October always starts with Conference Weekend. We were able to watch and listen to all of the sessions of conference from our home. The missionaries from our ward joined us and they even enjoyed playing our traditional game of BINGO while we listened to the messages of the apostles. These missionaries, Elder Vreeland, Elder Mowers, and Elder Vail have been in a threesome companionship during COVID because Elder Mowers came back to the US from Guatamala to wait out the pandemic. They’ve been great missionaries, sharing messages, and helping the girls learn more about the gospel.
All the missionaries who serve in our ward know about our Kasibbons dinners. They look forward to them and being able to bring new companions to them. Elder Vail’s final Kasibbons dinner before he got transferred was a dinner we ate outside. And we needed to get a picture before this threesome companionship was broken up. Elder Mowers was also getting transferred to our Spanish-speaking ward.
Tessa had her friend Olivia over one day to hang out. Olivia only has brothers, so she was excited to come over and do girly things like painting, swimming, and playing with Barbies and bunnies. They had a fun time and I had to get a picture of their masterpieces.
A friendly neighbor decorated their yard with fall decorations and said anyone could stop by for pictures. So one day after church, since we were all dressed up, we stopped by and I took this picture of the girls. They were a little nervous sitting in someone else’s yard even though I kept reassuring them that we were allowed to be there. It was a cute picture.
Throughout the month of October we were able to attend church in person. We wore masks and had to social distance, but it was still nice to be together in person in the church building. As we left one Sunday I had Abby take a selfie of all of us girls with the church behind us. Tyler always had to drive separately to church since he ushered people in before church and stayed to clean the building afterwards, so he never got to be in any of our church pictures.
In the middle of October, there was a two week intercession break from school. However the COVID numbers started to rise in our area, so we were asked to limit our travel and to even limit the time spent out of the house with other people. That meant my girls started complaining of boredom after a few days of being stuck in the house without being able to see friends. After I couldn’t take the whining and complaining anymore, I made the girls go on a hike with me. They really didn’t want to go at first, but we took a nature scavenger hunt list with us, and we ended up getting an app that identifies plants and those made the hike a lot more enjoyable for the girls. We started on a large path behind our neighborhood, but once we got “off the beaten path,” and started using our plant identifier app, the girls started having a lot more fun. They found good walking sticks and we started counting how many different types of cacti we could see - it was a lot!
Another day during the intercession break, the girls decided to do a bridge challenge. I told them to go in the backyard and use whatever they could find to create a bridge and then we’d see how many rocks could be held on their bridge creations. They were a lot more crafty than I thought they’d be and all of their bridges held over 30 large rocks. I was very impressed. We took pictures before we started adding rocks, but I should’ve taken pictures with the piles of rocks on top too.
Another day as the kids complained of boredom, they decided to do a boat challenge. They were able to get some empty moving boxes from Grandma V and they each took some time taping their boxes in hopes that they would support them in the pool. The Kasallis boys joined them for this challenge. I took a picture of all five of the kids with their boat creations before they set sail. I did a video so I didn’t get very many pictures once they tried getting in the water, but I did grab this picture of Tessa before she started to sink. Most of the kids started sinking as soon as they put their weight in the boxes, but Tessa and Aubrey were able to float for a few seconds before they started tipping. The water was cold, but the kids still thought it was fun.
As I put these pictures in the blog, I thought it was hilarious that these pictures ended up next to each other. It shows the crazy El Paso weather. On Saturday they were swimming, but by the following Tuesday we had a cold front pass through and we got some snow. It wasn’t a ton, but enough that the girls got to play a little in the morning before school. Taryn was the most excited because she starts the latest for school, so she was in the backyard playing while the other three girls were already on their computers for their first classes.
when the kids get together to play these days, a lot of the times they just play MineCraft or other computer games together. It’s such a common thing right now to see them on their computers. I wanted a picture because they look like their ignoring each other and playing separately, but they’re actually playing the same game just on their individual devices. Usually at this point, I yell at the kids to go outside to play. I like that they get together to play, but it’s been a challenge to balance their time on electronic devices and getting them to get up and move and play together while getting some exercise. This picture is just a perfect example of quarantine these days and what that looks like.
One day this month as we were outside visiting with the Kasallis family, I noticed how cool the full moon looked as it came over the mountain. We had to take a few pictures with the moon as our focal point, so here’s Tyler holding the moon in his hand and Taryn holding the moon on the tip of her finger.
The sunsets have been very pretty this fall. It never looks as good in a picture than it does in person, but I still wanted a picture to remember the beautiful orange colors. In preparation for our Halloween costumes, the girls and I all braided our hair so it would be crimpy. It reminded me of a picture I took a long time ago before Taryn was even born when we had all braided our hair then too. We wanted crimpy hair because we were all dressing up from the 80s for Halloween, so big poufy hair was our plan.
This year Halloween was on a Saturday but with the COVID restrictions, trick-or-treating was banned. We made other plans by hosting a murder mystery party with our family and the Kasallis family. Taryn was able to go to a quick friend’s party before we started our murder mystery dinnner. My friend sent me this picture of Taryn with her friends: Ashleigh, Presley, and Lexi.
Our murder mystery was an 80s theme so I made some 80s decorations to be in our “photo booth.” I created the boom box and Rubik’s cube and put up the bright colored curtains to be our backdrop. Our old Polaroid camera was also perfect. Here’s the picture of the four younger kids as they posed for their 80s photo.
Abby also made the box tv with MTV on the screen. Here’s a picture of the teenagers and then of the parents. We enjoyed getting into character for our pictures.
We took a family picture too, and I loved how this one turned out. We really enjoyed the murder mystery dinner party with the Kasallis family. We ate yummy food like ceasar salad, chicken Kiev, and Black Forest cake. Everyone got into character as we read our lines and tried to figure out whodunit. It was a different Halloween night than normal, but we still had a really fun evening. It was a Halloween night to remember. For Halloween 2020, we went back to the 80s!
No comments:
Post a Comment