Fun Times With the Children

Last Thursday the children had the day off from school.  And amazingly Todd had it off too, so we decided to do something with the kids.  We got a great discount off of Facebook for a Cox's Farm.

My Applesauce Canning Helper(s)

 Todd bought A LOT of apples, so I decided to can about half of them.  We made applesauce out of the apples.  Alex was a great helper (and who knows how many times he stole a lick.)  The sister missionaries came over to help as well.  They were a big help.  By myself this task would have taken all day, but with everyone's help, we got all the cutting, steaming, and running through the food mill done in about four hours.  The processing took a little longer, but that's the easy part once you get all the prep done.

This is Sister Gordon and Sister Humbert. This was the last day for them in our ward as they were being transferred and for now we have no more sister missionaries for our ward until the number of sisters for the mission rises.  They were lots of fun to work with! They will be missed!  

The Wiz

Kate auditioned for the school play this year.  The play is called "The Wiz" which is a spin off of the Wizard of Oz in the context of the African America Culture.

So Kate got the understudy part of Dorothy and will play a munchkin, unless the lead Dorothy really does "break a leg".  She is happy with her parts and we are excited to see how everything goes.

Dane and Cub Scouts

Last night at Pack Meeting Dane earned his Marbles Belt Loop. He is really close to getting his Wolf Badge as well.  He has a great Wolf leader and he loves going to Cub Scouts.  A couple of months ago I got called to be the Bear Den Leader.  It is a lot of fun.  Dane will join our Bear Den in January.  

Can You Guess What Instrument He's Playing?

Here is a clip of Seth pretending to play an instrument.  Can you guess which one?  His older sister plays this instrument, but on Sunday evening a young man played this instrument for the youth Standards Night.  Seth found a broken ruler and turned it into this instrument.  Now I know what you're thinking, first the post on the holes in the door and now my youngest playing with a very sharp broken ruler.  I assure you that we promote non-violence in our home.  (It's got to be all those Harry Potter films, or maybe was it Lord of the Rings? Oh man, they were good movies.)

Helping with dinner.

Kate and Emily helped make dinner last night.  Here they are making Tacos, a common staple found at our house.  Although two of my children have decided they aren't related to me anymore, Dane and Kate, as they will not eat Tacos anymore.  Bummer. All that New Mexican blood no longer runs through their veins I guess.  Kate and Emily are great!  They have their usual sibling fights, but they are generally nice to each other and are willing to help mom out.  Love you girls!

A peek at the not so pleasant side,

Todd and I had gone out and while we were gone, WWIXV broke out. Alex is not violent, he just got so mad this time.  Well, his sister knows better.  Alex wanted to play computer while we were gone and was arguing with Emily over it. (When we left, Alex was the only one who was allowed to play, I have no idea why Emily was trying to play. Never mind, that was a dumb statement.) Kate decided the best way to handle the situation was to turn off the computer.  This would have been ok when two "normal" children are arguing.  You throw in a special needs kid, bad idear.  Since Alex just can't turn the computer back on and have a turn (password protected), he gets mad and chases Kate upstairs.  Kate locks herself in my bathroom (yes, that is a pink toilet) and Alex takes a folding chair that was nearby and starts smashing at the door.  We get a call from Emily at about this time and can barely understand her because she is screaming and crying.  We get her calmed down and by this time Alex has settled down and is lying on the stairs.  He eventually goes to his room and goes to sleep.  Yeah, so we've got a door to replace.   I am concerned why his behavior was so violent this time.  Luckily no one got hurt.  Hopefully the kids will follow the rules while we are gone.  Alex isn't usually like this.  I'm sure being tired played a part.  He gets more unreasonable when he is tired.  Otherwise, he's a great kid.  He mows the lawn every Monday morning.  He just cleaned the van out for me so he could got to the thrift store and look for more Little People.  He finally found a police officer today.  He is also into collecting the Rescue Hero guys.  We are going to have so much junk.  Whatever.