Our Busy Saturday

Saturday morning started out early with Brandon's soccer game. They played the Tigers. They won 9-0 with Brandon getting one goal and one other boy getting all the rest. It sometimes feels like a one man show on that field but I guess that's what happens when one kid has been playing for 3 years already (at the age of 5). But it is really fun getting to watch Brandon. And when he isn't too tired out, he puts his all into it and really tries hard so I'm proud of him.

We had to go to Sam's club after soccer to get some stuff for the Ward Trunk or Treat that night, then we came home and hung out for about an hour or so and had lunch. Carter had fun playing with the stickers he got the night before. This kid cracks me up.

After lunch we went down to Sylmar to the Wildlife Learning Center where a friend of Paul's from work was having a book reading and signing. We got free tickets and got to watch an animal show, so it was really fun and totally worthwhile. I can't believe I've never been there before. It's literally 10 minutes from our house and even though it's small, it's a great alternative to the zoo. Especially when I have one animal loving (almost) 3 year old that asks to go to the zoo ALL THE TIME. I'll definitely be getting passes there. 

Hard to see, but this is a walking stick bug. Super cool. I use to see those in FL all the time. Haven't seen one in years though.

All (or most) of the animals came to the center because of injuries or illness or because they were house pets that weren't meant to be house pets. They wouldn't be able to survive in the wild, so they are cared for and loved here. This owl only has one full wing, so he can't fly.

This bunny is the softest bunny I have ever seen. I wanted to grab him from her arms and snuggle him so bad. 

Cool snake. Do you know the riddle?  Red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black, friend of Jack. They taught it to us when I was a kid in school. Definitely necessary in FL with dangerous coral snakes around. Paul had never heard of the rhyme. Funny....I thought everyone knew it. 

After that we rushed home, got changed and headed out to the Trunk or Treat. I have to admit I have never been very good at decorating my trunk or decorating myself for that matter, but the kids all looked good (except Carter wouldn't wear his costume again) and we had a really fun time. Grace got to come with Ashlyn and Gracie got to come with Leah. We sure are lucky to have great friends.

Brandon was being silly again. I was just happy to see him in his costume.

And Carter was digging the candy gathering.

This was the trunk next to us that was "just thrown together at the last minute". Uh....see my trunk above. THAT is what you call thrown together at the last minute. This trunk looked AWESOME! The winner though had a full on bowling alley in their trunk with fun halloween ghosts floating around on a flat screen TV at the back. It was really cool! 

All in all it was a great night. And I was glad to come home and go to sleep instead of rushing off to the hospital to have a baby. LOL!

Freaky Fright Night Festival

This years School Halloween Festival was lots of fun, but man is it LOUD and really crazy and definitely hard to keep track of all the kids. But luckily Paul was able to come with us this year and so it wasn't too bad. 

Can you even believe it?!?! Brandon decided to wear a costume. First time ever since birth. Well, I guess his first Halloween he wore a skeleton sleeper outfit, but he was so little he didn't know the difference and it was super soft anyway. Carter on the other hand, decided it was his turn to be stubborn and wouldn't put his cute monster costume on. I'm hoping he will Halloween night, but we'll see. 

Leah and her best bud Gracie

Ashlyn and Lourdes

Brandon and his bud Elijah

Carter loved the bouncy slide. He must have gone on it 5 or 6 times. 

Brandon went a couple times. But as you can maybe tell he pretty much "fell" down it literally flipping on the way down. He bounced up fast, but I'm not sure he was too happy about it. I don't think he meant to do that. It looked painful to watch. I was glad it was an inflatable slide.

Leah's lucky day

Last week a blue paper came home with Leah's name on it. I snagged it from her fast enough, but darn it I didn't hide it very well when I threw it away because she saw it and asked me everyday what the paper said. But I wanted her to be surprised about her award this week so I kept telling her it was nothing. 

SO the big day came and I'm not sure it met her expectations, but she got an award for "efforts in academics" and I was super proud of her. Even though she said she was hoping the paper was about a field trip she was gonna go on. I think she was still happy she got the award. 

After all the kids got their awards, they gave out an award for teacher of the month. And it was our favorite Mrs. Clark, who is Leah's BFF's mom and a friend of mine. So we were super excited to get to be there when she got her award. Go Patty! 

Crazy hair day

Leah has been looking forward to this day ALL YEAR LONG. I'm not even joking. I can't tell you how many times she has asked me when crazy hair day is. She had me buy colored hair spray months ago so that I would make sure to have it for when the day arrived. I'm not sure I did as crazy of hair as she would have liked, but I tried my best. Hopefully she was happy. 

Brandon on the other hand, opted out of crazy hair day. And Ashlyn's hair didn't take to the color too well. It only looked slightly different, so I didn't get any pictures of her. 

Red Ribbon week continues.....

Back to Lombardi

I took Carter to Lombardi Ranch last week just me and him, but of course I had to come back with all the kids for our yearly pumpkin measuring. The kids have all grown at least a few inches each from last years pictures. 

We went right after school got out. The weather wasn't sweltering and the crowds weren't bad until we started to leave, so it was a nice visit. Plus we ran into a bunch of friends so it was double fun.

This is Carter's hulk ......

SMASH! Too funny huh!

And Brandon declared "I am the king of the world!" 

Riding the train is always a highlight.

And bringing back baby pumpkins to paint is a Schoeni tradition. I can't believe Halloween is in one short week. And I haven't even decorated my house yet. YIKES! 

Playing catch up....again

Before Fall Break was over, me and Tina took the kids out to Mountasia for a little mini golf. Nine kids all playing the same hole...that was pretty much how it went. But the weather wasn't too bad and we got ice cream before heading out so it was quite a successful outing.

It's crazy to think we have no babies anymore. I mean....look at this picture. All big kids looking at the camera and everything. It's bittersweet!

(Braden isn't pictured here since he's in Junior High now and had a very short Fall Break.)

Leah and Ellie had a super fun time together while she was here. Constantly playing one thing or another. Leah's really good with younger girls and they always LOVE her. So it was win-win.

Paul and I finally got a chance to go see Blaike play a football game. We left the kids with a sitter since it was in the evening. It was fun to get to watch him. It was his "senior night" as an 8th grader. Next year he'll get to play for Canyon hopefully.

Carter has been ditching his traditional naps these days. Much to my dismay. But he does still fall asleep in the car quite a bit. Bad thing is, that means he's up until 10 or later when he does. I don't like this stage where they still need a nap but don't at the same time. 

I had our yearly Activity Day Halloween night last week a little early since it's the last time we are meeting before Halloween. We painted pumpkins out of mason jars and put tea light candles in them. Then the girls got to decorate cookies. Tina came to help me out and it was definitely much appreciated. My little group of girls has more than doubled since I got this calling. I love it though. They're all so excited to be there and they definitely show it.

The Aquarium

I LOVE the Aquarium. We have year passes and I've been trying to get back there since we got them...uh...which was over SPRING break. But for some reason or another, it never worked out to go over the summer. Probably spent too much time at the beach. Anyway, it's member appreciation month this month and since it is now FALL break, I thought what better time to go.

We have Ellie here staying with us while her parents are out of town, so she got to come with us too. She's super sweet and totally easy so it's been fun having her.

We always start our day off with lunch outside the doors.

It wasn't super crowded, which was SO nice. We got to pet lots of little creatures and get up close to all the exhibits. 

I don't know what this is, but it was WAY cool!

Seriously, this kid is SO dang handsome!

Everytime I go, I see some new little creature I haven't seen before. This crab was pretty awesome looking. I bet not much messes with him.

The leaf dragons are a definite favorite.

And it's always nice when there are no lines at the touch tanks.

We got a free cup of nectar for member appreciation month, so I got a couple more and took the kids in to the lorikeet feeding area. Funny thing was the kids were all pretty freaked out to feed them and I ended up with three cups of nectar and three birds on me. LOL. I managed to get the girls at least to hold nectar just long enough to snap some photos.

Afterward the kids always like to run up to the lighthouse and then roll down the hill a few times. 

And Leah was pretending to ride a viking ship. 

Traffic was a bit thick on the way home thanks to a wreck on the freeway, but since we had no other plans for the day, it wasn't too big of a deal. Although at one point, Brandon said to me, "I feel like we are driving back to Utah again." Haha....I think they are definitely ready for a break from the car for a while.