Chili Cook off

Our homeschool group holds an annual chili cook-off and fall fest.  Our family looks forward to this and the pink pancake breakfast (at Valentine's day) each year.  This is our 3rd year participating since we have been back in STV.  Wow!  We have a wonderful family in our group who opens their home/huge backyard for these two events.

Usually there is a large turn out but this year it was smaller.  I think there was just a lot going on this same weekend.  This was the first time Jay was not able to make it due to work and also the first time I actually made chili.  I usually just bring side dishes and a dessert.  Some highlights of the evening is the chili of course, there is also trying to eat donuts off a string, 3 legged races, bobbing for apples and bingo.  The weather was perfect and we had a great evening with friends!

Jadon's partner for the 3 legged race.  Ha!  He just picked Jadon up and carried him.

My hubby's rules for bobbing for apples.....our kids go first or get their own bowl.  LOL I only have a few who still like to participate after explaining about everyone's spit and slobber going into the water.  Eeeww! 

An Afternoon of Caramel Apple Making

Yummy goodness!! What a fun afternoon for all of us!  I invited some families from our homeschooling group to come over to make caramel apples.  I provided the caramel and each family brought their own apples and then toppings to share. Nuts, crushed oreos, sprinkles, candies and more, oh my! 

 My kids were great and helped unwrap ALL the little individually wrapped caramels before everyone came over.  I set up two stations for the caramel and and mom's helped get the caramel on the apples and then the kids got to decorate it however they wanted.  I even made popcorn to drizzle  some caramel over.  Fall is so much fun and so much yumminess, even in the desert!

Here are some pictures, in no particular order. 

Awana

After taking a year break I was anxious to get the kids back in Awana.  I love the Awana program and it's value of memorizing scripture. The kids are actually going back to the church where we attended when Anastasia was in Cubbies.  Now she is serving as a Cubbie leader.  When I went to the church to sign the kids up it was so neat to see several of the leaders who are still serving since we had been there last!  What a testimony to the program.

At this church  Awana meets every Sunday night so this year I am not serving.  Jay's travel schedule has him coming home on a Sunday or getting ready to leave Monday morning so we are using this time as a date night!  It is nice having a responsible child old enough to drive and the others all big enough that I can send them on their own when needed.  It is a win-win for everyone.

Savannah was sick this night so I didn't get her in the crazy hair night picture.

Family Fun

Jay was home this week, so Friday was Family fun day!  We have a lot of fun outdoor activities planned but the weather really needs to cooperate!  It has still been pretty hot. Friday however had rain, which I am not complaining about.  

When we have Friday fun day it means Saturday school and Jay works on Saturday.  The kids are all about fun day but not Saturday school so much.  LOL We got up early Friday morning and completed half of their school work since we were planning a family day at home.  They were done by 10:30 am and then we played our favorite card game, books and straights.  It takes a couple of hours to play this game and everyone knows how to play, except Natasha and Jadon so they usually help one of us.  After that we all just kind of vegged out for the afternoon.  Alexa and Natasha helped me make the pizza dough for dinner.  Jay went to the store to get our toppings and to look for a movie to rent.  He couldn't find anything in Redbox.  So we looked through Amazon prime streaming and found Back to the Future.  Oh my!  I don't think I have watched it since it first came out.  It was funny and now we are going to have to watch 2 and 3.  

Anastasia had to work in the evening so she missed out on the pizza but she can't have dairy anyways so it's best to make pizza when she is not here.  :)

Everyone made their own pizza and there were plenty of leftovers for lunch on Saturday.  It was a lot of fun.  We enjoyed our pizza and then had candy for our movie. (Time to go walking Saturday morning!)  Yes, in the pictures some of the kids have swim suits on.  They still insist on swimming.  The weather is warm enough but the water has definitely cooled off so they don't last very long.