UEA = Days Off!

My most favorite October holiday is not Halloween, it's UEA!  Hooray, hooray, for U-E-A!

Here is what we did to celebrate:

THURSDAY:

On Thursday we slept in, ate breakfast, and just bummed around all morning.  Jack spent some quality time watching the washing machine spin around.  It is one of his favorite hobbies.  Eventually we got dressed and in the car to head out and run some errands. We went to the Family Dollar, to Kohls, and maybe we stopped for french fries at a drive-up window.

While out and about, we got a text from Aunt Chris telling us she was tending her grandson Max and wondered if Molly and Jack could play.  Jack crashed asleep on the way home, but Molly wanted to play so we swung by our house, loaded her bike in the car and took her to Chris and Jerry's house.  She hung out with Max all afternoon.  They drove around in Max's electric car, ate popcorn, ice cream, and watched a movie.  Molly didn't want to come home, so I think she had a great day!  (I borrowed this picture from Chris).

On Thursday night when Jack was in the bath I found Molly in this position.  I was really worried she may have chopped her legs off to fit in that laundry basket, but I guess she wanted a cozier bed.  

FRIDAY:

On Friday morning we left the house to head out to my Grandpa's.  My mom had asked us if we could come help with some yard clean up and general winterizing type tasks.  We were happy to go!  Chris, Jerry, and Max were there to help, as well as Annie and her boys. We raked leaves, did some stuff to the pool, sprayed weeds, covered up patio furniture, and ate Square Pumpkins from the Arctic Circle. It was a fun morning! 

We got a phone call from Grandma and Grandpa Binggeli that they were in the neighborhood!  Grandpa had been called for jury duty, but finished early and they wanted to drop off some things and stop by for a visit.  We had a nice afternoon with them hanging out at Kohl's and then playing outside at home for a little while!

I can't think of a better way to spend a day off than to hang out with FAMILY!

SATURDAY:

Saturday was my mom's 60th birthday!  I decided to help her celebrate by asking her to tend my kids while I did my Saturday morning church calling - young women's volleyball. She, of course, obliged and the kids got to hang out at Wyatt's soccer game with my mom and dad.  The rest of Saturday was spent doing laundry, trying to straighten up small portions of the house and leave the rest a disaster while I tried to grade nearly 200 math tests, going to the grocery store, playing, and watching movies.  

SUNDAY:

On Sunday we went to church.

Sunday evening we were treated to a birthday dinner at Annie's house for my mom.  It was a fun evening with good food, fancy desserts, and crazy children.  My parents both have fall birthdays.  They are good parents, even though every birthday reminds them that they may be getting old and closer to becoming actual senior citizens.  

I stole this picture from Annie, but I liked it!

That is the report on our October Fall Break UEA Vacation!

Don't "Fall" (Get it?)

It's Fall.  Let's remember the first weeks of October in pictures.

Molly spent the entire day with Grandma and Grandpa Petersen.  I missed her, but she had fun!  She found mustaches.

It was General Conference Sunday morning.  We were getting ready to head north to visit the Binggeli's and Molly asked me to take her picture.  I did.  This was the picture.  I asked her what she wanted me to say about the picture and she said, "Hi Willie.  I brought you a picture.  And I made a funny face.  And we're going to grandma and grandpa Binggeli's.  And Molly and Jack and Haley and James and Molly just wanted to say hi and bye."

I stole this picture of giggling crazies from Ross.  I took a similar picture, but it didn't turn out as cute.  They were sitting on a fence at our cousin Rubie's wedding reception.  Ross was watching them.  They were mimicking each other.  It was funny.  I hope they stay friends!

The kids and I had a day off for parent teacher conferences.  We went to the zoo!  I don't know why my kids grit their teeth in pictures.

We grew pumpkins.  None were big, but there were many.  We gave one to each of the neighbor kids, but then some of the kids ruined them and kept asking for new ones.  That was annoying and we had to start being mean about the pumpkins.

Our cousin Rubie got married.  The ceremony was at the Peace Gardens at Jordan Park and the reception was in Dee and Liz's back yard.  It was interesting.

We keep taking pictures of Parker and sending them to Willie.  We are trying to freak Willie out that Parker has grown to be 7' tall since Willie left on his mission.  This picture is funny, but just might be a little over the top.

My Jack is handsome and ready for church.  There is just something extra special about this kid that makes everyone he comes in contact with smile.  We have been letting his hair grow.  This is the initial gel look, but after he rubs his head into the ground a few times like a puppy, it calms down and looks pretty swag.  

Boogity boogity

Molly got in trouble at school the other day.  She and another little kid hid in the bathroom when it was time for rests and the teachers couldn't find them.  Once found the punishment at school was a shortened nap (they woke them up early) and then they didn't get the same afternoon snack as the other kids.  They got something less desirable and with less sugar.  

We talked about it when we got home and decided that we could write a note to her teachers to tell them she was sorry.  She told me what to write, she signed her name at the very bottom of the page, we folded it in half, and she drew some special pictures on the other side.  

She tries to be good most of the time.  

My sister decided to go away to Lost Wages for 2 days to see some weird concert.  My mom was brave enough and willing to tend the 3 boys while the parents were away.  Since James works all day, we decided to hang out with them, too.  We met them for lunch at McDonald's and let the kids play in the play area for a while.  After naps, we went to my mom's house and hung out some more.  The kids colored and played legos.  Elliott ripped a small chunk of skin off his finger while playing "shoot the legos off the treadmill."  I accidentally broke my parents' 400 year old wedding gift blender when the pitcher tipped over in the sink.  We had just finished fixing milkshakes.  Oops.

My dad sat downstairs and watched the Utes play hard and then choke.  Since he had grandson duty and since Elliott didn't really want to go to the game (which was probably a smart move due to the rain), he had given his tickets to someone at work.  

It was a fun Saturday!

Moral of the story . . . .

The moral of the story is . . . . 

Don't let your 4-year-old play with your phone in the bathroom.

The story is . . . 

It's 3:30 a.m. so I decided to write a blog post about what has been happening in our lives since the last blog post.  Luckily, not much has happened because there are no pictures on my phone anymore except for this one.

Molly needed to go to the bathroom tonight and sometimes she's like an old man with her Sports Illustrated and she needs some quality time with something to help her occupy that time.  Yes, I know she's a little strange.  Usually I'll let her play with our Kindle while she's doing her business.  Tonight, I didn't want to go find the Kindle and so she asked for my phone.  Other than the potential "spores" in the air, I figured I could give up my phone for a couple of minutes and I obliged to the request.

Apparently she deleted all the pictures on my phone and took this lovely one of the bathtub to replace them.  Huh.  I'm not really good at backing up the pictures on my phone or moving them to the computer.  I guess it's a good thing I still keep up this blog and post most noteworthy pictures here.

The good news is that now I have lots of storage space on my phone.  

I guess Molly and I will also have a chat tomorrow about what appropriate things are to do on mom's phone.  Deleting all the pictures isn't really one of them.

In other Molly news, she scratched her ear at school last week.  When I went to pick her up, she was very concerned/excited to tell me that her ear was bleeding (which it really wasn't).  First she pointed to the wrong ear, but when I actually found the scratch, I asked her if she knew what happened.  Her response was, "well, I didn't get in a car accident."  Thank you for pointing that out.

On Sunday night, Elliott, Wyatt, and Molly were playing good guys and bad guys.  At one point Elliott was the cop and Molly and Wyatt ran into the living room with Molly yelling, "We're the robbins," to which Wyatt quickly corrected her, "No Molly, the robbers!"

What's new?

Instead of doing regular dance class this year (because let's face it, Molly didn't really like it and neither did mom), we are trying new things. I just signed Molly up for two 6 week classes through community ed. First we'll do dance at Hunter, then we'll do karate at Taylorsville. So far it is going well!

 By this time of the year, my yard is really pretty.

We've decided to tease Willie a little. This is now the second picture we have sent him to show him that Parker is tall.  Parker is tall, but not quite that tall. We cropped the picture so you don't see everyone else's bent knees. 

We went to The Fair. The kids had fun. Molly went down the giant yellow slide with James and giggled forever afterwards. She thought it was the coolest thing ever! Also, a clown made Jack a minion balloon (beedo beedo). 

Oh.... and I've decided my son is a ninja.