Fall Fun in Florida

October in Florida is a lot of fun. Temperatures are almost cooler (some of the time), and there are plenty of carnivals and festivals and parties to attend. Our calendar has been pretty busy!

The first weekend in October was the annual Butterfly Fest at the FLMNH. We go every year, and this year we enjoyed seeing (and even touching a few!) the live snakes and baby alligator, the fruit bats, a tarantula, and others. We went first thing in the morning so that we could be home in time for the start of General Conference (since it starts at noon for us on the east coast).

The children did pretty well during the conference speakers, mostly staying busy with coloring and activity sheets and iPad apps. We enjoyed our traditional conference food: crepes for breakfast on Saturday, and cinnamon rolls for brunch on Sunday. This year I also tried a breakfast casserole (recipe from Our Best Bites) that turned out yummy. The theme that I noticed from a lot from the speakers was an exhortation to live the gospel, focus on our spirituality, take responsibility for ourselves and for the poor.

Painting during conference sessions

Diligently working on conference packets

Cinnamon roll baking helpers

Jared made these delicious cinnamon rolls for us to enjoy on Sunday conference day.

The elementary school carnival was Oct. 16th. The PTA puts on quite an event, and we all enjoyed ourselves. The girls got some glittery dolphin skin stickers (that are still going strong after a few weeks). The children had fun with the bounce houses, hay ride, and games. I was able to volunteer one shift to run one of the bounce houses.

Posing with the police horse

Zach on the bouncey obstacle course

Anwyn's turn

Lily in the bounce house

Dolphins on the skin

Anwyn picked dolphins too!

Ready for the hay ride

Silly teeth for a prize.

Anwyn and Lily both had friend birthday parties to attend this month, and we celebrated Lily's 7th birthday (more to come on that).

Zach had a sunbeam lesson this month about honesty, with a tie in to the armor of the Lord. All the sunbeams were pretty cute in their armor!

Anwyn has become our Sunday night cookie baker!

Another favorite fall activity we like to attend is the annual Bat Fest. We went later in the afternoon since Jared had stake conference meetings in the morning, and it was pretty sunny and hot. But the fruit bats were neat to see, and the snakes and baby alligator.