Basketball starts, Halloween, etc.

 Pete had his Choir concert on Oct. 16th. The 6th grade students did one song on their own and two with the combined choir's. Choir definitely wasn't Pete's first choice for a class, but he was willing to be there. Mrs. Bellistin gushed about how awesome Pete is (even if he's constantly moving in class ; ). 

I was a pill and made my peeps take family photo's. I wasn't in the mood to put together professional photo's this year so it's just a bunch we took here at home. 

Casey and I got to be part of the third annual Wanda Witch race on the 21st! We were team grey, dressed up as sharks, and had Amber and Mike Germonie as our teammates. We drove all over twin falls solving clues, puzzles, riddles, etc. Our first leg took us to a lot to dig up treasure, a dance studio to get scared by some teens, and first fed park where we probably scared a lot of kids looking in all areas of the playground for our clue. Round two took us to cold stone where our clue was inside of a caramel apple, we danced the hula with a little girl at Mo Betta's, and we went to a hiking trail for another clue (had to ask Wanda to decipher our clue to get there, some were very hard to figure out this year). Our third clue bag was so hard to find we spent 40 minutes searching and found many other teams bags, but not our own, one team left without their bag (Des' son's team) so we commandeered their bag and went around Kimberly. We went over to the track, and the water tower for two of the clues and ended with Casey getting a giant brain freeze chugging a slurpee at the gas station. We found all of the clues this year which was a first and came in 2nd place overall!! (We drove around Sunday to show the kids some of our clues and talk them through the night and ended up at Stricker trying to find our clue bag, which we did; another team had shoved high up into a bush.) It's a date night we look forward to all year long, and we had a great night! (Most of our night was in the dark, all my clue picks are at home or when we took the kids around the next day.)

 

That same night the kids went to our ward carnival. Kendal was in charge of face painting and doughnut contests with the kids. Pete and Alice got to go around and enjoy the fun! We had committed to Wanda Witch before we found out about the ward party, so we're grateful our friends the Dansie's were able / willing to bring the kids home from the party that night. 

Kendal played a song in church on the 22nd. She played beautifully! She also had her fall piano recital on the 27th. Kendal played one song on her own and a duet with Tayven that they've been working on for months! It was a hard piece in the first place, then combining it with another person proved to be a challenge. They did a great job in the end, and we're so proud of her talents. 

Alice had her first basketball game on the 28th. She'd been practicing for a couple of weeks and has been working on her skills. The team is a mix of 1st and 2nd graders. They're a cute bunch, and I'm excited to watch them this season. Alice did well her first game, she did well on defense, and made a basket, plus attempted a few more. Her team won 26 to 6! 

Kendal got to go to a friends house for a Halloween party the night of the 28th so we let Pete have a movie night with friends at our house. 

We ended up carving pumpkins on Sunday 29th. It ended up quite chilly, so the kids went easy with some fun faces. They loved putting lights in their pumpkins and watching them glow! 

Kendal had her first basketball game of the season this past Monday (30th) against Jerome. Her team was on it from the get go and won 76 to 8. Kendal was so fun to watch, she's grown over the years and it's fun to go from watching Alice and then Kendal and remembering where she started and how far she's come. She made a few baskets in the game and was a great team player. She also had a game on Wednesday over in Wendell. I was stuck at parent teacher conferences, but I was told she played a great game and she came home thrilled she made a handful of shots! Their team won 35 to 16. She came home made she fouled twice, but that's part of the game. (Lacy Hill took these amazing shots of Kendal at the game in Kimberly.)

Halloween day the kids got to dress up for school! Pete couldn't wear his ape costume because the mask was attached so he ended up going to school as Harry Potter. Kendal was so indecisive she ended up with her trusty butterfly getup. Alice has wanted to be a butterfly for months. Casey and I utilized our costumes from a wanda witch adventure we did a few years ago and were ghosts for school. It was book fair week all week so my days were full. I got home from the book fair and threw together a simple dinner before trick or treating began. Casey was also gone most of the week for basketball tryouts and his first couple of practices the last couple of days. Kendal offered to take Alice trick or treating so I could get some studying in, and Pete was off with his crew for the evening! Alice came home a bit later, and Kendal went back out for a bit with Hope to hit up some more houses. Alice loved answering the door to trick or treater's and she donned the witch hat to go through her candy. Pete stayed out the longest coming home around 8:30. (He even got high praise from a parent that saw him and his friends putting their own candy into empty candy bowls that were set out on people's porches. - ((some other teens were going around pouring the whole bowl into their bags!) We agreed these boys are pretty special!)

 

 

We're getting a lot of use out of the gorilla costume! These boys!! 

Since we had parent teacher conferences and book fair this week there was no school on Friday. I had Alice's conference last week. She's doing great in her class. She's a grade level 3 in reading, almost in second grade math, and she'll start second grade spelling this coming month. She's a smart little cookie and loves school! Lately she's all about art and drawing / creating all of the things. Peter got on the high honor roll in school for his awesome grades. His teachers enjoy having him in their classes. He's friendly, funny, respectful, and a willing participant in classes. He's finally catching on in math (skipping math and being in advanced math has been a journey) and we're grateful he's doing well now. Kendal got a 4.0 and is going great in school. She stresses about her grades and work too much, and her teachers are grateful for her efforts and positive attitude she gives in her classes. We got more comments of cloning her and replacing some other students ; ). We're so proud of these kids and their hard work. They're doing a great job and we hope they continue to strive and succeed! 

Yesterday Alice had two basketball games! Her team did great and won both of their games! The first game they won 24 to 4, and the second game they won 12 to 2! The second game they had a lot of aggressive def-fence coming at them, but they rallied and did well. Alice did great on de-fence. She wasn't given the ball a lot, but she made a basket and got into the game! 

 

Casey was at practice all morning, and Kendal got to be in charge of the score board for all 4 games yesterday morning as well. After lunch Casey and I put up our Christmas lights! We've promised the kids for years that when we finally had a house we would get lights, and so we did! Kendal had her friend Hope over for the afternoon to cook and hang out, and Pete got to have a movie night with his buddies at the Sumsions. 

Memories on my phone from 1 yr ago!