2021 :: week 43

 

October 17

Lauren spoke in Sacrament for the first (non Primary Program) time on Sunday. Thanks to the wonders of technology and COVID protocols, family members near and far were able to watch her give her talk (my sister Jill snapped this picture of her son Arthur watching Lauren in their living room). This week and last people in our ward have talked about lessons they learned from General Conference. Lauren spoke about feeling God's Love, and quoted from Sister Susan Porter's talk. 

October 18

Monday night Anthony and I went the annual NCCT board dinner. They have the dinner at various restaurants and this year it was at Hereford House in Leawood. Because they didn't hold one in 2020, it was the first time I had seen many of Anthony's co-workers since Christmas 2019. It was fun to eat a delicious meal and catch up a bit with co-workers and their plus ones.

October 19

Miles is often requesting a book be read to him and now we have five readers in the house! Elliott is reading up a storm these days. When I met with his teacher for parent-teacher conferences earlier in the day she told me that Elliott had mastered all of the sight words they expect the kids to have memorized by the end of first grade. I feel a little bad I didn't realize he was reading so well. I assumed he was memorizing books, because he often wants to read the same books with me over and over.

October 20

Lauren's outdoor soccer season came to an end this week. Wednesday evening was her final practice, which is traditionally a family verses team game. Will and Elliott were looking forward to the game just as much as Lauren. On Saturday her team had their final game that started just after 8:30pm. After going down 0-3 in the first half her team rallied and tied the game in the second half. It was a great way to end the season! She will be playing in a few indoor games this winter, but practices are over until spring. I am looking forward to quieter evenings as Elliott's baseball season has already ended and Will's baseball season ends next week.

October 21

We celebrated Miss Lauren Jean's 10th birthday. Lauren is truly a delight. I am so impressed by the well rounded person she is becoming. She is thoughtful, confident, helpful, creative, active, curious and quick. She intuitively knows to lean into what she enjoys and makes the most of things. I rarely hear her say she is bored. She likes to plan and is always thinking ahead. She is so organized and is constantly rearranging the stuff in her room to optimize the way she uses things. She is an avid reader and refuses to count The Goblet of Fire as two books towards the 4th grade 40 book challenge because she "knows" she is going to read way more than forty book this school year. We love Lauren so much and are grateful she is ours. 

October 22

While reading The Goblet of Fire, Lauren decided she wanted to be Fleur Delacour for Halloween. It had been awhile for me and my sewing machine, but I decided I would help make her a cape for the costume. We bought her distinctive hat from Amazon, and I found a blue dress at Target. I matched the dress to fabric and then made the cape on my own. I think this was the first time I calculated circumference in a real life situation since I took Math 110 at BYU. The cape didn't turn out exactly like I wanted, but I was proud of myself for how well it did turn out, all things considered. Lauren and Will wore their costumes to their Halloween Piano party. Their teacher brought a keyboard outside and the kids took turns playing their songs, eating treats and playing games.

October 23

Saturday evening we went to the Allred's house for their second annual Halloween party. Tony and I dressed up as the Wet Bandits--Harry and Marv from Home Alone. Will, Elliott and Miles were Royals players--Aldeberto Mondesi, Whit Merrified and Salvador Perez to be exact. Lauren was Fleur. Lauren wanted Miles to dress up as Dobby, but we knew he would not be willing to wear the ears, especially when his brothers were decked out in Royals gear. We had fun playing games, decorating cookies and eating the wacky Halloween meal.