School got started and we all got back into the routines of our Fall schedules.
Matt took the girls to the bus stop at Grandpa Terry’s on his way to school and picked them up on his way home. During the school year I work three days a week instead of two so it is very helpful that he can take them because their schools are the opposite direction of my work. Fall is Ryan’s travel time for work and he was gone most week for 2-5 days at different trade shows or to help train new sales people.
We did celebrate Matthew’s 17th birthday this month…I apparently didn’t take any pictures! Matthew’s love language and favorite thing to do is eat good food. For his birthday he wanted to have a weekend of yummy meals. We went to a few restaurants- Chick-fil-a, K-machos, and Sake. We made pancakes and sausage and bacon for breakfast without eggs. Well, some of us had eggs but Matthew hates eggs so we didn’t make him eat any. His birthday was on a Sunday so after church we watched lots of football and Matthew didn’t have to do any chores and hung out with his friends as much as he wanted all weekend. It wasn’t his most exciting birthday but hopefully it was still a good birthday. I can’t believe he will be 18 next year!!
Matthew worked at Twisted Sugar as a cookie froster and cashier a few times a week. For the first time in 8 years he didn’t play Fall Ball because he was recovering from his elbow surgery. They thought it would take 4-6 months and it took every bit of that time and a little more. He did physical therapy at least three times a week. He took Campbell to the Homecoming dance.
Allison did wrestling and gymnastics. She was a teachers aid for her art teacher for one of her classes and really likes it. Spanish was not her favorite but she stuck it out. She continued with Girl Scouts as well and her troop went on a camping trip to Oklahoma and did glass blowing and other fun activities.
I have many more of Allison’s wrestling videos on my you tube channel but I will put a few here. She improved a lot this season. She was a lot more aggressive and won most of her matches. Grandma and Grandpa Jones came to visit and were able to see her in person.
https://youtu.be/pB_ImzoA4s0 (Allison wrestling video)
Emilee continued with her horse riding lessons once a week and practicing her piano. She participated in a recital and did a great job.
https://youtu.be/t7fFaeNcF0w (Emilee’s Piano recital link)
We didn’t have baseball every weekend so we did a few family activities on the weekends. Sometimes it was raking leaves or cleaning the house- kids loved it. Sometimes it was lunch together. One of the weekends we finally made it to the WWI museum in downtown KC. It is the only one in the country and we have been meaning to go for years. We finally made it happen. It was pretty good. After we toured the museum and went up the tower to see the city, we went to lunch and stopped at Matthew’s teams baseball game to cheer them on. We highly recommend the museum.
Allison and Leah went to the Taylor Swift Movie of her Eras Tour. They got all dressed up and danced and sang along with the rest of the theater for a few hours. They had a good time. I loved seeing Allison in a cute dress she picked out too. They looked very cute together.
Ryan took the girls to a Royals game for a daddy daughter date. They got to use his company tickets so it was good seats and some yummy food.
To get ready for Halloween we ate chili and carved pumpkins with our cousins at their house. All of our kids can carve their own pumpkins now and they like to get a lot more detailed than I ever did so it is fun to see what they do with their creativity. It’s also awesome that they can clean up their mess now so I don’t have to touch any pumpkin guts.
Dad and I went to a masquerade party with some friends for Halloween. I’m not going to brag but it seemed kind of dead when we got there. People were shy about dancing and wearing their masks. We definitely kicked up the fun vibe and had a good time! Once we started dancing more people were willing to come out of their shells and have fun with us! RJ and I had masks too but they weren’t on for this picture obviously.
For Halloween day Grandpa Terry hosted us our cousins and the McDonalds. We brought the pizza and the witches brew. Then as a new level, Ethan and his girlfriend took the littler kids trick or treating and the rest grouped up and went on their own. The adults got to stay home and eat hot chocolate, hand out candy and play games. It was a little chillier than some years so everyone picked a warm costume or had to add some layers.
Another Fall tradition that we made sure happened was dad made us some of his cinnamon rolls from his grandma Groom’s recipe. They were delicious as always!
We were hoping our house would be done by the beginning of November but it wasn’t quite done yet so we bottled our excitement and tried to handle our impatience for a little longer.