Naperville's Riverwalk

November 4th came with a day off of school for the boys. I got to attend parent-teacher conferences in the morning. We then ventured over to pick up Emma from preschool where she showed off her brothers to her teacher. After lunch, I had to get us out to enjoy this gorgeous weather, so we headed down to the riverwalk for some fun at the park, feeding the ducks, a stop at the local bookstore, and an ice cream stop. Despite the complaints of thirst and tired feet, we had a lovely day.

I have to explain this picture below. For those of you who don't know Evan, he's a funny kid. I have to tell him to stop reading encyclopedias multiple times a day. We've also banned the phrase, "Did you know...." He can't get enough information about anything and everything, especially animals. Well, while we were strolling down the path, he was explaining to me that if a goose ever tries to attack you, you just raise your arms up in order to increase your size and they'll be intimidated by you. He was not being attacked at this point by anything, but I think it was all preliminary--just making sure nothing tried to question his superiority. :)

Evan, you crack me up!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! What a great day! Each child got to parade around their schools and have fun with everyone dressed up. It's so fun to see all of the different costumes. I love the creative, surprising ones. Braxton was invited to trick-or-treat with a good friend of his, so that made his day. The other boys stuck together while Emma and her friend Megan trailed along. Lizzie was basically carried between houses, since her little legs don't run as fast as the big kids'. We LOVED trick-or-treating this year because it was so warm! We have never been able to go out without coats, hats, and gloves. What a treat for us!

The girls were so cute encouraging Lizzie to continue walking. She kept wanting to stop and eat the candy out of her pumpkin. Who doesn't?

Emma's preschool class after the parade.
The carved pumpkins. This was a feat. We did these for FHE the Monday prior to Halloween. Steve helped gut the pumpkins while the kids chose or drew what they wanted and I carved. From left to right, they are Evan's, Emma's, Carter's, and Braxton's. I saw a special on DIY saying that if you carve your pumpkins early, you can keep them looking good and mildew-free by keeping them hydrated, so I bathed these pumpkins in water 3 times last week trying to keep the battle ax from drooping and the skeleton's face from crumbling. It worked!

Emma's Halloween Party

Last year, one of Emma's good friends had a very fun Halloween party. She talked about it for days! This year, she wanted to have it at her house so I crazily acquiesced. We had a wonderful time! For lunch, we had hot dogs (that dressed up as octopus), tater tots, popcorn, string cheese, and apples. We played tons of games, decorated cookies, danced, and laughed. It's so much fun to dress up and pretend you're a princess. Lizzie even tried to get in on the fun!

The Monster Mash

Relay games

Eyeballs on spoons

Picture perfect!

Isn't it amazing that every girl came dressed as a different princess? What is funny is that at Emma's birthday party, every girl (same group) came dressed in a sleeping beauty dress. It made for marvelous pictures! Aren't they darling? Emma is so lucky to have such fun friends who love to have fun!

Apple Picking and Family Bonding

Aunt Julene and Uncle Ryan Stoianowski (Steve's sister and cute hubby) came to visit us from Michigan for some literal family bonding. They were sealed in the temple! What a wonderful, spiritual experience it was for us to be able to be there with them. We are so proud of them and are excited for their family as it grows in size and in strength. We love having them come and can't wait until we get to visit again. To start the day, we all piled in the van and drove out to Jonomac Orchard. We got to pick 5 different kinds of apples, eat some delicious appley treats, and savor the homemade fudge. YUM! Emma, especially liked the Apple Cider Slushy.

Lizzie was patient with me as I got one more pose out of her. She is one of the "apples in my eye". Corny, I know, but I had to say it.

Grandpa and Grandma Bird joined us for the fun occasion. It's always fun to have grandparents around. Grandpa reads great stories, keeps us laughing, and Grandma always helps with dishes and my mending that seems to pile up. Thank you!

Emma liked picking the fuji apples best.

It was so fun having this time with Dad and his family to be outside with all of the beautiful colors. We did miss the boys, though. Maybe next year we can visit the orchard on a Saturday when they have their "apple launcher" running.

Trunk-or-Treat

This weekend was our ward's annual Trunk-or-Treat. Being the Activities Committee Chair, I was in charge, but did have lots of help from the Primary. It was a lot of fun. The food was great, we had 10 fun games with great youth volunteers, and the kids got candy. What more could you ask for?:) Steve and I decided to go as a couple this year, so to work with the physical attributes both of us have, we decided to go with the Flinstones. Since, the decision was made the day before and we require more material than store-bought costumes provide, I had the privilege of sewing this year. I think they turned out fantastic. As I was driving the kids over to the church for the main event, the car ahead of me had 2 kids in the back who turned around and couldn't stop STARING! I smiled and waved. The girl enthusiastically waved back with a huge smile! It was fun to be a red head for a few hours. You turn a few heads.:) Anyways...I do need to publicly thank my sweet mother-in-law who helped me sew Braxton's costume. Thanks, Mom! You were a life saver. You gave me the confidence to continue on my own!
Left to right: Indiana Jones, Eli Manning, Tom (from Braxton's favorite series called

Beast Quest), Pebbles, and Belle.

Meet the Flinstones! Yabba-dabba-doo!

My gorgeous Belle

Could she be any cuter?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this doesn't show enough of the damage these two did to my bathroom in a matter of minutes. Monday morning as I was starting my laundry, preparing breakfast, and packing sack lunches, I realized that I hadn't seen my daughters come down from their room. They were already dressed playing with toys when I left them. Usually this means that Emma has sneaked into my room, shut the door (to keep her wrongdoings hidden and unheard), and turned on the TV. I went running upstairs expecting that scenario, when I was totally caught off guard. She had decorated herself along with my cupboards, tiles, the toilet, rug, etc. After my gasp, I asked her to stop, told her this was a bad choice, and made her stay put. To keep my cool, I figured I'd take a picture instead of yelling. By the look on Emma's face you can see how bad she feels. She wouldn't look up at me for the picture. Lizzie, on the other hand, continues to try to recreate the "masterpiece" that was made that day. Well, Emma was punished enough by me not washing her face immediately because...10 minutes later as we were eating breakfast, each brother took their turn in asking what happened to Emma's face and either laughing or shaking their head. Gotta love 'em! Hopefully, when we encounter make-up again, the lipstick will not make it above the eyebrows.

Science lesson

After lunch last week, we ran outside to jump on the trampoline since the weather was nice (we're counting the days). Within minutes the girls' hair went straight up. Emma kept laughing at Lizzie, and Lizzie kept trying to touch Emma's "spikies" (an Emmaism). We had a lot of fun jumping, learning about static, and soaking in some sunshine. I taught them how to play "1,2,3" and couldn't stop thinking about the countless hours my brothers and sister and I would play that game. Oh, those fun memories.