Daniel started off our October birthdays by turning 37.
We celebrated by going to ACL the next week – a huge 3-day music festival in Austin. We saw so many great concerts - Pearl Jam, Eminem, Lana Del Ray, Beck, Chvrches, Foster the People, Bleachers, and kind of Lorde (she was performing on the next stage over while we were waiting for one of the other concerts to start). The whole thing was awesome.
We also got to see some pretty great concerts at home.
I can't remember for sure why all the singing was happening. I think they were practicing for our Primary Program?
In case you were about to feel like my children are always only wonderful and spiritual and singing sweetly, here's this:
Then Cynthia turned four. Everyone should have a Cindy in their family – it’s pretty fun. You would think I had seen it all by the time I had my 6th, but she throws new stuff at me all the time. One of the things I wrote down about her when she turned four was how much she loved changing the subject. Whenever a conversation was going in a direction that didn’t suit her, she’d take charge and change it right away.
For example, the summer before she turned four she decided she was too busy to get to the bathroom on time, so usually by the time she finally made it, her underwear would be a little wet. Every single time, without fail, she’d announce it to me and then immediately change the subject, like this, “Mom, um, I need to go to the bathroom and I’m wet and WHEN are we EVER going to go to Canada?” Or, “Mom, I need to go to the bathroom and I’m wet, and WOW, that is a really pretty shirt you are wearing!” “Mom, I’m wet, and hey, let’s talk about Yellowstone!” (those are all actual examples I wrote down – I’m not just making them up). The funny thing was that I knew what she was doing and it still worked! It always made me laugh, and then usually we’d talk about the new thing she wanted to talk about, and not the fact that she’d just wet her pants for the 4th time that day. Smart girl.
Whenever she got caught doing something bad, she’d always bring up something good but completely unrelated that she’d also done, to try to distract us from the problem. Once Daniel came home from work and noticed that the faucet on the side of the house was turned on full blast and had created a huge puddle and ruined all the grass under it – it looked like it had been left on for a long time. He came in and questioned all of the older kids about who had turned it on. Cynthia was just watching, but then piped up that she thought it might have been her. We didn’t really believe her, because it’s pretty hard to turn on, and she was only 3 and hadn’t ever turned it on before. Daniel took her outside to have her show him how she did it (thinking she wouldn’t be able to). She marched over and turned the faucet on, and then turned to Daniel proudly and said, “See, it was me!” Then she must have remembered that this confession might get her in a bit of trouble, so without missing a beat she marched off again and turned and said to Daniel over her shoulder with a big grin, “At least I didn’t wet my pants!!” We were dying laughing. It became our new favorite thing to say when caught in awkward situations after messing up – at least I didn’t wet my pants!
Anyway, her 4th birthday was a busy and fun day. We started out early with her birthday breakfast of choice, chocolate Lucky Charms. Then after a few presents, Daniel took all the boys to their football games, and I took the other kids to the church for the primary program practice.
The Chocolate Lucky Charms made for some great breakfast conversation.
A new Frozen backpack:
After the primary practice, we left the church and headed straight over to the football field to watch the rest of the boys’ games. It must have been Homecoming that day, because here’s Daniel walking Henry across the field with a flower.
Then Cindy wanted to go swimming. By this time in the month (her birthday is on the 18th), the water was starting to get a lot colder. We had to be really brave to jump in, but we knew it was probably the last time we’d go swimming that year (and our last time swimming in that pool! Sad!) so it needed to be done.
Then it was time to make the birthday cake. I don’t really do anything fancy for birthdays ever, but I do let my kids pick what kind of cake they want me to make. Cindy always picks the weirdest ones. When she turned 2, she wanted a snake cake (I tried to suggest some cuter animals, but she was set on a snake). Then when she turned 3, she wanted a dinosaur-volcano cake, which I have made like 3 times already for my other kids, so that’s normal, except that because she’s Cindy, she also requested that the volcano have Batman and Gollum on it (we used Lego guys). So I didn’t really know what to expect when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her 4th birthday. I for sure didn’t expect her to say she wanted an Africa cake.
Me: Africa? What? Are you sure? What even is an Africa cake?
Cindy: I just want it to look like the shape of Africa, okay? Like a country. (she still had her continents and countries a little mixed up, I guess).
Cindy: And we can put animals on it!
One of the other kids: Ooh, I will make a tree out of legos, and that can be for the Congo!
Me: sigh
One of the older kids: Oh, I know! You should make a little shape off to the side to be Madagascar!
Me: No!
Once she turned four she decided she was old enough to bring her own children to Walmart:
Then five days later it was my birthday (34). Daniel was in Panama for work, so Cindy and I celebrated by getting a free birthday veggie burger at Red Robin.
And then birthday pie with all the kids:
Here’s Daniel in Panama:
Also in October: the Olympics!
And you can’t hold the Olympics without obedience and optimism, and of course, no violence!
Here's Henry doing a little bit of explaining, plus a lot of odd stretches and jumps/twists:
They had some wildly competitive events:
Complete with a complicated judging system:
Not part of the Olympics – just Rachel stretching. She loved how if you turn this picture sideways it looks like she’s sitting on the wall with her hair flying straight up in the air:
And I didn’t even plan this, but the very next picture also has her hair flying straight up into the air! Crazy hair day.
Then it was time for Halloween. Cindy was the luckiest girl ever and got to borrow this fanciest princess dress in the world that my sister made. Layers and layers of fanciness.
Halloween party at Daniel’s work (I think the older boys were still at school?):
Pumpkin guts:
Cynthia really hates pumpkin guts.
The under-12 group ready to go out trick-or-treating:
Katniss Everdeen and a ballerina:
Spiderman and an elephant (Cindy decided she didn’t want to be fancy anymore when it was time to go trick-or-treating):
And finally, this photo actually happened in November, but it belongs with the Halloween pictures: the annual Halloween Candy Draft. Some of them are learning to always pick from the chocolate pile. Others are still choosing Dots on their first pick.
