Halloween 2022

For the first time ever, we decided to host a trunk at the school's trunk or treat event.  The night before, we decided to do a test run for our set up.

Children peeking out, yep, that's how it actually looked. = )

The weather for the event was better than we could have ever expected.  Our little ones didn't spend much time at the car, but were out having fun at the event instead.  Billy had to run home about halfway through, since we were running low on candy and dead rocks!   The rocks went first, but thankfully we did have enough candy. = )

Halloween fell on a Monday, which is slightly annoying, but I had toothbrushes ready to go.  The hot chocolate bombs were more work than anticipated (they require hot milk vs hot water to make) so I won't be getting those again for a while.

Halloween night was such pleasant weather!!!  We stayed out the entire 2 hours, while Billy passed out candy.  At the end we had two buckets full of candy!!  It was crazy.

Seven was Shaggy this year, as William was Scooby.  He came over at the end of trick-or-treating for a photo op. = )

I hope that Halloweens from here on out are this warm, it would make the holiday much more enjoyable!

later days

edit: backdated for continuity

Leaves

For the past year, my mom and I collected rakes, so that the kids can all rake at the same time!   We managed to bring our total up to 6, but one of them is tiny, so we'll need to look this coming year, and probably one more for Billy too! = )

This was round 1:

In round two: all 5 are raking here, if you look very carefully. 

Alice did her allotment and was done.  Everyone else stuck around for a picture. = )

And then, what we woke to the next morning.  bleh.

So, we raked it again, but it was the final round.  A huge windstorm came through and pushed all the leaves against fences and into corners.  I'm clearing those areas slowly, but surely.  If I don't finish, they will stay until spring, and the small critters can use them as homes.

later days

edit: backdated for continuity. 

Cross Country: Emily's Final Race of the Season and Party

The final race of the middle school cross country season was at home, which meant we were finally able to see our girl in action!!

It was very windy and chilly, but that didn't keep us away.

One of the high school moms takes pictures, with a nice camera, of all the runners from the team and sends out a link, these were from her:

Emily ran hard, but did not beat her P.R.  She's already excited to try again next year. = )

We brought hot chocolate to share with the team, but many had already left by the time we made it back to the tent.

The party was a few weeks later at one of the 6th graders homes.  It was a much prettier day!

The hit of the party was for sure the ATV.  All 5 of mine (yep, even Alice) enjoyed being driven around by an 11-year-old. 

We didn't stay long, because it had been a busy week, but I think the kids enjoyed making an appearance.

later days 

edit: backdated for continuity. 

All the Fun! Part II

When I sorted through my pictures for Part I of this post, I must have been interrupted, because I was missing a few pictures that I knew I wanted to post.  When I went back through the folder, I found many pictures that I wanted to post.  So, since the previous post is all wrapped up and finished, I'm adding a second part that is separate, for no other reason than that I found more pictures I want to remember. = )

Alice's ID, well, all her pictures actually, had a typographical error.  I found it super funny, personally.  Honestly, I was tempted to leave it and just let her be Alice Crockov for the rest of her school days.  Ultimately, we got it corrected, but I still find it humorus. 

I always think that it's my last year with MOPS, but I think since it is my primary social time, I just need to accept that I'm going to be in it a long while.  Technically I'm in MOPS next, for the official record, since all of my children are older than Kindergarten.  I love the theme this year!  It's "We go together" and it is all about kindling friendships and maintaining old ones.  So far, I've loved all the media they've produced.

I had 15 minutes to run into Aldi and then go collect someone from somewhere.  This is what a trip for one single item looks like in rush. lol.

Speaking of Aldi, they had these laundry baskets, for about half of what I'd priced them out for, and so I did it.  I completed step of one improving my sanity.  Now, I just lay the clothes in the basket for each child as they come out of the dryer, and if they need something, they know where to get it.  If the basket gets full before they hang up their clothes, I start getting rid of things.  

Eventually I would like to have a rack put in, like the inspiration I saw many years ago, but I will need to find a new home for the coats and ski pants. So, it may be a few years.

I bought the ingredients to make baclava to bring to Steve & Natalie's housewarming party, but simply ran out of time.  So, I made it earlier this week and brought her some to try.

For spirit week, leading up to homecoming, Emily planned out each of her outfits.  We found a huge flannel at a yard sale, but were able to borrow a smaller one from Natalie, which looked much cuter.  She also picked out some cute boots to wear with the ensemble.  Alice decided on Tuesday to join in on the fun, by requesting a 'country' hairstyle.  I was very happy that she wanted to participate!

The next day was college day.  I have a pile of Texas Tech shirts that my mom has collected for me over the years, just for spirit weeks, but Alice ended up wearing one of the ones from my regular rotation (every week is spirit week for me!)  Emily found a cute flannel when we went back to the thrift store for a piece of her Halloween costume.  She was so excited about it, she didn't want to wait an entire year to wear it, so she wore it over her tech shirt the next day.

Autumn is in full swing.  While the days were fairly mild, we took care of many outdoor chores, including the first round of leaf raking!  

They are looking for sign-ups for Trunk or Treat at the little ones' school.  Now that my crew is older, I feel like I can finally be on the giving end!  

I searched the internet to see what cool things they had to pass out (instead of just candy.) While they have some nifty and interesting things, I can't help but think about how much junk is being put into the environment for the sake of novelty.   I wanted an alternative, and thought of something to bounce off of my children.

I asked the craftier of my children if they would help me paint "dead rocks" to pass out.  When they heartily agreed, we swung by our favorite landscaping place, and bought an entire bucket for $2.

We washed all of the rocks, then started to paint.

Grace worked really hard, but eventually started getting sillier and more creative.   So, we have several rocks that stray from the "dead rock" collection, but I think they'll find good homes just the same.

Even with 4 of us working (mostly) industriously, we did not finish decorating the pile.  So, on day 2 of painting, we managed to finish them all off.  Juliet and the rock were both dead by the end.

A few of the rocks that received extra paint:

Grace helped me take out my dead garden vines earlier in the week, so this will be my final garden update for the year.  My porch doesn't look quite as 'orange' as my imagination suggested, but I love my 3 pumpkins that grew!!!

Now I feel like all of our events have been covered.  We have many things coming up on the calendar, hopefully I can get them in the blog a little bit faster.

later days

All the Fun!

Aside from just school, and sports, and band, we've been having fun doing other fun things too!

Emily loved my school days book so much (when I was able to pull out my 8th grade (I don't know what happened to my 7th grade) class schedule from Jr. High to show them) that she wanted to make one for herself. 

We had collected a few things to make one ourselves out of a spiral, and my "secret plan" was to buy her a real one for Christmas.

Somehow, when we went to the thrift store that morning, she found one, barely used, written in only pencil, for 90 cents.  Y'all, this girl is soooo lucky!  So far, she's used fancy photo corners to put in past pictures, and collected all of her cross country tags and class schedule to slide in the envelope.

I found a new battery organizer!  My only complaint is the tiny button battery storage area, so I still have to keep my basket with those.  It is so much faster to grab what I need, and I really love the tester too!

We learned this year that chippunks climb bushes!

2 weeks after the little ones started, and one week after the big girls started, I had three sick ones home in one day!!!  They all rested and recovered quickly.

Then, I went down.  I was much slower to recover.  Once I tested positive, Billy had to test, and he had it to.  The Covid got us.  = (  It wasn't awful, and we all lived, but it wasn't fun.  It seems that Emily and William managed to escape completely or perhaps suffered the least.

Halloween decorations at Menard's make me curse my lack of outdoor plugs all the more.

We were at Menard's because Billy built me a raised bed garden to extend into next year!!!! I loved all of our cucumbers and tomatoes and onions and pumpkins, so we're going to do even more next year!

The ladybug colony loved sunning every morning when we were out on the playground waiting for school to start.

I found a heart shaped chip for Emily to present (the night before school started, judging by the pile of snacks on Juliet's computer cabinet.)

Once everyone had their lockers in working order at the big girls' school, students were no longer allowed to carry backpacks.  This was a point of annoyance for Emily, since she had to carry everything loose.  Apparently, this problem is prominent enough that 5 star makes a GIANT binder that can hold a chromebook, file folders, papers, and a pencil bag.   Sadly, they were sold out, of the color scheme of Emily's preference, online everywhere (except for double price on Amazon.)  I sent a plea to my mom and sisters and Avia delivered!!!  

It wasn't the navy and pink request that she sent to me, but grey and pink was good enough, that on day one she even dressed to match! = )

As a footnote, Alice has been offered the same, but has so far declined.

Juliet was so sad when her hoodie, whose service has been appreciated for several years, was too short in the sleeves.  We pulled out an old hoodie of Alice's, but there were still tears.  So, this picture was the goodbye small jacket, we love you picture.  The new hoodie has served her well so far. = )

As a family, we are rough on furniture.  The last free recliner, that we were gifted, served us for many years, but was slowly decaying.  It was to the point that the floor was more comfortable than the chair.  

Once again, Avia came to the rescue and found us a new recliner. It is not nearly as fancy, but its comfort is far superior.  After initiating it into our house, we put our old chair out for trash pick-up.  Since it was around Labor Day, trash was strange, so we let it sit out for 3 weeks before I called the village office to find out what needed to happen to get it picked up.  

Turns out, we had to pay a fee (not that big of a deal) but to even find out the price I was to create, yet another, account with the trash service*, which is a deal breaker.

So, I told William that he was on destruction duty, which was right up his alley. ; ) He spent many fifteen-minute rounds tearing up the chair, so that the pieces would fit into our trash can.  He did a fantastic job, but after he exhausted the easy bits, and I took some scissors to the upholstery, Billy had to step in with his Axe and finish it off.

Speaking of our little village, we have had two new art installations this year!  We missed the dedication of the first, though it is lovely, but we were able to go to the party that accompanied the second.  Well, some of us did.  Emily was at cross country, and so it was just Grace, and Billy and Me.

After listening to some live music, we headed to unveiling.

It is such a perfect piece, and I'm thankful that it was designed by someone who loves this village as much as we do.

I don't recall how Grace wanted her hair, but I recommended the clip going up against her skull, holding the braid.  Much to my surprise, it was still in place when she came home!!

Once of the saddest days of my year: winterizing my sandals.  I slather on the lotion, and it sits all winter, so that the water damage of the summer can heal a bit.  Looks like it's closed toed shoes for me for the forseeable future.

We attended our first school skate night since 2019? possibly 2020?  It was so.busy.  apparently, this was the first one they've had since the shutdown, and everyone showed up for it!  We were able to bring 4/5 pairs of skates**, share a pizza and have a lovely time.  We'd forgotten so many of the details, that we can't wait until next time so that we don't' feel like such noobs!

I don't know if it's being back among people we've missed, or just feeling like we're 'vested' in Michigan, but it's been a wonderful couple of months, despite any hardships^.  I'm feeling hopeful, despite the looming winter, I hope it sticks.

later days

 *the village provides trash service, so we don't have an individual account.

**I'm lacking a pair for Emily's size.

^like Emily's brutal afterschool cross country schedule, lol.

Dental Visits

This is the latest post in the series of William, grace and Juliet's journey with hypophosphatasia.

We have actually had 2 visits to the dental clinic down at UofM, since the last time I posted.

This visit was just a routine cleaning for all 3, that had been delayed at least once.  William and Juliet got good, boring reports.  Poor Grace has to go in for some cavity fillings that formed in her poor soft teeth (the same ones Juliet had in the past.)  That appointment is next week.

Today we went back, for William to check in with his orthodontist.  I failed to take a picture while we were eating our lunch, but we did eat in the courtyard, as is tradition.

No braces for our boy just yet, he has a few bottom teeth that need to come out first.  They are wiggly, so if he is able to wiggle them out before the appointment with the regular clinic comes up, they won't have to pull them.  If not, we'll make a trip down for them to pull those two teeth, sometime before his next orthodontic appointment, in 6 months.

My friend Jessica takes her child to the same clinic every 4-6 weeks, so I'm hopeful that maybe one day we can carpool to break up the long, boring drive!

later days

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