October 2014

October has it's own smell...at least outside, that is. I love it when I start to smell the smell of wood burning fireplaces mixed with leaves and pumpkins. 

Fall's my favorite!

("Make work your favorite!"....ha ha ha)

Sam started out the month with the 6th grade Science Fair!!

 He did an experiment testing to see if diet sodas has less glucose (not carbs!) than regular sodas.
It sure helped that we had a glucose monitor at home! :)

 Grandma Deb, "the littles" (Charlie & Lilly), Dad, and I all went to the school to support Sam during the showcase. Sam's display got to be on the stage stairs, which was a coveted position! The best part was that SAM was proud of himself and he let people know it! He stood behind his display with his chest all puffed out and a huge smile on his face. He would leave for a minute to go fetch someone he liked from the crowd (i.e. one of his teachers, one of his friends, one of his friends' moms, etc.) and say, "Do you want to see my display?" He would then bring them over to his spot and put out his arms like, "Tah-dah!" 

It was awesome.

I was also lucky enough to accompany Sam's class on a field trip to Camp Tuttle (located up Big Cottonwood Canyon). It was an all day field trip and it was COLD! (Hence the coats, gloves, and hats). The kids got to do ropes course-like activities that tested their logical thinking, teamwork, cooperation, leadership, etc. I was very proud of Sam for trying some of the activities...which were completely new and foreign to him. (By the way, he HATES "new"!) 

Meanwhile, back in the valley and a few days after the field trip...it was warm again! Perfect weather for the elementary school's Fun Run (fundraiser event). 

 The Cropper kids had a cheering section that consisted of me, Dad, Charlie, Lilly, and Grandma Deb! Woot woot! Grandma really wanted to bring a cow bell, or something else that was loud....but Dad vetoed that idea. Boo!

 Sam requested Dad's company during the sixth grade's run. They actually got to go off of the school grounds and run around the neighborhood. Sam had been training for this event for weeks by running at least 4 laps at the school each day. I was so proud of him just for the fact that he PREPARED! When it was his time to run, he took Dad along for the event, and they came through the finish line about half way between the first place and last place. Not bad, I'd say!

Lilly, Charlie, Grandma, and I found a nice shady spot near the last turn of the course (right before the "home stretch" to the finish line). It was a great place to be to cheerleader for everyone who was just about out of steam and needed one last "YAAAAYYYYY" to make it to the finish!

Sam and Dad did a great job. Next time, Dad is going to remember to bring running shorts (jeans = bad idea for a Fun Run). I couldn't have been more proud! It was hard on Sam to not be called up to be on the podium (top 5 runners), which was nearly heartbreaking for me AND him....but we celebrated later as a family and went out for ice-cream!

Charlie's favorite moment of the afternoon was when Grandma saw the motorcycle policemen who had accompanied the runners out into the neighborhood (for safety reasons). I offered to take Charlie over to see the motorcycle guy and he agreed. Charlie was super shy at first, but then the policeman worked his charm and got Charlie to pose for pictures! There was also a policeman in a police car that gave Charlie attention AND a pretend police badge! Oh, yeah....baby! Charlie was over the moon with excitement!

Charlie and I get to have a lot of time to hang out during the mornings when the other kids are gone at school. Luckily the weather has been amazing and has allowed us to spend time outside. He loves to ride his balance bike around the cul-de-sac and has also mastered the 2-wheeled scooters that the  big kids ride. Charlie is always good to remember to wear his helmet, without a reminder!

Another wonderful thing about my time alone with Charlie is that we can be spontaneous! One day, on our way home from the gym, we passed a construction site by our house! Charlie LOVES construction vehicles of all kinds so of course he noticed the trucks. So I flipped a U-y and we went back to the construction site. We parked along side 700 West and rolled down the windows so that we could hear the vehicles too. I let Charlie come up to the front seat for a better view. He was absolutely THRILLED! (as you can see in the picture) We sat and watched a digger, a loader, a crane, and some other cool trucks. What fun!!!

During UEA weekend, the weather was phenomenal still! We called up our cousins and met them at Wheeler Farm for a picnic. The kids had a great time playing on the playground, eating their lunches together, and then exploring the farm.

Some really sweet teenaged girls gave the kids some of their bread so that they could feed the ducks! I was pleasantly surprised by their act of kindness!

Tyler, Miranda, Jenna, Jessie, Lilly, Sam, Charlie, and silly Willy in front!

Charlie was a big fan of the tractor garage!

One day after school I took the kids to the library to rotate out our stash of books and videos. When we got home they wanted to stay outside and play (again, the weather was gorgeous!). So we took our  ol' yellow blanket out in the backyard, spread out their books, and brought out the Goldfish for a snack. Our neighbor friends and Lilly's friend joined us too. It was a little slice to heaven to see all of these cute kids enjoying some reading time out in the shade of our "family tree."

Other goodness from October is this selfie of Matt and Sam...they were on a 1-on-1 date at Murray Park and sent this to me while they were there. Seriously, so cute!

The kids made it through their dentist appointment with no cavities. Sam and Tyler will most likely need braces in the next year or two...so we better start saving now!

I love Charlie's toothy grin next to the toothy grin on that stuffed animal! He loved getting to help brush the animal's teeth with the giant yellow toothbrush. 

Speaking of toothy grin....

Charlie is always a happy boy when I have beaters for him to lick clean!

We all had a fun during family night carving and decorating pumpkins together.

Lilly chose to use the funny face parts for her pumpkin.

Tyler was the only one who wanted to carve his.

Daddy helped Charlie with his cute little pumpkin.

Sam not only used pumpkin-head parts, but he also added his own personal touch with a Sharpie. It says, "I'm a cool pumpkin!" I love it when Sam comes up with randomness like this!

Sam insisted that he wanted to be Wreck-it Ralph for Halloween. I was worried it was going to be a hard costume to pull off since you can't just order one on eBay! Instead we ordered the PARTS of the costume on eBay...like the brown overalls and the big fists! Sam bought the fists with his own money because he wanted them soooooo badly! He even let me spike his hair all crazy-like and I think the finished product was simple fabulous!

Lilly's Elsa costume also came from the land of eBay! She was thrilled because she wanted to be "Coronation Elsa" NOT "Ice Princess Elsa." I was totally happy with that because I knew there were going to be a bazillion Ice Princess Elsas out there on Halloween. It turned out that Lilly was the ONLY Coronation Elsa at her school! It's hard to tell from the picture above, but I was able to recreate an Elsa hairstyle too. I don't go all out on Lilly's hair very often, but she was patient enough for me to do a fancy hair-do for Halloween.

Charlie picked his costume out at Kid-2-Kid. He was the puffiest spider I've ever seen! He wasn't sure about the spiderweb that I painted on his face, but he eventually forgave me.

Tyler came up with his costume design using a costume we found at Goodwill. We did our face paint homework together, with the help of Google Images, and came up with a very scary face for his "Phantom" costume.

Creepy!!!!!!!!

Grandma Deb made her usual appearance at the school's Halloween parade. Charlie was pretty happy to see her....and her purse, which usually has plenty of treats and snacks to keep him busy/full!

I was so impressed with Matt's fun Halloween hair-do! It was almost Wolverine-esque.

One of the room moms in Lilly's class went all out on her costume....which just so happened to coordinate with Lilly's! We took full advantage of that photo opportunity to get both "Coronation Anna" AND "Coronation Elsa" together!

 
I helped with Tyler's classroom party and came up with some Halloween Minute-2-Win-It games. This is Whitney, who just do happens to have a huge crush on my handsome 3rd grader, and Tyler stacking spider rings on a popsicle stick (without using their hands). They were both VERY good at this game and won a prize!

This was my very first year to stay home and hand out candy! I felt like our kids were finally old enough to go trick-or-treating without needing TWO parents to keep track of them! Matt was happy to volunteer and even dressed up in his 2002 Winter Olympics bobsled team costume! What a good sport! :)

Sam didn't last long, and came home after about 45 minutes of trick-or-treating. He helped me answer the door and we kept track of how many kids we had show up to our house. Sam was in charge of the tally sheet and we ended up with 83 trick-or-treaters!

The other three kids came back with a very large candy stash to go through. They sorted through it and traded with each other for quite a while. I had to monitor the trading so that the younger two didn't get taken advantage of....uh-hem.