It was face painting day at the gym I signed up for recently! I sure am enjoying it and so is Max!
A new lady has moved into our ward and promptly encouraged a bunch of us to do all kinds of random acts of service. She got us all together and taught us to crochet hats. These are the two I did- I am not as fast as some of the other crochet demons. She gave them all to the homeless shelter. But now my kids want me to do ones for them. She also rounded a bunch of people up to go to the nursing home and give out cards and have the kids visit in their costumes. We didn't end up going to that, because of our schedule (crazy!). Can anyone say, next RS President?
To me, Halloween is all about fantasy- not scary, gory, etc. This Halloween I wanted my boys to all match. I thought of the three musketeers. They didn't like that idea at all because "we don't want those kind of swords!" I guess "those kind of swords" are not cool at all. So instead they became three knights. This is the costume I came up with. 
I love sweatsuit costumes. They make for easy costumes that are also warm enough when we go out trick-0r-treating. My sewing teacher from Colorado would be proud. 
I came up with the idea on my own, used t-shirts for the pattern and even remember to include a yolk.
Emma decided early that she wanted to be a candy corn. I bought an orange shirt, went through an entire can of white spray paint to change her black witches hat to white and then still had to use acrylic paint to even make it look white, and made a yellow skirt. She looked like a colorful witch instead, but she was OK with that. I didn't get a picture of her the night of the Ward Halloween party, because my batteries in my camera went dead. Picture to follow soon!
For this year, we did our trunk or treat inside- which was a good thing, since it was raining outside. People signed up to decorate a room and hand out candy there. Only 11 people signed up to decorate, but more handed out candy at other places. We signed up for a room. Again, I don't believe in scary Halloweens and I had to run to work as soon as I could get away from the party, which meant I came as a nurse, which meant our room had to reflect that. So I came up with the Doctor Doolittle room.
I had all kinds of stuffed animals bandaged up and a bunch of my nursing stuff out. 
Mr. Bones held the candy for me. We found him at JoAnne's for 60% off. We didn't win the best room prize at the end, but they made another category, because they said mine was the most creative and they just had to give us a prize! Everyone elses was either scary or fall time themed.
I was very late for work and work was crazy! I had to send out a child who had a bleed in his brain and I had to help intubate my violent drunk guy so we could stitch up his face! There was a 7 hour wait in the lobby, but we had a good time. I love the night crew that I work with!
We went along with Joseph's class, 
but really didn't stay with them, since they were traveling at breakneck speed trying to do everything before leaving. My friend Carma and her beautiful little girls came along 
and so did our little friend Z man. 
The kids loved the slide through the hill, the pumpkin picking and the tractors! It was a beautiful day!Joseph one day decided to come up with dinner. This is his soup recipe. 
He was very excited to have it and it really turned out pretty good. He took some to his teacher the next day as a present. I used this recipe. It was made for just one to two people, so I times it by 4. I did way too much chicken broth, though, because 4x still didn't look like enough. 8 cups would have been fine, though. I put in 12 and then I only used 3 1/2 cups of cheese and three cups of milk- mostly because that was all that would fit into my pot! It made it less creamy and more healthy anyway. I also didn't have a clove of garlic, so I just used garlic powder and dried onions. We put carrots in and regular corn instead of cream corn, so really it was Joseph's recipe. Why don't you try some of Joseph's soup today. It's yummy!
We made it all the way to DC this time and found a place we hadn't seen yet- The Teddy Roosevelt Island. 
I was trying to capture the sparkeling on the Potomac. You can see the lights, but it's not the same as the diamond like sparkeling that was so amazing!
Alike for the Nation as well as the individual, the one indispensable requirement is Character. 
A man's usefulness depends upon his living up to his ideals
Be Practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.
X
and our own silly version of X
A C shrub 
Sam finds a Y
