Birthdays, Halloween, and a Primary Program

Jake and Jane have back to back birthdays. We celebrated Jane turning 4 first. She decided on celebrating it Gabby's Dollhouse style (her favorite show). We celebrated with her school class and then at home as a family. We love having Jane in the family because she loves to dance, she love to dress up, she plays a mean game of hide and go seek, and loves big slides, and swimming in the pool or at the beach (and if daddy is holding her even big waves don't scare her). This 4 year old is AWESOME.

We celebrated Jake's birthday with his favorite blackout cake....that is quickly turning into everyone's favorite.

Halloween was a bit quieter for us this year. The older kids celebrated it at their school with games, trick or treating and a late night party (for Pace). Jane's school didn't celebrate so we made sure to decorate at home and let her dress up to pick up the kids and go trick or treating at our neighbor's house. Look at these scary and cute costumes.

We also had some fun events at school. Jane had a cultural day at school. Her class presented Campinha Grande, so they did some Sao Joao dances and art.

Pace, Grant and Louis demonstrated science fair projects (somehow I didn't get a picture of Grant's. But Pace built a bridge with popcicle sticks, Grant made a lightbulb, and Louis did a color transfer project with M+Ms.

Maple Bear also held their annual Rex Lee Run, which we all participated in (a first for me because I was sick last year).

And I wrote and directed the Primary Childrens program in our church. It turned out beautiful. The children shared their light so well so we could all feel Christ's love as we watched. It was a lot of work and it was well worth it as it all came together so beautifully. These kids are such an example for me.

On a more serious note (or maybe not), we finally made it to the dentist here and she even made the kids glove baloons. She is such a great dentist, she had all the kids laughing. Their smiles are a little brighter now too ;)

And we've been playing so hard that we've been sleeping hard too.

I forgot to mention that Pace and Grant have been baking a bit more and they made these dulce de leite cupcakes that were divine. Yes, so glad they have this talent. My sweet tooth appreciates it.

But my favorite picture of this last month is Jake reading scriptures to our younger kids. Jake has been reading to them seperately from our family scripture study and they love it so much. They are always reminding Jake to not forget to read their scriptures to them. This picture just captures these moments so well.