Mice

Why is it cartoon mice are so cute? And real mice are so.....creepy? How can such a cute little thing scare me to death? We've caught 4 mice in the last 5 days in our garage. On Saturday, I was taking Kendall and Kristen to get new shoes and Kendall said, "Look! It's a mouse!" I saw a mouse scurrying into a box on the 2nd shelf in the garage. He went and got Jon and Jon tried to catch it, but it ran away. It had been into two boxes (yes, we had to throw some stuff away) and was building a nest under the freezer, next to the motor. We caught one and decided to set the trap again and the bait was gone, but no mouse. So....we knew there was another one. We caught it the next day and tried again and have now caught two babies. I feel awful, but I can't be overrun with mice (dirty, germy, disease-ridden creatures). I just wish they'd go build their house outside of my territory.

Halloween Part I

I think I rant about my camera a little too much, but here I go again. I put newly charged batteries in it (or brand new batteries) and after a few pictures, they're dead. I imagine that camera is sucking all the energy out of those batteries, so it's the camera's fault, not the batteries. That said, I have pictures of half of the Halloween costumes, but the other half will have to wait until the batteries charge so I can get them off the camera.

Kristen decided to be a pirate girl. She wanted her glitter lips (from dance) to go with it and I thought that turned out cute. We got her some new boots for winter (and to go with the costume). She wore them on Friday for the school Halloween parade and party and the zipper ripped out after about 10 minutes. So....we took them back. Of course, they didn't have her size, so she ended up getting some blue boots instead.Jarren decided to be a black rider from Lord of the Rings. I sewed his cape. I made one for Kendall last year, but it was way too big. Then I had to sew two mens larges for our ward play. This one was easy compared to those--a lot less material. Jon made the gloves out of magic gloves and duct tape. Pretty cool....
I usually dress up like either a witch or Princess Leia. This year, I decided to be a hippie. We had Kristen's party and a wedding reception that night (Friday) and I had a headache, so I didn't want to mess with the buns or with dying my hair. I also thought about being a Hawaiian girl, but again, I didn't want to dye my hair. Nice and easy. :) The shirt I'm wearing was actually my mom's from back in the 60s or 70s. It's amazing I still have it...
Stay tuned for pictures of Jenna and Kendall.... And of pumpkin carving....

Party Time

Kristen convinced me (kinda last minute) to let her host a Halloween party on the Friday before Halloween. She invited some girls from school, church, and in the neighborhood. We just did typical party games--something like musical chairs, freeze dance, make your own story, body parts (food that is supposed to be like body parts and they have to guess which food it is), pictionary, ghost stories, decorated cupcakes, and murder in the dark. Did I leave anything out? Probably. But...it seemed like everyone had a fun time and I don't know why I was so hesitant. It really wasn't that bad. :) I only got one picture, since I was so busy helping with the games.

Cookies

We found a fun Halloween sugar cookie mix--Pillsbury, I believe. The kids were dying to make cookies. I hate the mess that cutting out sugar cookies brings, but we braved it and the kids had a blast! Luckily, we had a ghost cutter, since pretty much all the other cookie cutters I have are Christmas. Kendall missed out--he was camping with the scouts. I'm sure we had more fun than he did, since they had to do their big bike ride in the pouring rain. :)

Wacky Wednesday/Crazy Hair Day

Today is a wacky/crazy day. It's red ribbon week at the school and each day they do something new. Today is crazy hair day and Kristen and Jarren wanted to go all out. We messed Jarren's hair up and spray painted it blue, green, and pink.After the fact, we put little ponytails in it, but he was embarrassed by that, so I took them out. Kristen wanted hers really curly (didn't have enough time though) and colored. We used pipe cleaners to make it a little more crazy. I left Kristen with red-eye because I thought it made the picture even more crazy.The wacky part of today: we woke up to about 3 inches of snow--luckily, not that much stuck to the ground, just the deck and tramp. Since we've had such a warm fall, the leaves haven't changed colors yet on 9 of our 12 trees and those trees are still FULL of nice, green leaves. So...all that wet, heavy lake-effect snow weighed them way down. Our first snow of the season was on Monday, with just a skiff. The kids are so worried about the trampoline, but after today, it's supposed to be pretty nice for at least the next two weeks, so we'll get to it...

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes! The Answers are Known....

As I mentioned awhile ago, I was released from Young Women. I was calling-less for about 6 weeks, but have now been put to work. I am the new ward activities person (any ideas are very welcome) and the young women sports director. SPORTS?!?!? I am NOT athletic at all! I'm clumsy and uncoordinated. They put me in because "I look like I'm 16 and I look athletic." I thought that was pretty funny--apparently that old adage is true--looks can be deceiving. But....I'll do my best! Wish me luck!

And the Oscar Goes to.....

We had a church play a few weeks ago and Kristen decided that she wanted to be in it. So...she auditioned and made it (everyone did). She said she only wanted to dance, but ended up getting a few lines and a solo (singing part). She was Pinocchio and did a GREAT job!! Unfortunately, the camera batteries were dead and the video camera ran out of tape right before she came on, so....I'll have to round up some pictures from someone. The play was The Princess Dragon (two fine people in the ward wrote it years ago)--it's about a princess who has a spell placed on her and is a dragon. The prince can't marry her unless she's a girl, so different people come and try to break the spell. Kristen was also a lady. Anyway....they did a very good job and it turned out to be a success.