This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Charlie definitely had the most Halloween activities out of the three kiddos. Between Joy School, play group and wearing costumes to the Children's museums, I can't believe his Target costume held up. First was the Joy School Party:

 Even Batman needs to pick his nose from time to time.

 REALLY cute. Thanks Jenn for the photos!

This year we carved pumpkins with our German neighbors who had never done it before. We did it a little late in the evening so we had a few crying meltdowns, but our jack-o-lanterns turned out cute:).

Here is Charlie with our neighbor Tilly. These two really loved the pumpkins!

 Noah did everything himself. He spent so much time carving away with the safety knife. I couldn't let him use any of our scary serrated kitchen blades. I myself am barely safe with those!

Noah did a great job! He mad a pirate with an eye patch. Presley and I made the witch, but we had to perform a little nose job on her. She still looks great, eh?

Cousins Porter and Elinor came to visit us for the weekend. We did as much as we possibly could in a three day period.

We went to Salem to visit the witch museum, go to haunted houses, and eat carnival food...

We went to gorgeous Walden Pond where Porter took our family pictures for us...

PK and Elli were besties:)

 The highlight was taking to the cobblestones and trick or treating in Beacon Hill.

 We had Batman (Charlie), Ariel (Elinor), a dead princess (Presley), and a skeleton knight (Noah)-my older kids like to be scary!

 

Serious business

It was so late by the time we got home-or at least it felt so late, we all went straight to bed before looking through the candy. Before school yesterday, Noah made his tallies. I don't dare sneak pieces of candy from his bucket. I'm sure he has a mental list of how many of everything he has!

Grandparent visit

I have so many things I want to blog about. The kids are doing and saying things that are hilarious or just fun to see and I am getting that anxious feeling. These things need to be recorded or they are lost forever!! A giant cell phone photo unload and post would really give me some peace of mind right now! Alas, that will have to wait for another day. More urgently, I wanted to share some photos of Josh's parents' visit last weekend. 

Our family is experiencing some interesting changes and prepping for more to come. The main thing is that Josh got a new calling (or job) at church. Josh's parents came out to Boston to be there for Josh becoming a High Priest and now serving in our Bishopric. It was such an amazing experience to have them here and to see Josh get ordained. --Sorry for all the Mormon jargon to those not of our faith. It was also nice to have people express their appreciation for our family to Josh's parents.

The kids just basked in the presence of the grandparents. Al and TK just came back from a Middle Eastern cruise. They had great stories and brought the kids souvenirs from Turkey.

^Here is Presley wearing her Tukish princess hat. Noah got a freaky knife that looks really tough. It was fun bringing that one to school for show and tell. I brought it straight to the principal for permission and he did a gasp/laugh when he first saw it.

So happy. The kids made leaf collages, cleaned there room and wrote welcome signs in the house for grandpa and grandma.

Since Al and TK were here for such a short time, we pulled the kids out of school on Monday and had them come with us to John Adams' house. I babysat that day too so we took the little guy with us.:)

Josh's dad is reading the book, John Adams, so this was especially fun for him. I loved the stories about him. There is something cool about walking on hallowed ground where powerful historic events took place. John Adams went from wanting to be a farmer, to going to Harvard, to becoming a teacher, then a lawyer, then an ambassador, then our second US President. (If you can't tell, I'm no historian, but I am learning and wishing I paid more attention in high school!-boys were way more important!!

 

Here is John and abigail's home after they returned from living in France where everything was nicer and more extravagant. 

 The interior layout was really cool. They had little bells in each room that led to the kitchen so the maids would know which family member needed something.

Josh''s dad left to go back to work and TK stayed an extra day. She helped watch the kids while I did photo sessions. Pres came down with a fever and stayed home from school so it was such a blessing to have an extra set of hands. I did a photo session in Beacon Hill and TK and Pres had a little lunch at a cute cafe. I'm so glad PK got the chance to have quality time with grandma TK. Thanks again guys for coming. We had a blast!

Yesterday

Josh and the kids were home for the day on Monday to celebrate Columbus Day. Josh an I got to spend the morning at the temple. It was so wonderful. It kept reminding me of my wedding day and we had such a great time.

Later on we got the kids and chilled:

We walked to Harvard Square, hung out at the Harvard Bookstore for a good hour, got some Slurpees, and went to Cambridge Common. 

 Fall is in the air! We aren't in full color just yet, but it is coming. Check my photo blog in a week or so. :)

 Josh and the kids had races. It took a couple of minutes till we realized we were in the middle of an ultimate frisbee game. Whoops.

 We kept picking berries and throwing them at each other. It's all about love with us, ya know? :)

 It was HOT. Weird for October. We spent some time at the Science Center fountains to cool down.

I so LOVE that Josh gets holidays off. It is a humungous plus to life after school. There is a definite day off and day on. I don't have to be as flexible and go with the flow on his schedule. So nice.

Little Scientists

Sorry for the lack of updates. We have been busy around here. I am teaching Joy School at the moment. This means for three weeks straight I will have five kiddos at my house twice a week. I also started a new job. I am going to be a nanny for one of Charlie's little buddies twice a week. The sooner we can pay off student loans, the better! This economy is not going to get any better for at least a couple years (so my inside sources tell me;)

Anyways, here is some of the Joy school fun for this week:

We got messy! We are studying the earth and nature. we started this week with seeds and plants and moved on to animals. We used seeds to make bird feeders out of pine cones.

We mixed flour, cornmeal, and water to make a paste. Then pasted sunflower seeds into the pine cone crevices.

 I think it was the squirrels who liked these the most.

Apples of my Eye

Charlie and I met up with our weekly play group to go apple picking recently. This is one of the many New England traditions that I have really grown fond of. This year, Charlie and I had so much fun. We have gotten into our own little system together that is working for us. We are total buds.

Being at the orchard, though really made me miss this little Miss.

...and this little dude. 

 I realized that while I've been in Boston, I've watched my kids grow up. These are the best memories of my life. I am (need to be) determined to live it to the fullest. Ten years from now I am going to laugh at the memory of my 32 year old self. Why did I sweat the small stuff like dishes, the ant trail that's formed under the dining room table, the endless loads of laundry that can't seem to stay folded... Sometimes you just need to ignore it and watch the end of Star Wars: A New Hope with a little buddy. These days won't last forever. Sniff.

When Charlie says "cheese" it looks like he's snarling at the camera!

I have to admit, we associate with some cute people too. 

Class is in Session!

 Here I go again! I am back in the saddle of teaching joy school as preschool to my little one and buddies. I still can't believe Charlie is even old enough for pre-school. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. This time around we are teaching three weeks straight of Tuesday and Thursday classes for three hours each. I don't know what I was so worried about now though. After my first day (today) I was feeling like a rockstar teacher! :) I'm sure it was because of the groundwork laid by those that taught before me, but wow! I got through so much material. I think Charlie actually knows what the Earth is. I didn't think a tiny guy could grasp that (who knows to what extent he gets, but still...) We had a lot of fun and the time whizzed by. These were great kiddos. Here they are at lunch:

I forgot how much I loved the "Earth" unit in Joy school. We went on a nature walk and collected leaves for our pretty collages. It's so fun that little kids force you to stop and smell the roses. They are so interested in examining everything. We are starting to get some great color on trees out here. Mainly yellows, the reds are coming though. I have to credit my friend, Lindsey for teaching me to make these. This kids loved it and I adore how they look hanging in my windows. The lesson said to do this just on construction paper or poster board, but I like this method way better. It's like leaf stained glass.

How to:
SUPPLIES

• contact paper- near the kitchen scrubbers and dust pans at Target
• scissors
• leaves

WHAT TO DO (self explanatory, but here it is anyway!)
Collect the leaves. Then cut two rectangles of contact paper roughly the same size. Peel one rectangle from its paper. Place the leaves in a pretty way on the paper. Peel the second rectangle from it's paper and stick that sheet on top of the other with the leaves. Trim the edges to remove excess leaves hanging out or uneven sides. Hang on your window an enjoy!

Summer Trip part 7: Noah's Baptism

One of the biggest events of our trip to Utah was at the very end when Josh joined us on our trip and baptized Noah. In our church, children are baptized at age 8. Turning eight years old is a big deal.:) We had been noticing Noah grow and mature so much in the past few months. He is more perceptive and aware of others and their feelings. He is more helpful and conscientious in his decision-making. I was baptized when I was eight and my brother-in-law, Richard baptized me. It was really cool that Josh could be the one to baptize Noah. Noah looks up to him so much. I couldn't think of a better person for my kids to look up to.

 Such a great day!

Denise made another awesome cake for the occasion. Noah chose a favorite Book of Mormon story that we kind of tied in as a theme. It was about Samuel the Lamanite. The story is about a person in Ancient America who was standing on a wall getting shot at by arrows. Samuel's faith kept him safe from getting hit by the arrows. I gave a short talk and mentioned Noah's great faith and ability to dodge life's arrows. 

We had an amazing meal with almost all of the Utah family. 

 We gave the little guys lots of red punch!

Here is our group. Thanks for coming guys. It was such a special night.

On a side note: Noah's one request for a family activity was for all of us to play capture the flag together after the baptism. Noah loves competitive games like that. He's got a huge sense of adventure. A storm was rolling in and these dark clouds made it dark earlier than expected. We decided to play anyways in the dark. We played at a park that was in Josh's parents' housing development so it was a block away from the house. It turned out that Noah's team didn't win the game. We all rounded up the kids and Noah went home a little ahead of the group. We got inside and started chatting. I wanted to check on Noah to make sure he wasn't upset about losing and I couldn't find him anywhere. I searched the house for like five minutes. I got really nervous and the guys went out in the neighborhood and started searching for Noah. After a minute or so (which seemed like a eternity) Noah was found a few blocks away! It turned out that Noah to lost in the neighborhood which is very maze-like. He was got pretty scared and was crying when we found him. When we brought him inside he told us that the bishop who was overseeing the baptism an hour earlier had found him after Noah had said a little prayer. Not to get too mushy or anything, but I was so grateful Noah felt like he had someone to turn to when he was scared. Noah felt that his prayer was answered and I believe it was too. We feel very blessed to have God in our lives.