November

Once I took the littles down to the end of a street for a picnic. Wren refused to go down to the trail, so we just sat on the grass at the end of the cul de sac and tried to avoid the ant convention. I do so little with them that the outing made me feel like a good mom.

Ever wanted to do the PREP dance/cheer class last year. (PREP is the after-school enrichment program at Palmquist. They offer various one-hour classes right after school. Each session is about 10 weeks long.) Leela did cheer and loved it. I was adamantly opposed. We ended up telling Ever she could take the class the next time it was offered, so she did it this fall. The teacher was different and not very good, and Ever wasn't very pumped about it. A win for me. I have to admit, though, she was pretty cute when she cheered. 

On the last day of the session, they performed their cheers and dance for the parents. One of the cheers (Ever's in the middle to the left of the girl in pink):

An excerpt from the dance:

The PREP class performed during halftime at a San Diego State University football game shortly after that. Ever was all set to go. Anna was going to take her and Lelei (along with Leela), and they were going to meet up with Ever and Leela's friend Grace for lunch beforehand. (Jim was working, and I didn't feel like taking the littles and trying to sit through the first half of a football game during their nap time). Ever, however, was being so sassy and awful in the days leading up to the game that after fair warnings, I finally had to tell her a couple hours before she was supposed to leave that she couldn't go. She tried all manner of tactics to regain the privilege. She negotiated, she offered me all her money, she started cleaning up the playroom. She begged and cried. She tried everything, but I stayed strong. It was a rough couple hours, but then I thought she recovered quite well. After a day or two, I don't think she really mentioned it again. Jim, however, has never recovered. I am updating this on March 2, and within the last week, he brought this up again and said how devastated he was and still is about not letting Ever go to the football game. He thinks I did the right thing, but he is still super upset because, he says, "I love her so much." He's such a softy.

November was also the school's annual fun run. Ever got pledges from Tutu and Papa and Jim and me and successfully completed the maximum number of laps. 

Jim danced with Wrenzy, and she performed some incredible side-to-side maneuvers.

Later she got a dance lesson from Ever.

Snuggling and reading in bed = the best. 

Jim had the grand idea of going for a walk right after church one Sunday afternoon. He got the strollers, snacks, etc. loaded up in the morning, and we took changes of clothes. It was a lovely time of day and so nice to get outside.

Ever had a successful dentist appointment. Tiny wore a princess dress.

Jim and Wrenzy were exclaiming so profusely over the beautiful fall scenes depicted in Music and the Spoken Word one morning that I just had to record some of it.

We saw Nathan outside, and Ever joined him for bike riding. Tiny rode a little on her trike and then gathered rocks to put in the compartment at the back of the trike. Instead of a princess dress, she was wearing a dance outfit with her way-too-big Anna/Elsa slippers that day.

Then Nathan's electric car made an appearance, and he took Ever for a spin. They looked like teenagers on a date. There's a radio in the car, so they were driving and listening to some tunes. I couldn't get over the cuteness.

Nathan kindly turned the car over to the girls, and Ever took over driving.

She passionately loves that car, and rightly so.

We went to Target, and the girls took advantage of the relatively quiet store.

Wrenzy and Tiny got into the pink hair chalk when I left them unsupervised for a while. They made a big mess in the upstairs bathroom, but Wrenzy did a good job helping me clean it up later. They also stamped themselves on their foreheads, reminding me of Ash Wednesday. So cute and so loving:

The hair chalk made the bath water pink, so that was fun.



I invited Scott and Rebecca to join us for Thanksgiving. Turns out they always get together with her family, so we ended up going to their place with her mom and stepdad and brother (although her brother came late and left early). My cooking difficulties continued. I burned one pumpkin pie and possibly undercooked the other. I also took a berry pie that the YW had made at an activity the week before and I'd frozen. It was fine but not amazing. My sweet potato dish turned out runnier than it should have, but the flavor was good. Rebecca made turkey and mashed potatoes, and her stepdad made yummy stuffing. It turned out to be a really nice meal despite my struggles. Wrenzy even ate the pumpkin pie, which was surprising. This is all I have to show for Thanksgiving:

Christian and Shandra spent Thanksgiving with her family in Temecula, and they came to hang out with us the Friday after Thanksgiving. Ever was SO excited to see her cousins, as evidenced by this sign:

They arrived around noon, so we had Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch and then went to see The Grinch. It was Tiny and Wrenzy's first time in a theater, and they were a little freaked out when we walked into the dark room with a giant screen and really loud sounds. They ended up doing well, though. Tiny got antsy the last half hour or so, but we made it through. The highlight for all of the children was fake-playing the arcade games before we left. 

Once in a while, Wrenzy lets me do her hair. When it happens, she is very opinionated about how she wants it done, and then she is proud of how beautiful she looks.

Emma Seal (YW) babysat and did a little Thanksgiving craft with the littles.

I stumbled upon this note, and it made me laugh:

We went to Palmquist Elementary's Christmas event at Barnes & Noble. Ever was the only one brave enough to sit on Santa's lap.

Wrenzy just wanted to make bookmarks.

Tiny disappears for really long periods of time, and I wonder if she's safe and staying out of trouble. Always, she has taken a zillion books off the shelves and has just been reading. When I walk in, she promises that she'll put them all back when she's done. We're working on that.

Peanut butter is her primary food group. She's obsessed with "peanut butter balls" in particular (oats, flaxseed meal, peanut butter, honey, etc.). She goes through them too quickly, and if we run out, she wants to make more right away.

Jim started getting our Christmas decorations up right after Thanksgiving. One night Wren made a cozy little spot for herself under an umbrella on the couch, where she could enjoy the lights on the mantel.

The Rest of October

We came back from Coco's just in time for general conference weekend. Jim and Wren played some UNO.

I mentioned needing to sweep the walkway. The girls (I think just Ever and Wren) said they wanted to do it, so I let them out. What I found later was not a swept walkway but a neatly arranged line of wooden blocks and rocks.

All on her own, Ever decided she wanted to do something for her teacher. She drew him a picture, wrote him a sweet note, and made him a melty-bead thing.

Then we made him a treat that did not work out. That was the start of a months-long string of kitchen failures. Somehow I have fallen under a cooking/baking curse. I can't even succeed at my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe that I've made five million times over the past ten years.

Jim had to work the Saturday night of conference weekend, so I didn't watch the women's session live. We turned it on the following weekend and did the snacks-in-muffin-tin thing that is Ever's favorite. Is this not the best picture of Wren's sweet, sweet face?

We came home from DC, where Coco was battling ants, to an ant infestation of our own. I'd seen some before we left, and we had a full-blown problem in our pantry when we returned. I took everything out, and one visit from Terminix did the trick.

Then I got the pantry put back together, and the girls got their play table back.

Tiny remained convinced that the airplane we took to Coco's house was actually a rocket ship that took us to the moon.

My birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, so I worked that day. Jim took the kids shopping after he picked them up that evening. Ever helped pick out a necklace at Target for me, so I came home to flowers and presents. That was lovely.

Ever prepared a wonderful birthday package for me months in advance and then forgot about it. I finally asked her about it way after the fact: "Did you mean to give this to me on my birthday?" The package included a coupon for helping to get the littles into the car, a card, and a couple separate "I love you" notes.

Like her sister before her, Bear started begging for homework, so I made her some.

Despite their triple bunk, Missy and Bear like to sleep together. It's really cute.

Documentation of how Tiny says "piano" ("pipano"):

Tiny and Wren went to Cora Sorenson's fourth birthday party, which was kitty themed because Cora is obsessed with cats. Wren asked the face painting mom, Rene Clark, for a unicorn instead of the standard cat, and Rene obliged.

Tiny continues to live in two outfits (if I may use the term "outfit" loosely) - her size 18-months bird jammies and her princess dresses. 

This pic is a must for her wedding video:

I had the Beehives over for a pizza/Princess Bride party. Ever greeted the girls at the door in her Princess Buttercup dress (which I bought her for Halloween). She had looked forward to the party all week. It was the highlight of my girls' life. They got their nails painted and participated in the games. In fact, I think Ever initiated "Black Magic" in the beginning of the evening, and the young women were super into it. It really got the night off to a good start. 

Jim continued work on the bathroom, cutting through joists, moving plumbing and electrical lines, etc. This will be the floor of the new shower:

Jim carved pumpkins with the girls one Tuesday evening while I was at work (or on my way home). I found the one with the skinned face (Wren's) a little creepy.

Bear was going to be a unicorn for Halloween, but her horn headband was misplaced right in time for Halloween. She was slightly ballerina-ish for her preschool party. She has a hard time with natural-looking smiles.

That night for trick-or-treating, she let me put her hair in a bun and looked like a pretty legit ballerina. Tiny, less so.

Ever was torn between wanting to stay home and pass out candy (is that normal for a six-year-old?) and wanting to go trick-or-treating. Ultimately she decided to do both. Early in the evening, she went out to sit on the driveway with our basket of candy. After a while, Jim got out her camping chair and put the jack o' lanterns he'd carved with the girls around her, so she looked like an amazingly grown-up candy passer outer.

Unfortunately she didn't get a ton of customers before we had to head out to do our own trick-or-treating.

I set out with the littles, and then Jim and Ever met us a little later. I could not get Wren to trick-or-treat. She was terrified. She just cried and absolutely refused. We finally got up the street (not trick-or-treating at all on the way) and found Cikaneks. They were already heading back, but Scott agreed to hit a few more houses with Nathan so he could show Wren how it's done. Rebecca took Noah home. Wren, though still scared, finally got in the game. It wasn't long before we ran into the whole Bunnell clan and did some houses with them. On their way up the street to find us, Jim and Ever saw Ella and Ellis and their families. Of course Ever desperately wanted to trick-or-treat with her friends, so Scott headed home with Nathan, and we tagged along with the Martindales and Rondos. Ever made a wonderful Princess Buttercup.

I had made this amazing sweet cream cheese dip (called "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip") to take with fruit to the Sorensons' for their regular post-trick-or-treating festivities. It got so late by the time we were done trick-or-treating in Henie Hills, though, that we ended up nixing the Sorensons'. Jim negotiated with Ever and offered to allow her to watch a Halloween show that night, and have some of the dip, if we skipped the party. She was a complete zombie, but she forced herself to stay awake for the show. Then over the course of that night and the next day, I ate ALL the dip, with some help from Jim.