Spooktacular

Friday morning I took on the task of getting all the Spooktacular stuff out.  There is no storage at the school, so I keep some PTO stuff in the corner of the workshop.  So I dug that stuff out, and found the posters/signs/backdrops in my poster box.  

 At 10 am, I took a car load of stuff to start setting things up.  The rest of my kids (the older ones) got there about an hour later.  I put Brienna & Ethan in charge of the photo backdrop.

 Brienna ran the duck pond.  I had Zane clean out the pool & then we filled it with shredded paper  & the ducks.  (I have found that water & popcorn is way too messy).

 Our 1st grade teacher and Jenny put the fish pond together.

 Here is the pop toss & bean bag toss.

 Cupcake walk

 Concessions (we just sell hot dogs, chips & water--the kids can win pop, & get candy trick-or-treating & playing the games.

 As you come in the door.  We (PTO/Booster Club) run this as a free evening.  We would love to turn it into a carnival/fund-raiser, but that is a ton of work, and we don't have enough volunteers to do that!

 Callum (in the blue with a hat) helped out at a trick-or-treat station.

 Brienna is in the right corner helping with the duck pond.

 My cute scooby-doo (the costume is about 1 1/2 sizes too small, but he insisted!)  Zane was in charge of him during the night.

 Emmalee being a fairy--and a cute purple one at that!

She had a butterfly painted on her face by the cheerleaders.
We usually have enough people stay and help clean up, so we get home about an hour after we turn off most of the lights signalling the end of the evening.  So I was home by 8:30.  But I still haven't put everything away yet!  

Corn Maze Field Trip

Wednesday, Oct. 23rd I re-scheduled all of my piano kids to other days (Ivy & Ellee came on Tuesday so I had them in addition to Hunter & Shilo--plus I have Kylie during the day since she is home-schooled.  Londyn's mom had her baby on Tuesday so I just skipped her & I moved Bentlee to Thursday).  The reason I re-scheduled is so I could go watch the volleyball games in Firth--it was for district champion.  I also took Zane with me (we left about 3 so I could stop and shop first).  

Although our girls lost both games, they played extremely well & I'm glad that I went.

Thursday was Emmalee's field trip to a corn maze.  We left at 10:30 am.  Grandpa picked Ben up from pre-school at 11:30 & kept him company while I was with Emmalee.

 It was 3rd, 4th & 5th grades, so most of the kids had to sit 3 to a seat.  Emmalee sat behind Rusty & me--yep!  I got to sit with my hubby.  Good thing, too, because that was the most I've seen him & been with him in the last few weeks ;)

 On the way to the maze (which was not quite to Blackfoot--about 5 miles north), we stopped at the rest stop in the lava fields so we could eat lunch.

 The restrooms/building is earth-bermed so the kids had a ton of fun on that hill.  It was a beautiful, sunny day--couldn't ask for better weather for a field trip.

 Most of the 3rd grade class.

 The group of girls that I went through the maze with along with another mother, Marie Serrano.

 Our group rode the barrel train to the pumpkin patch--most of the bigger ones were starting to rot, so we both chose a small pumpkin.

 The kids had a blast--luckily, I got to ride in the front with the driver :)

 The girls were all certain they knew where they were going in the maze, and quickly took off in front of the 2 adults.  When we finally got them to stop, I had no idea where we were on the map.  So when we found the "exit", the girls didn't want to go back in to find the rest of the clues, so we let them have fun on the bouncy toys.

 It was quite warm just standing in the sun!  The kids had a lot of time.

 Emmalee & Shilo

 Rusty--taking pictures of the 5th graders.

 Emmalee's 3rd grade class--she actually has one of the bigger classes in all of K-12.

Their silly picture.  

We got back to the school with just enough time for me to get home & get the piano stuff ready for my students (about 15 minutes before they got out of school).  I taught piano & then had to get ready for Clark County Idol.  I was one of the judges--and it was a lot of fun.  I am glad that Mr. Germer had a great adjudication rubric so I knew exactly what to judge the contestants on.  Lindsay Farr was easily the winner.  2nd and 3rd place were a littler harder to decide, but I am grateful that we had the rubric (list of qualities to judge) to follow.  Maggie May took 2nd and Brayden Kerr was 3rd.  

When the evening was over, I then had time to think about Spooktacular.  This year was the first time I waited as long as I did to get things out for Spooktacular.  But that's another post.

Zane's 4 point Deer

 The boys went hunting this morning--and while I was helping with Bountiful Baskets, they stopped by to show me that Zane got his deer.

It's really nice!  I guess after he shot it (from about 300 yards), the deer fell down, so Rusty poked/kicked the deer in the behind & it jumped up and took off for another 100 yards.  Zane shot it a couple more times to make sure it was dead.  They came home & hung it in the tree, skinned it, and now Rusty is getting ready to take Callum out again.

Zane--Face-mask & "Horse-collared" video

(This is a super-slow motion video)

Here is my attempt  at the video of Zane being "horse-collared".  In super slow motion, I can now see that he was also face-masked.  He really could have been hurt so I am grateful he was able to hop right up.

Football game in IF with Calvary Chapel

 Pledge of alligance

 Love my #61

 Ready for the kick off

 One of the players, Jake Mickelsen, broke his ankle, so Zane played a few different positions in this game.

It was a hybrid game--we played 6 man offense (and they had 6 on their defense) & when they were on offense, we had an 8-man defense.

We have a young team (even though we have 3 seniors, they all started the season late, and some of them haven't been eligible to play because of grades.  So we have 1 Junior--he starts--and the rest are sophomores & freshmen)  They had only 2 sophomores & 1 freshman on their team--and it was their last game of the season so it was mostly their seniors that played.  They also had 1 "beast"--he was 6' 6" and weighed 260.  So overall, our team played a good game.  It was just a bit disappointing that the other team would only kick on-side kicks, and the game was called at half.  I would have loved to watch another hour of football.

Probably a good thing my mom wasn't watching:  Zane "missed" a pass but they called pass interference on the other team (missed videoing it because I was changing my batteries on my camera).  And then later, he was "horse-collared" and thrown down after a fumble recovery.  I have that on video & I am going to attempt to post that next.  But I could just "hear in my head" my mom yelling at the refs/other team for hurting he grandson  ;)

Needless to say, Zane was a bit sore after the game.

**Salt Lake City Band/Choir Trip--May 2013**

More Catch-up

 The band performing for their competion.

The judges had problems with their recording devices, so they had to play their song again.

This is at an aquatic center in Clearview, UT.

Brienna, (on the left)--not sure who is in the center, & then Lindsay Farr & Zane on the right.

The water slide.  Jill Grover worked on some school projects, and so I decided not to go swimming either (I'm sure Zane was grateful for that)

 Walking to the bus & looking at the temple.  I only had my iPod, so the pictures didn't turn out that great.

 Our band (and later the choir) joined Highland High School's band for about an hour--

So they were able to experience being in a "big" band.  It was fun to listen to just our few kids play "Pirates of the Caribbean" & then for the whole band to play.

 We ate our lunch at a park & then we were able to relax for a little bit.

 Then we were able to spend the day at Lagoon.  Jill went to visit her family, & so I was on my own.  I decided to ride the rides I wanted to--and enjoy the day even if I was by myself.
This was my favorite ride (at least to ride by myself).  I went on it at least a dozen times.

 Rode the train a few times.

Then we had the awards.  Brienna receiving the trophy for the band.

A swan sitting on her nest at the end of one of the rides.

 I found Brienna & Lindsay on the swings.

Here they are at the very bottom of this picture.  It about made me sick just watching them, and even sicker trying to take a picture of them!
It was a fun trip for everyone.  I'm glad the kids were able to experience everything they did.