Carter's kindergarten class had a Thanksgiving feast yesterday on their last day before the break. All family was invited, so the girls and I loaded up and headed on over to feast. The class had all made placemats, Indian headdresses, and pilgrim hats. Don't we look smashing? It was really cute and the girls loved being at Carter's big school.
PS... Bentley was there, in her stroller, mushing on graham crackers. She was so good that I totally neglected her.

We put in a movie the kids had never seen last night called "Valiant." It's an animated Disney movie about birds during WWII, so a little bit darker than your typical Disney show, I think. It got to a little bit of a scary spot and Carter turned to Jefferson and said, "Is this appropriate for me?"

(He must have been watching Brian Regan recently. :) )

Academic Achievement

Carter was chosen to receive one of two Academic Achievement awards for this first trimester for his kindergarten class. We went to our first awards assembly this morning at the school to see him receive his certificate.

We are so proud of your hard work in school Carter. You are so smart and do such good work! Keep it up!

Primary Program

Today was our ward primary program and it was so stinkin' cute, as always. I was so impressed with how well the kids knew all the songs. We've learned (or rather, were reminded) that Andi was born to be a performer. On the first verse of "I Love to See the Temple" only the Sunbeams sang, and Andi was by far the loudest, in a good way, and right on pitch, singing every word. We had a couple of people comment on her beautiful, albeit loud, singing. Carter did a great job memorizing his part and sang I think every word to every song. Every time he would look at me or Jefferson he would try so hard not to smile. Andi on the other hand smiled freely and waved a few times to us. Andi also had her part memorized perfectly, but when she got up there, the teacher helped her. I don't think she knew that Andi had her part memorized. She still said it nice and loud and clear. I get all emotional and teary every time the primary program comes around. I am reminded of how sweet and tender our children are and how innocent and pure their testimonies are. I am so grateful that we have the gospel and that there are such amazing people in our primary teaching our kids and helping build their gospel foundation. Great job Carter and Andi!

Andi was helping Taytum off the step stool in the kitchen and says to her, "There you go darling."

They are darling.

Books

Carter just drew a little picture book and had me help him spell out the words for the story. When we were done Carter says, "I'm the author and the illustrator!" It just sounded funny coming out of my five year old for some reason.

HALLOWEEN.

Our Halloween was filled with fun festivities all weekend long. It started with Andi's preschool Halloween party. Here she is with her bestie Abby:And Tay had to get in on the picture taking.FALL FESTIVAL

Then we had our ward Fall Festival. There was a chili cook off, sugar cookie decorating, a picture booth, and trick or treating around the building.It was so crowded there! What a great problem to have at a ward party. It really did turn out great, and I was thrilled because we (the Relief Society presidency) were in charge. There was plenty to eat, candy at all the doors, and lots of happy children.
My door at the end, hence no candy. I brought about 175 pieces of candy. You can bet that a lot of the older kids double and triple dipped.

SCHOOL PARTY

On Monday Carter had his Halloween class party, and I somehow got roped into pretty much being in charge. Nobody volunteered to be in charge, but I had signed up to help, so Carter's teacher asked me to come up with some of the stations. There was pin the nose on the pumpkin, q-tip skeletons, monster making, Halloween matching, Halloween I Spy game, and then of course treats, candy, cookies, and juice. The kids all had fun (I hope).

TRICK-or-TREAT

Finally it was time for actual trick-or-treating after our traditional chili and scones dinner. The kids were so excited! They ran door to door and braved the cold, windy weather.
Bentley was a doll and slept in the stroller the whole time.Mario got tired of wearing his mustache... we didn't!
Taytum cried when she realized we were done trick-or-treating and tried to run away from the house, but this pile of candy eased the blow.
Andi is just like her mother. She loves handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters that come to our door. She would seriously stand there and wait til she saw people coming and then get ready with the candy bucket. She was a great helper.

Farmstead '11

We made our annual trip to the Farmstead a couple weekends ago. It was a beautiful day to be at the pumpkin patch! We did all the usual stuff, slides, cow train, corn maze, pumpkin patch, hay ride, punkin' chunkin', bounce pillow, donuts, and enjoyed it all as usual.