Halloween Time

It's Halloween again!

Time to decide what to be...

A ref.?

A PGA Tour player?

A Death-Eater?

Dorothy?

and the Witch of the.... Mid-West?


It's always fun as we try to decide who we're going to be. Maybe one of these years I'll be able to convince Kev and the kids to all go along with a "theme"! Maybe...I can dream :)I have to post this one twice, only because this was a first for me. This Dorothy costume was the first thing I've ever made, all by myself!!

Kaydie has wanted to be Dorothy ever since we went to the Oz Museum and she got the idea that red shoes would be an excellent thing to have. Making her a costume that would go with the shoes was definitely an experience, but I'm proud it came together as well as it did. At least I learned something new :)

As for the boys, we decided last year that we were going to simplify and cheapen Halloween so they had to be more creative. Preston was a nerd for his school party (I didn't get a picture of that). Then, he wanted to be something different for our Ward Halloween party. Palmer liked the idea of being a golfer which was great for me since that's a super easy costume, and Nick is now the third person to use our Death-Eater costume.

Halloween has been really different this year because it's on Sunday. We can't go trick-or-treating on Sunday, and out here people would think we were crazy if we showed up Saturday night, so Halloween was Friday night at the church. We had an excellent party with yummy food (Kevin won the Chili Cook-Off!), fun games and activities for the kiddos, a trunk-or-treat, and full candy buckets!

Now that all the Halloween festivities are over, we again get to look forward to another Thanksgiving visit from Grandma and Grandpa! Are the holidays really coming that soon ?!

fun stuff

Here is a look at some of the fun stuff we've been doing...

Church History Tour

First off a HUGE THANK YOU to Brent and Roseann for driving our truck back to us! It has been a total life saver. Because grandma and grandpa came for a visit we had to take them to see the sights. One of our favorites are the church history sights. We drove to Adam-Ondi-Ahman, you can see it in the pic with Preston in it. It's a cool place to visit when you know what it is, but to be honest, it's a little anti-climactic after a long drive. The area is beautiful though, the butterflies liked it, and knowing more about it's history and future makes it special. We also went to the Far West Temple sight. It is very pretty and neat to see the preserved cornerstones. On our last stop we went to Liberty Jail. Our tour last year was better than the one we had this time, but it is still an amazing place to visit. The bricks and lumber show how thick the walls were. It is amazing to think of the men who spent a freezing winter in that small jail/prison/cave. It is more amazing to read about Joseph Smith's perseverance in D&C 121. You should read it if you're ever feeling discouraged. I love going on the church tours, they are long, but fun days.

Air Combat Museum
While our grandparents were visiting we also decided to try out some new places. The weather was SO hot (115 degrees) so we had to find inside things. This museum was a lot of fun to walk through, it was only sort of air conditioned so we were still pretty hot.

Of coarse one of the favorites was a little toy plane, my favorite is the yellow plane that was named Jenny (shouldn't it be a boat?!). It was fun to get up close and personal with jets and helicopters, I want to go back again now that it's not as hot outside.



Oz Museum
This was a request of grandma's and Kaydie's. If you're ever in Wamego, Kansas you should give it a look. The kids had fun posing in front of all the displays. The museum is a large collection of everything and anything Wizard of Oz, movie facts, and movie scene displays.

We had so much fun with Grandpa Brent and Grandma Roseann. It was so fun to have them come out and see where we live, and enjoy spending time with them. We are so lucky to have parents that do so much for us!


Exploration Place, Wichita

The weekend before school started we decided to drive down to Wichita and check it out. We headed for Exploration Place which is another science type museum. We had a bunch of fun there. The yellow thing is a tube you can stand in that simulates standing in an F1 tornado. The kids thought they were tough taking on the wind! There was also the traveling exhibit "Grossology" where all the human body pictures come from. It is totally hilarious! You can learn about snot, burps, toots, and lots of other bodily functions. I like the nose at the top. We had a good time laughing at all the displays and interactive things, like making a guy burp, and pressing on tubes to hear why "toots" make the sounds they do. Exploration Place also has a medieval castle play house that kids can run around in and play knights and ladies, a huge exhibit of the history of flight which is really cool, live animals to see, and a killer view of the Arkansas River from the observation deck. It was a blast and we are excited for another trip there.

Old Cow Town Museum

This is a "living" museum, and we totally lucked out by going there on a special "Age of the Gunfighter" Day. It is an old town where you can experience what life was like in the 1870's. There are actors dressed up to make it all the more fun. We got to visit the saloon and try out sasaparilla, visit the bank, school, train station, general store, dentist/doctor's office, watch a real blacksmith at work, and see several gun fights, including a fast-draw contest. It was SO much fun. My kids have always been good at playing pretend, and the boys love being cowboys, so they were in heaven. The worst part was that it was another crazy hot day, but we are planning another trip at Thanksgiving, we're excited to see it all again.



Back to school

It happens every year, summer has to come to an end. This year we were ready for school to start again. Something new for this year is having the kids in different schools. It's a long story, but Preston needed something new; when we moved him, Palmer wanted to go too. So Preston and Palmer go to one elementary and Kaydie and Nick go to the same one as last year. It's hasn't been as crazy as you would think, and better than expected. Everyone is doing really well so far, so we're happy with the changes.

Another fun thing is Preston is going to be in a high school production of The Music Man. He brought home a note from school about auditions for kids to be in the children's band, and since he plays the trombone he thought it would be fun. He is really excited and just started play practice today. I'm excited for him to be able to try something new. It will be a crazy month or so, but I can't wait to see the play.

I feel like I'm always behind on this blogging thing, hopefully I'll catch up soon! I didn't realize how much stuff there was to talk about until I started looking at the pictures :) Life is as busy as it ever was, I can't believe we're getting so close to the holidays!?! But life is good, and we're having fun!