October Traditions - The Pumpkin Patch

We discovered this farm when Courtney was in preschool and have been coming back every year since.

We've taken a picture in this same spot every year.

(This was also the only picture of Jordan I was allowed to post.)

Back to Blogging with Back to School

Not sure what happened to the summer, but suddenly it was time to go back to school. (I don't think any of us were ready.) It's a big year with Jordan (9th grade) starting high school and seminary, and Alyssa (6th grade) starting middle school. Even Courtney (4th grade) ended up at a new elementary school since we moved this summer.

Extreme School Supplies

The assignment for Language Arts: Create a 3-D container to hold the poems written during a recent poetry unit. The only specification was that it needed to reflect something about the student. Since he loves to draw, Jordan immediately thought of making a big pencil.

While other kids did shoe-box sized creations, Jordan always thinks a little bit bigger. "Big" for him translates into something in the 6-feet range...

Jordan with the final product. He started with two mailing tubes, and it grew from there. The supply list includes lots of cardboard, posterboard, newspaper & glue for paper-mache, mod podge, a fishing weight, velcro, tape, and lots of paint.

He created the eraser on a hinge with a pocket inside the pencil to hold the poems.

I'm just happy to have my kitchen back. The giant pencil took 10 days to create. Extreme creativity comes with a price.

Spring Soccer

Another soccer season has now come and gone...

Despite what the record books say, it was a good season. Alyssa even ended up on the same team as her best friend from dance. She had lots of support from her fans, too...

Like a cute cousin (and his parents)

And a best friend from church (who came to almost EVERY game!)

And an aunt and uncle (and future cousin) with their oversized soccer chair

(Seeing Courtney in the chair shows just how big that chair is! And yes, it has six cup holders.)

Even grandparents came all the way from Utah to catch a game this season. =) And it's a good thing Alyssa has so much outside support. It helps offset what she gets from her attentive siblings...

Not a Good Day to be a Frog

But no worries... Once the novelty wore off (less than an hour later), the frog was released back into the wild (a.k.a. the backyard). And it should be noted that this frog fared much better than the one Jordan accidentally ran over with the lawn mower earlier that day.

Easter Party

Whenever there's a holiday, we get to celebrate with a family party at Melanie and Ben's house. The Easter celebration includes dinner...

...and an egg hunt (where the kids get enought candy for ten children)

...and dyeing eggs (Note: it was much more fun than Court's face makes it seem.)

...and creative treats courtesy of my talented sister. These "eggs" are actually cupcakes!

Same with these! (Now this is how I like my veggies...)

Birthday Backup

I was going through pictures on the camera card and realized I never posted pics of the Mattingley men on their birthdays this year (both are in February). Neither of them will actually care about this oversight, but for the sake of trying to keep the blog (a.k.a. our digital scrapbook) up to date, here's proof we did celebrate their birthdays...

The cake would probably be on fire had we used the correct number of candles. Let's just say the single candle represents "one" year left until the big 40!!!

Can he really be 14??

We interrupt this birthday celebration to answer a text. Typical teenager!