NO SCHOOL

Fall is in the air!!!!

With the change in colors and the cooler temperatures, come all the fun activities that I love!! I get so excited to welcome in the fall season. Cooking, yummy fall candles, FOOTBALL, leaves, smells, PUMPKINS, and especially all the fun family activities!! The deal gets even sweeter when you throw in a NO SCHOOL DAY. Caden had Thurs. and Fri. off of school this week so we made the most of it and had fun. After the kids were in bed last night I told Scott that these past few days have just been glorious! His response was, "you always say that, what was so great this time"?

My only explanation can be: NO SCHOOL DAY!!!

(I do believe in school, I just appreciate the days I can have all my little ones at home with me)

Here are the pictures of how we spent our time off.







We started the long weekend off by going to the BSU game on Wed. the kids didn't have school on thurs so they went to Grandmalitas. Tim Valko was so kind to give us tickets.

THANK YOU!!! We had a lot of fun. It was a great game. Of course we won!! Scott yelled so loud that he lost his voice. It was a lot of fun to spend that time with Scott.


THURSDAY: GRANDMA SMITH'S HOUSE



The kids had so much fun. We spent the whole day visiting with Grandma smiths house, something we don't get to do very often anymore. Grandma gave the kids blankets and let them make forts. caden told Sarah that she could be his wife but she had to build her own house because they had to live in their own homes. Here in this picture they are "going for a run". (Daddy would be proud). Grandma's house is so fun.



Grandma Smith taught me how to can tomatoes and juice......



I taught her how to make cinnamon rolls.

Friday: zoo and crafts

Caden had a birthday party at the zoo. We all went along, but I let Caden go off by himself with his friends and I stayed behind with the girls. It was simply marvelous!! I could not have asked for better weather. It was so fun to spend time with Hannah and Sarah. Hannah was so excited by all of the animals. Now that she is bigger I let her walk most of the way. She shrieked with excitement at every animal we saw. She even got excited about the little birds that pestered us as we ate our lunch. After we were done we went for a little walk at the park. when Caden got done with his party, we went to our old neighborhood in East Boise to look for acorns. The kids thought it was so fun to see our old house and collect acorns like we did when they were little.



Chili and Crafts!!!


Hannah and Anna were pleasant this evening. Hannah was maybe not totally feeling herself because she was super sweet and she seemed to really enjoy the company of a friend.


Strike a pose girls







So to end our Friday, we invited the Hawkes over to paint the acorns we had collected. I hope the kids had as much fun as the vision I had in my mind. The idea was to paint them to look like pumpkins. I think I gave too many options of colors. Oh well!! I believe that I heard "camo, and army guys" in the conversation. we ended the night with some home made chili I made with the tomatoes I canned. YUM!!!

Saturday: Fall decor, and Cinnamon Rolls




Hannah quickly learned that the taste of raw dough is NOT very good!


The finished product. Every time I make cinnamon rolls, I give the kids their own chunk of dough to create whatever their little hearts dream up. The end result usually looks something like this. Although very fun to make, after only a few bites the kids usually decide next time they won't put so much stuff on it.



Dawn, Daniel, Grandma, and Grandpa also came over on Saturday. The kids had so much fun playing with Jenna in the closet.



My handy man hubby decided against calling a plumber to install our water softener and decided to tackle the project himself. It was pretty crazy because he had to work on it between 3 sessions of conference, but he got it done and I got to take a nice shower with soft water this morning.

Decorating the house

Caden LOVES decorating for the holidays. After the first session of conference I let him break out the fall box and decorate. I was amazed by his creativity. I had a bunch of little pumpkins left over from a party last year and he found good use for them. He hung them all over the tree and I must say, it was beautiful.


Oodles of Noodles

Daddy made noodle for the kids today. He forgot to cut them up like I usually do and....well, need I say more.

So in addition to Conference, which I will post at a later time when I have given my fingers a chance to recuperate, this was our four day weekend and it was wonderful.