First Band Concert

The same day as Isaac and Grace’s first trip to the dentist was also Emma’s first band concert.

I must admit I was a little surprised when Emma said she wanted to play in the band this year.  At first she wanted to try out for percussion, but in the end she decided on the flute.  We warned her that she still had to practice her piano as well as make time for practicing the flute.  She assured us she was up for the challenge.

She’s done a pretty good job juggling both of them.  Not perfect, but she tries hard.  She has progressed quite a bit on the flute.  In the beginning she could hardly make a sound, now we are enjoying hearing recognizable Christmas music.  It was fun to hear the band all together at the concert.  It was also fun to hear the more advanced bands to know how much farther they can progress.  Too bad we sat on the wrong side of the gym for the concert, we could hardly see Emma.  Grandma Dorothy had to point for a long time before Isaac finally spotted her. 

Way to go Emma for trying something new!

First Trip to the Dentist

What kind of mean mom takes her kids to the dentist for the first time the day after Halloween?  Guess that would be me.  Lee thought I should make Isaac and Grace eat a Tootsie Roll right before got to the dentist, but I didn’t go that far. I had no idea how they would do for their first cleaning, but I didn’t have anything to worry about at all.  They did great.

Of course I should have expected that since our dentist is somebody they already know and love from our ward AND he has an awesome hygienist.  Pat had them laughing through the whole thing.  Gracie became Stacy, Lacey, Macey, Tracy…any name that rhymed besides Gracie.  Isaac was nicknamed Monkey.  She put stickers all over them and just did a great job distracting them.

Isaac and Grace were thrilled to get a card in the mail from Pat a few days later congratulating them on a great first check-up.  Of course it was addressed to “Gracie Stacey Lacey Loo and Isaac Monkey Bobba Goo”.  They got a kick out of that!

Current Evans Events: September & October

September and October were so busy they seemed to go by in a blur. 

We had some gorgeous weather in September.  We spent time outside, went to the park and on lots of bike rides.

I got to teach about the letter C at preschool at our house in September.  We learned about the different kinds of clouds, practiced writing C’s in shaving cream, ate cloud Jell-O parfaits, played with cloud dough and counted cars.  So fun!

Isaac and Grace love going to preschool.  The other moms have done some awesome things with them.  They were totally proud to show off the bodies they made when they learned about the letter B.  I love how Isaac’s lungs are in his armpit….

I swear Emma is growing up right before our eyes.  I have really noticed that the last few months, probably since she is in middle school now.

October is always busy with soccer, birthdays, Halloween and normal life.  To make things busier I worked more in the month of October than any other month since the twins have been born.  I spent way too many late nights working.  The paycheck made it worth it though!  Besides working, October was full.

We had play dates with friends.

We went to Lego night at the library:

We played Fear Factor at the church.  I can’t remember what Lee and I ate and Emma wasn’t there, but Isaac and Grace ate deer poop (chocolate covered raisins).

We said goodbye to a friend.  We will miss Sister Reynolds.

Emma and I got to participate in a pumpkin drop at Mutual.  Emma’s class put their pumpkin in a bag full of garbage straight from a trash can.  Too bad their pumpkin didn’t survive the drop.  It was a fun activity!

We went to parent/teacher conferences where we got glowing reports about Emma.  Grace wasn’t too impressed and was bored out of her mind.

Isaac, Grace and I went to an apple cider party while Lee and Emma were at a soccer game.  Thanks to generous friends we met new people and came home with delicious apples and apple cider.  The kids definitely played more than worked! 

Emma got to go on a field trip to Ashland to see Romeo & Juliet.  She has been in an elective class at school where they have been studying the play.  She loved it and had a great time.  It was an all day affair.  They left at 6:30 in the morning and didn’t get home until 11:00 at night.  I was bummed I couldn’t go with her.

Lots of creating and art projects were made. 

Grace loves to make superheroes.  I think they are pretty cute!

Isaac totally surprised us by being the first of the twins to write his name.  Emma wrote her name well before she was 4, but Isaac and Grace haven’t shown much interest in that sort of thing.  I have been surprised by that because Grace loves to draw and color.  Isaac one day decided he wanted to do it, and he did.  I’m sure Grace will want to someday too!

For preschool in October I got teach about the letter G.  We talked about germs, gloves, green glitter, and ghosts.  The kids especially liked getting germs (green glitter) on their hands, shaking hands with each other, and then washing it off.  That demonstrated how germs are spread and how important it is to wash our hands.  They also got green goo to take home.

There must have been a little bit of time for relaxing in October as evidenced by these pictures.

Notice I’m not in any of them!  :)

Halloween Hauntings

The week leading up to Halloween was full of Halloween fun.  Isaac and Grace got a head start on trick-or-treating at Hope Village. 

The residents there are so sweet and they love to see the costumes. 

Isaac and Grace also made some Boo Mix for their playgroup friends.  They REALLY wanted to eat some!

Speaking of playgroup, we had a cute playgroup Halloween party.  The kids decorated boxes for the cookies they frosted and decorated, played BINGO, read stories, and had fun!  Thanks Aspen!

We had a few Halloween-ish meals.  For dinner one night we had Mummy Dogs.  Isaac and Grace loved them!

On Halloween morning we had candy corn waffles.

For the Family Home Evening before Halloween we discussed a quote by Thomas S. Monson about how the adversary is trying is hardest to ensnare us in his web.  We used the imagery of a spider web which was perfect for Halloween.  Then we talked about all the different ways that Satan tries to catch us.  The kids have been using the phrase “don’t get caught in the web!” often since that lesson. 

Afterwards we made some webs of our own and played a game to see who could unravel the webs the fastest.

Then we carved our pumpkin.  All three kids came to an agreement on what face they wanted for our jack-o-lantern (Lee had class that night and I wasn’t up to carving three different pumpkins-not my favorite activity!).

One day I was looking at my Pinterest Halloween board trying to decide what Halloween crafts we should do and Isaac saw a paper plate skeleton.  He practically begged me to help them make it.  We had fun posing him!

I love reading the kids Halloween books.  We found a few new favorites this year.

On Halloween we got out some of our own Halloween stories.  I love to hear Isaac and Grace retelling them!

We also made spiders that turned out too cute to be creepy.  Grace’s spider even had hair!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Halloween!