All the Other Fun

All these fun things didn't fit with any other post, so here they are together.

We were invited to eat popcorn and hot chocolate, while we watched a movie outdoors.  It was very fun, if a little cold.

Gracea and Juliet dressing to match Blaire and Molly while the nightgowns still fit. = )

Alice found all sorts of decorations over the summer and wanted to do some decorating this fall.    It was fun to find some seasonal surprises everywhere. = )

Sometimes I eat all the food groups for lunch, not super often, but it sure is pretty!

Kennedy got to come over on a short Wednesday one time, and the girls loved having her!

Not long after that, we got to hang out with Zoey at Pizza Hut.

I was watching a show, in Spanish, that is called High Seas in English, and this image was too perfect.  I had to pause it and take a very skewed picture of it, so that I could remember it forever.

Grace and Juliet were working on their face painting skills, on one another.

I added this to the "reasons we can't have a pet" folder in my mind.  I would be so tempted to spend soooooo much money on adorable, unnecessary things.

I scored almost 10lbs of sirloin ground beef for really cheap, since it was marked for clearance.  I came home and cooked up most of it for future meals, but made a meat loaf and meat pie that day.

The meat pie came out so pretty!  Sadly, I didn't even eat any fresh, but did eat plenty as leftovers. = )

My mom treated the kids to Arby's snack shakes.  $1 a piece, which might crack up all you distant future readers of 2122! ; )

Grace picked out a clearance chocolate 'haunted' house kit.  Think gingerbread kit, but Halloween themed.  It refused to stand out, so she used yellow ribbon to declare it a disaster.

Starbucks and Biggby both did away with their Eggnog lattes for the season (and they are my favorite!!)  So, when I spied the lineup of Eggnog that Kroger has, I was excited.  I've been spoiled all season now. = )

It was 75F, in November, in Michigan.  When the kids wanted to do a water balloon fight, I told them to go for it.  I wasn't personally going anywhere near it, but they seemed to have fun.

Despite having a Panera near two areas that I frequent, neither of them are convenient.  So, when I get a craving for their sausage, kale, and bean soup, I make my own.

It tastes so, so good, but makes a ton, so I share with my mom and then freeze it in small portions so that I can have it for lunches. = )

Grace drew a family of penguins. 

The twins dressed up a balloon, for some reason. 

A happy milk lid was occasion for a picture, apparently.

A new Christmas started advertising months ago and finally was available to watch!

Right before Thanksgiving break, the big girls had a snow day, Grace had been sent home school on Thursday, ill, and then threw up at home, Juliet lasted less than an hour into Friday before her teacher called me to come grab her.  So, on the Friday before Thanksgiving break, I pulled a perfectly healthy William and we started our weekend early.  The big girls still had school Monday and Tuesday, so it wasn't quite break for them yet, but we spent the day relaxing at home.

One Sunday, Emily agreed to play my Sherlock game with me.  She didn't finish the round, but it was nice to play with her for a bit.  Luckily, I can play it as a single player game too. = )

For years and years, Grace and Juliet have wanted a play kitchen (we had one when they were very small, but got rid of it to make room for all the double baby things we needed.)  I am so excited to present a folding kitchen to them this Christmas!!

Grace loves seeing her friend Zoey and made a countdown chain until she saw her!  Sadly, this event had to be cancelled, because she and Juliet were slow to recover.

Emily also felt poorly at some point, though not during the Thanksgiving break, at least as far as I can remember.

My mom had me put together some hanging towels for my Grandma, when I was taking a picture of them, I had a cute little photo bomber.

Blaire and Llama each got a stocking this year, to match Molly's.

Speaking of llama, his leg broke this year.  He still sings and tries to dance, but the best we could do for him was to give him a cast. = (

I bought some corn flakes to make cookies one night, and on the box was a chicken tenders recipe.  I also saw a cute little picture of banana and strawberry skewers cross my newsfeed, so that made for a very lazy, easy, well-received dinner. 

While we were at the mall with Juliet, I came across a stash of Pusheen goodies.  Alice wanted a "Pusheen Box" as her big gift this year.  So, now when I see it I stop and look.  They had an adorable container of mini marshmallows called "meowshmallows," but it was $5!!  I asked my mom to keep any of her spice containers that might empty in the near future, but when I stumbled upon this tupperware container at the thrift store for 75 cents, I thought, that would be perfect to make one for Alice!  I actually like it better than the instore version.

Emily has been a bit harder this year than usual, so for her I'm customizing a hat that I bought online with her team and a sewn in pocket.  I've got the pocket made, but I'm still feeling a bit apprehensive about cutting into the hat to install it, especially since I've already finished the embroidery.

For our MOPS meeting next time, we are doing a gift exchange.  They asked us to bring 3 (of the same item) that we consider a favorite thing, that costs under $5.  I immediately thought of my cord wraps.  I seriously use them for everything!  As I pulled the materials out of their storage places, I had a wave of self-doubt, do I really love these or am I just being cheap?  As I began to cut the pieces out, I thought to myself: I love this fabric (it was from the stash that Christin sent me from Germany many years ago) I think I'll make one for myself too. lol.  Well, I no longer feel guilty or cheap. I may still include some candy or treat to make it look a little more appealing.  They came out so cute though!

 later days

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

MOPS Service Project 2022

Are we doing this once? more than once? if so, how frequently?  (every four months?)

Nursing Home Care Packs:

-kid art

-socks

-lotion

-puzzles/games

-lip balm

-hot water only food? (chicken broth, hot chocolate, etc.)

-denture cream?

-batteries for hearing aids?

-shaving cream

-otc medicine

-blankets

-headphones

Birthday Boxes (who is our recipient?):

-lots of signed cards

-streamers?

-balloons?

-gift cards?

-cake mix, frosing, oil, candles?

 Baby Shower in a Box:

-diapers

-nursing supplies

-formula

-cute outfits

-teething supplies

-sash/special designation for expecting mother

-card or book signed by all that helped put the box together

Laundromat:

-quarters

-dryer sheets

-detergent

-softner

-activity?

Bible Mail Mystery:  Thinking that they would be short (2-5 minutes) to figure out.  Could send one clue a week and solution in week four to round out the month?  Could figure out a way to make it digital? 

For small child:

In this Old Testament story we learn about God's loving redemption and a promise that he made to all mankind.  Can you name the story?

Clue #1: the number 2 is very important in this story.

Clue #2: the obedient man's name is an anagram of HONA.

Clue #3: this story is found in the 7th chapter of Genesis

or for older kids:

Clue #1: the word in Hebrew is mabbul, and it means "a lot of water."  It is critical to this story.

Clue #2: Shem, Ham and Japeth are named characters in this tale, but their father is the primary character.

Clue #3: A rainbow helps us to remember the promise of God at the end of this story.

2nd Week of November

246th Day of Quarantine.

The high today was only 43F, but it was sunny, so we went out to the cross country trails by the high school to take some Christmas pictures.  I'm not convinced that we got "the" picture, so we will try again during Thanksgiving week, maybe.

We might end up with one of these, depends on how the next ones turn out.

For dinner we had leftovers, with fresh made green beans.  The green beans were a big hit. = )

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245th Day of Quarantine.

The high today is staying chilly, at 49F.

For dinner we had Bob Evans chicken tender meal.

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244th Day of Quarantine.

The high today was warmer than yesterday, but there was frost on the ground and it was a cold 51F.

We finished out our first week of term 2, after 4pm.  I'm trying to help Alice play catchup in math, and we are finally to new material, so it is rush, rush and push push.

For dinner we had hamburger helper.  

I made my annual Mops apple pie, and logged in to the live feed this evening.  My table leader brought by the ingredients and recipe, and Billy grabbed the oats for me at the store when he went out for lunch.

I watched the penultimate episode of Supernatural.  I watched live, again, since I couldn't get into the MOPS virtual zoom.

It was a a bit of a let down, I hope the end of series does not disappoint.

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243rd day of Quarantine.

The high today was a cold (and usual) 46F.  Brrr.

Avia came over to eat birthday cake for breakfast with our birthday boy!  She stayed through most of our morning so that they could play with silly string during recess.

After math, they all played with a slime 'assortment' that William received as a sub part in a present for his birthday (from us.)  The kids all played in the bathroom, on an old shower curtain, and it still made a huge mess!  We ended up with impromptu showers for all. = /  I do not like slime.

We did set up tea and poetry this afternoon, but I told the kids that they are going to have to contribute more to set up and clean up if we are to continue.  I made a list for them to help out next week.

For dinner William requested teriyaki chicken and rice, so that is what we had.  No one else seemed to care for his twizzler cake enough to have some for desert, so hopefully he likes it a lot!

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242nd day of Quarantine.

The high today was 74F.

We finished the trebuchet in science, and it worked!

During reading time, we made the rain stick that Aunt Wanda sent, since we learned about the Hopi tribes and their rain rituals!

And we had shrimp and rice for dinner.

We also made William's 8th birthday cake, since this is his final night as a seven year old!

When we were decorating, Billy accidentally popped the giant 8 balloon, but we still put up many of the rubber ones, so it looked festive.

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241st Day of Quarantine.

We broke a weather record set in 1977 with a high of 78F!  It was nice enough to be out without a jacket.

Avia came by during recess today, to pick up some boxes of returnables and say hi.  I also sent her with the remaining meatball meal that Billy made last night.

We worked ahead a little in science, making the base for the trebuchet that we were not scheduled to make until tomorrow.  This gave it time to properly dry before we start using it to fling rocks.

After school Grace and I went to pick up her replacement glasses frames, and get a new screw put in William's frames.

For dinner we had Tikka Masala, complete with naan and hummus from horrocks! = )  

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240th Day of Quarantine.

Today the high was a lovely 74F.  We opened the window, on November 8th!!! because when I went to take out the trash it was warmer outside (71F) than inside (68F.)

After online church, I went to a later than usual appointment, since my regular timeslot was already taken! = (  It wasn't awful, I went at the very beginning of my time.

For my "birthday" dinner, Billy made a Gordon Ramsey meatball recipe, with fresh ingredients we picked up at Horrock's.  It was soooooo good.  He served it on giant noodles, which are not my favorite, but made it better for the kids. = )

I spent my extra time (not cooking) working on William's birthday shirt. I'm still waiting on the actual shirt, but it should be here soon!  I cut out the old adidas logo, and I'll do my best to make it look like his roblox avatar! = )

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later days