Brookside Elementary had Red Ribbon Week this week so they had crazy hair day, pajama day, and crazy sock day--all as warm-up for Halloween parties on Friday!  Benjamin had crazy hair day for the first time in his life, and besides doing a "duck and cover" past the playground so the older kids wouldn't see him, he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit!  Cali and Cheyenne, of course, are old pros!

Friday Brookside and Sage Creek Elementary both had Halloween parades.  Considerately, they scheduled them at different times so I could go to both!  Bethany dressed as Princess Leia for school and using her real hair made her look like the real deal, just in miniature!  Cheyenne dressed as a dead basketball player.  Calianne dressed up as a little bit of everything.  Benjamin was an alligator!

After the parade at Brookside, the 6th graders performed "Thriller" for all the parents.  They've been learning Michael Jackson's dance for weeks and WOW did they do a good job!  They were very freaky, jerky dead people.  They had a great time doing it.

Saturday, of course, was the real deal.  Cali and Cheyenne had basketball practice in the morning with their dad for Mapleton basketball, but afterwards we all got together for pumpkin carving!  Sarah was just back from the temple with Hunter, so he joined us as did Bethany's friend, Camryn.  Wonderful jack-o-lanterns were brought to life!

 

That night after work, Sarah went to Hunter's, Megan went to watch "Wait Until Dark" with friends, Mariah handed out treats at our door, and Kevin and I took Cali, Chey, Beth, and Ben trick or treating!  Cali, Chey, and Beth trick or treated Main Street with a friend in the afternoon and Cali and Chey trick or treated another neighborhood in the earlier evening with another friend.  They made quite the haul!  I always enjoy walking around our own neighborhood and talking to our friends at the door or as we run into them with their children in the streets!  Afterwards, we drove over to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's, too!

We had some costume changes Saturday night
as Beth became a witch and Cali a ghoul!

This was our house on Halloween!

At Grandma's house!

Saturday afternoon, Ben told me that he wanted to sell juice and water and how would he tell people about it?  I said he could just tell people or make a sign.  He got a piece of paper and asked me for the letters to write what he wanted.  He decided to charge 3 pennies.  He wrote a three and I told him to write a C and draw a line through it.  Unfortunately, he gets his Cs and Ss mixed up.  I thought, oh well, it's not like anyone is going to come and buy anything anyway!  So, he skips back outside.  Five minutes later he comes running back into the house waving three dollars!!  Oh no!  I laughed and laughed!  The people in this neighborhood are too nice!  I need to be more careful!  What an entrepreneur. . .

The water he was offering for sale was in that dirty
bucket to the left!  At least he made the juice himself.

This is after I made him change the $ to cents.

In other big news, Megan and Mariah had their cross country banquet this Thursday.  Megan and Mariah both received varsity letters and Mariah received a plaque for being the Fastest Freshman.  It's fun to see the camaraderie between the boys and girls teams and know they all worked so hard and had such fun.

 I substituted for the first time this week.  I took an assignment in an autistic classroom.  I thought that would be a good way to get started since there would be other adults in the room who knew what to do.  Unfortunately, that just made it so I did almost nothing all day!  Joke's on me!  I was super, super bored!  There were seven kids in the classroom and four adults.  I'm ready now.  Give me the sole stewardship of 30 kids!  Please!  :)  We'll see how that goes.

We also received official notification that Sarah is the Sterling Scholar nominee for SHS in the field of Family and Consumer Sciences!  We are super proud of her!  She got to go to a luncheon at the school where they announced the nominees.  She said the food was super good.

I also forgot to mention last week that Cali and Cheyenne played in their first judged festival for piano.  They were super nervous but they did great and I was super proud of them.

This week I finished a little home improvement project, too!  A little something to hang on the wall in our hallway, but which has already increased the spirit in our home in a big way!  We love you, Savannah, and now we will see you every day!