Goodby October!

I am so glad that October is finally over! It was probably the hardest month I have had in a very long time.
My nephew, Brent, turned 3 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRENT!!) on Oct. 2.
Then there was fall break, which wasn't fall break for me and my preschool since the school district we live in didn't have our fall break until the following week. It was still fun, but kinda intimidating teaching 5 little kids while Cauley sat on the couch watching and "critiqing" everything. (I made some lame excuse and sent him to Walmart the second day so he didn't get to stay the whole time.) Cauley took Dallin to practice a few times which made Dallin feel like he was "5." (Or so he likes to say.)
I also had one of our quarterly enrichments on the 26th which is basically my calling. (The person over me has me do most of the work so she doesn't get stressed out, and then she just stresses out over conducting the enrichment- that's the way she puts it.) That went awesome- we had a huge turnout and everyone had a fabulouse time. Our theme was "Sneak Preview" and we did a movie theme. Coming through the front door, everyone "walked the Red Carpet", I had written names of every sister in our ward on a star which was taped to a tile on Sister Meadow's kitchen floor so everyone could find the name among all the stars, we even had a silent black and white movie put to old piano music of every sister (except for 11 which we could never catch) that we watched on a big white sheet that was set up on the patio. Everyone's favorite was the popcorn machine which made us all eat popcorn all night!The whole reason for the night was to introduce all of our upcoming mini enrichments that will be happening for the next 7 weeks in place of our Super Saterday. We have 15 projects that the sisters get to choose from- from FHE boards and baby bows to chocolates and homemade liquid soap. It will be fun, but more work.
Cauley finished his season this month and decided to have his banquet right away as wrestling practice began on the 29th. Coach Adams hosted it at his house because he has 3 acres of land (with horses, chickens, dogs, and lots of scorpions!). It was a lot of fun! We had barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs with his mom's homemade chile, which was really good. The whole evening was a blast. McKade got his wish and got to "ride horse" before eveyone got there. Dallin and Tyli followed which made for all 3 of them's first time on a horse. Pictures will follow.
One of the finales of October was the Spooktacular Event here in our neighborhood. Our HOA (home owner's association) puts it on as a thank you to everyone in the neighborhood. It's free with food, games, a spookalley, and more. Somehow, I got put in charge of all the food. (I really thought I was volunteering to help out with a ward party, which would have been no big deal!) Being in charge of the food means planning and distributing hotdogs, popcorn, cotton candy, nachos, and drinks for 3,000+ people. It wasn't too bad, just all the running around for 2 months got old fast. Stephanie and my mother-in-law, Kathy, really helped out by helping with the kids the day of so I could go pick up last minute stuff like buns and chips from Costco, ice, and water. Talk about funny looks and off the wall comments from bystanders at Costco- can you imagine- seeing someone come up front and pay for 1,500 bags (literally) of tortilla chips along with 3,00 hot dog buns! Everyone wanted to know where the party was. The most challenging part about this whole ordeal was finding people to step up and volunteer to work the booths and pass out food. A BIG THANK YOU to Aunt Jeni and Uncle Ray for helping with the popcorn booth!!! (You saved me!) It was even more difficult that night as more than half my volunteers didn't show up, and when the DJ kept asking for volunteers, I had only 2 people all night step up to help. (We shut the nacho booths down early because of this, leaving only 2 cans of cheese unused.) It did go really well, but I was tired and so sore. I was told I probably ran at least 3 miles that night as my hot dogs and water were on one side of all the game booths and all the concessions were on the other, so i had to keep circling just to make sure everyone was doing all right. I know I made at least 7 circles an hour for 4 hours, sometimes running between the game booths to solve a problem. I am just glad that I have already determined NOT to do this again next year even though I have already been asked to oversee the whole thing next year. IT's OVER!
Of course, who could end October without Halloween? I had my preschool Halloween party 2 days after the spooktacular, which was another mistake. (I spent all of the day after the spooktacular returning things like popcorn and cotton candy machines, leftover buns and chips, the Chic-fil-A wheel, etc.) I got to prepare for the preschool party starting at 8:30 the night before. I had invited all younger siblings and parents to come, which I won't do next year. The kids all had a blast, which was the only thing that mattered, and the parents had only great reviews, so I guess it went all right. The most intimidating part was that Emily's grandma came, as she was visiting from Utah. (She is the one who pays for emily's preschool.) Anyways, she was telling me what a wonderful job I did at the end when she meantioned that she taught preschool her whole life. (She retired last year because she feels too old to be around preschoolers all the time now.) Even though I was very intimidated by that, I was greatful for her encouragement and kind words about how everything was going.
Cauley got home after 6:15 that night and ate his pizza qickly enough that we were out the door a little before 7:00. We got tons of candy and only had to walk a little bit to find it. I was annoyed at all the teenagers out. (Mostly all teenagers and not many of them were even dressed up! The kids had a blast! dallin wore a vampire costume that Kathy had made for Cauley when Cauley was about 6.(It is kinda faded a dark grey now, but used to be black.) McKade refused to put on the bandana and eye patch and vest for his pirate costume, so I talked him into being a frog which we have a coat that he wore for. Tyli looked adorable (of course) as she was a fairy. (My friend jenn gave me her costume.) I even put makeup on her. Nobody really saw her as she stayed in the stroller all night. All in all, it was fun.
My goal for November is to get Tyli to sleep through the night. Right now she is up pretty much all the time, so pray for me- and her.