Octobering

Short week, because of Fall break, so not a lot to report. Wednesday, both the big kids had friends over for the last day of the break (Dan was already back at work). I think they had fun. No one died anyway, or refused to speak to someone else.

I tried to take the kids in to get flu shots after their friends went home, but the doctor's office was out--and now Andrew came home sick from church complaining of various pains all over his body. I sincerely hope it's not flu!

Yesterday we had our practice for the primary program and today was the program itself. The kids did great, the program was moving (the bishop could hardly speak when he got up to talk after the final song), and now we're done! At least, until next Fall.

Costumes arrived this week, and shortly after the house was invaded by these scary creatures.

On Friday, because I didn't get in my usual writing this week (because of the break), I let Oliver paint while I sat nearby with my laptop. He *really* liked the paint. Maybe too much. Good thing it's all washable finger paint.

Fall Break

Apologies for being MIA this past week: we've been up north for fall break. We spent Saturday at Lagoon (along with about half of the other kids on Fall break), Sunday with my family--including a birthday dinner for my dad, and Monday hanging out with Sarah and family.

No pictures (at least, not until Dan sends me some from his iPod since I forgot my camera) from the weekend, so these will have to tide you over until our next real post. (These are from a big party the university president threw to encourage participation in the Campus Outdoor Challenge).

Evelyn wasn't very good at the Gladiator challenge. (Maybe a good thing--at least she wasn't ruthless like her brother! And yes, we talked to him about this . . . )

Pumpkin Patch

We are having a pretty glorious week of fall--yesterday, Dan picked me up at a mini-writing retreat up near Panguitch Lake (just Friday  night-Saturday morning) and we drove down through Cedar Breaks and the colors were incandescent. (I didn't take any pictures because my camera would not do them justice).

Andrew is part of a Lego First league, and this week they went on a special tour of the city dump. I volunteered to drive, and spent most of my time trying to keep Oliver away from stuff. But it was actually surprisingly interesting to find out how they deal with the garbage and how they plan for long term stuff.

Probably the highlight of the week for Oliver was going to the pumpkin patch. He was supposed to go on Monday, but it was rainy and drizzly so the teachers pushed it to Thursday. I wish you all could have seen his face when he got on the big yellow school bus for the first time. He was so incredibly  happy. (Unfortunately, this picture doesn't really reflect his sheer joy).

 Oliver wanted a "wittew" (little) pumpkin--so we got a nice little round one. (It looks bigger than his head here, but that's just perspective).

The farm also had some animal pens with calves, goats, lambs, and pigs. Oliver liked looking at everything--from a safe distance. (There was a somewhat daunting note posted to the pig pen reminding everyone that pigs eat meat, fingers are meat, so don't put your fingers in the cage!)

 Oliver with his class and teacher.

They stopped at a park for apple juice and pumpkin cookies on the way back to the school. And even though it meant sacrificing one of my writing mornings for the field trip, it was definitely worth it to spend the time with this guy.

Otherwise we had a pretty typical week (aside from the aforementioned writing retreat, which was much needed: I got my second edit letter this week and was a little daunted by how much work I *still* have to do. And this is my 12th time through the book! No wonder books take so long to publish.)

Here's hoping for another beautiful Fall week.

All about the books

This week has been all about the books.

It started with the kids SEP conferences on Monday. It should come as no surprise to anyone that our two oldest are both thriving in school and reading well above grade level. As has become our tradition, we stopped by the Scholastic book fair after their conferences to let everyone pick out a new book.

Andrew was NOT happy with me because I made him get the book Oliver had stepped on--because Andrew insisted on picking out a stack of books and sitting down on the floor to read them. So he took off before I'd finished paying for the books--and he and his dad and I had a discussion later about how it's never okay to storm off like that. (Luckily, he was waiting at home for us, but still. Even if you need to blow off steam, you tell someone where you are going).

Sigh.

That night I took Andrew with me to the Chinese food tasting portion of the opening of the new Confusius institute at the university. (He liked it; I thought it was pretty bland Chinese-American food). Then I dropped him off, picked up Evelyn from gymnastics, and took her with me to the program portion. We had to leave early because she was visibly drooping--but some of the costumes and dancing were fantastic. I particularly loved some of the stringed instruments.

Tuesday, the kids got to play with some friends while I helped volunteer at the Book Fair: it was fun getting to make recommendations to people (I love books!) and I got a gift card for MORE books, which I hadn't been expecting.

Then another busy night: I dropped in briefly on a Study Abroad presentation (work for Summit, the magazine I do for the provost's office), and then took Evelyn (Andrew didn't want to go) to a musical event at the Heritage Theater. The pieces were loosely themed around magic, and my friends 10 year old son did a fantastic performance of the Hedwig theme from Harry Potter. Evelyn loved it--and it was even better because we discovered Bubby and Poppy were there too.


(Okay, so maybe not everything was ALL about books).

Andrew had his first Lego league meeting after school on Wednesday and seems pretty excited about that.

Evelyn started decorating for Halloween. (Unfortunately, none of the tape stayed up).

Thursday after school we drove up north for a big book launch: they had a program, book signing, face painting, games, etc. But we arrived forty minutes early and the line was already nearly to the outside doors--and afterward, the lines were so long for the signing, etc., that we decided to just go to my mom's house (aka, our hotel for the evening). I think the kids still had fun though. I got to see a few of my author friends, so that was nice. And the man hosting the launch (Jeff Savage) is a terrific writer and a really nice guy.

If Oliver looks exhausted, it's probably because he fell asleep on the drive up and woke up just as we parked. But he actually did pretty well. (And fell asleep again almost as soon as we got in the car to go home).

Friday, we went to Costco where we ended up with even more books (a series Andrew had wanted for a while--he tends to read and reread books he likes, so it's worth it to me to invest in the copies for him, especially as he can be pretty hard on them).

That afternoon, we went to the Curiosity Museum at Thanksgiving point.

Andrew and Evelyn loved the climbing apparatus (hence no pictures: I couldn't keep track of any of them for more than ten seconds). Oliver was obsessed by the balls and the water.

 

 Everyone seemed to like feeding the giant carp, though I had to keep Oliver from actually putting his fingers in the water.

Though by far their favorite event of the day (of the weekend, in fact), was going to Aunt Sarah's house where they got to play with the cousins while I went to a book signing at the King's English. I met up with some author friends and we had dinner together afterward. (If it seems like I've been going to more of these, that's probably true: I'm trying to observe what authors do when their books come out and get ideas for mine.)

(It's also hard not to feel self-conscious about these ladies--three of them have my same agent and they are always so stylish! And I sometimes forget to wear makeup . . . )

 The author, Leigh Bardugo, was really smart and gracious and said some things I needed to hear about writing. When I told her I had a book coming out she said I should send her an ARC (advanced review copy), and said my concept sounded "delicious." And while I know she's probably just being nice, it was still nice to hear!

The kids and I listened to conference as we drove back on Saturday--and I should do that more often! It was much more relaxing than dealing with kids climbing all over me, as happens generally. And Dan came home this morning from the field trip he's been on the past couple of days, so there was general rejoicing.

And as he is waiting for me to finish and this is already long, this, dear readers, is where I will leave you.