Visit to Great Grandparents

Last year my grandparents celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary.  Their daughters threw a big party with many friends and family.  I will always remember my grandma literally bouncing up and down with excitement at seeing so many loved ones.  Since then we have been meaning to spend time with them.  We decided to pick a date and go in October.  We had a great visit and will all remember stories we heard.  Allison especially liked the happy waiter that spilled lemonade all over Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Gay and Anslin.  Erica remembered Grandma's story of how computers hate her.  The boys really liked the dogs, Bandit and Cody.  The boys and Erica went with Dad and Grandpa Hunt to get sandwiches for lunch.  We also had pop and cookies Grandma made.

The kids liked Grandma's chandelier.

Allison, Grandpa Hunt, Cody Ethan, and Joshua.

Joshua, Cody and Eli. 

Ethan, Joshua, Grandpa Hunt, Eli.

Charles, Erica, Cherilyn, Allison, Grandma Hunt, Monica,

Grandpa Hunt, Joshua, Eli, Ethan.

Without Charles, so he could get a better picture.

Allison's 17th birthday

Allison has kept busy this year.  She is working at the Red Barn, which she enjoys because of a good environment and the discount on ice cream and doughnuts.  She has kept three piano students, but turned over the teaching of her siblings to me.  This year she actually has homework on a regular basis.  She recently quit her online PE class which lightened the homework load.  Lately she has filled that time with watching rehearsals for the upcoming school play.  She is in two choir classes again as the accompanist, and singing when there is no accompaniment for her to play.

   

On her birthday she got some shoes, a dress, gloves and piano music.

Here she is at Sadies, a girl's choice dance.  Her group all wore superhero shirts.  She had a great time.

Halloween

We had a ward Halloween party on the 29th so the kids tried out their costumes there.  (Cherilyn dressed up as Belle for a Halloween dance, but we don't have pictures.)  They enjoyed the games at the party, seeing others' costumes and the candy they received.

On Halloween Joshua loved handing out candy to trick-or-treaters.  He said he liked that they said "Thank you."

Joshua as Captain America.

Erica as a princess.

Allison is a spider web.  Notice the spiderweb makeup.  She liked how it turned out.

Eli had this costume planned for months.  The shirt says "Attention werewolf not in form."

Ethan was a stick figure for the ward party.

Here they are at the ward party. 

Due to difficulties of detection in the stick figure costume, Ethan was a mummy for school on Halloween.

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turned eleven!  He is now an 11-year old scout, with his first campout this weekend.  He is excited.  He recently started student council at school.  The student council went to BYU for a leadership conference.  He really enjoyed hearing the great speakers, eating pizza and soda, and missing a day of school.

This gift was a book, Origami Yoda.  Reading is still one of his favorite pastimes.

Here is a new mummy sleeping bag.  Perfect for the upcoming scout trip (and the many more in his future as a scout).  Eli has Perplexus, a maze in a ball, another gift for Ethan.  He also got Bop it Tetris and a boy scout shirt.

Excitement from all the boys.

Yes, he got a BB gun for his birthday.

We have enjoyed learning to shoot and everyone enjoys the pop I bought so we have pop cans to shoot.

Ethan in his student council shirt.

Pumpkins

We carved the pumpkins that we got from the pumpkin patch on Ethan's birthday.  We had to wait for Charles to be there.  He can cut open and clean out a pumpkin twice as a fast as the rest of us.

Here is Eli starting to carve his pumpkin.

  

And Ethan and Allison.

  

Allison, Ethan, Charles, Joshua and Eli.

Ethan and his pumpkin.

Eli and his two-faced pumpkin.

Joshua with his pumpkin.

Allison with her pumpkin.

The kids with the pumpkins they carved. Erica didn't want to carve a pumpkin this year, but she chose Allison's pumpkin to carve.  Allison had to work when we went on the hay ride.

Joshua with the pumpkins at night.

Hay ride 2014

We went on a hayride to the pumpkin patch.  The Red Barn does the hayrides to their pumpkin patch.  At the pumpkin patch they have a big slide, 4 wheel bikes, apple cannons, a maze of apple crates, and hundreds of pumpkins to choose from.  Back at the store they have several treats.  This month we have had lots of doughnuts and ice cream that Allison brings home.  She likes the doughnuts for breakfast.  Charles likes warm doughnuts with ice cream.  It is actually quite good (on toast.  Name that movie.).

 Here's Joshua on a bike. 

And Eli on a bike.

            

 Charles convinced Erica to try it out.  She had fun. 

 Here's me on a bike.  

 This is Ethan posing on a tractor. 

 This is me and Erica.

 Here's the boys and Jacob and Jamie (boys' friends).  

 Here's Ethan on the slide.  

 

Here's Joshua on the slide.  

Boys Room

  On Friday, Charles took the day off and took the boys to Home Depot to pick out paint.  Ethan's been wanting to paint his room pine green for about a year.  So that's what he got.

The project (both rooms) took all day, with taking everything out, painting, and putting it back in.  Allison, Eli, and I also painted two of Ethan's shelves white.  

Here is Ethan's finished room.

Eli and Joshua decided on bright blue and tomato red.  I wasn't sure that would look good, but that's what they chose.  We are all happy with how it turned out.  We all think (and often say) it's "fun," because of the childish (in a good way) colors.

  

Back to School 2014

Joshua is in 1st grade with Ms. Hogan as his teacher.  He came home the first day and said "Mrs. Hogan is the best teacher ever."

Eli's in 3rd grade with Mrs. Lindhart.  He also really likes his teacher.

 Ethan is in 5th grade with Mrs. Camit as his teacher.  His favorite part of the day is recess when he gets to see his friends that are not in his class.

Erica is enrolled at Provo e-school this year.  She will be doing BYU Independent Study through My Tech High.  She is taking digital photography and ASL in addition to core classes.

Allison's in her junior year.  She is taking two choir classes (She is the accompanist.) and a second year drafting class along with her usual honors core classes.  She was also recently hired at The Red Barn, which she was very happy about.  She is still teaching piano to her brothers and 3 other students.

Cherilyn will move into Helaman Halls on August 27th.  It will be strange leaving her there, but c'est la vie.  She started working at the Helaman Halls Creamery last week.  Her last day at The Red Barn is Saturday.  Cherilyn starts classes on September 2nd.

As we were waiting to talk to a counselor about changing classes, Allison wondered how she could find out about an online P.E. class.  I suggested she ask the counselor.  She said "You are so smart."  It was a nice change from the typical "Your're weird Mom."  Which response I get from all the children, not just Allison.  Usually it comes when I dance or sing Les Poissons from The Little Mermaid or some other song they don't know.