October

October was a fun month.

We went out to Cheney Lake where there is a gun range one Saturday afternoon and Lauren and I got to shoot for the first time. It was a small gun that shot little bullets so that was easy for us. Roger and Evan are already pros at using guns. Then, Roger had me shoot a gun that's been in our safe always loaded so in case I ever needed to shoot an intruder. He warned me ahead a time it would have a kick on it, but good golly! I wasn't ready for it. As soon as the gun shot off, I have no idea where the bullet went exactly because I just about fell backwards and my eyes were closed! I mean, I know the bullet went straight, but I just wasn't able to spot it. We decided that although this gun would definitely take care of an intruder, what good would it do me if I couldn't control it? So, we're keeping the gun with the smaller bullet clip ready to go for me in the safe, and if I ever have to use it, I'm under orders to just keep shooting until the clip is empty. Lauren did great. She's a great archer, and now shooting a gun.

We also "tried out a dog." We have some friends who had two 4 month old pups they couldn't find homes for. Evan and I struggle with animal allergies, but we wanted to give it a try overnight. Evan reacted with a scratchy throat and just knew it wasn't meant to be. He was sad, but Lauren was heartbroken. She cried for days over not being able to have that dog. I didn't react at all, which was surprising, so it almost made me wonder if I was outgrowing the allergy? She was a great dog, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Evan finally got to go do another Sheltered Reality performance after more than a year. It was at a school about 30 minutes northeast of Topeka. The kids and I drove to Topeka the afternoon before, stayed in a hotel, and then came home after the show--a 3 1/2 hour drive. It was worth it, though. Evan does so well drumming, I just wish more places in KS would invite and pay for the group to perform so we could do more. I'm hoping our Trail Life group can do it at some point.

Lauren got to do some dressing up this month. One night at church they got to come as a Disney character. We were able to put together a homemade outfit and she went as Elsa from Frozen. Then, one of her friends came to church and they dressed up as 50's girls with super powers. Then, Lauren got to wear her 50's costume again and go trick-or-treating with another friend. It was a beautiful night to do that.

Lauren also got to start singing on the church's Youth worship team. I had Evan snap this picture of her for me, so I didn't embarrass her by going into the room and taking it myself.

 We bundled up one evening and went to see Hotel Transylvania 2 and Pan at the drive-in. Roger and I sat in the middle van seats that can turn around backwards, and the kids had 4 layers of padding to lay on in the back of the van after we folded the seats down, and we all had hats, gloves, and blankets to keep warm. One of my favorite things to do.

Lauren had her CYT showcase this month. This is some of her friends hanging out as we celebrated at Spangles.

I got to enjoy watching my favorite front yard tree change colors for autumn.  We had some very windy days which stripped the leaves off sooner than I would have liked (as I type this, our tree is now bare). The last pic is of the tree across from our house on the other side of the pond. Gorgeous!

Music

Evan has been taking drum lessons since the end of January and is loving it! I have always wanted him to do this because ever since I was pregnant with him, once the drums at church started playing he would start kicking me and to the beat--true story! His teacher is one of the drummers at our church and seems to be a really good teacher. Evan is learning quickly and having fun. After about 3 weeks of waiting due to a back order, his drums arrived today and he immediately went to work putting them together. He did it all about 98% by himself, and then wanted to have some fun playing from his lesson book.

Lauren loves to sing. She is always singing, dancing, or humming. She is quite the dancer and was in dance from the age of 3 to when she just turned 7. We decided to stop that for a while because her dance company decided to close and she wanted to try gymnastics. I would love to put her back into dance again and am thinking about finding something in the fall. She also wants to take voice lessons, and one of the singers at our church does that, so that may be an option in the future.

Here are two videos showing Evan practicing a little from his book, and Lauren singing a song about the month of March. Here are the words to the song in case you can't quite make it out:

Let's celebrate the month of March.
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The year's third month, the month of March. (This line trips up the tongue as you will witness in the video)
Hurrah! Hurrah!
Though the winds of March may blow (You will hear Evan providing a wind sound)
Soon you'll see the melting snow.
Like a lion it comes and a lamb it goes (You will Evan providing a lamb sound)
The lovely month of March.

Make sure you pause my playlist at the top of the blog page so you can hear the videos.

WWHM Closing Program

This was one of the songs the kindergartners did at our homeschool co-op program tonight. It is so cute! Lauren is the 3rd from the left between the girl in the dress and the boy in the striped shirt. Hopefully you can hear the words: "The washing machine was washing me clean..."