Little Witches

Those of you who know me well, know that I have NEVER dressed in a scary/ugly costume for Halloween in my entire life! I really don't like scary/ugly costumes! All my life, I usually have used halloween as an excuse to dress up in something pretty, like a flapper or a fairy or a princess (I was princess Leia in 3rd grade!)

And now that I have three little girls, we've been more the fairy-mermaid-princess-angel-ballerina types. I LOVE dressing them as something pretty!!!

But this year, Bella insisted on being a witch. And so did Lala. And so did Ceci.

Once I got over it, it sounded kinda cute.

So I went for it!

I have to admit, they sure make cute little witches!! They really enjoyed their costumes a lot!

But I never dreamed I would actually dress up myself! It started with thinking I would just make myself a hat-- but as I was putting the green make-up on Bella, I thought it looked kinda fun. Next thing I knew, I was putting it on myself with all kinds of wrinkles. Boy, it felt good to wash it off when it was over! (Note to Susan: Thought you'd be glad to know our green make-up is Larenim mineral make-up and we also got some Lyra face pencils for our green lips! :) )

Alhambra Ward Halloween Party

So the reason we're all dressed up in our costumes was because we were going to our ward party. It was really fun!! It started with a chili cook-off for dinner. Then there was a costume contest, a pumpkin-carving contest, and a little parade. Ceci won for the scariest in the age 0-4 category. (I think hers was the ONLY scary costume in that category :) ) Here are some of the great costumes people wore!  After the contests, the little ones got to go "trick or treating" to various rooms in the building. It was really fun for the girls. Each room was decorated. The party ended with the inevitable candy-fest!

Pumpkin Patch at Highland Hall

We went to the Pumpkin Patch at Highland Hall which is the Waldorf school in Northridge. We love to go to the festivals at the local Waldorf schools! There was healthy food to eat, wonderful, natural crafts to buy and make, pumpkins to buy, and beautiful live music! (with a flautist playing lead!) We couldn't resist buying some felted pumpkin necklaces from a very talented felter. Then the girls got to do some crafts. Our favorite was choosing surprises from the "pocket lady." Ceci got a little wooden apple and a gnome and the big girls also got some fun stuff. We met up with Claudia, her girls, and got to meet her husband. We loved it when the band played "Moondance," and "Girl from Ipanema" (seems to be a recurring song for us!) We also bought a nice big pumpkin! We will probably carve it tomorrow for Family Home Evening. :)

Autumn and Halloween

This past week we've had a lot of fun enjoying the season and getting ready for Halloween. Our circle times have been full of autumn and Halloween songs and verses. Here's our favorite:

Three little pumpkins, lying very still
In a pumpkin patch up on a hill
The first one said, "I'm very green,
But I'll be orange by Halloween"
The second one said, "I'm on my way,
To be a Jack-O-Lantern some day."
The third one said, "Oh my, oh my,
Tonight I'll be a pumpkin pie!"







Our walks have been nice although the weather feels more like summer than fall! We were happy to see that our neighbor's persimmon tree is full. We knocked on her door and she let us pick a bag full! It gave us the courage to ask another neighbor the next day if we could pick some of his apples. They were delicious!! Some were worm eaten so we knew they were pesticide-free!

We did the funnest craft-- haunted mansions with windows full of scary characters!!

I also told the cutest story about a witch who needed a home so she made one out of orange paper-- she put certain cuts into the paper and when we opened it up it was a jack o lantern!! It was so easy, but so fun. The girls asked me to tell it again the next day. Here's how to do it if you're interested. I'm so lucky to be on home schooling lists that give such great tips like these.

A lot of time was spent on shopping for fabric & patterns and then making witch costumes this week. I had a lot of fun making them, thank heavens they were very easy!! Our ward Halloween party was last night and we needed to be ready!

I must confess . . .

We LOVE The Nightmare Before Christmas!! We've been listening to the soundtrack this week and tonight we're watching the movie together! Tim Burton and Danny Elfman are both geniuses in their arts. Halloween is in the air!

The Family is of God

There is a new song for the primary children! It is so beautiful! My sister sent it to me last night and I just love it. I've already played it for my girls this morning and we've started singing it! You can listen to it here. It is called "The Family is of God." Here are the lyrics:

1. Our Father has a family. It’s me!
It’s you, all others too: we are His children.
He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,
To live and learn here in fam’lies.
[Chorus]
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—
This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God.


2. A father’s place is to preside, provide,
To love and teach the gospel to his children.
A father leads in fam’ly prayer to share
Their love for Father in Heaven.
[Chorus]
3. A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare,
To nurture and to strengthen all her children.
She teaches children to obey, to pray,
To love and serve in the fam’ly.
[Chorus]
4. I’ll love and serve my family and be
A good example to each fam’ly member.
And when I am a mom or dad, so glad,
I’ll help my fam’ly remember:
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—
This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God.

by Matthew Neely

Harvest Festival at Underwood Family Farm

Wow! Yesterday we drove out to Moorpark to the Underwood family farm. It is a beautiful farm with a HUGE pumpkin patch, a huge garden, and many, many animals. We have been to this farm twice before, and it had been wonderful, but we had never gone on a weekend where there was so much going on. This time was AWESOME!! We had a FANTASTIC time.  The girls had so much fun playing with all the pumpkins-- the giant ones and the little ones.  There were LOTS of fun things to do-- a big wooden train to play in, tunnels to go through, a haystack pyramid to climb, and a really fun corn maze (that we thought we'd never find our way to the center of or out of!) There was a lot of yummy food including delicious roasted corn, fresh-made sweet potato chips, and pumpkin pie.  This particular weekend we were lucky because it was also a bluegrass festival! So when we had our lunch, we got to enjoy some great bluegrass music. It was neat to hear a fiddler that sounded probably a lot like what Pa sounded like when he played his fiddle for Laura and Mary Ingalls!

My favorite part of the day was the tractor-pulled wagon ride! It took us all around the whole farm. We drove through the gardens, through rows of sunflowers, by many different kinds of trees, (grapefruit, lemon, avocado, cherry, peach, walnut ) and the best part-- through  a tunnel covered in vines growing gourds! It was sooooooooo neat!! I didn't want the tunnel to end.

The girls got to enjoy a pony ride. This was the third time we attempted to put Ceci on a pony this year--and we were so happy because this time she rode it like a big girl. She loved it!! The two prior times she freaked out as we tried to place her on top of a pony. :) So this was kinda special for us. She acted like she'd been doing it forever.

We did so many more fun things--Lala played the "Wheel of fortune" and for 2 tickets, she won five more! Bella and Ceci got their faces painted-- and then they all took a little train ride. Our last hour, we visited all the animals-- chickens, emus, goats, cows, horses, donkeys and more. We fed the ponies and emus some carrots.

On our way out, we bought some fresh corn that we'll have for dinner tonight. I also got some really pretty dried multi-colored corn to possibly make necklaces with-- I also want to make corn husk dollies if we can with our husks. I heard that you can actually pop the dried corn on the cob so I think we're going to try that. I also got a couple of gourds, they're so pretty!

Gosh, what a great time we had! I didn't want the day to end! If any of you out there can try to go this next weekend, you really should. I know it's going to be super-fun!

Decorating for Halloween

This past week the girls had a blast helping Craig put up our scarecrow and a few other halloween decorations! Its so fun to get into it!

Joe Jackson

Friday night, we got to see Joe Jackson at the Grove in Anaheim! Only a week ago, Craig and I had debated going and finally decided not to (because we party & spend too much!) and we also knew the only tickets left were all way in the back. So all week I tried not to think about it and let it go. I love Joe Jackson! So on Thursday, Craig called me to tell me we were going after all! He had found some tickets on Craig's list at a table in the front and center section (right behind the orchestra pit) at a huge discount! So I guess it was meant to be!

We went with our friends, Tom and Monique. Our seats were awesome! This was my first time seeing Joe Jackson while it was Craig's 5th time!! He saw him back in '79 for the first time. He and Tom saw him together in '83. And very recently Craig saw him in '06 when Ceci was tiny so I couldn't go--although he called me and let me hear much of the show! So I was really desirous to finally see him.

He was AMAZING. I just could never describe what an awesome performance he put on. He was soooooo passionate. He opened with a very soulful "Steppin Out." It was completely chill-inducing. Click here to see a really similar version. He put his whole heart into his playing and singing. Here's the wonderful set list:

Steppin' Out
Invisible Man
Fools in love (very emotional & he went into the Yardbird's "For Your Love" in the middle of it!)
Wasted time
Chrome
Cancer
King Pleasure Time
On Your Radio
Solo (So low)
Uptown Train
Obvious Song
It's Different For Girls
You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)
One More Time
A Place In The Rain
Encore:
Dirty Love (Frank Zappa cover)
Is She Really Going Out With Him?
A Slow Song

He was backed up by his original bass player and drummer that were his band back when he put out the albums, Look Sharp, I'm the Man and Beat Crazy. They were fantastic! I am soooooooo happy I finally go to see "the man!" What a beautiful performance.

We're going to see Joe Jackson tonight!

Yay!