Random Stuff

Charlotte recently got in the mood to do some painting. Two Sundays ago, after church she just really wanted to paint anything. Alice had a small canvas picture of a fox that needed to be painted, so she let Charlotte do it for her. Then Alice wanted to do some watercolor painting. I guess art runs in this family.

She painted this all by herself.

Over the last month or so I have been reading books with the girls. They are classics that were condensed and illustrated for kids to enjoy reading them. We started with "The Call of the Wild". Then "Little Women", "Treasure Island", "Alice in Wonderland", "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Secret Garden". We didn't really care for "Alice in Wonderland" and I never cared for the movie much either. We're now reading "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and will finish with "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". I think the girl's favorite book so far was probably "The Secret Garden". They were so hooked on it that we read the whole book in two days! I also got to introduce them to the movies of "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Secret Garden" after we read the books. They liked both of them! Some of these books I had never read before until now, only watched the movies. So, this has been fun for me to be able to read them as well.

These were all only $1.00 at Walmart.

I was shopping at Costco a couple of weeks ago and trying to find some ideas for dinner. I had grabbed a regular package of cheese ravioli but then I saw a package that had orange pumpkins and black bats, so I got those instead because it would be fun to have it this month of Halloween! They tasted just as good as regular ravioli. And we used pesto sauce, which all of us like except for Alice.

This is what they looked like before cooking.

During cooking.

All done and, on the plate to eat.

One morning I went down to wake Alice and Charlotte up for school and Alice was laying in this position. It was too cute and funny with her crossed legs!

Last weekend we finally got around to closing and winterizing the pool. We had to clean it out the best we could with our nets first. Our pool cleaner robot is not working and it would have helped so much, but we did the best we could. It took a long time just to do the cleaning. The solar pool cover that we had bought last year only lasted us two seasons of use. It started ripping apart and leaving little chunks of blue everywhere. It was time for the garbage. We were told that it could last up to 5 years when we bought it, so we're not sure how true that is but it only lasted us two years. We think maybe it had a lot to do with sitting in the water with the bleach tablets too close and not getting circulated enough. Next year, we'll just try to put a tablet holder inside the skimmer when the pool is covered and hope that helps. It was an all-day project but we got it done. And we couldn't have asked for better weather to get that done. Sunny, no wind and just beautiful!

We stuffed the pool cover into these bags. Look at the mess it made!

Jack vacuuming up blue pieces and Garrett cleaning the pool.

Putting the winter cover on. It was a team effort.

All done! It feels good to have that done and that we could do it ourselves this year.

Keeping With Tradition

Even though we weren't able to do anything last year with being so busy working on our house, this year we were finally able to carry on our tradition from Idaho to attend a farm that has a corn maze and all kinds of other activities. On Friday the 18th we went to a place called Middleton Farms, which is located in Pasco. This place is just like Lowe Family Farmstead in Kuna, ID. Some things were different, but some things were the same or just like it. We met a couple of friends from our ward out there so we could hang out together (just like in Idaho). The Wingerts (except the mom, who wasn't able to come) got there the same time we did. The McShane's didn't show up until about an hour before closing because they had been working on their big pool project all day (the kids didn't have school that day). 

There were so many things to do, it's hard to keep track of what all we did. There were some big slides that the girls and I went down. I only did it once because it was bumpy and hurt my rear end. I later learned there were some pillows I could have sat on instead of the potato sack that I had. There were rubber duck races, ball throwing games, ziplines, tractor train rides, potato gun shooting, paint ball shooting, corn pit, straw pyramid, straw maze, petting zoo (which we didn't get to do), trike racing, bubbles, and fake steer roping. I'm sure I missed something but like I said there are a lot of things to do and we didn't get to all of them. We really wanted to try the bigger slides that you slide down on a tube with, but the line was too long to wait for it. They also have flower picking, where you can purchase a vase and fill it with flowers you pick. I didn't do that but saw other people doing it.

The Curtis and Jack did the trike racing with the Wingerts.

The girls climbed to the top of the pyramid while the boys did the trikes.

Their straw maze was BIG (as in tall). They had a shorter sized one in Idaho. I like this one better!

Found a little nook to take a picture in the maze.

Going for a quick little ride.

Charlotte going down one of the slides. This is not the type I went down. They had two others by these ones.

Alice going down the slide.

It's hard to see him but there's Jack.

Jumping on the big pillows.

Jack, Charlotte and Alice taking a ride on the ziplines. (left to right) Garrett watched with us.

Jack and Connor

Playing a game called Gaga ball. I had never heard of it before.

Alice getting pictures with the pumpkins.

Me and the girls

The map of the corn maze. It was Lightning McQueen (Cars) themed this year.

Big swing time!

Brother Wingert giving them a big push, which he probably shouldn't have because it wasn't really built for that.

It was hard to get a picture of this guy, and he wanted to sit away from us on the hayride.

Us on the hayride.

Apparently, this was a new attraction this year. Rope climbing.

Alice really wanted ice cream and we barely got some before they closed.

Charlotte had wanted fries but because we waited too long, they were out, and she had to settle for a corn dog. I tried a couple bites, and it was good! I will have to get myself one next year.

Our girls finally got together with the McShane's girls after they showed up.

Garrett didn't really want to be there for the first little while, but he loosened up after we went in the corn maze. He took off in the maze on his own and would run past us sometimes, with a smile on his face. He got out of there right before we did. He seemed to have a little more fun after that. I am bummed that we didn't get a family picture, but that's what happens when at least one teenager takes off with his friends and we don't see them most of the night. I need to learn to get it done right when we get there. Maybe next year. I also wish that the farm stayed open at least another hour because 8:00 was too early, even after we got there around 4:20. There's so much to do but not enough time to do it all, and it's too expensive to come back another day. But it was worth it and fun! And keeping with another farm tradition, I had to get some donuts. They only had big ones here, but they were apple cider donuts and so yummy! Can't wait for next year!

Competitions and Activities

I'm so happy I was able to do apples this year! I finished up with what was given to me the first week of October. Our neighbors gave us around 10 grocery bags full of apples total. With the apples I was able to make applesauce, apple chips, and apple pie filling. I hadn't done pie filling since 2011! (I know because I pulled out an old jar that had the info written on it). We have given a couple more jars of apple pie filling away since taking the picture below, but I think they look so good on the shelf in our pantry.

I was able to get 11 jars of apple pie filling, (we gave one away at this point). There would have been one more but that jar broke. We got 14 jars of applesauce (one had been eaten by us already when the picture was taken).

We got lots of apple chips. This is when I was finished but we had been eating some while I was making them. I just finished off eating the last apple chip yesterday. I might just have to buy some apples just for making more chips. They're a good healthy snack.

This month has been busy with band competitions. There was one every Saturday the first three weeks of October. The first one was here in Kennewick. The 2nd one was in Spokane and the third in Yakima. They did improve through the season, but Curtis and I felt that the show needed more to it to be able to get a higher score. They received 2nd place in Spokane in their division, but there were only two teams in that division. In Yakima they received 2nd place again in their division, but this time there were 4 teams. They also got best visual. It was fun to watch all of the bands perform, especially when we got to see Garrett's old high school band (Skyview) come to Spokane for that competition. We're glad the season is over this week, and we can relax a little more and get things done on Saturdays. 

As an added bonus, Jack was in a little side competition at the Cavalcade band festival in Kennewick. While the judges were tallying up scores, they did a little game where three people from each band came to march lines. They had to go from one white line to the next in the correct number of steps with their eyes closed or covered. Jack made it to the top three that won! It was fun to watch and I'm glad I got it on video.

He won some swag from the competition.

Beautiful sunset before a football game performance! The band was warming up.

Ready to perform in Spokane.

Our Aunt Vicki (Gaya's sister) and her husband Jeff came to watch with us in Spokane because they live there. It was so nice to have them there to support Jack. We hadn't seen them in a long time. They came and watched about 4 schools perform including ours before they had to leave for other family commitments. This is a big deal because they paid $40 to get into the competition. We're so grateful for them!

While we were in Spokane for the competition, the girls stayed home with Garrett, but then they had Sister Gale pick them up to attend a baptism for one of Alice's friends who is in our activity days group. I was so glad that Charlotte went along also. Alice is excited that it's almost her turn to get baptized.

Speaking of activity days. Our last activity was making fabric pumpkins. They turned out really cute! Sister Gale had sewed up the edges in a way that the girls just had to pull the threads together. They sewed one end and then stuffed it with a small bag of rice (for weight) and cotton. Then tied off the top around a stick and glued on some leaves and berries.

The girls with their pumpkins. I got a picture with them the next morning before they went to school.

Our ward had a fun activity that was family history related. Last Wednesday evening they did a chili cook off. Curtis signed up and he was so excited to do his smoked chili. They had 3 categories, "Mild", Medium" and "Wild" (spicy). His chili was a bit spicy, so we put it in the "Wild" category, and he won!  His chili got eaten so fast that he didn't get any of it. Next time we'll be making a double batch. I did get a small amount of it, and it was delicious! I also signed up to bring corn bread and I baked it into muffins so it would be easy to grab and go. My muffins were also one of the first corn breads to disappear. No awards were given for the cornbread though.

After we ate dinner, they had a small presentation where a few kids came up and talked about an ancestor and we all sang a song together. Then they had some activities. In the Young Women's room, there were a bunch of pumpkins that were donated by someone in the ward who has a farm. Everyone got to choose a pumpkin and draw something on it if they wanted. It was perfect timing because I was just telling Curtis that I wanted to make sure we got pumpkins this year. Then we got some for free at the activity! In the Relief Society room, they had a cardboard cutout of the Salt Lake Temple where you could get a picture with your face inside. They also had a family tree activity where they take a picture of themselves and see what relative or famous person they look like. I don't know if any of our kids did that activity. It was pretty popular, but I did get temple pics of 3 of them.

The people in charge of this activity sure had the right idea on how to get people to attend...food and activities! It was a hit!

Posing for a picture with our pumpkins from the activity.

Alice

Charlotte

Jack and his little buddy for the night, Walker.

And last but not least for this post, Garrett got to vote for the very first time! They do mail in ballots here in Washington instead of going in somewhere to vote. They do have specific drop boxes just for ballots, so we decided to drive our ballots over instead of chancing them in the mail system. Garrett was pretty happy to be able to vote. "Garrett Butterfield has voted" as they would say in Idaho. Let's pray the best people win for the positions voted on.