Halloween

Kevin made some decorations for Halloween. He made several ghosts using napkins and string; a scarecrow using some of his clothes, a hat, and an old broom, and these decorations for the door.

DO NOT ENTER!!!!
P.S. in back There's Danger in The air and on The ground.
Do Not Enter is just a joke, you'll still get candy.

I did a lot of sewing this year.

Kevin wanted to be Harry Potter. His costume was the easiest. The robe was an XL black shirt from Walmart, I made the scarf, he used a stick for his wand, and the rest was from his closet.

Ann Marie was Ponyo because we're nerds. I was aiming for her to look like this. Ponyo is a Hayo Miyazaki film (we own most of his movies) about a fish who uses her father's magic to become a human and becomes friends with a boy named Sōsuke. She loves ham, and at one point in the movie Sōsuke's mother gives them ramen with ham on top.

I used a pattern my grandma gave me a few years ago, and it ended up being more complicated than I expected. I learned how to make and attach a collar, sew french seams, and make buttons instead of a zipper in back, plus I got really good at gathering.

Heidi wanted to be Belle. I had wanted to sew a Belle dress for a long time, so I looked up several tutorials and thought I could pull it off. I used a jumper pattern that I have made several times for the main dress. I wanted to make gathers in the skirt so it would look like Belle's dress, and some tutorials suggested using elastic, which I thought sounded easy. Unfortunately, the result looked pretty bad, and when I tried to pick out the stitches the elastic made it very difficult and I ended up ripping holes in the fabric. So I cut out a completely new skirt and decided not to bother with the gathers.

The Wednesday before the Trunk or Treat party I had finished the main part of the dress, but after my issues with the elastic I was a little demoralized and I had to give myself a pep talk to remind myself that I was trying to replicate a dress that never existed in real life because it was a cartoon. I felt a little better after seeing the store-bought version at Walmart because I knew mine would look better. So I used what was left of the first skirt to make long strips for the sashes at the bottom of the skirt, and then I made the fabric that goes around the shoulders, and then I decorated the dress with some little roses that I had bought at Jo-Anns.

In the end I was very happy with the result, and what's more important is that Heidi loves her dress. She puts it on all the time to play dress-up.

I way underestimated the number of children in our ward. I had bought a bag of plastic dinosaurs to pass out at the Trunk or Treat party. We saw the bishop and his wife at Costco earlier that day and I realized as we were chatting that we wouldn't have nearly enough to pass out, so we got a bag of candy at Costco. I ended up handing out all of the dinosaurs and most of the candy. I like to hand out the dinosaurs because I feel like the kids will be going trick or treating as well and they don't need any more candy, plus lots of kids love the dinosaurs, but the older kids really just want the candy. I tried having the candy hidden and only giving it to the older kids, but it's hard to tell at what age they want dinosaurs vs. candy, so maybe next year I'll just put both out and let them pick.

At the school, Heidi's class had a party and then did an alphabet parade for the school. Ann Marie and I came to help with the party and see the parade. Heidi had the letter P, so she went as a present.

We had a nice time trick or treating in our neighborhood. Ryan and I both ended up going with the kids. Our porch light turns off if it doesn't sense motion, so we didn't get a lot of trick or treaters. Trick or treating in a neighborhood was a new experience for me because I grew up in the country. We would go visit a few of Grammy's neighbors and then go see the Rosenbaums and get some of their yummy popcorn balls, then when I was older we started having Trunk or Treat parties. So I wasn't really sure what proper trick or treating etiquette involves. Turns out that generally you just go to the houses where the porch light is on. :) We ended up joining with some other kids and their parents and grandfather, so it was nice to meet some of the neighbors.

October pictures

Ryan told Ann Marie she couldn't have a roll yet:

Some drawings by Kevin:

Ann Marie's hair was starting to look mullet-ish, so I gave her a haircut. She looked very cute, so we did a photo shoot while waiting for the bus:

Ann Marie was sick for a couple of days. She spent the entire time alternately crying and sleeping. A couple of kitchen chair naps happened:

Augusta University had a science night hosted by the Department of Chemistry and Physics, so we took the kids. Kevin loved it. Afterwards they had some more hands-on demonstrations in another building and he couldn't restrain himself from running the entire way.

Aldi had a sale on apples, so I bought some and Ann Marie and I made some applesauce. I got nine quarts. I probably would have made more, but the sale was over and I didn't want to pay $1.99/lb to make applesauce. Ann Marie loved helping to push the apples down into the Victorio strainer (which was my Christmas present last year--this was my first time using it). She would peek into the hopper and say, "Wait your turn, apple!"

Savannah Rapids

We live close to where the canals hook back up with the Savannah River, so in October we went to see the locks.

The canals were built so that boats could bypass the rapids and go up and down the Savannah River.

This is the dam:

If a boat was coming up the canals, it would come through these gates into the lock:

Then they would let water in from the Savannah River until the water level was the same as the Savannah River. Then they would open these gates and the boat could go through to the Savannah River:

Or you could do the whole process in reverse. The locks aren't really in use anymore. They were completed in 1846 and gave a big economic boost to the area by allowing transportation of products the were previously difficult to transport since boats couldn't go through the rapids.

People bring locks to put on the railings at the locks. Get it?

There is also a five-mile trail that goes between the canal and the river, so we explored that a little bit after seeing the locks.

Apparently we're not supposed to use these stairs.

Post-Move/September Happenings

The day after we moved into our house was Sunday. All the food was still back in the apartment, so we ended up having leftover pizza for breakfast. We went to Stake Conference and had a nice meeting. Afterwards one of the counselors in the bishopric snagged us and gave us new callings in the ward. Ryan is a Webelos den leader and I am a Sunbeam teacher.

After church we went to the apartment to get the food and other things that we needed.

On Monday the kids caught the bus for the first time and it was a big game-changer for me. I had been shuttling everybody to work and school for the past month and now I didn't have to wait in the car line for the kids. Ryan takes the van to work most days since Kevin and Heidi can ride the bus. So that change has probably added at least two hours to my day.

Unpacking is obviously a pain. After a week most of the essentials like the kitchen were unpacked and put away and we were mainly down to the books, pictures/decorations, and random boxes of things we weren't sure what to do with.

I had to shuffle boxes and furniture around so that I could get the bookshelves where I wanted them, and then once the books were put away that got rid of a lot of boxes. (I ended up moving the shelves somewhere else later to make room when we bought a new couch, but oh well.) Finally after what felt like too long we got the living room mostly cleared out and organized and I was able to sweep the floor! We have an attic and a garage, which means we have a ton of extra storage space, which has been awesome, even if I'm afraid for my life every time I go up the attic stairs.

There were a lot of things that we were excited to see again. Pulling out the books was so exciting. We have a lot of great books! The piano is terribly out of tune, but it's still great to have one.

Other than a small patch of carpet in the master closet, the entire house is uncarpeted, mostly hardwood laminate. Having the table over the kitchen tile has been a fabulous change after eating over carpet for eight years! Spills are so much easier to clean up!

We went shopping for some rugs for the living room and playroom. Apparently I haven't taken any pictures with the rugs yet, but we got some fun ones! Heidi and Ann Marie got a little round purple rug for their bedroom. We still haven't found one that would work for Kevin's room.

Walmart had these skinned Muppets for sale and the kids thought they would like them for their rooms, but Ryan and I vetoed that option.

The kids have loved having a yard. They're back there every day and they love helping (or "helping") with the yard work. For me it's been a great change because I can let them go play in the back and still work on dinner, which was not an option at Baity Hill. We've had to invest in a lot of yard tools (like a lawnmower, which is expensive!). So far we're mainly just doing basic things like mowing the lawn and raking up the pine needles (which are out of control because we have a bunch of pine trees), but we're working on plans for having a garden next year.

A few other random pictures:

Pretty paint swirl:

"Speed bump devices ahead." Speed bump devices?

We have a pantry!

One morning it was raining really hard and when we woke up we realized the kids had all already gone outside and played in the rain. Ann Marie was completely soaked and was having the time of her life. Here's a video I got: https://youtu.be/83YB8xRyxZ4