Pumpkins

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We took the kids to pick out pumpkins for Halloween. This year we discovered that Cook’s Greenhouse sells them, and they have a LARGE variety of sizes, colors, and types of pumpkins, squash and gourds. The kids got to pick their own pumpkins. Dinah kept trying to pick the largest pumpkin she could possibly carry. I think all of them picked and then changed their minds at least once. Once everyone had a pumpkin I looked at the ones they chose and said “So nobody picked a white one?” Instantly Dinah and Chloe decided that they had to have a white pumpkin. So they put back the orange pumpkins they picked and went to pick out white ones. Chloe chose hers first and Dinah was getting frustrated that she was last, and she wasn’t sure which one she wanted. So I pointed out some orange AND white pumpkins. It was something completely different, and so she went for one of those.

When we were done looking at the pumpkins we decided to take a walk through the rest of the greenhouses. There was a whole room full of pansies in so many different colors! The kids enjoyed seeing the different cactus varieties. The last greenhouse was FULL of what looked like poinsettia plants. I had no idea that they grew pumpkins or poinsettias! I guess it makes sense, since it is a greenhouse and they’ve got to do something to have business all year round, but I had never thought of it before.

In one of the greenhouses, Adam tried to jump up to grab a drip hose that was hanging from the top. We stopped him but one of the kids asked what it was he was trying to grab. I answered and said “One of the misters.” Then Kyle said “But where are the missus?” I turned around to look at him like that was a silly thing to say and so he kissed me and said “There she is!”

Fire Station Open house

Ethan started working on the Fire Safety merit badge at a merit badge pow wow last month, and we have been working on finishing up the requirements so we could get it signed off. The only problem is that there were two counselors that taught the class, one each week, and neither one of them signed off on a blue card the things that they worked on with Ethan at the pow wow. So we made contact with the first counselor to make an appointment for him to sign off the things he did with Ethan. He happens to be a firefighter that works at the Spanish Fork fire station and he asked Ethan to meet him at an open house that the fire station was putting on.

We decided to take the whole family to the open house. While Ethan talked to the counselor, we took the kids to follow another firefighter around so all the other kids could see the different fire trucks.

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I’m sure every little boy dreams of driving a big fire truck. Adam was SO excited.

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Here Adam is trying to tell us the sound that the fire truck was making, with his hands…

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Dinah in the driver’s seat:

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Kyle put Adam on this little shelf on the outside of the firetruck. Adam thought it was pretty funny.

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When Ethan met back up with us, he announced that the counselor signed off on the merit badge for him! 🙂

Looking at the Bright Side

Things that I am grateful for as we are cleaning up vomit in the middle of the night:
1) I am grateful that Adam was on our bed when Jeremy threw up all over Adam’s bed and their room on his way to the toilet. Otherwise, Jeremy would have thrown up all over Adam’s bed, the floor, the wall, a bit of Ethan’s bed AND on Adam!
2) I am grateful that Adam didn’t stay on our bed like he was instructed, because he was next to throw up while we were working on the first mess. If he had stayed like I asked him to, he would have thrown up on our bed and then Kyle and I would have had no bedding on our bed when we were all done cleaning up and were ready to go back to bed.
3) I am somewhat grateful that we have two kids throwing up (and one more going between her bed and the toilet as she complains that she feels like she is going to). I know this one doesn’t sound like much of a blessing. But Seth threw up Tuesday evening and if it took three days to get from one person to the next and if it only ever hit one person at a time, it could literally take a month to get through our family of 10.
4) I am grateful that despite all the lights that were on and all the noise with kids crying because they don’t feel well and the noise of the carpet cleaner, Seth and Lydia slept through it all.
5) I am grateful we own a carpet cleaner. I don’t even want to think about how we would have cleaned it all up without one.

Oh and it’s amazing what a happy sound barf going into the toilet is… After waking up to the sound of barf going everywhere BUT the toilet.