October Part 2

I stole these photos from our seminary's Facebook page.  They had a pancake party.  Joshua brought Michael to it just for fun.  You can see Joshua in the blue/gray shirt on the left and Michael in the bright blue giving a thumbs up in the back.

Joshua in the back

Michael at left

Grandma and Grandpa Badger on their mission!

So comfy!

Timmy doing Treasure Hunt Reading while Henry plays on his tablet

Luke and Timmy

On Thursday Aaron taught my class about his animals. He is such a fun teacher. You can tell he just loves it. That's him with one of his snakes. 

On Friday I was sitting in the van waiting for Timmy so we could go get gas, and I heard a whooshing sound. I thought, "That sounds like a hot air balloon! So I jumped out of the car and looked up, and it was right there! It went right behind our house.

And then we had our first real field trip that morning. We went to a little family-owned pumpkin patch in Virden. It was so fun! Michael for to come too because he doesn't have school on Fridays. He has a friend, Natalie John, who is his age and is in the 6th-8th Prenda class. She kept sitting by Michael. And in that picture of him with the pumpkin, she saw me about to take his picture, and she moved in. She obviously likes him. But he likes her like a friend. It's not a great picture of her. She's a cute, nice girl. But I think he likes Elwyn better. ;) I don't think he really wants anyone to know that. Shhhh!

Anyway, I loved that place! It was such a quiet, nice place with a bunch of homeschooled kids running around. They're all such nice people. It was definitely worth the drive. Plus, they had a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch, so that was fun. :)

On Wednesday Papa hurt his back at the gym. He didn't get to the chiropractor until Friday. It was awful, though. He couldn't even sit on the toilet. Everything hurt so bad. We found out he had a pinched nerve. No wonder he hurt so bad! He's finally feeling better and was able to not hurt while laying down for the first time in several days today. Yea!

On Saturday we did our shopping and went to the company picnic. Early that morning Benji was looking for his band shirt and his shorts to wear under his uniform because it was Band Day too. He found his shorts, but there was a sock that came all unraveled and had wrapped itself around and around and around his shorts. Ha ha! This is a what's left of that sock. It wasn't a short sock. It was one of those midcalf ones. 

All but Benji went to the company picnic. We went like right on time, and I'm so glad we did because after we got lunch these swarms of people came, and the lines all got super long! They had carnival rides and a billion s of bouncy houses. Lunch wasn't way yummy, but they had cotton candy. They kids all loved the photo booth, but I didn't get a picture of those pictures. Papa and I even did that, and it was funny because Papa's shoulders were really squished in there.

And then after we got back we went and watched Benji march. Poor kid fell down in the first song. But he hopped right up and finished. He's doing good. I think he's getting better at following a beat, and it just made me so happy to watch him. He's loved being at college. This week he even got to do some work in the autos class. He took the little car and checked out the brakes. He came home all happy. And here's something else funny. Tonight Benji wouldn't get off Minecraft for bedtime, and Papa said, "You'd better get off or I'll send you back to high school." You should have heard the whining that immediately followed that. 😅 Yeah, Benji's doing great. He's also excited about getting his license and serving a mission someday.

I'd better get going. I sure love you a whole lot! 😘

Love, Mommy

Aaron is such a great teacher.  He's so excited about everything that he teaches.

Paradise the tarantula

Emily volunteered to hold the hissing cockroach, but she was terrified at the same time.  Ewwwww!

Vincent volunteered to hold it, but he freaked out at the last second.

Turtle and tortoise

He put them down so we could see how one could crawl faster than the other.

We stopped and ran around a minute at the clock tower on the way back.  I don't remember how Henry ended up holding all these.

Natalie coming to sit by Michael

Ellie

Emmett

Emily and Ellie - best friends!

Yeah, I think she likes him. :) She's a nice girl.

Sammy

Bubby with Callie, Jill's friend

Emmett

Callie

Vincent

Ellie

The sock that got unraveled.

These next few are at the company picnic.  Here's Timmy.

I was glad we got there when it started because there were already a lot of people, but by the time we'd finished our lunch the lunch line had grown by a lot and this room was packed!  This was out at the fairgrounds.

Cotton candy beard

Bubby

Jill

Timmy

This was about as far as Jill got, and she got up higher than our other kids.

Henry was mad that he couldn't get on the big kid toys.  Papa took him in the petting zoo, but he was having none of that.  He wouldn't even look.

Riding on the train - I got on after I took the picture.

Timmy in yellow climbing up the inflatable slide

After we got home from the company picnic we went and watched Benji play in the band.  He's in the back on  the far left.

I found my cousin Cassie Peterson there! :) I think the last time I saw her she was just a little thing.  Now she's a senior.

Benji running off the field

Papa and Henry

I got sunburned again.

Michael was hot, so he put ice on his head and let it melt.

This is church. ;)

It's been a funny kind of week this last week. Honestly, I've been happy to forget all about school today. We had Grandma and Grandpa Burk here for the primary program and then Val and his wife came for dinner too. 

For Bubby's part in the program he was supposed to tell one of the miracles of Jesus. You know how he is, too. Even if he can do something himself he wants someone to help him. So he wouldn't say anything unless they told him what to say. Part of his part was blank. I told him to say that He helped deaf people hear. But he would only say what they had him say. Anyway what they decided he should say was that Jesus parted the sea. 🤔😅 We even had a little talk before church and said it was Moses that parted the sea. Jesus calmed the sea. And I told him the story. And I told him, "You can't say that. You need to say that he calmed the sea." But he still got up there and said what they told him to. 😅 So guess what. He parted the sea, and now you know. ;) I suppose He could have at some point and maybe nobody wrote it down. ;) 

Anyway, they all said their parts. They needed some persuasion to stay up there. I told them we'd have no-bake cookies, so Benji made some for dessert.

The fajitas were yummy. That was a good idea. Andra had shown up at our house with a whole bunch of bell peppers earlier in the week, so fajitas were just required. ;)

Benji's done with marching band now. He got his percussion shirt this week, and you can see it in this picture. They misspelled cymbals on the back. 😅

There's also a picture of Benji's tank costume. It's a little backlit, but the costume came out good. :)

My Aunt Deon came to see me! She's Grandma Badger's baby sister. (There are two of the 11 kids who are younger than her, but she's the youngest girl.) It was so, so fun to sit and chat with her. It was between school and piano lessons, and we had pack meeting immediately after that. So I was making cookies while we talked. I forget how much I love my Peterson aunts and uncles. I hope you can know some of them someday because they're fun people. They're one of a kind for sure.

There's a picture of Joshua and Benji in their choir tuxes. Don't those purple tux jackets look great? They were supposed to have a cool symbol embroidered on the lapel, but they weren't able to do it. I like that only Men's Chorus had them. They had 13 members this time. I think there were only 9 last time. They did good. They sang Stout-hearted Men and Dry Bones and one other. Company was pretty off-key as usual, except for Madelyn Waite. She did good. :) Guyz did two barbershop quartet songs, and they were both great! Fourte was not horrible. Women's Chorale and A Capella were as great as ever.

We went on a nature walk for school, and Bubby learned to spell a new word - burp. 😅

I can't think of anything else to say. If I think of something I'll write it later. 😅

It was great talking to you today! I was so happy you called when you did and that you got to talk to Grandma too!

Love you so much!! I hope you have a great week and feel a lot better soon! (I mean, I know you're doing better, but all better!)

Love, Mommy

Tank costume almost done

Painting bats

Bat and Icarus

Stinkers wouldn't give me a nice picture

Yummy blueberry muffins!

The company picnic had a photo booth.  Bubby went in there two or three times, cutting in front of people.  Jeremy and I waited long to get these, but it was worth it!  His shoulders were too big for the booth, though. Ha ha!

Darn birds ate the leaves.  The poor thing grew more leaves, but it still didn't survive.

Hi, Hyrum!  It was sure fun to talk to you today!

You can see by the pictures - we carved pumpkins for FHE.  It was kind of fun. :) I don't know what's up with the two little shirtless boys.  Benji rolled up his sleeves to scoop the muck out of his.  Ha ha!  They all came out good.

Tomorrow my guide helper is coming to observe my school, and I'm kind of nervous.  I don't know exactly what it's going to be like.  I know I'm not incorporating all the things for Prenda, but there are so many, and I'm just working on one at a time.  One thing I love is that we've been learning songs at the beginning of the day.  We learned 3 and are working on #4.  I feel like things are coming together overall, and I can see from the reports that they are actually learning, but it's definitely a process, and a frustrating one at times.

Papa insisted that I get a massage, so I got one on Tuesday.  There's a lady in our ward who does it, Sister Burden.  Her boy Eric was in our nursery.  Anyway, she does good.  I still have a hard time with the idea of massages.  It's awkward.  And it makes me hold still.  I think that's the hard part.  If I could go to sleep that would be different.

We had a Halloween party for the second half of school on Halloween.  We made mummy dogs, which nobody wanted to eat.  We decorated gluten free cookies.  We watched the Skeleton Dance and Donald Duck and the Gorilla.  Most of them had never seen them, of course.  

In the evening we went to trunk or treat.  It was pretty good, but it felt surreal, like it couldn't really be happening.  Maybe it's because I didn't make any costumes.  Joshua made a last-minute costume - CJ.  Yep, your cousin CJ.  He has a blood-stained shirt and an AK-47 (gun).  Because of course!  Anyway, it made Joshua laugh, and it made CJ laugh too.  Benji was a tank.  Michael was a cactus.  Jill was a skeleton princess.  Timmy was Hulk.  Bubby wore that lizard costume that Michael wore like 3 years in a row.  He insists it's a snake.  Someone thought it was an alligator.  OK!  Henry was Captain America.  I didn't get great pictures.  Darn!  Benji helped with ladder ball and didn't get to wear his costume much.  Everyone came home happy, though.  We ate and watched Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

And Saturday I folded laundry!  And Papa and I bought new pants at an actual store that was not Walmart.  I've been having trouble finding pants for me at Walmart.  All the choices are either skinny jeans or holy jeans or both.  I needed some long pants, though, because it's cold in the morning.  Anyway, we found a place that was having a sale, so that was good. :)  Pants!

This letter is getting boring.  Pants!  Ha ha!  It really has been a super busy week, and I have a hard time keeping my brain straight, but we make it somehow.  I'm looking forward to holidays!  

I will send you some more pictures in another email.

I love you so much!  Have a wonderful week!

Love, Mommy

These ones from Warcraft - I decided to start leveling some of my lower characters during Hallow's End.  It turned out that my rogue had logged off last Thanksgiving as a turkey.  I had fun running her all over with the Halloween things until her turkey costume ran out.  (Costumes like this only last like 2 hours of actually playing the character.)

Stink bombing Stormwind!  (We're part of the Horde.  The Alliance is the other guys.  Their capital city is Stormwind City.  At Halloween this witch lady can fly us around to stink bomb the city.  It's good fun.  And the Alliance comes and stink bombs Undercity, the undead place.)

The finished products!

Vincent, Emmett, Ellie, Sammy, and Luke

Timmy made this robot for craft time.  The assignment was to make a sculpture with recyclables.  Isn't he creative?

I made bread.  My Bosch makes a horrible noise, so I don't use it anymore.  I'm saving up for a new one.  In the meantime, we make our bread by hand.  It was delicious.

Jill made and frosted some cupcakes for her and Michael to take to school.  She did most of it herself.  I'm not sure why she's making that face.

On Halloween morning I dropped Michael off at school and the grass out front was all silver with ice.  It looked like fingers poking up out of the grass.  It froze that night before, and I guess the sprinklers ran.  They were about as wide around as a finger too!

Henry wants me to spell his name like this for you (he's sitting on my lap telling me): Herry.  He fell asleep with two suckers when we got Michael from school.

Here are kiddos at the trunk or treat.  All my photos came out blurry.

That night Henry fell asleep with Benji on his bed.

And then on Saturday we had tithing settlement and then we went to a little preparedness fair in the church, and then we went to the EAC homecoming parade.  Here's a picture of the band coming.  I took a video after that.  Right after the band came Coach Kate, the Softball coach who's been around for forever, came and said, "Hey, can I borrow your kids?  I'll bring them back right here."  She had a train hitched to a 4-wheeler.  The kiddos hopped in and off they went to be in the parade.  There was tons of candy like last year.  We filled my pockets and Papa's and Henry's shoes.  Joshua and Michael got a bunch too.  And when Coach Kate brought the kiddos back she gave Henry a little ride too. :) And people gave Jill, Timmy, and Bubby candy even though they were in the parade. :)

That about catches you up.

Henry crawled in bed with Benji and they both fell asleep.