So Fine Number Nine for Elliot

 Believe it or not, this guy is now 9!

Elliot's birthday was on one of the last school days before the break, so they had a celebration day with lots of crafts and activities. The best one was where they made parachutes for Santa. It was totally up Elliot's alley. 

For his birthday this year, he wanted to take his friends James and Kelton (and his Uncle Blake!) to Defy.

Fighting for dominance. I was so excited to watch Blake fight these 9-year-olds, and he did not disappoint! 

I love watching Elliot become increasingly daring. 

Elliot contemplating his next daring exploit, while Annie happily poses for the camera

After Defy, we headed back to the house for pizza and cake. It should be noted that this party came with a document labeled "Elliot the Great's Birthday Party Planning," which included a detailed schedule and a cross sectional diorama of his cake. 

Elliot at 9 years old is a fun guy to be around. He is so smart and creative. He loves making stuff, like this shadow puppet box:

Elliot is in the gifted program at school this year. He says he likes it "because I can use the bathroom without asking, and there are lots of kinds of rubik's cubes there." Their latest project involves programming Lego robots in Scratch, which is quite possibly the most Elliot-suited project they could have come up with. Well, maybe they could have incorporated hot glue somehow to capture that part of his essence as well. 

We gave him a laminator for his birthday. He had been asking for one for months. He laminated a chess board, white boards for acronymania, and dry erase "roll a creature" boards. 

He has finally made the transition to full blown chapter books. His gateway series was the Warrior cats series, and now he is branching out a bit. He still likes a good book of random facts. 

He loves board games- the more complicated, the better. Lately his two favorites are Dicemasters and Magic the Gathering. I'm the only one in the house that knows how to play, and we are both perpetually frustrated that I have to do things other than play games with him all day.

His other favorite activity: stealing my phone and drawing on pictures. 

He has a surprisingly high tolerance for hot sauce given how wimpy his parents are. 

He is still a very independent person. He gets himself up and ready for school by himself, including walking to the bus stop in the dark. He's learning how to cook a few things on his own.

To end this post in the same way he ends most of his school papers, "Now you know all about Elliot."

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving season started as all thanksgivings should- with superhero themed fall crafts. 

Elliot and Annie coated one wall with leaf crafts. Isaac told Breezy to make him a Batman leaf, and boy did she deliver. It turns out that there actually is a bat-turkey adopted by Robin in a Batman comic! Breezy's superhero knowledge is vast and very appreciated in this household. 

Annie's class had a Thanksgiving party that I went to! They had cute turkey hats and did a little skit/song for us. 

They read a book about a turkey trying to convince everyone to eat pizza on Thanksgiving, so we made pizzas. Most people had normal shaped pizzas, but Annie and I made sea turtles. They were surprisingly delicious!

Max, Morgan, Blake, and his girlfriend Aspen rolled into town late Wednesday night. I slept in the next morning and woke up to Blake already cooking, with a very eager crew of kids helping him peel carrots. I took them down the street to collect some rosemary from the bushes around the park. The kids were positively bouncing with excitement. They made the cookie salad and shredded the bread for the stuffing. 

My neighbors asked us to watch their chickens and duck while they are out of town. My brothers decided to do a heart warming photo shoot with Sweet Pea the duck (who really is the sweetest)

The love of these brothers is almost as tender as this bird. 

Feast time! Blake even brought Spruce beers! It's like root beer, but it tastes like... spruce. Max is obsessed with it. 

Double load of savory stuffing, Blake Mac, Morgan Mashed Taters, rolls, cookie salad, Brussel Sprouts (the crown jewel), and the tenderest turkey you have ever eaten. It was all so good!

The next day was Friday. We played games and wandered about the park and neighborhood trails. That night we watched the delightfully cheesy 1981 Superman II. My siblings have a unique energy that comes out when they get together- it was the most laughing I have done in a long time!

Max & Morgan left early Saturday morning, but Blake and Aspen stuck around for some more adventures. We decided to take them to the Desert mMuseum.

Just a little lad riding on a wild javelina

Annie was perpetually inserting herself into Blake and Aspen's pictures

Vulture girl!

Beautiful photography by Blake!

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday. The whole long weekend was full of good food, chats, and fun. We are blessed beyond measure!

I Wish I Were an Oscar Mayer Wiener

Well folks, it happened again. The Wienermobile came to town.  

Longtime fan here. Not necessarily of hot dogs, more of the Wienermobile and the way of life of the hot doggers who drive it. 

The wienermobile came to the clubhouse for resident appreciation day. There were free hot dogs and lawn games, and the sweet piping sound of wiener whistles filled the air, mingling with the laughter of children.

The inside of the noble vehicle. 

Aaron made this meme the last time I saw the Wienermobile four years ago. I have found it to hold true. 

Day of the Dead

I was inspired by Megan to start celebrating Day of the Dead. How she does it is that throughout the year she celebrates ancestors by showing pictures of them, telling stories about them, and sometimes eating a food or doing an activity associated with them. She already had a lot of the information gathered about the Blood side of the family tree, which was awesome! I did a pretty decent job of keeping up for the first half of the year, then slacked off with the birthday celebrations. We will have many faces added to our ofrenda next year. This year we scrounged up all the loose frames we could find in the house and used the pictures we already had. 

I like how it turned out!

My side of the family

Aaron's side 

I love this new tradition! It is so meaningful to put up these pictures and teach our children where they come from. 

Halloween, Halloween, What Does It Mean?

It's so much easier to convince the kids to go on walks when there are cool decorations out. 

Unicorn Skeleton! What will they think of next?

Unicorn, Clownfish (with dump truck bag as an important accessory - if you asked him, he would say that he was a "fishy monster"), and an Ender Dragon.  

 

I will forever wear my art project costume to the truck or treat. 

We hit up the Marana Pumpkin patch with the Beuses! We went on a Thursday, and it was way less crowded than the last time we went. We went to the rides first and had virtually no lines to wait in. All three of the bloodlings had a great time. 

Who doesn't love a good corn flyer?

Slide racers!

It was so funny watching Isaac shooting down that slide so fast with no control whatsoever

The kids put their newly acquired Legoland driver's licenses to good use

DIGGERS!

By this point, Elliot was done with photo ops and desperate to get to the corn maze.

He had a painful time on the hayride while his heart yearned for the maze

Finally! Corn maze time!

The kids took dried corn cobs home and made them into little buddies. Although, neither of them took me up on my really good idea to name them Cornelius. 

It was my turn for dinner swap on Halloween. I made spaghetti and eyeballs. They turned out so great! I put frozen meatballs on a tray and topped them with thinly sliced cheese stick and olive bits. It was delicious and fun. 

Elliot scarfed down his eyeballs and went outside to get our Frankenstein head set up all on his own. He manned the candy bowl while the rest of us finished up eating. Then, they were off to trick-or-treat.