Boys and thought the boys would really love it too. They did for a little bit and then the older ones were off to play with something else. Kent stayed around with me and shot the turkeys. I love shooting targets ever since this summer when I shot the pellet gun.

I made both the file folder and the free standing targets. We liked the freestanding ones best. I won't bother with the file folder ones next time.

Long after the kids were gone my dad and I tried to get a photo of the turkey going down. This was as close as we got to the perfect shot. Good enough. Why were we trying, you ask? Why not?

What else can we shoot? A Grinch for Christmas or maybe coal?

We Were Thankful

Technically we still ARE thankful, but this was how we remembered our gratitude during November.

After we started piling up our leaves I thought it would have been fun to make a leaf out of a bunch of leaves. Kent spoke before I could and decided that he wanted to line up all his blue ones and then make them connect to a line of leaves from the other side. So let it be written. So let it be done. The leaves were just cut out of cardstock using my Silhouette and we taped them to the wall. Easy peasy. I might choose fewer leaf types next year (if I remember).

Some favorites from the leaves:

Jason is thankful...
-for bed time
-for his eternal family
-for the occasional overtime
-for the right to bear arms
-that Mary gets to park in the garage
-for a stapler

Mary is thankful...
-for Costco samples and happy kids
-for chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese
-for fabric
-that my talk in Sacrament meeting is over
-for an early morning jog on a beautiful day
-for smiles

Clark is thankful...
-for spending time with family
-for school
-for watching a movie
-for Minecraft
-for stinky farts (hey...we should be thankful in all things, right?)
-for turkey

Kent is thankful...
-for doing Christmas lists
-for singing
-for the letter "t" and coaches
-for doing up and over (to get his coat on)
-for my Wolverine costume
-for big football guys and small, tiny, tiny football guys

Kara couldn't contain her gratitude to a little leaf. :)

Let There Be Leaves

For some reason Veteran's Day seems like the perfect day to play in the leaves. This year it was a little misty in the morning but we went out and played a little bit anyway!

Check out our previous leaf fun: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007

Trying to be Thankful

Like so many people, we're trying to show a little more gratitude this season and here was our first project. Turkeys! We each picked a color for our feathers and wrote something we were thankful for about some of our family members that live nearby.

It was fun to hear what the kids had to say about some of their grandparents and aunts and uncles. We also made some banana bread muffins and delivered them for our family home evening. The next morning when Kent woke up he said, "Can we do turkeys and bags again today?" So cute.

I'm so very thankful for my family!

Three Little Pumpkins Sitting on the Gate

Our annual pumpkin carving night!

We start with a Halloween dinner. This year was a hit! I made Jack 'O Lantern grilled cheese, blood soup, candy corn fruit cup, zombie booger beans and we even had apple cider (which was a big treat for dinner!). I wasn't crazy about the grilled cheese in pie crust, but Kent loved it. We might have to have them again since it's so hard to find things that he'll eat.

Then the pumpkin carving began!

Check out the awesome colors here...blech! But the subject matter is what is important! We found a pumpkin gutter drill bit that we decided to try. It loosened everything up on the inside and made for some quick gutting. Of course you still have to dig out the insides but at least there was less scraping.

Three little pumpkins with three little pumpkins!

For previous pumpkin carving posts: 2012, 2011

Fuzzy Ghosts

I realize now that I should have saved this for a Christmas craft of Santa's beard. I blame the mommy brain!

The kids loved making their fuzzy ghosts anyway. Can you hear Clark's ghost noise?

Token picture of Kara enjoying the festivities!

Pumpkin or Mummy?

Maybe it's both! Clark got this pumpkin from his field trip last month and had the assignment to turn it into something other than a pumpkin without carving it. He decided to make it a mummy. 

How to:

1. Draw a face on your pumpkin with permanent marker

2. Rip fabric strips (we made ours about 1.5" x 4-5")

3. Paint a section of the pumpkin with liquid nails (you could probably use a different kind of glue, but this one is my favorite!)

4. Attach fabric strips until the pumpkin is covered

Liquid nails is NOT intended for your dining room table.

Finished mummies!

You can see some of the other pumpkins here.

Pumpkin Party

Auntie Kelly brought some pumpkins and stickers for the kids to do a little fall craft last weekend. They did a little pumpkin coloring with my mom's awesome selection of Sharpies. They also used stickers to make a little spooky Halloween scene. I love how they all turned out! 

Kara spent her time chewing on Barbie's arm.

I love October!!!

Leaf-tastic

I want to remember this day. Not just because Isaiah came and raked up my leaves (which was SOOO nice!) but because I love the smiles and the laughter and the friendship shared by the boys. It's so good to see them playing together as brothers and having a good time doing it. So if I ever say that they never get along, just remind me that there was that one day in November when they had such a great time together.

Isaiah doing all the hard work...

The boys "raking" in all the fun. Isaiah had this brilliant idea to put the pile of leaves at the bottom of the slide so they could all slide into it. What a blast!

Isaiah did get to play too and loved every minute of it.

Face first...seems like a reasonable idea to me!

Kent - knee deep in leaves and loving it

Clark - buried alive and also loving it

The boys decided to try to use this tunnel for some fun with leaves. Clark and Kent were able to get through okay, but when it was Isaiah's turn, he really got stuck. Oh we had some laughs over this one.

Clark decided that playing dead in the leaves was one of his favorite things to do. I often found him like this in the pile of leaves.

And of course, Kent's day isn't complete unless he whacks something with a baseball bat. He started whacking first then he tried to swing at the leaves as I threw them at him. It was more an exercise in frustration than anything else.

Oh the happy boys. Remember...that one day in November!

Trunk or Treat 2012

Trunk or Treat is always a fun time. This year I actually bought a few things to dress up Big Blue. I scared a few kids, but I had a good time doing it, so that's okay, right? Kent got a kick out of seeing Clark's face painted. So funny.

Clark - always the character

This just makes me laugh. The devil and the sister missionaries. Hehe!

Kent loved everything about trunk or treating (trick or treating too). He drug his bag through grass, mud, rocks...whatever was necessary to get the candy. Maybe I'll have to add some reinforcement to his bag for next year. Or maybe he'll be tall enough.

So we post pictures because the kids are cute. Seriously it is hard enough to get kids to look at the camera with open eyes and smiles...I have to deal with Jason too - haha!