Halloweening 2020

Here are the pictures from our Halloween fun! As much as Covid has messed up the year, it didn't quite take down Halloween. And as an added bonus, my parents came down for a short visit for Halloween and my birthday! 

Oct. 30

The masks (which I HATE btw) admittedly added an extra dimension of silliness to Halloween. Here are Elisa and Ian in their silly Halloween masks just before the bus came.

Oct 30

Ian had a class party and he was allowed to dress up as a character from a book, which Super Mario isn't technically, but I asked the teacher and she said it was fine, especially since we do have a Super Mario Bros. comic book (close enough!)  

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Fox, Luigi, and Mario!

My parents and the kids.

Going to look at some horses

Luigi and Mario! I made the overalls, Gabe's shirt, and gloves. 

Candy haul!

Oct. 30

Since our ward is lame and didn't do the trunk-or-treat this year (due to covid, even though other wards still held theirs), an awesome family in the ward decided to take pity on the kids and host a Halloween party-thing on their horse property. The kids dressed up in their costumes and went around collecting candy from each family. Most families had a table but we just brought our chairs and sat and passed out candy that way. My parents tagged along and we mostly sat there (it was too dark to do much) and passed out candy while the kids had such fun getting lots of candy.

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Oct 31

My and my mom went out while the kids were in school and helped ourselves to some goodies at Bath & Body Works, Urban Boba Tea House, and Crumbl Cookies.

Oct. 31

Elisa went on a costumed-ice skating outing with her friend Kassidy earlier that day. 

I actually didn't get any pictures (nope, not even one) of actual trick-or-treating, not that the lighting would permit good pictures anyway. I passed out candy with my parents in the driveway while Erik took the kids around trick-or-treating. Despite Covid, trick-or-treating went on as normal. We got plenty of kids come by. A house a street up from us decided to host a huuuge, slutty, weed-smoking party that night (lots of neighbors called the cops on them), but other than that it was a fun Halloween night.

 

Kid's Portraits 2020

Taken August 22

 Due to Covid and the lockdown, I was not able to get proper portraits for Gabe and Elisa this year. We were in Utah all summer, but by August everything was open so I took the kids to JCPenny and got their portraits taken. I put the kids in outfits that I meant them to wear for portraits the previous year (that I never got around to actually doing). So that's why Elisa's dress is a little too small! I think the pictures turned out pretty good: 

Random October Happenings, Part II

Here are some more random stuff that happened in the month of October. It looks like most of it involves Ian! 

October 14. 

The day after coming home from our Utah trip, Ian had a dental appointment to get his very first cavity filled. He did a really good job of listening to the dentists and being a happy, easy going boy (like always!). Some dentists-in-training came to observe. Ian received Nitrous oxide, and for a couple moments he seemed to attempt to dance while lying on the chair! After the cavity (it was a medium-sized one) was filled, they gave Ian a popsicle. When we got home, Ian took a nice long nap on the couch.

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Oct. 19

Poor silly Ian clipped his lip with the guinea pig nail clippers (yuck). Not sure why he did that, it wasn't quite an accident since he did put the clippers up to his lips and squeeze. Ouch!

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Oct. 20

Time for the guinea pigs yearly bath! Oh, how they HATE their bath. It scares the poop out of them. Literally. 

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Oct. 22

An acquaintance from church texted me one morning asking if I was able to pick up some turkeys from the post office for her. I almost ignored it because it sounded ridiculous like one of her kids texted it to me, but I texted back and yep, she wanted me to pick up turkeys for her at the post office since she was out of town. I didn't know the post office allowed livestock, but I guess I learned something new that day. I went to the post office and sure enough, there was a box of baby turkeys waiting (under her name) for me to pick up. She also gave me her house code so I went in her house and put the turkeys in their pen. They seemed so happy to be out of that tiny box.

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Oct. 24

I took Ian to the bridge to eat breakfast. I made some scrambled eggs and brought ketchup, water, and utensils with. It would have been fun if Ian hadn't taken a spill on the rocky trail on the way to the bridge. It kind of traumatized him, poor kid. But he ate all of his breakfast and we went back home using the sidewalks instead of the gravel path.

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Oct. 25

Gabe and Elisa being silly

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Oct. 27

I am so proud of Ian for passing off the primer level in the Faber Piano Adventures method. He enjoyed opening his new level 1 books. The supplier even sent a lolipop and some stickers with the books, almost as if they new exactly who would open these new books!

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Oct. 31

Ian unprompted and willingly wrote out some math equations for himself. He does NOT get that from me!

 

Great Wolf Lodge

In lieu of our (cancelled) Disney cruise, we took the kids to the new and local Great Wolf Lodge in Scottsdale. We picked the kids up a little early for school and spent Friday evening (the 23rd) and Saturday morning (the 24th) at the Lodge. We picked up pizza from Barro's on the way and ate it in our room before heading out to the water park. It was a relief to go into the waterpark area and be mask-free. It was as if covid wouldn't enter the water park, but apparently it was on a rampage in the lobby because everyone was masked up. The kids had such a fun time in the water park. There isn't a whole lot to say about the waterpark other than the kids loved it and had the time of their lives. I feel like the Great Wolf in Wisconsin was bigger, or at least spread out. The kid's area in Wisconsin was in it's own separate section. This one in Scottsdale seemed more condensed. Gabe and Elisa's favorite activity in the water park was the slides. They went down over and over and over again! It's amazing how much energy the kids have when it comes to things they enjoy. Ian's favorite activity was the floating logs. It took him once or twice to figure out how to get across them without falling into the water, and once he did, he was in line over and over again! I can tell his months of gymnastics have paid off! Elisa could get over the logs without falling in, too. Gabe, on the other hand...well he tried once, fell into the water and gave up and never tried again. He was mostly interested in the slides. We spent the night, and the kids loved their bunkbed room. I slept fine that night and in the morning, Erik went to Butter's and brought us all back a delicious breakfast which I ate in bed. We spent the rest of the day (until 1:00 pm) at the waterpark. The only reason we left is because the kids were hungry, even though they wanted to keep playing at the waterpark.  Such a fun place to be! Elisa says she wants to have her next birthday party there. I'm sure we'll be back there again in any case!

Barro's pizza for dinner. Yum!

Ian at the little kids section. He didn't hang out too much in this area, he was a little on the older/bigger side to be playing in there anyway. He really liked the wave pool and the play structure.

Gabe and Elisa went down the slides countless times, together

Ian loved playing in the play structure. Like a playground with water!

Ian going across the logs

Silly girl on her first attempt. What is she doing?

At least Gabe tried. Counts for something!

Gabe and Elisa in the lazy river. That was where I spent most of my time!

The next morning (Saturday):

Gabe enjoying his pancake breakfast

Some fun pictures in the front of the building and in the lobby.

These two couldn't stop themselves from going down the slides ceaselessly. 

 

Ian performing one of his many floating log crossings.