Happy Halloween!

This has been one of the quietest halloween's here in awhile. I don't think we even had 20 kids. There were several houses this year, that didnt have anything set up.
My kids went to a few, then we came home and watched Addams family on tv. The kids snacked on some yummy cupcakes that my visiting teachers dropped off.
The kuds took off their costumes as soon as they came home. Tomorrow when they get home from school, I am going to ask them to change so I can get pictures.
I worked on putting together den flags for my cub scout pack. I have one down, two more to make. My goal is to have them done by tomorrow. I've had a headache all say, so hopefully it will go away. It seems so quiet here. I remember when this neighborhood was PACKED with kids on Halloween. Now it's more like a ghost town...

Monday

Today has been a productive day.
The boys came home from school and rocked raking up all the leaves. My front yard was COVERED. They spent 2 hours blowing and raking them up.
They did a great job, and there was minimal fighting.
Dinner was scrambled eggs with ham, bagels and hot chocolate ( it was chilly today).
I found a great recipe for chocolate chip muffins. I made 30 yesterday. The kids and I ate them all. My goal is to make more sometime this week. The kids loved them. They asked for me to make more.
I cant believe Halloween is almost here. Before you know it, it will be Christmas.
Need to finish my Christmas shopping.
I am happy, I am OFF on Thursday. The best thing is, the kids are ALL in school so I will be by myself, as in NO ONE HERE. The house and I have a hot date in regards to house cleaning!

The tree in the picture is what it looked like before all the leaves fell. I love the shade of reds it turns!

This week

Has been a whirlwind. It's been good, just busy,busy,busy. The kids have rocked doing their chores and doing well with school. The two new foster kiddos are getting into a routine. Andres old assistant soccer coach called, he  was looking for our phone number and found it. He wants Andrew on his team. His coach said that our foster kid can join too ( he is a month older than Andrew). The boys are excited.
Tomorrow we will carve our pumpkins. I will begin to make Ryan's Arrow of  Light.  My goal this week is to prep Andrew and Ryan's room to paint it. They picked a light gray color.

Pictures

I finally got around to downloading my pictures..

Here is a picture of the Arrow Of Light I made for one of the scouts in our pack

 

The tip was hard to adhere to the start of the arrow shaft. This shaft is 31" long. This boy earned a lot of stuff!

 I did add some leather stripping with feathers and beads attached. I didn't get pictures of that though.

 

Didn't do a whole lot more today. The boys and I went to the dump. We went out to Red Robin for dinner. I really wanted a low key day today. The kids played basketball and soccer outside. It was foggy and cold most of today ( yuck). Days like today make me think of moving to Arizona or Nevada. At lease there is SUN..

These pictures were taken 3 weeks ago at Denny Creek. The trees there are huge.

I loved how there was some snow on the very top of the mountain. The creek was running cold and fast..

 

 

 

Progress!

     I got a lot done today. Yesterday when I got off work, I went ahead and did the grocery shopping. Luckily, the store was not that busy.
The boys helped unload and put the groceries away. I worked on the laundry, doing dishes, all the other fun things the house needs. The boys raked up the leaves and vacuumed the house.
   After dinner, we went shopping for Halloween costumes. FK #1&2 each found what they were looking for. RJ found a costume, so I told him to get it. I don't want to wait then it not be there.
    Today I worked on cleaning my room, the computer desk and the garage. The boys helped me go through items. We took one load to Goodwill, and have a load for the dump outside. We have been in this house 9 years. I cant believe the amount of clutter that has accumulated. The garage still has a lot of work to be done; however at least we made a dent in the mess.
   The only break we took today was when I took the kids swimming. Its a public pool in the next city. I like it a lot better. The pool has a diving board with a rope the kids can use to swing into the water; a slide, and a huge inflatable octopus that they kids can climb and slide down.The kids had a blast. It wasn't that busy, which was nice.
     I am now working on organizing all my cub scout stuff to make it easier to track my awards/advancements. I am trying to connect with the other leader to come up with a plan. The other leader has a lot of health problems going on- I am covering for her until they call someone else to replace her. This group of boys is sweet, so I don't mind covering. I am planning for the boys to cook hotdogs on Wednesday, so that will be entertaining. Its been foggy here- I was hoping for sun today so the kids and I could do yard work.

    I realize that this picture is crooked, that's I placed it on the scanner. It is one of the few pictures I have of my grandparents, parents, aunt, uncle, husband and kids. I found it today as I was cleaning some of my craft stuff in one of the closets. This picture is even more important to me, as my grandfather passed away when I was pregnant with my 4th son.

Tuesday

The last couple weeks have been CRAZY! I have two extra kids ( foster kids-siblings ages 6&12, and yes they are boys). So yes, I am crazy enough to have 7 BOYS here. Let me tell you- I think it would be cheaper to buy a cow.. The kids have all been G-R-E-A-T.  These kids are so sweet. They are a voluntary placement as mom is in a rough spot. She calls her kids every night. They get along really well with my group- its been fun. I forget how much help a 6 year old needs with their homework :)
I finished an arrow for an arrow of light award for our pack meeting on Thursday. I will upload the pics later. I am happy with it :)
I think this weekend I will take the kids swimming to the local pool. All the boys have been asking- its an easy enough request. They have been good raking the leave almost every day. We got our pumpkins from the local vegetable stand Saturday. We will be getting ready to carve them within the next week. I don't want to carve them to early and have them rot.
That's all for now, I need to catch up on all my other things :)

This weekend

Was beautiful! 68 yesterday, 74today. I loved the sun and warmth. Especially after all the rain last weekend. We (the kids and I) went to Denny Creek. It was chilly up there, but sunny. The leaves are turning colors.
  I got all the mini pumpkins picked, and most of the vines are in my compost. I created a second pie in the corner of the garden. The compost will end up there anyway. The garden looks-empty. The bonus though, my kale and lettuce are beginning to come up.
   I did a lot of baking this weekend. I made cookies, bread, French toast, and lentil meat loaf. My kids loved the meatloaf. I liked it being made with lentils. I don't like the fat in hamburger.
   I was blessed with a bunk bed this weekend. I took in two siblings(boys again). I didn't have a bunk bed. I only had a twin and a toddler bed. The younger of the two technically could use the toddler bed, I didn't think it was appropriate. One of my friends asked people in her ward. One of them had one. I am so thankful, I don't have a lot of money right now. My husbands drill weekend was cancelled due to the government shut down. My husband said that even though we could use the money, he was glad to extra studying done and the opportunity to watch General Conference. He has missed the last three because of drill weekends. He said he was glad he could watch it as it was was happening.
  Time to get the kids winding down for bed.

Pictures

I love pictures. I splurged on myself a couple weeks ago and got a new camera. I love it. I have had fun playing with it.

 Here is my strawberry plant. I think it is confused... I am still getting strawberries from them.

 Here is a huge rainbow. The picture was taken from in front of my house.. There was a faint second rainbow as well.

These were taken from my cell phone. The top picture is of South Lake Union. You can see the boats. The bottom picture shows one of the buildings by my work. The sky was so pretty that day. It is days like this that make me appreciate the sun here.

Here are the trees in my front yard. You can see the top of the one tree is beginning to turn red.

My tree out back and my fuchsia . My tree is changing colors, even more since this picture was taken. That fuchsia was bought last year as a 6 inch start. It was my foster sons. He thought he had killed it, and left it at my house. His mom didn't want a "dead" plant. I moved it up against the house and forgot about it. I'll be if it didn't start growing. As the fall approached, I then moved it into the garage. We have a window on the south side. It did very well. I neglected it- I think I only watered it three times over the winter. This is it now. I have since moved it back into the garage by the same window. So we will see if it continues to do well.

A couple of weeks ago, my son and I went to the convenience store for a soda. We saw this in the parking lot and laughed. Wonder if it still works....