the end of october, or, everything up until Halloween

I have a video of Colin speaking Chinese at his SEP conference. But blogger says the file is too big. If you really want to see it, check Facebook, I guess.

Grandpa Pumpkins. They are all super rotten on the inside.

Last Thursday was a busy day. In the morning we had our friends the Dyes over for a Halloween craft. The kids made handprint spiders on paper plates and then laced a spiderweb over the top with yarn. I know, I'm a Pinterest master. This is the only picture I took of the spiders.

After the Dyes left we had Hazel over for Mom School. We made rock candy. This is the first attempt, which I realized had too much sugar. So I threw it all back in the pot and melted it down with a little more water. It took forever. But the kids had fun. And now the jars are sitting on my counter awaiting the day when the kids get to eat their candy.

After Mom School we had a little quiet time, picked up Colin from school, and went straight to the pumpkin patch for Round Three. We met up with our friends the Dargers and had a great time.

Gray, Kate, and the huge pig.

Kate and Zoey in the corn.

Jude got surrounded by a bunch of girls. I didn't know some of them.

After the pumpkin patch we had pizza for dinner and then went to the ward Halloween Carnival with the Dargers. It was super fun, even better than last year. It was so fun, I kind of forgot to take pictures. I took the three big kids with me, and Humbug Nate stayed home with sleeping Jude.

Gray wanted to give the mummy a high five.

Dad and Gray relaxing with a book after the carnival.

Jude being adorable and playing with the trains at the library during story time on Friday. He was making little shhh-ing sounds while he drove the trains around. So cute.

Making funny faces. Colin wanted Meeko to photobomb our picture.

On Saturday the kids had a practice for their primary program. They had pizza and cupcakes at the end. They brought their cupcakes home so I could take a picture of them.

Sunday we had (what was supposed to be a surprise) Golden Birthday party for Hannah. She turned 27 on the 27th (but her party was on the 26th). She's wearing some of her gold presents for this picture. We gave her golden slippers and that sweet gold lionshead necklace. Also, I wrapped her presents in a box of Golden Grahams, but put tape over the word Grahams and wrote Birthday instead. I rocked it. Way to go, me!

Playing at the park while waiting for Kate during her ballet class. Maybe Jude was tired?

I made jack-o-lantern pancakes for dinner on Tuesday. I thought they were cool. Nate thought they were gross. The kids agreed with me.

Here are some videos from Kate's ballet class. The parents were welcome to come for the last half and see some of the things the girls have been working on.