Halloween 2012

The weather was beautiful for Halloween this year.  A got a little chilly later in the evening, but that’s to be expected at the end of October.  What made it even better was that Matt wasn’t in China this year.  Hopefully there will be more years like this.

In school Jacob got to dress up (he dressed at batman for school) and they went to the nursing homes to sing.  Connor also had a Halloween party in his class.  Nolan had a Harvest party and all the Kindergartners dress up as scarecrows.  This was perfect because Kelsey convinced (though they didn’t need much convincing) the boys to be the Wizard of Oz with her.  She was going to be Dorothy and Megan was going to be a munchkin.  Jacob was the tin man, Nolan stayed a scarecrow, and Lucas was the lion.  We couldn’t really figure out what Connor could be so he decided to be a football player.  He was concerned that Kelsey would be upset though and couldn’t decided until the last minute to stick with his football player.  It was pretty sweet.

 

After school the boys got to then have a party at daycare.  Mary does fun activities and then makes them dinner so that we can go pick up our kids and head out trick or treating.  It is such a nice gesture and something we really appreciate it. 

 

Our first stop was to Steve and Great Grandpa’s house.

 

Then we went to Natey and Diane’s house again this year.  They have a great lit up neighborhood with a ton of kids out and about.  Diane also made some yummy snacks and beverages for us to have.  Thanks for hosting guys.

 

 

The Wizard of Oz crew minus Megan the munchkin!

     

 

   

 

 

 

 

The lion playing with Chloe, the dog.

 

 

Pumpkin Carving

We had everyone over who could make it to carve pumpkins and have brunch.

I couldn’t even tell you how many years it has been since mom’s been wearing her lovely mask.

  

 

 

  After Lucas carved his pumpkin he knew the next thing was to “light it up”.  He had an idea and came back into the kitchen with a flashlight to light up his pumpkin.  It was pretty cute.  Makes sense to me.  He went around to everyone’s pumpkin and lit it up.

 

We are ready for Halloween.

Getting ready for Halloween, Cross Country, and FMSC

I got back from my trip to Europe (Germany mostly, Austria, Switzerland, and 2 hours in France!)  on Sunday and have tons of pictures to upload and edit.  Keep checking back for that blog entry – it will be a long one!   I had an amazing, unforgettable, fabulous time, but it’s also good to be home with my family.  I am blessed.

 

Last night we went to Matt’s work Halloween party.  The kids dressed up and we watched Madagascar 3 while eating pizza.  It was a good time.

 

 

This morning there was another city cross country meet.  The boys’ cross country team is going to state (our school has an awesome athletics fall season this year wow!) and were there this morning to start the race off.   With Connor’s new interest in running he wanted to do it, so despite the cold weather we all bundled up to go cheer him on.  Again, I was amazed that he was so determined to do it when he didn’t know if anyone he knew was going to be there.  He ran a mile and it was so exciting to watch.  This coming from someone who has never been a big cross country fan.  It was fun because Matt got to be at this one.  Connor got off to a great start and then kept an even pace and kicked it in at the end.  I was so impressed.  He got second overall.

 

 

Trying to catch the lead runner.

 

 

His fans.

 

Way to go Connor!

 

This afternoon my mom, Matt, Jacob, Nolan, and I went to be a part of our town’s Feed My Starving Children meal pack.  Straight from the FMSC website - Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit Christian organization committed to feeding God’s children hungry in body and spirit. The approach is simple: children and adults hand-pack meals specifically formulated for malnourished children, and we ship the meals to nearly 70 countries around the world.  Connor had a birthday party and my dad watched Lucas for us.  Last year, the staff at St. Mary’s went up to FMSC and it was such an amazing experience I  have wanted to do it again.  FMSC did a two day meal pack here in town and people could sign up for shifts.  We took our sixth graders (a total of 64 of us with students and adults) yesterday and then my family went today.  The boys really enjoyed it and I hope truly got the point of it all.  Nolan keeps saying, “Chicken, Veggies, Soy, Rice”!    I’m glad we did it together. 

 

 

Fun weekend so far and tomorrow we are carving pumpkins.  Nothing like being in Europe for 9 days and then getting right back into the swing of things like I was never even gone.  It’s all so surreal.