Trick or Treat!

Alyssa as an 80's punk rocker

Courtney as an artist/painter

Alyssa with one of her BFFs

With Melanie & Cohen (who's so excited he's blurry), ready to head out trick-or-treating! 

October Traditions - Family Halloween Party

Every year we head to Melanie and Ben's house for our annual Halloween party.

The mysterious Count always leaves the ingredients to make a batch of Squished Witches

Everyone has to take a turn stirring while saying his or her name backwards.  (Even Cohen and Karli took a turn.)

Exhausted parents Craig and Joanna

Melanie always makes awesome treats - check out these super cute cake pops!

Then it's time to carve pumpkins...

The kids & their pumpkins

October Traditions - Carving Pumpkins

(Jason doesn't usually dress up to carve pumpkins; he had just walked in from meetings after church.)

Jordan's pumpkin involved lots of scoring to give it a nice 3D effect.

Alyssa's is the bat at the top; Courtney's is the Kirby; and Jordan's is the giant eye.

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...