Halloween 2020

 

I checked off a bucket list photo dream last Sunday. This park close to our house hosted a lovely array of colorful leaves on the ground. I dreamed of two little girls snuggled against the leaves...it was not all idyllic (imagine crying about the pokey leaves) but the photos are pretty. Sunday night we issued a challenge to the Ostlers: who could make the best paper airplanes! 

Monday Mia and I walked outside to find the temperature hovering at 26 degrees. We shuffled ourselves back inside for down coats before heading to the gym. Everett and Phillip have given up the gym at the young ages of 9 and 11. The kids found various tools in the garage to break up the ice on the pool once we got back home. Josie was so cute hunkered over hunks of ice with a hammer and intent look on her face. I finally figured out the winter clothes situation...the little girls are set the rest all need coats, snow pants, snow boots, and gloves. At 10:00 am our paper airplane opponents came over for a contest! My kids were stoked to build all the kids of paper airplanes they could find. I found a fun site called "foldnfly" with tons of fun designs. I worked hard making a bat plane that was supposed to move it's wings! The wings didn't flutter but goodness, that plane had a sweet glide. Our hallway proved to be too narrow and not long enough so we snuck into the church cultural hall for our contest. Phillip won the all around contest! The losers were sore so had their own losers contest. In the end the kids had more fun folding their planes and just playing than the contest. I tried to make the event educational with a 5 min chat about aerodynamics. 

Wednesday morning we headed out to Kidz Resale for boy winter gear. The store had quite a large selection of snow gear and coats. The boys each got more long-sleeved shirts. We met Justin for lunch since we were a mile or so away from his work. The little girls enjoyed making Justin some fan mail before we left! Josie even made Justin a perler bead heart. Rose sent us a fun box of stuff, mostly makeup for Evelyn and fun hair stuff for the girls. Evelyn was in complete heaven! 

Coach Mel, the kid's gymnastics teacher, loves seeing what my girls bring to spectate their lessons. This week Yoda with fancy clips, decorated LOL babies, and elephant watched. Everett had an off-day on Thursday. He slithered on the gym mats moaning for no good reason. I made him apologize to the coach and remove himself from the floor. 

Our quarter-grown trees finally dropped enough leaves for a decent leaf pile. The Catalpa tree finally dropped it's large leaves when the freeze happened on Monday. Justin, Phillip, and Everett gathered a rather large pile for the kids to play in. After a few jumps the leaf pile was greatly reduced! Josie and Evelyn couldn't remember our Sidney leaf piles so they had first dibs on this pile. Josie was not too sure about jumping on leaves. She got over her reticence after the first jump. 

Friday evening Justin and I went out for a date. I had a hankering for pizza. The first place had an hour wait. The second place refused to serve us because the manager was not paying the employees enough, the employees wanted to make a point. I think they got fired for their statement. We settled on second rate chicken wings, where is Bon Chon when you need it? Oh yes, Arizona. I was not in a particularly great mood, too much home time, a headache, and way too tired. Poor Justin! Amelia had the table ready for pumpkin carving once we got home. So much excitement! Josie designed her own pumpkin, she did her best to carve it solo. The older kids required little assistance, their imaginations came out for the carving. Amelia had a cute, complicated carve of a flower. Phillip carved a face then stabbed a pack of tooth picks into the pumpkin. Everett made a fun face with little. I helped Evelyn carve a kitty in honor of the Ostler's new kitten, Astrid. Hooray for tradition. I tried to coax the kids into painting pumpkins, I lost. 

Saturday we worked on cleaning the garage for the Halloween bash. Sara is the Primary President, she organized a block party on our street instead of a trunk or treat. My garage was assigned as the photo booth and face painting station. I finally took down the school photo back drop, course someone messaged me a while later asking for photos. LOL. Always! We took it easy until 3 when it was time to start fixing hair before the party. Justin brought over three hay bales for the photo booth from the Ostlers. Sister Finch and Sister Whiting helped me paint faces. The party started at 6 pm! Our kids enjoyed running up and down the street. Josie tried to trick or treat all by herself down the next street over. Someone brought her back home! Justin managed not to lose her the rest of the evening. Amelia and Cassidie/Jocelyn ran the fishing booth. Phillip and Carson managed the corn hole game. We kept busy until 8:30! I hear we were practically the only homes open for business. I couldn't see any other homes with porch lights on for the kids. Several neighbors came over thanking us for the fun night. The next day a friend from AZ posted a video of a girl stealing the rest of the candy in their bowl, the girl yelled to another girl, "Chloe! This bowl is almost full, should I take the candy?" Yep, it was our Chloe as the invisible girl outside camera range. Josie was up from 3 am with a tummy ache...too much candy for the sugar girl?! I headed downstairs with her after an hour of her thumping about in our bed. We watched TV from 4 am until the kids woke up. At least it was daylight savings, that extra hour was much needed. Poor kid collapsed on me during church for a nap. Phillip made a disgusting mess making hamburger helper. Ah the struggles of kids learning to cook. He cleaned up to the best of his ability. I re-worked his effort after he left the house to play. I am unsure how he managed to get hamburger helper on the microwave, oven, floor, and cabinets. That was impressive.