Trick-or-treat!

This morning was just another normal day since they don't dress up for Halloween at my kids' school.  I'm kind of glad, even though I think it's fun to wear costumes.  I don't want the kids distracted/scared/annoying all day or getting their costume dirty, ripped, or smelly.  The girls had little parties in their classrooms this afternoon and Elizabeth's class counted pumpkin seeds and ate some roasted pumpkin seeds.  There are plenty of ways to celebrate Halloween at school without worrying about costumes.  (Enough about that...)

After dropping them off, I went to a friend's house to borrow a tiny curling iron that I assumed she had because this morning as I went to fix my hair, I didn't have one little enough.  I was teaching preschool and wanted to be fully in character.  What was I?  Keep reading/glancing at pictures. =)

We had a great time at preschool making ghost windsocks, reading Halloween stories, and eating pumpkin bread.  Then I had to drop Olivia's lunch off at the school that she left in the car (but she didn't get the message and ate hot lunch instead.  Oh well!)

I met the girls at a friend's house near the school and they changed so we could go to a trick-or-treating event at a local outdoor mall.  

Here are the Ransom kids this Halloween.  Elizabeth and Olivia both decided to be witches again.  Vincent is Buzz Lightyear.  Abby is a little black cat.

 Our friend's daughter was a princess witch, so she fit right in with our witches.  Her brother was Link from the video game Zelda.

 Here are my cute witches while we waited for a candy line.  They both have on some green eye shadow and were so excited to wear makeup.

 My friend took a picture of me and the kids.  I love this one of Abby.  Can you tell who I am?

 We went to our neighbor's house to trick-or-treat and then she and her daughter went with us on our block.

 Andy got home from work and we set out to a friend's family soup party.  Any guesses?  It is a television couple.

 We went to see my Grandma Zora and Grandpa Gordon at their new place.

 And Andy's Grandma Ellen and Grandpa Paul before making a stop in Kennewick to Andy's boss's house where he always has us take a family group picture.

Then we went to Andy's parent's house to trick-or-treat too.  By then it was time for bed since there IS school tomorrow and we were wishing my parents still lived close to us, although the kids were SO ready for bed.
Do you know who Andy and I are?  Put your guesses in the comments.  We have our annual grown up Halloween party Friday night, so I'll let you know then if you are right.
Tomorrow is going to be a resting day before our party Friday and a little (I don't really do anything little...) kid party Saturday before our adult session of stake conference and Sunday's stake conference where a third stake will be created out of Richland and Kennewick Stakes.

Bikes and Pumpkin Whirlwind

Tuesday was a packed day.  After dropping the girls off at school, I came home to make a few phone calls.  I talked with a few people on Monday about bikes and picking them up Tuesday morning and made some plans.  (I met someone at a doctor's office near Costco Monday to pick up a child bike carrier seat for $10).  It has been a goal of mine to have bikes for our family to ride together and to teach our kids how to ride them.  Yes, we have very big girls who haven't learned yet.  They'll learn quick.

Tuesday after making the plan, I tried to get the backseat out of the van and couldn't quite get it out.  I did fold it down though.  As I was driving to the bank to get some cash, I thought to call a friend of mine who helped me out and let me leave my seat in her garage, which was great because it was raining.

I drove WAY out to North Pasco to pick up bikes for Elizabeth and Vincent.  The guy was selling both of them for $10.  When I called Monday he even offered them free to me and said that he just didn't want to put free on Craigslist.  I told him I would still pay him $10.  $5 bucks a bike is a decent enough deal already!

This one will be Elizabeth's bike with some tuning up.

 This one is Vincent's bike.  The back tire is hard so it won't get flat and the guy put caulking around the wheel so it wouldn't slip off the tire.  It's a grayish green color.

 From there I drove clear across Tri-Cities to the South side of Kennewick to pick up this $10 bike for Olivia.  Boy, is she excited that it's purple!

Then we went to the grocery store to finally get some Halloween candy, library, and back to my friend's house to pick up the seat, but she wasn't back from her errands yet, so we picked it up after Abby's nap.

Vincent LOVES, loves, loves these Megabloks.  He made a number four Tuesday.  He's going to be very pleasantly surprised on Christmas when he opens this (100 piece tower of Mega Bloks for $10 at Walmart. I picked mine up at the store today and they wrapped it up for me too!)

When I got home I put my great deal on facebook and that I still needed to find bikes for Andy and I. A friend of mine messaged me that I could pick up a bike for me she left at her house that renters would be moving into Wednesday and to go and get it if I wanted it, for free, in Pasco.
While Abby napped I made some soup in the crockpot for dinner, vacuumed, mopped, finished our ward newsletter for church, and lent a lion costume to a girl I used to teach in MiaMaids at church for her daughter.
Olivia had ballet and we took a boy who is in her grade at school and also in her class at ballet whose dad just had surgery and left them at the ballet studio while we hurried over to the West side of Pasco to get a bike for me.  It's a great one.  I didn't have time to take a picture of it yet though.  We had to go home to drop it off so there would be room to pick up the other two kids since I had to fold the seat down to get it in the van.  While I was there, I rescued her Sunday paper that was starting to get wet in the mailbox. =)  I dropped off something to a lady from church on our way back to the ballet studio.
We were back with five minutes to spare to pick Olivia and her friend up and take him home.  The kids are all excited about the bikes and cannot wait until they are all fixed up.
I made some French bread while the girls did some homework.
We ate dinner and Elizabeth went to Jujitsu.  Andy dropped her off and then went to give his Ward Mission Leader binder to the new Ward Mission Leader before going home teaching.  The other three kids had a bath and got in their pajamas and we picked Elizabeth up at Jujitsu.
Andy got home just before we did and was sewing his Halloween costume up.  I'm so glad he knows how to do those sorts of things!
We prayed and Andy put Abby to bed and I started the older three on pumpkin carving.  Nothing like the last minute, right?!
Elizabeth drawing the face on her pumpkin.

The face Vincent drew.  He said it was a mad face.  He also is convinced that his Sunbeam teacher lives AT the church and insisted that we need to go trick-or-treating there.  He's so much fun!

 Olivia with her drawing.

Elizabeth scooping the guts out.

I carved the lines Vincent drew on his pumpkin and then Andy put him to bed because it was time for me to go to a friend's house and go on a walk.  We had a lovely walk in 50 degree weather (which is perfect for walking fast).  Fun conversation too.  Elizabeth and Olivia finished their jack-o-lanterns without me (and still have all their fingers and no bandaids.  I knew I could trust them!)  I went to Albertson's after my walk to use some coupons with doublers and to get some bread and met a lady who gives food to homeless people who was super nice (obviously!)

I had the kids save all the guts in a bowl so I could roast the pumpkin seeds.  I hadn't ever done that before. They are pretty good.  I just salted them. Yum.  I also made pumpkin bread for preschool Halloween morning and to give to two of the ladies I visit teach who I haven't been able to see this month.  Read scriptures with Andy, cleaned the kitchen, made some lunches, read my scriptures late again, and prepared things for Halloween.
Whirlwind day.
I'm guessing that Halloween will be pretty busy too.
November 1st though, I am relaxing with a book and easy dinners!

Caught!

After a morning spent at a friend's house letting the kids play while we counted money for our PTA fundraiser of Jog-a-thon, Vincent and Abby came home, ate lunch, and Abby took a nap.

After her nap, we hurried over to Kennewick near Costco to meet someone who was selling a child seat that fits on the back of an adult bike.  I found it on Craigslist and it was just $10 and still in pretty good shape.  He lives further away, but had an appointment to go to, so I met him there.  All went smoothly and he was very nice.  We were thinking of getting bikes for Christmas, but since I don't want to spend enough for brand new bikes when I can get them so much cheaper, we are just going to get them instead whenever we find a great deal and then fix them up and ride them. I already made a call to two places on three bikes for a total of $20 that will be for our older three kids.  They are both holding them for me until Tuesday and then I'll figure out a way to pick them up.  $30 to outfit four kids to bicycle is pretty fantastic, when you can't buy even ONE bike brand new for that price, even though we'll have to fix some tires and clean them up.  I didn't even haggle to get those prices.  Thank you, Craigslist!  Now, I just need to look for bikes for Andy and I and we'll be all set.

When we got home, I was in the other room and Abby came in with two markers.  I went out and found this marker masterpiece of Abby's.  Luckily, the markers are washable.  I hardly buy markers that aren't washable anymore.

 She had a green and a blue marker.  Can you tell?

 It's a good thing I think she's cute, even when she's naughty!

 Here's the whole drawing.  You never know, maybe one day she'll be an artist.  I am glad this wall has a nice glossy paint that's easy to clean.

 I got out some baby wipes and put Abby and Vincent to work.  Vincent got the markers out and left them where she could reach them.

 They both kind of liked it, but it still needed some attention.  Abby had an extra nap after this.

After the girls got home from school, they played.  Then after Andy got home from work, I was making dinner and mentioned to him that if he had time he could clean the wall with the magic eraser.  Elizabeth got it before Andy did and took over.  Going, going, gone!

 She was a little surprised by how dirty the magic eraser was.

Elizabeth just wanted a hug as payment for her work.  SO nice.  That's a payment I'll gladly make!
We made some tissue ghosts for our FHE activity.  I think we'll carve pumpkins Tuesday night.

Boise Temple

I read a little about the Boise Temple Open House that was happening this fall because it was remodeled and after they remodel, there is an open house.  I thought that it would be fun to go, but we always have so much on our schedule to go and do that I thought it might not happen.  Then I noticed something rare, something very rare indeed.  A BLANK SQUARE on the calendar.  It just so happened to be a Saturday when Andy could drive us to Boise.  I asked my mom if she wanted to come with us since we had one extra seat in our rig.  My dad was working anyway and my mom came with us.  (She blogged about it here.)

We woke up super early so we could drive to Walla Walla and then go to Boise from there in time for our reservation at 2:40pm (1:40pm our time).  Andy and I got up at 5:30am to shower and left our house about 6:45am with a supply of breakfast, snacks, and treats, with jackets and a spare outfit for Abby, along with things to keep the kids busy on the trip.  It was still dark when we left our house and the sun was up by the time we got there.

When we got to Walla Walla a little before 8am, we took the kids out of the car so they could have a potty break.  I took Abby out of her seat even though I knew she didn't need a potty break and all of the sudden she threw up all of her cup of milk she drank on the way.  Ugh!  I do not know how other people handle kids throwing up all the time.  Ours do it so rarely that I hardly know what to do.  Luckily, motherly instinct kicked in and I held her out to puke on the grass in front of my parent's house and none of it got on me and only a little tiny bit got on Abby's coat which I quickly washed off in my mom's sink.

I was hopeful that it was just bad milk or drinking it too quickly in the morning or motion sickness or something, even though that hasn't ever been a problem.  However, another half hour or so later, she did it again with a banana that I thought (wrongly) would be okay to give to her.  So dumb.  It was disgusting.  Poor Elizabeth had to try her best to clean her up with baby wipes because we were on a narrow road and couldn't stop.  I cleaned her up a little later at a rest stop and then she fell asleep.  We didn't want to turn around, although I did think about it.

Abby slept for awhile and when she woke up I gave her a pretzel to snack on.  She kept her food down the rest of the day, but was pretty tired.  I think she and I may need to stay home from church because I don't want to take her to nursery very bad (and I'm sure others don't want that either) but I really do think it was just some morning thing since it's been hours and hours and she's been alright.  She is just much more mellow than normal. 

I'm so glad I decided to pack an extra outfit for her thinking she might make a mess of her snack!

We stopped and ate a quick lunch at Jack in the Box where Abby had chicken nuggets and fries and water and did just fine, so hopefully she is better!

We made it to Boise in plenty of time to go take pictures in front of the Temple before we went on our tour because cameras are not allowed in the Temple.  Here's Grandma Mary with Olivia, Elizabeth, Vincent, and Abby (in her contingency outfit).

Then we went to the stake center for a film explaining what happens in the Temple and what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believes in and why Temples are important before going over to have some youth put some little white booties over our shoes to protect the carpet in the Temple.  Abby didn't want them on her feet until everyone else had them and then she just had to have them.  The kids did very well not touching or talking inside the Temple and liked to look at all of the pretty mirrors and pictures.

Andy retrieved our cameras from the car so we could take a few more.  Here are my four kids in front of the Boise Temple.  They all have their eyes in the direction of the camera.  Hooray! 

 And here is my whole family.  I like this one!

 Andy used to live in Boise so he's been to this Temple plenty of times, but I'd only ever seen it in passing on the freeway, so I was excited to go inside and see what it was like and compare our Columbia River Temple to this one.  I took this picture as we drove out of the parking lot.  I'll call it artistic (instead of crooked.)

 Another driving shot.  Beautiful building that will soon be dedicated and will do wonderful work!

Andy likes to drive different ways and see different things than just the same old freeway/highway the whole time, so we drove through Emmett, Idaho taking a quick detour through his old neighborhood to look at his old house and middle school.
It started raining as soon as we all got in the car and hardly let up the whole way home.
We also saw this BLACK Dodge Ram.  My brother Jeff really likes Dodge Rams, especially black ones.  I mentioned that he should like this black Dodge Ram with green accents and we all had a good laugh, so much that I had to take a picture.  Nice black Dodge Ram, right?  (Maybe this is only funny to me...)

We got my mom home about 7:30pm and she made the kids some macaroni and cheese and her special fruit smoothies they requested (instead of stopping at McDonald's).  She even made me a grilled cheese sandwich and cut it diagonally.  It was so good!  Food is always better when your mommy makes it!
We got home at 9:30pm and unloaded the car, Andy took apart Abby's carseat, I gave Abby and Vincent a bath and got Abby to bed, Andy helped Vincent to bed, Elizabeth and Olivia went to bed because they had a shower Friday night after Nutcracker rehearsal, and I started on laundry so the carseat would be clean for Sunday if needed.  Still trying to decide if we should attempt church with Abby.  I guess we'll have to see what the night brings.  Fingers crossed!

Crazy Hair Day

Olivia and Elizabeth had crazy hair day at school today.  They don't dress up for Halloween since it's distracting and probably smelly (in the older grades especially!)  I remember whole school parades and how fun they are.  We still have the whole day of school and then we'll figure out what else we are doing.  Trick or Treating will happen someplace and a trip to see Andy's parents and his boss.

Olivia didn't want crazy hair, but I convinced her to have a zigzag part and two pointy buns.

Elizabeth wanted a hair mohawk and asked if she could use my gel Friday morning.  I decided to use broken wooden skewers and hairthings instead.  They didn't hold up all that well so I just did two of them and then made three buns in the back.  I wanted her to be able to sit down and rest her head if needed.

You see that my picture was taken as they hurried into the van this morning on the way to school.  Luckily, we still just have dew and not frost.
Vincent, Abby, and I ran crazy errands today.  They do so well most of the time.
We went to Office Depot to recycle five used ink cartridges and buy one more (I earn $2 for each cartridge!)
We went to drop off two books that were due at the library.
We went through the bank drive thru.
We went to Albertsons to get some good deals on spaghetti sauce, yogurt, pudding packs, and juice.
We went to Winco for some more groceries. (Decided we didn't really need to go to Costco)
We went to Walmart for toiletries, more groceries, and price matching.
Whew!  I am so lucky my kids do pretty good in the store!  Three suckers were eaten and one potty break was given.
In the time between leaving home and having all the groceries put away was three hours.
Then it was lunch followed by naptime for Abby and an endless cycle of Madagascar 3 for Vincent while I ate my lunch, read my scriptures, and figured out who could pick my girls up from school since it was raining and Abby was still sleeping when it was time to get them.  So grateful for a friend close by who helped me out!
I took a little nap.
Then another friend called to see if her kids could come and play for a bit while she took her car to the mechanic before her husband was off of work.  He picked them up not too long later.
We ate easy baked potatoes and chili for dinner.
One of our game night friends called and said that she's engaged!  She is getting married just after Christmas.  We are excited for her (Mary if you know her.)
I took Elizabeth and Olivia to their Nutcracker practice and then hurried over to Value Village to see if I could find something that would work for Halloween so I didn't have to make my own outfit.  I found something that was just right (I think!) and it fits (yea!) and it was cheap.
I also went to my favorite store ever, Kohls, to find something and find something I did.
Headed back to pick up my girls and visit with other moms.
Went home for game night and played Clue and Ticket to Ride. (I lost both.)
So much for having a lazy day.  I don't think I'm very good at that.  I did get a lot accomplished today though!
Saturday we are having an adventure.  Just wait and see!

October Park Day

While much of the country is getting hit with snow, we are relishing some sunny, although chilly, time at the park.  Sure it was only twenty minutes, but we enjoyed it all the same.

We had a packed day.  This morning after dropping the girls off at school, Vincent and Abby went visiting teaching with me.  While there, I saw the sign up sheet that was passed around at church for bringing cookies to the Red Cross Blood Drive that I signed up for, but didn't write down, so I forgot that it was today.  I had a little time in my morning to hurry home and whip up some chocolate chip cookies and then run them over to the church.  When I got home and started making lunch, a friend came by with some money to order Nutcracker poinsettias.  I fed Vincent and Abby and made Abby take a nap.  I did some dishes and cleaned the stovetop. Then I ate my lunch and caught up on facebook.  One of my good, good friends is pregnant and nearly on bedrest and was talking about how her daughter clogged their toilet with little people toys and she had to figure that out and threw up with her all day morning sickness in the process.  A few people commented on her post that it was "so funny".  I was like, man you need a break!  Bring that girl to me.  I would have picked her up if Abby wasn't sleeping.  She came over fairly soon afterwards to play.  At the same time, MY visiting teacher came over.  The other one was sick.  The one who came brought her three little kids (ages 4, 2, nearly 1).  She's having a baby in December too and is close to being on bedrest as well.  When she asked ME what she could do for me, I told her she was busy enough and that I wasn't going to call her.  I'm doing just fine without burdening her.  It was great to get to know her more and her kids were very nice and they all played well with Vincent and the little girl who came to play (no toilet incidents at my house!)  I gathered a bunch of snacking type food to take with us on our errands.  We went and picked Elizabeth and Olivia up from school so that we could take Elizabeth to her Activity Day with the girls from church.  I kept my friend's daughter with us.  We went to the library.  They had their therapy dogs there for kids to pet and read to which my kids always enjoy.  

Then we went to a park (with just one entrance, hardly any people, and good toys).

I only had my old camera with me, but figured if I was out managing four kids, I might as well take some pictures.

Vincent really likes to climb.  He's all bundled up in his winter coat already.

Abby is all smiles when she can run around.  I need to get her bigger coat out soon.

Little cutie peeking through the bars at me!

Rory with Abby on the rainbow slides.

Olivia put her head through a hold and wanted me to take her picture.  This one turned out very good, especially for my old camera.

Rory had to copy Olivia's hole idea.  She's so much fun!

Olivia and Rory in their princess bunkbeds.  Creative kids!

Abby crawled across this bridge most of the time we were at the park and finally was brave enough to run across at the end.  Look at that huge smile!  There are little holes in the metal and they made her nervous.

Vincent was all smiles on the slides.  This park has seven slides I think and four swings too!  (If you live close, it's back behind Bomber Drive Thru and by Richland High's tennis courts).

We dropped Rory back off at her house and her well rested mom thanked me.  So glad she rested while she had a break!
I forgot up there that someone else stopped by my house this morning.  Our ward had a service auction a few weeks ago and I bid on and won some mending from a lady in my ward.  I asked her if she would/could fix Olivia's little Olivia the Pig whose stuffing was coming out between the top and bottom of her dress.  She fixed it very nicely and even added some sparkly ribbons to her ears.  MY Olivia was thrilled to have her back.  I told her to go and look on her bed for a surprise.

Look how cute she is!  All dressed again, although now I'm thinking I should make her a little jacket...

Poor little Elizabeth had such a long afternoon running from thing to thing.  Fun things, but too much.  School, activity day for an hour, then home to work on some homework and eat dinner at the same time, then Jujitsu for an hour, and more homework.  She needs to learn how to manage her weekly homework better and we need to work on that, I guess too.
We were planning on going to the school for the Book Fair that's going on there this week and help before Jujitsu, but PTA didn't need me to help, so I decided not to go and let Elizabeth work more.  There was more than the Book Fair going on and I'm sure it would have been fun, but we were needing a break by that point in the day.  I'm glad it was leftover night!
Andy took Elizabeth to Jujitsu and Abby and Vincent went to bed.  When she got home, Andy read to the girls quickly before Elizabeth had to do the rest of her homework.  She also still needed to shower after Jujitsu.  She got to bed about 9:30pm.
Here's Elizabeth on my bed (so there wouldn't be the distraction of Andy and Olivia's "Mummy" movie watching) doing her homework (her arm was propped up on Andy's scriptures part of the time), wearing her Jujitsu outfit, and snacking on her treat she made at activity days.

What a day!
Friday will be much calmer!  Just grocery shopping for me, Vincent, and Abby and some Nutcracker practice in the evening for Elizabeth and Olivia.

Typing

Olivia came home from school last week begging to use the computer so she can learn how to type.

 She has asked several days in a row to practice and is getting better.  Our school has a link to many different websites kids can use.  Here's a link to the list of all of them.  Some of them our school subscribes to and the students each have a password, but many of them are free.  Try them out.

The one Olivia wanted to use is Dance Mat Typing.  I love her ambition to learn and work ethic.  She put away all of her school stuff and then hurried to get on the computer.  She played for a long time before dinner.
I didn't notice her little highlights in her hair until I looked at this picture some more.  Natural beauty!

He took a beating!

Er, I mean beaDing.  My dad was awarded his Beading for his Wood Badge Training for Boy Scouts tonight.  It's a special award that adult leaders of troops can earn.  My dad did his training awhile ago and completed all of the goals he set and earned this award.  

These three men with him helped train those who took the course.  The one on the right next to the flag is in Andy's parent's ward and we know him well.  He told us last summer when we saw him how great my dad was when he met him at Wood Badge.

 Here's my dad with his new neckerchief, beading necklace, and slide.

 The scoutmaster in my dad's ward gave him a fun spinning rocket to play with too.

 My brother and I both came to support dad with our families.  Between the two of us, we have just over half of the grandkids (there are 17 grandkids total.)

 This picture is better, but it's missing Abby who wanted to go play.

Great work, Dad!

Today in our ward they released Andy as the Ward Mission Leader and sustained him as Varsity Coach/Teacher Advisor so now he'll get to help the 14 and 15 year old young men and go to mutual.  It will be a fun change.