Gobble, Gobble

Thanksgiving was coming up and we still hadn't done our traditional turkeys. One day I'll do it at the beginning of the month...one day. So two days before Thanksgiving I decided we should do it. I almost did it three days before, but decided the boys all needed haircuts and I should do the craft on a day Eric wasn't home so that I could spend time with him when he was home.

So on Tuesday we went about making our turkeys. I'm normally a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to this craft, but I realized quite quickly this year that I'd have to give up a bit of that. Nate and Ailey were anxious to do their own turkeys and didn't really want to wait for help, so they did it their own way. Honestly, I think I should let go of the reins a little more and let these kids develop their own sense of creativity. Plus, I think it helps give them some confidence.

My turkey's created quite the rafter (yes, I looked that up). And I love that they all showed their personalities when I took pictures.

What Happens Next...

All About Chad

One of the 'joys' of 6th grade is that they get to do a country report. They can choose any country and do a report on it. My kid chose CHAD! Why in the world he would choose Chad is seriously way beyond me. Had he consulted me first I would've recommended Brazil or England (either place his grandpa's served a mission). Sure things have probably changed since then, but we'd have more of a clue about the place than choosing somewhere as random as Chad.

Thankfully it wasn't much of an issue for me as they did a lot of the work during school time. IMAGINE THAT! So Lex did a pretty good job of gathering information on his country and did his report on his own without help. The only thing he wanted help with was the poster and I don't think he really even wanted my help, but I get a little OCD when they have to have something to present. Although, I'll be honest - I really didn't put as much effort into it as I have in the past. I was just too tired to worry about it.

We got everything down and good to go and he was super excited to go to school the next day to present it all. Parents were also invited to come view the projects. The problem for me is that the end time was 20 minutes before Ailey gets out of Kindergarten. I really didn't want go to the school, go home for 5 minutes and head back to the school. So I decided I'd go just before the end time so that I wasn't waiting for too long for Ailey.

When I got into Lex's classroom his first words to me were, "Took you long enough." 

At least he says what he thinks. I explained to him why I came so late and he was understanding and it made sense to him why I was late. 

I didn't really view many other projects, cause quite honestly I don't care about it - but, I made sure to get pictures of my kid.

{...The flag is upside down on the presentation board? Ummm, yeah - that was my fault...}

We then left and went outside of the school to wait for Kindergarten to be over. Thankfully it was a pretty nice day for November and Jace had tons of fun running around and I had a front row seat to an interesting situation.

The cafeteria outside door faces the front of the school where I was sitting and out of the corner of the eye, I saw the janitor on a walkie and then glanced over and saw a little girl standing by the building. The janitor was talking to the secretary and was asked to find out the girls name. The girl actually responded and then took off running. Two seconds later, the secretary comes out the front doors after her. The little girl paused for a moment and looked at the secretary, but then proceeded to cross the street. Once across the street she stopped again and glanced at the secretary. When she realized the street wasn't going to stop the secretary she took off again, the secretary had to jay-run to catch up with the girl. She got the girl and got her to come back to the school. Or so we all thought. Once back on school grounds, she tried to make a break for it to the parking lot. The secretary caught her before she got there and then the girls teacher came out. They took the girl back to the office to call her mom.

It was a surprising sight for me to see as the girl was probably only in 4th grade, but she was determined to leave school. It was interesting to realize that the secretary's job involves so much more than answering phones and paper work.

What Happens Next...

Fall Band Concert 2015

It was time for the Fall concert at the middle school and while I should probably encourage my children to support their siblings, I totally took advantage of the kids not involved in the concert.
Because Tanis is now in high school, he doesn't have concerts the same day as Shaylyn. This really was a good thing. We also had enough notice so that Eric didn't have to go into the game store. Therefore, we decided to make it a pseudo date.

We lucked out and our good friends had been watching the Percussion concert that started before the band concert and somehow they got front row seats and gave them to us as they were leaving. This gave this pregnant momma plenty of room to adjust the way she was sitting.

We got excited at first realizing we actually chose perfect seats for where Shaylyn was placed...

...Then the band director moved all the kids into a different position and Shaylyn ended up in the 2nd row, behind another girl AND the band director. We couldn't even see her with our naked eyes. So while I got a video of their songs, there is no seeing Shaylyn, unless you are super lucky!

The concert was a little long, but I tried to just enjoy the time I had to support Shaylyn and to have a 'quiet' night with Eric. That made it worth all the noise that you encounter in a band concert. The kids didn't do too shabby of a job either.

What Happens Next...

October's Oddness

Now we'll take a look at the random happenings from October. There are a lot. October was pretty much chock full of random...

{...DADDY'S SOCKS...}

Jacen is a Daddy's boy in so many ways, but one way I've never seen in any kid I know - is a love for socks. Even if they are Daddy's and 20 sizes too big!

{...JUST BECAUSE IT'S FALL...}

I love surprises, even if they are in the form of flowers, so this special delivery was super exciting to me. Eric knows me so well.

{...JACK'S JACK O' LATERNS...}

Eric and I were called to teach the 10-11 year olds in Primary awhile ago and one of the boys in our class is named Jack. He stopped by one night and had this plate of cookies for us. He (his mom) had perfect timing as I was craving something sweet and these sugar cookies hit the spot. I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed at how different sugar cookies can taste depending on the recipe. I may have eaten all 3 cookies (not in the same night) and didn't leave any for Eric - but I was doing him a favor as he doesn't much care for sweets anyway.

{...HUNGRY, HUNGRY HIPPOS...}

Nate got Hungry, Hungry Hippos last Christmas from my brother. We had it put up in a closet and he never asked to play it much. Recently though, it made it's way down and it's been being used quite often. I was super surprised to see every age group in my house playing this game together. After Nate and Ailey had been playing for quite some time, Jace jumped in. Lex, Shaylyn and Tanis thought it'd be fun to play with him. I just sat in amazement that something so simple could entertain a toddler and teenagers. I was thankful for such a game one time in my life.

{...SUNDAY AFTERNOON ANTICS...}

We spent a lot of Sunday afternoons visiting with Eric's mom. The kids spent a lot of time messing around. One such Sunday gave us some good laughs. Jace had went into the play room and came out with a bucket on his head and one in his hand. He kept them on for a good 5 minutes or so and laughed right ablong with us.

This same Sunday, Eric mom's best friend, Kathy was also visiting. Kathy was kind of like a 2nd mom to Eric and his brothers when they were growing up and has since become something of a 2nd Grandma to the kids. Nate and Ailey especially like having her around. Ailey was playing a game on the Kindle and somehow convinced Kathy to sit down and play with her.

{...STUDENT OF THE WEEK...}

Shaylyn's never been a 'bad' student, but about 5th or 6th grade she got in the bad habit of not turning in her homework. It didn't matter too much in elementary school, but when she hit middle school, it did affect her grades a little bit. She still managed A's and B's because she does well on tests, but those B's could've been A's had she put forth a little more effort. For some reason we've seen a shift this year and she is on top of her homework and turning it in. So much so that her History teacher nominated her as Student of the Week. I was thrilled to see the award, I think she was just more thrilled for the free milkshake.

{...THINK ABOUT WHAT?!?!?!...}

Ailey was being a bit naughty one night and we sent her to her room to 'think about what she did'. Apparently Jace followed her into her room and instead of taking the time to think about her actions, she took the time to play artist....on her brother. Thank goodness for washable markers.

And that's another glimpse of the randomness that is our life in the Hardy household. It's never boring in these four walls.

What Happens Next...

In Our Little Town of Halloween

Because we squish together so many before Halloween activities together, this post is going to be all squished together as well, you're welcome.

{...HALLOWEEN PARADE...}

We start out with the elementary school parade. I kind of like the fact our school does it at 9:30. It's pretty much right after school starts and it's easy to walk the kids to school and then find a place to sit. This year they even had the 5th and 6th graders participate (guess we can thank a new principal for that).

{...How cool is it that Hiro and Wasabi showed up together?!?!?!...}

{...KILLING PUMPKINS...}

The kids kept asking to carve pumpkins on Friday night. I had originally thought of doing it on Saturday (Halloween) afternoon when Eric would be around to help, However, I then realized that I would probably be more stressed trying to do pumpkins that afternoon since I had a few other things I needed to get done.

Friday proved to be difficult though, as I had babysat a friends boys for a good chunk of the day and even though they are good boys - I was tired. I wasn't sure I was up for the mess that always ensues with pumpkins.

But because I know the way I can get, I decided Friday was a much better day than Saturday. I could always sleep in on Saturday morning and so it didn't matter too much how late I had to be awake on Friday night.

And just an FYI - Shaylyn was sleeping over at a friends house and Jace's poor pumpkin got dropped on the way inside and broke.

{...Nate didn't want to finish cleaning his, so Ailey volunteered...}

{...Sally, Coraline, Something from Lex's Imagination, A Skylander and A Shaped Face...}

When Shaylyn came home the next morning, I had her do her own pumpkin. She of course went with a tiger. She didn't have time to really finish it, but I was amazed at what she was able to do in the time she had.

{...HALLOWEEN NIGHT..}

Then came time for Halloween. During the day I straightened the house and made a few adjustments on Tanis and Jacen's costumes. They were very minor adjustments, but it allowed for their costumes to fit just a bit better.

I told my kids they could go out about 6:00/6:30 and figured that would even be late. But I was surprised how little trick or treaters we had before that time. I was also glad, because we were able to have dinner and get the kids ready to go without much interruption at all.

We tried to get group photos, but Lex made plans to go with friends and Shaylyn wasn't quite ready to go when Lex needed to go. I did my best with the rest of the group.

{...Curious George & The Man In The Yellow Hat..}

A few months before Halloween Tanis had the idea that he could take the little kids trick or treating and that he could be The Man in The Yellow Hat and Jace could be George. Jace is fascinated with George and I thought that was a great idea, so we went with it.

{...Jace was only upset because of the hood...}

{...Zombie Rocker...}

Shaylyn knew for awhile that she wanted to be a zombie, but there are so  many ways to be a zombie that she didn't quite know what she was going to narrow it down to. While perusing costumes she came across a rocker chic and she was sold. 

The day we ordered her costume she went about making her guitar. She really astounds me with her talents sometimes. She also did her makeup (which is why she wasn't ready for group pics).

{...Owen Grady...}

Lex had a few ideas of what he wanted to be, but we couldn't find costumes for most of them. He eventually settled on Owen Grady and I had no idea why. I wasn't even sure who the guy was. Lex had to tell me he was in Jurassic World. I still wasn't sure why he'd want to be this character, but shortly before Halloween we had the opportunity to watch Jurassic World and I suddenly realized the fascination behind Owen Grady. For those of you who don't know, he's the character played by Chris Pratt.

{...Hiro...}

Another character from a movie, Nate decided on Hiro from Big Hero 6. He originally wanted to be Baymax, but costumes weren't easily found. He was okay with Hiro and after cutting the plastic off the mask and taping the rough edges he was good to go.

{...Wonder Woman...}

For months Ailey told us she wanted to be Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6. So I searched and searched for a costume. Ummm, if you have a 5 year old and wanted that costume, you were outta luck. Thankfully, Ailey was a good sport and decided on a superhero. She thought about Supergirl for a bit, but finally went Wonder Woman.

{...A Very Motley Crew...}

So then they all went about their ways. Tanis took the 3 little kids and he was out the door. Shaylyn met up with her friends and Lex was long gone. I cleaned up dinner and sat down next to Eric on the couch and started talking to him about how it was a bittersweet day for me.

For 14 years I had taken my kids trick or treating and to not be doing so this time was kind of hard. And just as I was about to start crying (pregnancy hormones are fun), Nate and Ailey walked in the door upset. 

I'm still not completely sure what happened, but it seems like they somehow lost Tanis and still wanted to go trick or treating, of course. So I got my jacket on and went with thm. I was super thankful for nice weather and that I still had the opportunity to take my kids out. I didn't originally go because Tanis really wanted to do it and I was in a lot of pain. But even with the pain I was in, it was nice to be out with my kids. And my kids are strange and don't like to trick or treat all night. They're good for like an hour and then they're done!

After most everyone was home, we started Nightmare Before Christmas, which is our yearly tradition. When Nightmare was over and everyone was home we treated the kids to the newish movie, Pixels. I think Eric and I enjoyed it for a different reason than the kids did, but we all enjoyed it and we all want a Q*Bert!

I'll leave you with proof that George is curious and no, this picture really honestly wasn't staged.

What Happens Next...