Katie was excited about Halloween.
So much so that she wanted to host a party at our house for some friends.
I agreed.
She planned the whole party out - games, food, special treats - everything.
She even practiced making gluten free sugar cookie cut-outs.
And it was only the first weekend in October!
Mikey decided to join the cross country team at his new school.
Here he is during his first meet.
They run boys vs boys and girls vs girls per grade level.
Coming up on the finish.
He did great.
Not being the fastest did not deter him. He instead chose to focus on "not stopping the whole way".
We were so proud of him for trying something new and trying his best.
He always finished strong and with a smile.
October is usually the last month that we get some sun around here.
Ralph loves to soak up the sun.
He spends the whole summer plopping himself down in sun one minute and shade the next.
Get it while you can, buddy!
Mikey was back at it running cross country at his home school this time.
Annnd, in the cold rain.
Again, he never stopped.
Not even for that big hill you see rising up into the woods ahead of him.
Gooooo, Mikey!
Katie had settled into middle school really well.
She was making new friends and having a great time in her classes.
From what I can gather, Drama and Science are her favorites classes.
English and Math, her least.
But, she does well in all of them.
She gets a lot of homework, but is really good at getting it done without TOO much complaining.
In between all the craziness, we found some time to go get some pumpkins.
We tried a new farm this time around.
Well, not completely new.
We'd been there waaaaay back when Katie was in preschool, when this happened.....
Good times.
Can you believe that they are both in middle school together now?
Crazy.
Any-who.....
I think they might be getting a tad big for a wheelbarrow ride.
I think the main reason they like to go to the patch to find their pumpkins is so that they can run around like crazy people.
It takes them about an hour to find their pumpkins.
There are pumpkins EVERYWHERE and yet they have to run to the farthest spot they can in the patch and pick the heaviest pumpkin to lug back to the wheelbarrow.
(It's always too muddy for the wheelbarrow to make it way out to where they pick from)
Success!
Maybe.
Katie always gets two pumpkins.
One for herself and one for Ralph.
Mikey picked the biggest pumpkin of us all this year.
Yep. Six pumpkins for four people.
Ralph ended up needing two.
That's the story I was told.
Last cross country meet of the season.
They had to run up a HUGE hill.
It really was huge.
Here's Mikey heading in to the finish line.
All season there was a kid who would walk and then sprint to catch up to Mikey.
And then he would always sprint right at the end to beat Mikey to the finish line (you can see him in a picture above).
Well, on the hill, Mikey paced himself and blew the kid away and finished alone. Yay!
We attended a Crohn's and Colitis Education Day at Seattle Children's and found that
Katie made the cover of the Camp Oasis brochure for this year.
I believe that she is playing with her earring in this shot.
While playing Xbox one day, Mikey asked Cortana (digital assistant) to turn the volume up on the tv. When she didn't respond he asked, "What the heck?" to which she answered with the definition of Heck.
Ralph had adopted one of our sleeping bags as a bed.
It was all good, except that it stunk to high heaven.
I got him a new bed at Costco.
He then decided he wanted to sleep on the new bed while using the old sleeping bag as a pillow.
Spoiled rotten.
The busy pre-Halloween weekend began with pumpkin carving.
No pumpkin guts were actually consumed in the making of this photo.
Okay. Let me clarify that last statement.
No pumpkin guts were actually consumed *by a HUMAN* in the making of this photo.
Usually, I get scammed into pulling most of the guts out for the kids.
This year, they really got their hands dirty and did most of the cleaning.
Some were not has happy as others about it.
Ralph was happiest of all.
He cleaned up any and all messes.
He also had his eye on the bowl we were using to dump the guts in.
No go, big guy.
Mad pumpkin face.
Happy pumpkin face.
This Saturday was also the last soccer game of Mikey's season.
It was a late game that started at 4:30 that afternoon.
The clocks hadn't changed yet, so it was still light out.
Playing soccer (two practices a week & games on Saturday) and doing cross country (one practice and one meet a week) really took its toll on Mikey.
He was really sore all the time and got a couple of injuries along the way.
But, he made it. What a trooper!
And then, after the game, we had our Halloween party.
The kids got dressed in their costumes and waited for their friends to arrive.
Bilbo passed the time by playing Super Mario Run on my phone.
While Sailor Jupiter brought peace and justice to our house.
Friends!
Half of them anyways.
More friends!
(Side Note: Remember that little boy jumping in the mud puddle pumpkin patch picture up above? Well, that's him sitting next to Mikey)
Katie set up a scavenger hunt for everyone to find a pumpkin.
Once they found their pumpkins, they got to decorate them.
After that, we did a little apple bobbing.
The original plans for the party called for a lot more marshmallows and candy, but that plan had to change.
Katie had gotten into trouble that week and had all special treats restricted as part of her consequences. She also missed a friends birthday party because of said consequences.
Sometimes it's hard to be a parent. But, lessons have to be learned.
She's a good kid, but there has to be consequences to bad decisions.
Right?
Right.
Phew.
Glad that's settled.
The kids had a great time apple bobbing.
It wasn't raining and it wasn't that cold out either, so it worked out.
It was funny watching them almost drown themselves to eat an apple.
They got soaked.
Ewwww.
Although Katie couldn't partake, she still made a cake for all her friends.
The last game was balloon stomping.
Stomp the balloon and a candy came out.
It was loud. And messy.
I thought Mikey was going to break an arm. He kept falling down trying to jump on balloons.
The party was a success.
And because we restricted the candy and marshmallows, there were no sugar highs!
Mikey's end-of-season soccer party was the next day.
The families got together to get the boys trophies.
Mikey was very proud.
It was the first (and only) trophy that he's ever gotten.
Then it was time.
Time for Halloween.
The middle school said it was okay for the kids to come in costume as long as they met the dress code.
Katie took full advantage and became Undead Queen Katie for the day.
Although, she's a bit too happy to be an undead queen, I think.
Mikey had his class party that day.
His school normally has a no-costume policy...but the teachers were able to get around it by having the kids select a book, pick a character, write a character analysis and then they could dress as that character and read the report that day at school.
Clever.
Guess who Mikey picked?
Here he is at "Hogwarts".
The obligatory "Decorate Your Own Cookie" station.
My favorite station.
I love watching the kids heap on the toppings and then the "I'm going to barf" look they get once they eat all of it.
To get maximum sugar, I allowed them to make a "Topping Taco" out of their plate so that they could eat whatever fell off their cookies.
Some also chose to lick their plates clean.
Ralph went with me to pick up Katie at the corner after school.
He loves waiting and getting attention from all the middle schoolers.
Today they couldn't resist him.
Who could resist this?
Katie's pumpkin design.
The eye of Horus.
The goddess Isis.
And her name in HEIROGLYPHICS.
What the what!?!??!
Next level bananas.
Mikey picked Sting, Bilbo's sword, to have on his pumpkin.
Katie did her own design and I helped carve.
Mikey did draw Sting, buuuuuut it was kind of unrecognizable.
So, I had to help him out a bit.
I swear. What happened to a good old fashioned jack o'lantern face?
Here are everyone's pumpkins.
(We didn't have time to carve Ralph's extra pumpkin)
We selected a vacuum cleaner for Ralph this year.
He's not deathly afraid of them, but he doesn't like them.
Trick-or-Treat!
Gandalf hung out with BatDog.
At the end of the night, they ended up with a pretty good haul.
Our annual Halloween photo.
Gandalf, Bilbo, Aragorn and Sailor Jupiter.
Which one of these things is not like the other?
Katie traded some of her candy for money and some for gluten free/nut free chocolate.
The rest she put away for when she could eat special treats again.
Mikey traded for some money and chocolate, but kept most of the safe stuff to munch on later.
Huzbend and I get to eat all the good-but-not-safe-for-the-kids stuff.
Things like Almond Joys, KitKats, 3 Musketeers, Butterfingers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.....
Yum. I wish I had some right now.
Halloween was on a Tuesday this year.
Ugh.
Nothing worse than having to wake up early to go to school/work the day after Halloween.
Blech.
