October Weather

Here is the sun report for October. 

Sunny: 12

Some Sun/Some Clouds: 6

Cloudy: 13

We had 0 snowy days. 

We had 1 day with fog. 

We had 9 days with some rain. 

We had 4 days with crazy wind (over 20 mph)

October was the rainiest I remember! We've had a lot more rain than usual I think. I suppose that is always a good thing though. I saw that several cities around here had record breaking rain this month. I'm not sure if we did or not, but it was probably close!

 The first few weeks were pretty nice with lots of sun and warmth. The last few weeks, there have been a lot of clouds and rain on and off. Luckily, it hasn't gotten too cold yet. We also haven't had a freeze yet. We'll see when that happens. 

Our yearly total for 2016 through October: 

Sunny: 203 days
Some sun/some clouds: 55 days
Cloudy: 47 days

Snow: 3 days
Fog: 10 days
Rain: 42 days
Crazy Winds (over 20 mph): 23 days
Smoke from Fires: 2 days

Halloween

Here are the Halloween pictures!

Nathan was a Harry Potter/Werewolf and Elizabeth was Ginny Weasley. 

Elizabeth and Charlotte. Charlotte was a mermaid. 

Heading out! We got so lucky with weather. The wind blew like crazy all day and stopped right at 5:30!! It was amazing! It was cloudy, but not a drop of rain. It was a great Halloween night. 

Elizabeth's wig got annoying so she begged me to let her take it off. So I did. 

Throwing spells at me. 

Walking around

Dog Cousins

The dog cousins came to visit today!!! 

Here's Nathan entertaining Pippa and Henry. 

The dogs with their Moms. 

Elizabeth with her 2 aunties. 

3 sisters, 2 kids, and 2 dogs. 

Papa is some kind of dog whisperer. They would cooperate for pictures only while sitting with Papa. 

This was a funny picture. 

We're trying to get Papa Norm to read Harry Potter. He started on chapter 1 but didn't get far. He's a non-fiction fan and doesn't read fiction. 

Papa and Gram brought their apple peeler and apples so I could make a few pies. 

The kids did some apple peeling. 

The neighbors brought over their doodle so they had a doodle date! 

The dogs taking an unusual break. 

Auntie LeAnne and kids. 

Pippa and Sherman about to pounce. 

Goodbye Henry and Auntie LeAnne! Thanks for visiting! 

Harry Potter

Nathan finished the 7th Harry Potter book on October 28. It was quite the accomplishment! I was worried the books would be above his level. However, he seemed to mostly comprehend what was going on. 

Here he is in his Ravenclaw robes with Hedwig on his arm. 

Here he is posing with all the books he read. (# 7 is being blocked by his head). He also placed his broomstick, his wand, the "sword of Gryffindor," Hedwig, and a goblet next to the books. He made the goblet in art last year and now calls it "The goblet of fire." 

Pumpkin Carving

The kids and Jeremy carved their pumpkins. 

Elizabeth was getting covered in pumpkin guts so she stripped down to her undies. Both kids have such sensitive skin that they actually got hives from the pumpkin guts. I always get itchy with pumpkin guts but they got itchy and hives. 

Elizabeth posing with her pumpkins. 

1st grade Musical

The first grade had their annual "musical" tonight. The theme was "Nursery Rhymes." Elizabeth did not have a costume part or a speaking part. However, she did a great job singing. She used some pretty cute facial expressions. 

She's in the middle with the white headband. That kid in back is the cow who jumped over the moon and the girl in front is Little Miss Muffet. 

Singing away. 

I tried to take a picture of the whole first grade. There were just too many. 

Harvest Party

Our neighbors hosted the annual fall Harvest Party this weekend. Jeremy had to work, but the kids and I went. 

Nathan wore his future Halloween costume. He's Harry Potter.

They had some fun games. Here is Nathan throwing things in buckets. 

This is Sherman the labradoodle. He mostly went around sniffing the ground looking for dropped food pieces. 

Elizabeth playing a cups game with Charlotte. 

More cups games with Miley and Ashlyn. 

The fire truck and a police officer showed up to give the kids tours of their vehicles and to pass out stickers. Here's Elizabeth up in the fire truck. 

Most all of the kids who attended the party. Mine are in the back row on the far right. 

Nathan's Jogathon

The intermediate jogathon was in the afternoon. The MINUTE before the kids came outside for their 30 minute run, it started to rain pretty heavily. The volunteers were trying to stick stickers on everyone's backs where we marked off their laps. The minute the rain would hit the sticker, they would start to fall apart! It was horrible. A lot of kids ended up having to run holding their lap stickers. 

Before the race, it was decided the kids would run for only 15 minutes instead of 30 since it was raining so hard. Nathan was not happy about this. So the kids ran for 15 minutes. There were quite a few kids who did slide around and fall. Nathan ran 10 laps during that time. In theory, that is 2 miles although I don't think the laps were measured quite precisely. 

Here's the one picture I got of Nathan running. I didn't want my phone to get soaked. You can see he is soaked and is carrying his lap card which is now in pieces and falling apart! 

After the run, his class got popsicles. They didn't stick around for class pictures! 

Elizabeth's jogathon

Today is a beautiful blue sky and sunny day. Yesterday was the school jogathon. Was it a beautiful day? Nope! Luckily, Elizabeth got to run a full jogathon in no rain. It didn't rain in the morning. The primary grades ran in the morning and the intermediate grades ran in the afternoon. 

Here is Elizabeth doing some stretches with her class. 

Getting ready with a drink. 

Here she is coming around on one of her laps. My job was to check off the laps of the kids in her class. 

After the run, everyone got popsicles! 

Elizabeth ran 15 laps. They claim that every 5 laps was a mile so in theory, Elizabeth ran 3 miles during those 30 minutes. One kid in her class ran 23 laps though!! If every 5 laps was a mile, he was running VERY fast. 

Class Picture! Elizabeth is in the bottom row on the very far right. 

Skate Night

We had our first Skate Party for school. I'm in charge so I didn't get a lot of pictures of them skating. I did take this quick picture of Elizabeth eating pizza. 

The class that has the most kids attend wins pizza and pop. Elizabeth's class had the most kids attend the party! I checked on the ingredients and it was safe for her. She was so excited. We hardly ever get pizza because I don't make things Nathan can't have but she'll get it sometimes at parties. So when she gets it, it's a real treat. And pop? She never gets that either as she has a mean auntie who is a dental hygienist and has told me no pop!