October 2015 – Andelin Adventures

Halloween

IT’S HALLOWEEN!

Early this afternoon we started getting our pumpkins decorated. The little ones all used potato head pieces to decorate theirs while the older kids all decided that they wanted to carve theirs this year. I love the potato head pieces. They make it to where the little ones can decorate their own pumpkin with minimal help from me or Kyle, which is way better than me and Kyle trying to carve ALL of these pumpkins.

Jeremy was being silly while gutting his pumpkin.

I don’t know how I didn’t get a picture of Ethan with his pumpkin.

When we were shopping for pumpkins I saw some spaghetti squash and had the idea to decorate them like some minions. So I cut some legs off of some holey old jeans and made pockets to slide the spaghetti squashes into, and then Kyle drew faces on them. 🙂

Here’s a group shot of the family in costumes.

Kyle took the kids out trick or treating while I stayed home to pass out candy. After awhile they stopped back at the house to drop Seth off. It was getting hard to carry him around and he was getting tired. Of course as soon as everyone left without him to go do some more trick or treating he was sad that they didn’t take him with.

But candy made it all better. 😉

Halloween parties

Yesterday we had our annual Girl Scout troop Halloween party. I dressed up as Minnie Mouse, but I had trouble keeping my hair up in the shape of ears.

One of the activities that the girls wanted to do at the party was bowling so I created a monster bowling game.

Tonight our ward had a Halloween carnival. Each of the youth groups had a game or activity planned to have at the carnival, and even the Bear cub scouts had a booth to sign off some of their requirements. We decided to bring the monster bowling set along as well and Ethan and a couple of other kids helped monitor the game.

Some of the young women put on a photo booth and dressed up to take pictures with the little kids.

Here’s Adam being wrapped up like a mummy:

Finally we finished the carnival up with a costume parade.

I think the kids really enjoyed themselves.

My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, and I decided that I wanted to go explore a National Park today. There is a new program this year, where fourth graders can obtain a pass to get into ANY National park, along with anyone else in their vehicle, for free, for the whole year! So I decided that we should go and get started on using that pass.

We got all the kids loaded up in the van along with their thermos’s, Kyle handed me a present (Victoria’s Secret lotion, and See’s) and we were on our way. We went to Daylight Donuts to get some donuts, but they didn’t have anything good left so we got some donuts at Macey’s instead. Then we went to the Uintah National Forest. We traded in Jeremy’s paper National Park pass, and got a more durable plastic one to use throughout the year. We drove into the forest a bit and found a place to park, and decided to go for a bit of a hike. The reservoir that we parked by was beautiful.

I didn’t really like that the hiking path was so narrow, and that it was being used by people on foot, people on bicycles, people on dirt bikes, and could even be used by people on horseback. The problem was that it was so narrow, there was really nowhere to go to get out of the way when a dirt bike or a bicycle wanted to pass us.

After awhile the kids started their complaining, “I’m tired”, “I need to go potty”, “This is boring”, “I’m thirsty and my thermos is in the van”, “Can we go back to the van and finish watching the movie?”…. Adam reached a point where he just didn’t want to go any further.

We pushed on just a little bit further.

Adam protested more.

Then we started working our way back the way we came.

We left the forest, and made a quick stop at Costco for a few things, then we went home. I made dinner and finished making my cake while the girls all took off to the neighbors house. Dinner was later than usual and we had to round up the girls and get them back home before we could eat. We didn’t have time for cake before the adult session of stake conference.

Kyle and I made sure the kids were ready for bed before we left for the adult session, and we left Ethan in charge while we were gone. Ethan was to make sure Adam stayed on his bed, Tyra was to make sure that Lydia stayed on her bed, and the others were to make sure they stayed on their own beds (Seth was in the crib so we weren’t worried about him wandering the house). We came home from the adult session to find them ALL asleep!

We served my cake tonight.

I made a Mounds cake. Chocolate cake, with coconut filling, a coconut buttercream frosting and chocolate ganosh to top it all off. It was very good, and quite rich. A little bit went a long way. 🙂

Once I was a Beehive

We went to the theater to see the movie “Once I Was A Beehive”. After the showing, the actor that played the Bishop in the movie came into the theater to tell us a little bit about the making of, and to answer questions about the movie from the audience.

The bear was real. It was a trained bear named Tank. They gave him some sort of whipped cream treat every time he did what they wanted, and he also liked applause.
The older lady was not really a motorcycle rider and the first time they came down the hill to meet up with the group she crashed right into the arc. They had to re-shoot that shot later with a stunt actor.
The red van in the movie belongs to the family of the man that played the bishop. He has 8 kids and that is their family car. “There is nothing between a minivan and a 12 passenger van, if you have more kids than will fit in a minivan you’re a circus and so the 12 passenger is your next option.”

Tyra had to ask him how old his kids are and tell him that we also have eight kids.

Ethan spoke to him as well and asked him what it was like to be in a movie. He seemed stunned that he had actually spoken to an actor.

Simulating Orbits

For science today we got to simulate the orbits of planets. To do this the book had suggested swinging a Styrofoam ball on a string in a circle or to roll marbles around in cups. I decided that we would roll marbles around in bowls, because they are bigger than cups and we could get a bigger orbit. The kids had a LOT of fun with this simulation. I got out a pile of bowls of different sizes and the jar of marbles of various sizes, and they got to play around with different combinations to see if they all went the same speed or if one size of marble was faster or slower than another. Of course, seven kids rolling glass marbles around in metal bowls….it got REALLY loud in our house this morning.

Dinah was using a white marble, so it looked more like a flash in the bowl.