Halloween

We always have Halloween day off for Nevada day.  This year was no different.  So that meant that dress up day was the day before for school.  Cynjyn came up with her costume idea and make up.  Garry helped her wreck her outfit and bloody it up and then he made some protruding bones for her arm.  She did the rest herself.

She looked great, but the bones didn't make it very far into the day.

She dressed up again for her HKA class and did her face with a little more subtle white...loved both looks.  She had great plans to spend the weekend with Becca,  Garry, Taz and I were going out of town. 

I dressed up as a broken doll...stole Cynjyn's idea from a few years ago.  I had C do my makeup before she left for school.  None of the kids knew who I was...They kept trying to pin me down to a character, they couldn't fathom that I was just a doll, but I liked it.

Taz left Halloween morning for California with his team, so I am claiming he was a club volleyball player for Halloween. 

Talon left at 11:30 am for work, so I'm claiming he was a corrections officer.  Tanner was Ariel.  He has been into dying his hair lately and nailed the color of her hair. 

As I said earlier, we were going out of town to watch Taz's first club volleyball tourny.  Cynjyn had made arrangements to stay with Becca for the weekend.  Becca was having drama at home and was hanging out with friends that Cynjyn wasn't comfortable with.  So C decided to stay home by herself...on Halloween...I wasn't too thrilled with that and neither was she, there was drama.  But we figured Talon would be home in the evening so she'd be o.k.  Garry ran out and bought candy for her to hand out and I made arrangements for Toni to get her too and from Trunk or Treat, all at the last minute as we were trying to head out of town.  It was set and we left.  We ended up at Outback for dinner since it was right by out hotel, oh darn!  Cynjyn of course continued with the drama and the Hopkins ended up at our Trunk or Treat without Becca and insisted on C going home with them and spending the weekend as originally planned, so through texting we made that happen and all was well. 

We got to the Anaheim sports complex early in the morning and settled in for 6 hours of volleyball.  This is Taz's team, mostly consisting of Foothill players.  Luckily we found a Ms. Pacman game and Garry and I lived in the past for a few minutes wasting out quarters.  But the memories it brought back were priceless!  We walked away a dollar poorer and with a sore hand!

Taz played Libero for most of the games, but got a few plays at Outside.  He had a great day and did an awesome job. 

They ended up losing every match they played, but, it was the first time they'd played as a team and the first tournament, so we are hoping only for improvement.  We got home last Saturday evening, but had a great Halloween.

October Part 2

 This year for the first time ever, I decided to do a student Halloween recital.  I had purchased some Halloween books and gave everyone a song to work on for the month.  Then on Friday, October 24 from 3:30-4:30, I had just the students come and they played their songs for one another.  They could dress up in their costumes if they chose and I made some Halloween treats for them.  Cynjyn was trying out eating the jelly donut with vampire teeth and it could not have turned out better if we planned it!

 We had some Rice Krispie ghosts and some Vamipire Krispy Kremes. 

 I made some Monster eyes, but the kids didn't like them too much. 

 I had some Doritos in a bow.

 And some cheese balls. 

 The kids all did great and they all said that they enjoyed themselves and want me to do it again next year, so I guess I'll take that as a success!

 Garry spent a couple of hours one day on his day off digging up a tree in the back yard.  We had looked into having a professional tree company take it out and it was going to cost $250!!  He did it for next to nothing (Had to buy a pole digger for $20) and some hard labor, but he was sure proud of himself.  We are going to replace it with a pomegranate tree in the spring.

 Cynjyn hid some cash in a paper tube in a jar and surrounded it with candy so it looked like a jar of candy for Sean for his birthday present.  On the tag she put something like There is hidden treasure in our  friendship.  He thought it was cleaver and enjoyed the gift. 

 The Sunday before Halloween, we carved some pumpkins for FHE activity.  We hadn't done that for a few years and it was a long time for them to sit out before Halloween (It's hot here and they don't last), but we had fun doing it.  we paired up and carved away.  Before:

 After:

 And lit up in the dark. 

 I had to make 40 invitations for our Stake Primary leadership meeting.  It was an I will go and do theme based off Nephi and so I made Liahona's.  They kinda looked like clocks, but I hope they got the Liahona idea and it was fun.

 I dressed up for Orange and Black day at school a few days before Halloween. 

Cynjyn had a band concert on October 29. 

The school's namesake Jack Lund Schofield came to support.  He has always been at these events, but this year he came in a wheel chair.  He's 92.  He's a great man and he always says positive, encouraging words to the kids and sings a song. 

It occured to me that Mr. Nekoba has taught everyone of our kids middle school band and I don't have many pictures of him.  Since this is Cynjyn's last year, I thought I'd better snap a picture.  He has always been a favorite teacher of each of my kids. 

31 days hath October

This year as Garry set up the yard, he had to do a revamp on our little grave man.  He was in desperate need of new clothes and a better face.  So he spent a morning working on him and now he looks much better!

I participated in spirit week at school.  We had crazy hair day

Pajama day

Sports jersey day, and twin day which I didn't do because I had no twin.

Garry and I supported Taz and the band at the football games.

His class float won the best overall float for homecoming week.  It was an Alice in Wonderland theme.  Even though Taz didn't help with it, I thought it should be documented that it won!

...and he claims he doesn't want a dog...he's so good with them and they love him!

Cynjyn had Kandace and Becca sleep over and they took over the bonus room.

Garry had to get night driving glasses.  They also help him see the TV better if he's far away from it.

We got this cool kinetic sand at Michaels.  We leave it on our island and so many people play with it all the time.  It's been a great purchase!

Taz was eating a bowl of cereal...Talon said he made it look so good he had to have a bowl too!

Cynjyn got a card for Sean for his birthday.  Her and Garry spent a long time picking it out at Von's.  It played music when it was opened.

She considered being a Turtle for Halloween for a brief second!

Garry and I helped at the Silverado Showdown.  It's a big marching band competition that makes a lot of money for our schools band.  We usually work in the judges booth, but they changed the system this year so we ended up with Garry helping at parking in the morning and then both of us doing concessions in the afternoon to evening.  Garry wrapped burgers and hot dogs and I made nachos and hot chocolate all night.

They always have a delicious hospitality dinner for the helpers and band, but the band kids don't get it until everything is cleaned up and put away.  Taz always hurries to get that done.  I got him his dinner with mine this year so he wouldn't have to wait in the band line!

We got Bountiful Baskets this year and in it was a weird looking vegetable.  We thought it might be heart of celery.  So we each took a bite...it surprisingly tasted like black licorice.  We googled it and found out it was fennel.  We made everyone try it, then threw it away because we didn't know what to do with it.

I ordered four more stained glass stars for my window.  Two Halloween and two Christmas.  I love the packaging it came in.

and I super di duper love the new stars!!

Talon has Monday's and Tuesday's off.  He has been helping make dinners for us on some of those nights. 

Cynjyn had YW in Excellence and displayed her recipe book and pictures of her cooking all her meals.  It was a great night with an excellent speaker from another stake. 

Cynjyn and I were matching in our white shirts with blue stripes, so I HAD to take a picture of it.

Our stake did a dodgeball season.  Taz was only able to go to a few nights of it due to his club volleyball practices.  But our team is really quite good and is vying for 1st place in the tournament in a few weeks. 

His nonmember friends Ryan and Andrew are on the team and some other nonmember boys from school.

Boys sure do like dodgeball!

We love marching band season.  Especially Taz.  He is so busy during it, but when it's over he's sad because he likes it so much. 

Taz and a group of elders helped an older sister move into our ward one Saturday morning.  Such a good example of service.

Human foosball was an activity at one of the combined mutual nights.  By all accounts, it got a little crazy.

And that's only the first half of October.  More to come!