Halloween Fun

We had a fun Halloween, like always!  We invited some people over to eat dinner with us and decorate sugar cookies.

We went to Powhatan to see Clark perform.  Wow, they did a great job!!!  I also helped with food for the lunch afterwards.  We stopped for ice cream bars on the way home.  What a gorgeous WARM fall day.

We loved going up to Maryland to celebrate Luke's birthday!!!

The day we've been waiting for......Clark can drive! WOO HOO!!  Bad picture through a screen window, but he drove to seminary with Cal!  It's been great!  Is it bad that I am not worried when he's off driving? He drives to seminary most of the time but since it's so early in the morning Lee has driven a couple of times when Clark doesn't get enough sleep.


He will drive the car to seminary (seminary is 15 minutes away), then the truck to school.  School is only about 4 minutes away. That way I can have the car during the day as I run all over the place.

This is by a golf course in Harrisonburg.  I thought it was so funny.  Had to get a picture.

Pumpkin carving time! I invited Angie and Rachel over as well. 

Cal didn't realize that his pumpkin up top was the perfect facial expression for Haley's pumpkin on the bottom.  Too funny.

Shanna got in on the gross action as well.  I don't think the girls enjoyed cleaning it up a few days late.  Oh well!

Cal is now cleaning Lee's office.  So cute what he did on the velvety chairs!

There is a fun cookbook, Cook Once, Eat All Week that I wanted to try some recipes from.  This one was smashed cauliflower, with sour cream and spices, then cheese and bacon on top.  I thought it would be great, but....it was a flop.

Halloween came and there was some nasty weather forecasted so our town moved trick-or-treating to Friday.  A lot of towns in the area did that.  We still had friends over Thursday night for Halloween.  They watched Race to Witch Mountain.  We had dinner as well and some goodies!

Friday night was trick-or-treat time!  Our friends the Petersons came over again and we trick-or-treated downtown.  Sadly Lee was already scheduled to be in South Carolina for continuing education.  So Clark handed out candy at his office. We did full size candy bars this year.  About 550?  I bought over 700 but we handed some out at the office and I gave some out to the kids and friends on Halloween.  Clark ran out in an hour.

Fun times trick-or-treating!

Three places gave out ice cream for free!!!  So yummy!

The marshmello guy was jamming to music.  It was fun.

Clark did a great job handing out candy. Future eye doctor?

I love seeing at the people out.  It was a bit chilly, but a fun evening!

More ice cream.

We even got to see a train.  Which happens a lot here actually.

We ended the night at the Garden Spot roasting marshmallows.  Love this part!

We headed over to Dairy Queen for candy, and they got ice cream!

That night we took off for Indiana! I had a good drive.  Happy Halloween!  A fun night of the year!

Cooking, Farm and Brain Fun

My sister Lena is really good about having her kids cook every week.  They each take turns being "chef" and choose what they will eat, help grocery shop, and then cook the food.  I have done this a little with my kids and recently picked it up again.  Elden was chef and we made homemade meatballs to have with spaghetti-not homemade.

I had fun at the beginning of October putting together some goodies for my college nieces and nephews.

Lee and I talked about painting the inside of the front door for awhile.  One evening I just did it haha. 

My friend Tara hosted a fall lunch.  We invited a few ladies and I brought apples, homemade caramel and some pumpkin crumble cake.  Not sure what it's called. I labeled it pumpkin delight. It's like a pumpkin dump cake though.  And SO yummy!  Especially cold.

I kept going with the door!  Just one coat left!


Ta-da!  Done!

My kids like to make things here and there.  Haley is great at making this yummy chocolatety fudge stuff with cocoa powder, and Cal made these yummy cocoa balls. 

Shanna had a desire for a pumpkin roll one day so we made that happen.

It turned out great!

Haley's work...chocolate and caramel.  YUM.

I did a Relief Society temple trip to the Philadelphia temple. Our friend Paige brought lunch for everyone.  It was delicious!

Shanna and her best friend Cortyln.  One Sunday when we had Sunday School, we left after sacrament meeting and drove to Franklin, WV so Shanna could see Cortlyn.  We arrived right in time for their sunday school so we didn't miss any church!

This is for Reed.  He loves hockey.

And when do you see an Ely license plate?

Elden participated in three school choir--elementary, middle and high school.  Very fun!

Grilled chicken and roasted butternut squash.  Oh yeah!

I did a little craft thing with the kids.  It was kind of random, but they got to fill up the jars with candy and put the popsicle sticks in the jar. On the popsicle sticks they wrote down a couple of ways they were going to serve people and also a couple of goals they want to accomplish.

Shanna dressing up for character day....she was a nerd.

I was able to go on a field trip with Shanna and Haley to Back Home on the Farm.

Shanna, Haley and I were on a team for the corn maze.  We cheated and used the map.  But Haley rocked the map!  We were the first people out.  Though we weren't first place, or the fastest time, because we were the third group in.  They staggered the start times.  A group that went in after us came out soon after we did.  But still, it was fun to be the first group out.

Haley's fun creation.

Now on to the brain part of the post.  The girls had their big brain study appointment this fall where they had an MRI scan.  We went up when school was out.  Lee came as well.  He dropped us off at the study then went up to the Philadelphia Temple.  He got back before we were done.  It worked out great.  Traffic wasn't that great on the way home and I missed the correct exit.

They give us lunch at the study and they pay us as well.  Shanna and Haley earned all of their money they needed for Christmas and then some!  I earned $300.  Lee and I split $200 of it. My $100 "play money" ended up going to gas money.  I never spent any on anything fun.  Oh well.  I should have budgeted better for gas that month!  We had a lot of little trips.

On they way home Lee told me a story that a 94-year old lady shared about getting and inflatable bra when she was younger.  No clue those existed!  Especially back in the 40s or 50s!  Or whenever it was!  She was on an airline with a Spanish speaking crew.  Well, with the lack of pressure or whatever, it made her bra expand.  And it kept expanding and burst.  The plane had to land and after getting someone to help interpret, they realized it wasn't a bomb.  The lady later got a $400 bill for an emergency landing fee.  It was pretty funny.  Lee told this to me on the way home from the brain study.  The girls heard me laughing and were asking what was funny.  I told them never mind but they kept persisting.  I told them it would be an embarrassing story.  Haley stopped protesting but Shanna still wanted to know.  We gave a cryptic story about a bra popping.  Shanna said "How can they pop? Bras don't pop!" It was hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing. Lee ended up telling the whole story.  It was so so so funny.  Had to be there I guess!