Happy Halloween

All three girls chose characters from "Doctor Who".  Sabrina dressed up as the 10th Doctor (played by David Tennant), Lizzie dressed up at Rose Tyler (the 9th and 10th Doctor's companion), and Kate dressed up as a Dalek (the nemesis of The Doctor).
Sabrina was very concerned that the 10th Doctor has brown hair, and she really does not.  So I promised to get some brown hair spray for her hair.  Unfortunately the brown turned out burgundy!  So I added some black.  (Spoiler alert: the sprays stained her hair and she had pink streaks in her hair for 6 weeks!)
In this pic Kate was tacking some stuff on her costume after wearing it to school and before going Trick or Treating.
Also note the sonic screwdriver :)

School parade:

The 5th and 6th grade performs The Thriller every year after the costume parade.  Kate memorized the dance really well so she got to be front and center.  It's very funny watching a dalek do the Thriller.

After school I drove the girls to daddy's office.

The office was thoroughly decorated, including black lights.

the teenage boy across the street enjoys playing the part of a child-teasing zombie.  Sabrina finally decided the candy was worth the obvious trap.

then the 3 girls together made a plan.  Sabrina played the part of the distraction while the other girls grabbed the loot.

top right: the loot was totally worth it!
I moved the big recliner from the living room to the front porch where I sat with my computer.  I turned on the Phantom of the Opera and passed out candy from under my heated blanket.
I spent all afternoon getting dressed up.  I took a shower AND did my hair AND put on makeup.  I'm pretty sure nobody recognized me.

Skipping back to the office, the Salem City civic trick-or-treating was in the parking lot outside Daddy's office, so we went around there too.  Then the girls left notes and drawings on the boards at the office as usual.

See?  I told you Sabrina's hair was tinted pink afterward.  She can totally pull it off.

Sabrina's 7th Birthday

Sabrina drew a picture of what she wanted her cake to look like.  Right down to the pennant saying "Sabrina" on one side and "Wizard!" on the other.  I'm still not entirely sure why, but she was happy.  Kate made the banner for her.

Sabrina wanted loaded baked potatoes for dinner.  Unfortunately it was a rough day and I didnt' get it started on time, so we went for Irish Nachos instead.  Kate made "window stickers" out of contact paper.  Lizzie gathered up some pens and bubbles.  I love how excited she gets about every little thing.  It makes it so fun to give her things.

Sabrina's big present from Mom and Dad was this doll car.  She was SO excited!  She even got to decorate it with stickers.
And yes, we were apparently out of tissue paper, so her car was "wrapped" in a handy gift bag with a length of fabric covering the top.  Super classy. ;)

Sabrina also celebrated her birthday with Grandma Jensen who made her a scripture bag, and with the Southern family.

Then some cousins were in town from a few hours away so we had a cake decorating "tea party" to play with them.

(You can see J decorating cakes like a MAN)

Then we played a game where each player took turns rolling a pair of dice.  Each number meant one thing added to their paper so in the end every person had drawn a jack-o-lantern, complete with name.

 Finally, Sabrina got to invite two friends to come with us to the Nickelcade, followed by Krispy Kreme for donuts.  Doing the two friend outings is SO much simpler than parties at home!  Love it.

 Happy 7th Birthday to my dear, sweet Sabrina.  I love you!

October

 Now that I have a functioning computer AND keyboard -- AT THE SAME TIME!  I'm going to try to play some catch up.  Yes, I'm about 2 months behind.  Tough.

Here are a couple of more unique items I made: the pretzels really did taste as good as they look.  The "spiders" are hot dog chunks (good ones, for the sake of the parentals) with spaghetti noodles poked through them, then boiled until the pasta was done.  Served with alfredo sauce.  It was surprisingly good!  I was prepared to deal with it for the sake of the girls, but I'm not even opposed to doing it again someday.  It was a fun tribute to Halloween one night.

 I don't remember whether I've covered this or not, but Lizzie had her first chance to attend General Conference with Aunt Janice and Aunt Jennifer.  Her cousin T was her conference buddy this time.  She absolutely LOVED it!  These two pictures are screen-grabs from when she was shown on TV during conference!  This was immediately after President Monson announced the change in age for full time missionaries.

These pictures are from the Aunties.  Lizzie was wowed by her visit to The Roof restaurant.  I am so grateful my girls get these opportunities!  I never would have dreamed to be so close to the General Authorities and First Presidency when I was their ages.

On a random change of subject -- We knew Sabrina was in need of some urgent dental work.  She already had her first work done (already posted) and we had appointments scheduled for all the rest.  Then over one weekend she started to complain a lot about pain in some teeth.  Then she developed a nasty fever and when I checked her mouth again there was a bad abscessed pocket on her gums.  We got her in to the dentist the next day and my brave girl had 3 root canals and a filling all in one appointment, all on the left side.  If the swelling had been worse she would likely have ended up in the hospital for IV antibiotics.  Thankfully some oral antibiotics "stat" took care of it.

 Lizzie and Sabrina were both scheduled for a lot of dental work and Kate started to complain about a sore spot in her mouth.  I checked and noticed some molars coming in and said she'd be fine.  By the weekend she was complaining again.  Finally on Saturday morning (of course, no dentist available!) Michael noticed that one side of Kate's face was swollen.  Badly.  I took a look in her mouth again and discovered a HUGE abscess.  Thankfully she didn't have a fever, but she sure had the swelling going on!  We could not get in touch with the dentist so we finally gave up and took her in to the emergency room so she could get started on antibiotics.  Good thing, too!  If she had developed a fever then SHE would have been planted in the hospital on IV antibiotics.  Between Sabrina and Kate we'd have had a much worse couple of weeks.  Thankfully getting in to the dentist on Monday they fixed the bad tooth and the antibiotics did their work.  And no, there is absolutely nothing contagious about abscesses.  They're not even that common!  We're just THAT GOOD.  (Yes, this is despite regular brushing, flossing, and flouride.)  So glad to have teeth more or less settled for now.  Knock on wood.

Finishing Soccer and Continuing Dentistry

Just minutes before Sabrina's last soccer practice she was running on some asphalt and tripped in her cleats.  She managed to tear up her knee pretty badly.  Her last soccer game was the next day, but she had developed a fever so she missed out.  Poor kid!  Thankfully she healed up pretty quickly after that.  

On the day of the last soccer games the girls were waiting for Grandma Jensen to come.  Sabrina got to dress up in her soccer gear even though she didn't get to play.  Over the course of the season Grandma came to one of each of the girls' games.  They loved having an extra audience!

Kate's team this year was called The Skittles.  I was at her last soccer game (with Grandma and Sabrina) while Daddy was at Lizzie's last game.  

 It's too bad the games overlapped, since the rest of us missed an award ceremony after Lizzie's game.  After all the other trophies were distributed the coach called up the two remaining girls: Lizzie and another girl her same height.  He said that they were the two smallest girls in the entire league, but played the hardest and had the most heart and courage in the game.  In the team of wildcats those two were proclaimed the Lionesses!  I'm sure glad we had the opportunity to do soccer this fall!  It was a great experience for all of us.

(Sabrina and I cuddled up at one of the chilly game near the end of the season)

I made one of these trays for each of the girls for watching General Conference.  Muffin tin with little goodies / prizes in each spot, washable glue stick + tissue paper, pictures of each general authority glued on top.  When they noticed a member of the Quorum of the Twelve speaking they could come tell me what he was talking about and then could find his picture on their tray (they were all random) and pull the picture off to reveal their prize!  It worked beautifully.  When one of the First Presidency spoke they could still come tell me what he was speaking about, then they got a gold chocolate coin from me.

While Lizzie was up at the Conference Center for the morning session (!) of conference, I was texted a few pictures of what they were doing.  (I'll have to include pics of here in a separate post). So I sent back a picture of what I was doing.  This is me at orchestra rehearsal early (for me) on a Saturday morning :)

Finally, here are a few pictures of Sabrina and Lizzie at their first major dentist appointments.  They both were pretty zoned out on laughing gas and video entertainment.  I asked Lizzie a question at one point (when we were waiting for the dentist) and she kept talking about the same things over and over in a very loud voice.  They were both fantastic, though!  No complaining or freaking out.  No shrieking or wiggling.  And their half-smiles afterward with half numb faces were very silly.  Thankfully, even after some pretty extensive, and occasionally rather painful, dental work -- they all still like the dentist!  Thank goodness.  Apparently I'm the only scaredy cat in this family when it comes to dental work!

Sabrina Loves...

 Paperclips.  Sabrina loves paperclips.

Silly girl.

Soccer, berry picking, soccer spaghetti, field trips, dentist visits, carnival, tooth fairy, and women's conference!

Okay, so we got Andrew home from his mission, all three girls back to school, and some of our fall soccer season.  Next up: 

Soccer Pictures (we skipped the packages and I took picture of the girls instead.  Way more fun!)

Raspberry picking (It's so much more exciting with a two year old and a baby!  Actually M. did an awesome picking berries and was absolutely delighted to discover real reindeer on the other side of this fence!)

More soccer.  Including eating spaghetti out of thermoses because that was the only way to avoid yet another night of Little Caesars Hot-N-Ready $5 pepperoni pizza.  Other parents were jealous of our real meal, naturally.

First grade field trip!  We went to the fire station, bank, library, and post office, followed by lunch at a park.  And then I slept for a week.  Phew!

Dental cleanings / check-ups for Lizzie and Sabrina.  Lizzie: 8 cavities, Sabrina: 7 cavities -- 6 of which require pulpotomies (root canal on a baby tooth).  (*breathing slowly into a paper bag*)

School Carnival!  The girls got their hair sprayed pink!!!  (I did it ahead of time at home.  Smart mama!).

I'm always impressed at the way these girls can scale a rock climbing wall.

 *side note -- while waiting in line an obnoxious older boy kept trying to sneak ahead in line.  Lizzie politely, but firmly, put him in his place.  Despite the fact that she didn't even come up to his shoulder!  It was excellently done on her part.

Lizzie lost a tooth and left this note to the tooth fairy:

 "Dear Tooth Fairy, Here is a tooth for you.  Please, before you leave, leave some evidence so I know you exist.  (P.S. Use pencil above).  Love, Elizabeth"
"This pencil is so very large for a little fairy like me!  Thank you for the tooth, Elizabeth.  Love, Your Tooth Fairy"
Apparently she believes again.

For the General Women's Conference, Mom and I went to watch with Michelle at her place.  It was very relaxing to sit together and listen to the words of such inspired leaders.  Little J was enthralled.  He sat for several minutes just staring at the speakers!

I believe this takes us through the end of September.  Life is good.