Shelves, anyone?

Well, we bought wood to get shelves wherever we wanted them throughout the house. And, as I mentioned, my dad offered to finish the boys' closets. Well, he's fast and had the closets done in a few mornings. Obviously I still have some painting to do (to the doors and door frames), but look how wonderful these closets are:

Look at the pretty trim and rosettes

Two bars in the center; shelves on each side

The shelves go around the corner to the front of the closet

Oh, and my Dad's boredom (or his noticing my honey-do list isn't having anything crossed off ;) motivated him to do even more -- now both Becca and Shayla have shelves in their closets, and the old window in our toy room has adjustable shelves. I'm loving our "extra" space! It's amazing how much more organized you can feel with some shelves here and there!

50s

For Shayla's 50th day of school they were supposed to dress up 50s style. Fortunately when digging through our Halloween bin I saw that we have a poodle skirt! I don't even know where we got it since we've had it for years. However, convincing the little darling was a chore. What 5-year-old knows that a poodle on a skirt makes it 50s?

Dancing in her 50s outfit

Fortunately she believed her Momma and wore it in spite of her reservations. Then she got to school and found her teacher ... in a poodle skirt! Score!

(BTW, in case you didn't know, kindergarten teachers are the end-all. They could say what time for a child to go to bed; how many pieces of candy to eat; etc. and it would be gospel. Now if only they would! ;)

Sadies

To ask Kyle to Sadies, Becca gave him a bowl full of goldfish crackers and said, "Of all the fish in the sea, will you go to Sadies with me?" He answered by putting a real goldfish in the bowl and returning it with a note that said yes. I should have taken a picture of her with the fish (Sadie) before she died ...

Anyway, I didn't get any pictures of them on the day of the dance, because they didn't come here. She assures me her friend's mom will share, but I still haven't seen pictures yet ...

But Becca had a cute idea for shirts and put words on them for the couples. She and Kyle had these shirts:

Her friends had these ones:

Apparently this is some inside joke

They had fun until Kyle got sick and threw up. Apparently he wasn't so lucky after all ... ;)

Little happenings

This is how bad my memory is these days -- if I don't have a picture, then I forget to blog about it. Seriously? I can't be that old. Or am I?

A couple of weeks ago Shayla got to celebrate her birthday at school. This is a new thing for us since she's our one and only summer birthday. She came home with a birthday crown and the birthday bag. Yes, birthdays as a kid are much better than they are as an adult ...

Last  month we toured Utah State University since Becca is thinking she'll go there to school. It's so crazy to think that next year she'll leave us and be in college! Anyway, the girl looked like she owned the campus:

(This is where you can become a true Aggie -- being kissed on a full moon at midnight. Paul offered to drive up and give her a kiss on the cheek so she can become a true Aggie. She laughed, but don't put it past him ...)

Our dining table has a few new dents in it. Okay, yes, it was already dented from my mom's cub scouts back in the day. But now my own kid has added his own mark. Which child, you ask? Austin! He was having so much fun with Play-doh and a toy hammer that I let him go at it. It wasn't until the next day I noticed dents all over where he had been hammering:

My Dad is finishing our boys' shelves. I have no idea how he can be bored. He is bishop of a HUGE ward, works a service mission at the meat-packing plant (although they released him when he became bishop, he still goes every week), and has a bunch of grandkids he entertains regularly. However, he is bored and is building shelves in my boys' bedrooms. They look GREAT! I'm so happy. Anyway, Austin has sure enjoyed watching Grandpa work:

And happy birthday to my sweet nephew James, who wanted no part of his cake smash. Poor boy!

Reflections winner!

My boys decided to enter Reflections this year, much to my dismay ... :) Anyway, Tyler wrote a great story, Star Wars style (it's awesome with flying cake and everything), and Zachary wrote a song for the piano. Great fun ... until you have to do the paperwork that has to be completed! (I also had to play Zachary's song to record since he didn't want to, and it's hard to play music written a little sloppily by an 8-year-old. But I only made one mistake as far as I know. :)

Zachary won in his category -- how fun!

Halloween

Halloween is such an exciting time for kids! And since my kids aren't picky about what they are going to be, it's enjoyable for me as well. :)

Last year I hit up Walmart after Halloween to get the clearance costumes. That got me 2/4 of the costumes I needed. I had one in storage from a yard sale years back for Austin, so I was left with only one costume to get. Zachary wanted to be Harry Potter. I pulled out an old graduation gown we had, but he was mortified I suggested a blue (Ravenclaw) robe for someone in Gryffindor. Gasp! Fortunately my friend Hilary came through by grabbing an "official" Gryffindor robe from her sister. He already had the wand I made for his birthday party, and we grabbed glasses from the dollar store. Viola! All the costumes were ready to go.

I was worried it was going to be freezing, because when we took pictures in the morning it was COLD! Last year it hailed on us while we were trick-or-treating. However, the weather turned out to be beautiful -- not too hot and not too cold. Phew! (So glad, especially since it snowed today quite a bit!)

Here are the cute kiddos, er, Darth Vader, Harry Potter, a witch and a giraffe:

Oh, and let me document the fun of teenagers! For a month I've been asking Becca if she'd like to have a Halloween party this year, and she kept saying she wanted to, but never got around to actually planning anything. I told her we had to plan games, refreshments, etc. before I'd let her invite people. (We also needed to plan how many to invite and for how long, etc.) After several prods, I finally just dropped it and realized she wasn't going to go through with it. Last week she finally mentioned that she wasn't going to have the party after all. Sunday afternoon I asked what she was going to do for Halloween. She didn't know.

Then Sunday night she came home from a fireside and said she had invited 10 people over for a party. WHAT?!? And they were coming from 6 to 11 p.m. on a school night. REALLY?!? These were the "little" details we were supposed to figure out before anyone was invited two weeks ahead. Sigh. She figured I had planned to make cookies anyway, so why not have friends over to eat them? TEENAGERS!!!

Oh, and Friday night was the masquerade at her school, and she wanted to make a cool mask this year. So she did (after much trial-and-error with paper mache -- instead of just asking for help or looking up how to make it. And her asking me to blow dry it onto her face? That's another story ...). Anyway, what she didn't inform me was that she had also decided to spray-paint her hands gold to match the mask? Really?!? Where does she come up with these ideas? Here's the final product:

And in case you're wondering -- no, the spray paint didn't come off with the initial wash. I only wish it had been harder to get off so she'd think before doing things like that in the future! :)