October 2015

Ryan took the kids and some of the Rivas to a Pumpkin Festival in Hillsville one Saturday.  They had a lot of fun.

Playing in the feed corn.

Practicing milking cows.

Milking tiny baby cows?

Jose, Cora, Betty and Elijah

Then they went to the Ladybug girl playground.  Betty swinging with Julie.

Elijah's self portrait.

I'm trying to actually get ahead on Christmas sewing this year - I sewed up this cute guy while the kids were at school for Elijah for Christmas.

After church one Sunday we went to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a scenic drive.  The kids were a little grouchy about it though as you can see.

I tried to improve Elijah's attitude by letting him take some pictures of the scenery on my phone.

Cora was kind of cold here.

Got a smile from Elijah!

Tried again with Cora and Ryan.

Then let Elijah play a bit with the front facing camera on my phone in the car while Ryan took more pics.

Playing outside at home after storytime at the library one Wednesday.

Sometimes I like to have fun with Elijah's hair.  Like gelling it straight up.

The kids made these cute ghosts at the library storytime.  They didn't last long outside though, sad. You can see a little of the autumn decor I attempted for our porch - a couple cute potted mums along with our pumpkins.

Horrible picture but Cora had fun marching in the homecoming parade with her soccer team.  (She doesn't look like she's having fun here but she kept telling people how she was in a parade after)

Betty likes Sesame Street lately - this segment with an Asian astronaut had her pointing at the TV going "Papa! Papa!"

We took one weekend and made a trip up to Herndon.  Along the way, Cora wrote some letters to the "famly."

She also write and illustrated a cute little story about a farmer.

After church we went with Dad and Kate's family up to the temple.  It was absolutely beautiful with all of the fall foliage.

Cora and Betty were wearing dresses I made for them for the fall.  Betty had worn hers before, but I added a second line of trim to it and liked it much better like this.  And Cora's was a new one I had made for her birthday.  It is a lovely warm quality herringbone flannel fabric, with long sleeves, pockets, and the yoke fabric is a cute floral with hidden pandas peeking out here and there.  It turned out large, so I added a sash to tie it back and I think it turned out ok, and will hopefully still fit next year too.

Skipping with Papa

Finding beautiful leaves

Just a little information about Cora. :)  I think she wrote this one on the way back home after our visit to Herndon.

This girl is not usually a thumb sucker like Cora was so I thought this was too cute.

Here we are at our ward trunk-or-treat party showing off our JM Barry inspired costumes.  I found some green skinny jeans at Goodwill for my Peter Pan that I was excited about because I could wear them after Halloween too.  I also found a large tee shirt that I cut up for the tunic.  The leather moccasin style slip-ons were from my Grandma this past summer - I almost turned them down but I'm glad I didn't, they were perfect for the costume.  Cora had her tutu, green undershorts and green shirt already - I painted her shirt to give it that classic Tinkerbell sweetheart neckline but it turned out to be hard to see.  I bought her green tights for just a couple bucks and painted some cheap white canvas sneakers from Walmart for her green shoes, then sewed on a pom-pom.  I figured after Halloween I'd snip off the pom-pom and she could just wear them as fun green sneakers. Her wings I cut out of plastic canvas and just sewed along the edge with a nice fluffy yard so it wasn't too pokey.  It turned out ok but they were floppier than I intended, which is why she is holding them up for the picture.  Ryan, after some convincing, agreed to be the loveable Mr. Smee.  I made the hat and tee shirt for him, and paired with shorts and cockroach slippers, he was all set!  He also put his glasses down on his nose and stuffed a pillow in his shirt later.  Betty was our little Wendy.  I was tempted to make a cute little peasant style nightdress for her but when I was feeling short on time I found this little dress at the consignment store for a dollar so I decided to go with that instead.  It was a little big for her and really too froufy for Wendy, she kept getting mistaken for a princess, but it was the right color at least.  Elijah's costume had the most pieces of any of ours.  He already had the hook and pirate hat in the dress up box, and the sword I had made earlier. Then I made the red jacket with gold  and lace trim, the maroon leggings, and the ruffly neck piece.  I also made a yellow sash/sword holster that he's not wearing here.  Then he just wore his white church shirt, and white socks and black shoes he already had.  His eyebrows and mustache were drawn on with eyeliner and probably his favorite part. He almost had to go to school the next day with it still on because I couldn't get it off with just soap that night and I apparently don't own makeup remover, since I hardly wear makeup.  But then I did a google search and managed to get it off in the morning before school with olive oil.

Our Halloween dinner - inspired by ideas found on Pinterest.  The kids got a kick out of eating ghosts, spiders and eyeballs. 

We spent Halloween night again trick-or-treating downtown.  Our friends the Rivas came along with us.  This year it was much warmer and drier than last year.