Halloween

Halloween, like everything else, looked a little different this year.  There weren't any ward trunk or treats, school parties, or even regular trick-or-treating.  We decided to celebrate the best way we know how anyway.  The first order of business was deciding what we wanted to do for our family theme costume this year.  Since it was a DIY year, we had all sorts of option and ultimately decided on a weather theme.  Daxton was a tornado.  Kelton was a lightning bolt.  McKenzie was a rainbow.  Cambrie was a thunder cloud.  I was the sun.  And Jeremy was the weather man trying to make sense of us all.  We were able to get really creative with how we made our costumes and the kids loved helping to create them. I needed all the help I could get because they were rather unconventional.  The kids tried them on a couple of times, but had to wait until Halloween night for the big reveal.  Here are some teasers.  

Theodore even got to dress up.

I was also feeling festive and energetic enough that I made Halloween themed food all week. (not pictured, bat wing chili, mummy pizza, and mummy hot dogs)

Sugar cookies

Jack o'lantern sweet potato fries

Centipede noodles

Ghost sandwiches with monster mouths

Eyeball tacos

Cream cheese marbled brownies

And the wildest one was our zombie mac and cheese

Finally it was time for everyone to put on their costumes!

Even Bob got a costume.  He was a cloud!

Halloween night had the most perfect weather for trick or treating.  We started out at the Werner's for some festive dinner and to visit with some friends.  There was a short little trunk or treat and then we divided forces to make the most of the holiday.  

McKenzie started wandering with her friends up in Ashwood and worked her way all the way down to our neighborhood.  

Cambrie went up to Anthem and spent the whole evening partying with her friends.  

The boys wanted to roam our neighborhood so Jeremy went with them.  

I stayed home passing out candy.  In an effort to comply with social distancing rules, most homes set up tables in their front yard so that kids could get their own candy and not bunch up at the door.  Some houses were more creative and set up candy pictures on their driveways, or hung candy from trees.  I love seeing the kids in their costumes this year.  I was so afraid that there wouldn't be very many trick or treaters out.  This Halloween had everything going for it:  It was on a Saturday, the weather was perfect, there was a full moon, and Daylight Savings time was the next day.  There should have been hoards of trick or treaters at my door, as it was I was grateful to see anyone out at all.  I sat back with Theodore and watched the kids come up and grab their candy.  

As our kids started coming back, we turned Labyrinth and watched that for the first time.  It's now one of our kids favorites.  Ha!  

Even though so many things were different, some things stayed the same, like the smiling faces that came home with their candy stashes.  Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin slime!

We may have waited until the last possible minute, but we did carve our pumpkins!  It was a different experience this year because the kids are getting more and more independent.  Jeremy and I helped with the saws, but the boys cleaned out the slime and did all of the pattern transfer.  If you're wondering, yes, there were still just as many complaints about the slime being slimey!  

Because they were on a roll, I actually had time to carve my own pumpkin.  It was a huge and I was worried about how thick the skin was going to be.  Luckily for me it wasn't any worse than the other pumpkins we had this year.  

Cambrie took the creative route like always, and decided to carve a gourd into a snake! 

 

Gooey alien membranes!  

Look at those little workers.  They did such a great job punching their patterns. 

 Jeremy helping with the tricky part.  

Our pumpkin display in sunshine.  

Our glowing pumpkins at night.  They lasted only a few hours before the squirrels got to work on them.  But at least they were glowing for Halloween night!

Fall sports

Fall sports looked a little different this year.  First of all, masks were everywhere.  The kids have to wear them to and from their soccer fields, and all of the older girls at the gym need to wear them during all of practice.  Spectating soccer games has changed as well.  Most fields only allow one parent, and some don't allow any spectators at all.  Watching these kids compete and do what they love to do is one of the best parts about parenthood.  I hate not being able to be there to support them.  We have to drop them off, and drive away.  Now, I have appreciated that we can't stay at watch practice, because I always felt like the only parent not sticking around.  However, I do wish we could be there for their games.  I only have one picture from her whole season, and it's one her coach took during practice one night.  I'm so happy she likes her team.

We were lucky enough to be able to attend Kelton's games in person.  This is the first year that they have a goalie and the kids are starting to practice formations during their play.  It's fun watching Kelton play keeper.  He looks like he's having a lot of fun out there.  

McKenzie has been working really hard to catch up from those months missed because of quarantine.  She has to get her kip down before she's allowed to compete on bars at the meets.  She's been taking private lessons the last few weeks to work on some drills and technique to help with that.  It's the only time I'm able to be in the building and I can't believe how much she's improved lately.  Here she is practicing her long hang kip.  

Her first meet was on Saturday.  All of the meets are intersquad home meets to help with social distancing.  Parents also weren't allowed in the building.  The meet was streamed on Facebook live.  The meet didn't exactly go as planned for McKenzie.  She landed funny on the springboard on her very first vault and hurt her ankle.  She needed to have it wrapped to compete, but it threw things off for her.  Everything was a little bit wobbly, but I was proud to see her up and moving anyway.  I anxiously watched her warm up on bars to see if she would miraculously perform her kip.  On her third and final attempt she finally got up!  To see her face on camera was priceless.  She was so excited.  So even though her scores were lower than she had hoped, she finally accomplished her goal of getting her kip!

My fall sports have been almost exactly the same as always, but I'm trying to hunt down training partners.  I joined up with Base Performance Team to see if that would be a good fit.  We had a group ride on Saturday, but it was a unique ride.  The temperature was only 25 degrees which changed everything.  We were totally numb and cut our ride to only 14 miles so we could get back and warm up.  It's a process hunting for a team, but I hope I can find something that works.  It's been such a weird season!

Big Leaf Pile

The boys' leaf pile from a couple of weeks ago was just a warm up.  We've had a couple of windy days that have been very effective in cleaning off our trees.  Jeremy spent all day gathering the leaves so the kids would have a killer leaf pile to jump in after school.  We had to get a picture of it before the jumping began. 

 The running leap!  

The kids realized very quickly that they couldn't get as high as they wanted to on their own, and that's where Jeremy and I come in.  

Jeremy started throwing the kids into the pile and they got some serious height.  We tried spinning, tossing, jumping, flipping, flying, and swinging, going for the best adrenaline rush.

  

I was able to get a "hero" shot of all of the kids soaring through the air.  

The boys loved being buried in the leaves, and it was easy to lose them in the pile. 

Jeremy and Cambrie practicing their circus skills.  

After all of the fun and games we had to rake them up and bag them.  12 bags later we finally had everything cleaned up...for an hour before the wind hit again.  While it's a lot of work having mature trees, nothing beats enormous leaf piles in your own backyard.