Stuck in the Kitchen

So the house is on the market and the open house was set for the Sunday after fall break. Seriously bad timing. It was suppose to be the week after but apparently the realtor has a low turn out when the colts are playing....

In preparation for the open house I had the carpets cleaned, which meant we were confined to the kitchen. But it's no big deal: we just got out the train.

And then played dress up with the blankie.

And took crazy selfies....

The next day it was still wet. It decided to rain and was cold out so the moisture from the air plus the heater created a sauna. It was bad. Bad enough that I decided to freeze us out and take the outside air over the sauna inside air. And we played legos. Rebekah's creation was great.

And we were able to get out of the house a little to meet a friend whose fall break coincided with our own. Yay!

Eventually the sun came out and the carpet did dry. Apparently when you clean your carpets you should really look at the weather for the next few days. Lesson learned.

Chaperone

Rebekah's in kindergarten. How is that possible? But because she is, I get to go on field trips with kindergarteners. Yay!... I think....

I use to take entire bands / orchestras / choirs on festival trips and I handled it generally well. Put me on a bus full of kindergarteners..... There's a special place in heaven for kindergarten teachers. 

We went to the local farm. It was a raining week and it was very muddy but we ventured in the corn maze anyway.

After much searching we got out and found the pumpkin patch. Rebekah's perfect pick.

Then climbed a little.

Swung a little.

Rode a little.

Took selfies with the teacher...

Practiced on the tractor.

Took a hay ride.

Had sad face selfies.

More hay climbing.

Class photo:

While we were there a cow was in labor. She got very close: at one point I thought I saw the calf's hooves emerging from the cow. The poor cow kept strenuously mooing and her tail went ridged and curled. Rebekah kept asking "why is her tale doing that...?" At this point I realized how very glad I was that Rebekah was huge and I missed the whole labor thing.

Apparently the calf (named "Ridge" after the elementary school) came right after we left. The teacher sent all the parents this picture with an accompanying email which carried explanation and apology to parents if the children were asking lots of questions.

A field trip and a lesson on the birds and the bees. Got to love Kindergarten!

Sunday Best

Every time general conference rolls around I see in my mind President Uchtdorf (or was it President Eyring) commenting on how we are all gathering in our Sunday best. Well, we may not get all dressed up for conference but I'm glad we are making an effort to watch together as a family. It is getting better: I remember the day Rebekah couldn't handle any of it. Baby steps. 

And the sweet rolls help. 

Rebekah decorated hers with sprinkles of course. 

After the conference sessions we played at the park as a family. I know it's a simple picture but this does my heart good.

September Books

This was good historical fiction. It read like fiction and I was skeptical and concerned about the what was real factor, however at the end the author writes an explanation of what was real (surprisingly most of it) and what he events he changed to fit the time line and what he expanded upon. Nice.

I admit this one was over my head. There were areas that I understood more than others but for the most part I was lost much of the time. It's about only the first month of the war, but there was so much that happened and so many people it happened to / with.... I had a college professor tell me once that the first time you really study a subject area it is normal to feel lost. As you continue to learn and study upon the same subject more it becomes more clear. Hopefully I can use that argument with this book and continue onward.

This one was hard too. In way over my head hard. I recognized a few obvious names: Nicholas Romanov, Lenin, Stalin (who didn't really play a role in the book but he was mentioned).... My brain is still reeling. All I can really tell you is it was a mess. It truly is amazing how well the American revolution went off. 

This was well written (and totally understandable). It's amazing what greed does to people. Highly recommend.

This has a hint of historical fiction because it references the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 and also the attack of September 11th. But it's a love story. A pretty good and clean one. Nice quick read.

Wanting to learn more about Jerusalem I found this one, ratings were high, and gave it a go. It was good. I like the description of the land, the people, the jobs, etc. It gave some insight into some of Jesus's parables. So good. Not Earth moving, but good. 

I'm conflicted with this one. I loved the description of China and the historical the insight. But I had a hard time with the tribal morals, terminology, and traditions. I believe it was done tastefully and furthered the plot so I am recommending this. 

This is a kids book about a Indiana from Canada who made a little canoe, set it in the snowy mountains, and wished it well on it's journey to the sea. The boat ends up traveling the great lakes and meets lots of people on it's way. I highly recommend reading to your little kids.

Inspiring. Boy who has nothing, starving, and can't even afford to goes to school starts fooling around with machines and makes a windmill to bring electricity to his family. Very cool and highly recommend.

September

September brought picnics outside

Walks with friends by the lake

Donuts

Pancake fun

Chocolatey faces

Daddy daughter dates

Coloring (we color together when one of us are sick)

Love notes from your 5 year old are so sweet

Waiting for swim to begin

Pretending to be a polar bear

I wrote the first I love you, Rebekah wrote the I love you too 100. So sweet and so grammatically correct for a 5 year old.

Legos. I bought legos with birthday money. Yes, I'm over 40.

One of the things I love about legos is I can build and Rebekah can play. Saw her playing with the shark the other day. Yes, that's a lego arm inside the sharks mouth.

With the same lego set you can also build:

We changed our window treatments to fall.

And celebrated fall with cookies that look more like Christmas than anything else.

I celebrated fall in my own special way.

More rec team.

And finally, Rebekah's first spirit week. This was crazy day.

Notice she's wearing mismatched socks. The outfit was totally her crazy idea.