Veterans Day

We are grateful to all those who serve and protect our freedoms. 

Thank you!!

Don's Grandpa Mangum (on the right)

We love America!

Gratitude Tree & Giving Thanks Daily FHE

We put up our Gratitude Tree again for the month of November.  It has been a lot of fun adding a leaf everyday and reading what everybody is thankful for this year.  This is one of our favorite family traditions we started a couple of years ago - see here & here for past years trees.

We also had a great family night lesson the other night on the importance of having gratitude in the midst of challenges.  We talked about this quote:

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.

No Americans have been more impoverished than these who,

nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.

~H.U. Westermayer

And then watched this short video:

Family Night Fun

Monday night we also had a rockin' game of Freeze Tag going on inside to go along with our FHE lesson on gratitude. It was hard to get any clear action shots, but here are a few of the "frozen" shots.

 

1st Tournament

Hayley, Miriam and Sharika before the trophy ceremony

Last Saturday was the Hayley's first UIL tournament.  Trevor had competed in these for the last 2 years and I have had a lot of fun coaching the 4th and 5th grade Oral Reading group over the last few years.  This year Hayley is involved in 3 different areas - Oral Reading, Music Memory & Impromptu Speaking.  Saturday Hayley competed in all 3 areas and did a great job!  Part of the fun is hanging out with your friends in between events.

4 of my Oral Reading Girls

They have also opened some events up to 1st graders, so Jake is joining in the fun with Impromptu Speaking and Solo Acting.  The principal is actually the coach this year for Impromptu Speaking and she stopped me in the hall the other day to talk about how much she is enjoying Jake and his "enthusiasm".  I think he has found a good niche for his creativity!  Only a couple kids from each school can enter each event and Solo Acting didn't get up and running in time for this first tournment, so Jake just came to the awards ceremony to cheer on  his school.  We came in a close 2nd place for the tournment, not bad for just a week or 2 of practices.  Looking forward to another great year of UIL!

Sunday Best

A few weeks ago some of the kids participated in the annual Primary Sacrament Meeting Program at church.  The theme the children have been learning about this year is "I Know the Scriptures are True".  Hayley and Jake both did great on their parts and Trevor was a fabulous narrator throughout the program.  After church I snapped a couple of quick pictures before the ties came flying off.

Jake

Hayley



Trevor and his bow tie



Michael

Luke wasn't interested in smiling at the camera

Halloween

Pirates are all the rage around these parts, so it wasn't too hard to come up with Halloween costumes this year.




Our Pirates


Michael joined us at the church trunk or treat, dressing up a little on his own...nice glasses!



The whole gang


We spent Halloween at the church's trunk or treat, then went real trick or treating to a couple of neighbor's houses. Everyone had gotten enough candy pretty early and were ready to call it a night.




Trevor and his stash



Jake and his pillowcase of candy



Luke and Hayley



Luke taking a break to enjoy some of his candy



Luke and Jake chilling out after getting candy


So we headed home to sort candy while watching "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", one of our favorite yearly traditions.





Watching The Great Pumpkin in a sugar daze



Counting his loot




The Great Pumpkin Tradition



   Hope you had a spooktacular Halloween too!



Happy Halloween!