We started off the month with Mikey helping UDub students with a brain study.
He got paid for his troubles.
He had to take tests while his brain waves were studied and recorded.
He also got an MRI.
He enjoyed every moment of it.
Really.
He couldn't stop talking about it and they even gave him a shirt that said "Institute of Learning and Brain Science - ILABS" on it.
Ladies and gents....presenting the awesome, the magnificent, the GIGANTIC....
Mikey's Brain.
The first week of October was the beginning of the elementary cross country season.
It only lasts for 4 meets - one on each Tuesday.
Mikey had a good time running last year and decided to join again.
He prides himself on "not stopping".
He runs the whole time.
And he smiles the whole time too.
At the end of the race, the kids check in at a table to let the volunteers know their places.
I asked him how he did, knowing that he was close to last place.
"There were 19 guys running......and I was one of them."
Katie had a follow-up appointment with her GI doc.
We've been meeting with a nutritionist prior to her doctors appointments recently.
There's usually a space of time between the two appointments where we just sit around in the exam room.
Katie likes to draw on the big white board that they have in all the rooms.
Here is this days artwork explained by Katie.
The characters she drew are all ones that she and Mikey have created in various stories and comics.
I will not go into the origin stories of all these characters as that would take FOREVER.
"Here is a view of the entire picture.
The bottom part is a diagram of the digestive track, mainly the intestines."
Referencing the picture below....
"The guy with the big ears who is to the right of the elf and Windron (the squiggly guy who's to the left of the elf) is the doctor and he's running a clinical trail. He is currently passing out the placebos and pills, but it's a double blind clinical trail, so he doesn't even know what's a placebo and what's a pill.
Below that, Sara the Elf is debating whether she has a placebo or a pill (she has a placebo), but both of them look the same so it's hard to tell."
Referencing the picture below....
"Saliena is in the top corner writing the 'really important information', and she is the only one who knows who has a placebo and who has a pill.
Soupron and Spikeron are participating in the clinical trail. Soupron has a pill and Spikeron has a placebo.
Binky (A.K.A. Binky Superhero) is using one of his 100 powers to levitate his pill, while exclaiming his opinion about the diagram (he thinks its beautiful)."
Phew.
You know how doctors appointments are.
Better for her to be entertained this way than staring at a screen.
That Saturday was an IV infusion day.
Mikey and Huzbend headed over to the middle school for some outside time.
No dogs were harmed in the making of this photo.
One WAS hit by a soccer ball at least twice though.
Infusion went smoothly. "Smoothly" means only one poke to find a vein.
After the infusion, we hit up the shoe store to purchase some boots for our Halloween costumes.
Katie had to try on some "heel highs".
(heel highs - a leftover word mess up from her toddlerhood that she still uses because it's cute)
We hit the pumpkin patch mid month.
We try to plan our visit to coincide with a Seahawks game so that there's less people.
Usually, it's also raining.
Which means we have the place to ourselves.
It didn't work out that way this year.
The Seahawks were playing, but I guess sun is more important that football.
EVERYONE and their grandma was at the pumpkin patch.
We'd never seen it so busy.
As you can see from the picture, the weather WAS super nice.
So, I can't blame them.
Katie still thinks she weighs 40 pounds and hopped into the pumpkin wagon.
She found a baby pumpkin that we had to take home.
It takes a while for the kids to pick out the "perfect" pumpkin.
We also have to get one (or two) for Ralph.
Mikey put his muscles to good use getting the pumpkins back to the barn for payment.
He's been working out you know.
After pumpkins were selected, we did the corn maze.
At first, Mikey was all about the map.
Until he realized that he was too good at reading it (with help from Huzbend).
We were doing the maze way too fast for his taste.
I guess he wanted to get lost in it.
He was disappointed.
After exiting the maze, we hit up all the other fun farmy things to do.
The kids are getting a bit big for the rain barrel train, but they still stood in line to do it.
Among many other fun things, there were tire swings....
....lasso practice....
...tetherball....
...and giant hamster wheels.
The giant hamster wheel was most entertaining of the offerings.
Especially watching MY kids do it.
See below....
First was Katie.
Then Mikey.
Then they decided to multiply the chaos and ride one together.
NOTE: No other children fell down or screamed as much as our children.
Another Tuesday, another cross country run, another smile.
Just about every year the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation hosts a conference for parents of kids with IBD. It's usually held at Seattle Children's Hospital.
This year, they tried something new and held it at the YMCA camp where
Camp Oasis is located.
We were able to stay overnight in one of the cabins.
It was a pretty fancy cabin with two bathrooms and a gas heating stove.
Mikey was super excited to check out camp.
Katie was excited to go to camp in the Fall.
The kids got to do activities around camp while the parents went to class sessions.
Both kids had a great time.
Parents, ehhhhh, not so much.
Although you do learn a lot, these conferences are kind of depressing.
It's like being reminded that your kid is sick with a life long illness for 24 hours straight with no escape.
The glowsticks that I brought were old and smelled funny.
I wouldn't let the kids sleep with them in their sleeping bags.
So, I threw them out.
Who knew they would produce gamma rays.
Mikey was excited at the possibility of becoming the Hulk.
Katie was not.
She brought a healthy dose of reality to the situation reminding Mikey that glow sticks were just a chemical reaction inside a plastic tube and not radioactive waves that would change his genetic structure.
"He's SO weird!"
Mikey enjoyed his last meet of the year at the school whose course includes "Heartbreak Hill".
He made it up said hill and finished strong.
And wasn't last.
Katie's costume came in the mail.
A few of us got the chance to do a practice run of our costumes the weekend before Halloween.
Mikey's school had a Monster Mash costume dance.
I spent most of the evening selling snacks at the concessions table.
Katie helped and received community service hours for her efforts
(she needs hours for Junior Honor Society)
Mikey hung with his bestie Sienna.
They had a great time getting funky on the dance floor.
The end of October means it's time for yard cleanup.
The leaves start to fall and DAMN if we don't have a lot of leaves.
It takes about 4-5 weeks to clean all the leaves up out of our yard.
I found this guy hiding out under the leaves which were under the bushes in front of our house.
Katie wanted to adopt him.
I put the kibosh on that and put him back under some of the leaves I left under the bushes.
Time to carve the pumpkins!
Mikey is still freaked out about the goop.
Not so much as when he was little when he refused to put his hand in the pumpkin.
Both kids cleaned their own pumpkins this year.
Yay!
Finally!
And both kids did their own carving.
Mikey picked a super complicated picture, so a little adult help was needed.
Here are the end results.
I took pictures of this because it might be the last time that I make allergy friendly sugar cookies for a class party.
Mikey's class had a movie party this year.
They ate popcorn, watched "The Guardians of Gahool" and then had cookies.
Halloween!
Huzbend had been growing his hair and sideburns for MONTHS.
I will keep my comments to myself about this.
But, it was finally time to cash all that effort in to create...
Count Olaf of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
He wore his costume at work.
He was disappointed that no one made any comment about his unibrow.
As if they thought that it was always there.
Heh.
I decided to match Huzbend and dressed up as Dr. Georgina Orwell.
Katie elfed up her huntress costume with some pointy ears.
And Mikey broke out the Link costume once more.
For your information, Link is not an elf.
He is a Hylian.
And Ralph wore his tried and true Bat Dog costume once again.
Vainglorious Family Dawdling.
It was forecast to rain, but it held off long enough for us to get our trick or treating route in.
Just a slight misting on our way home.
Nice.
Nice.
Mikey was exhausted by the time we got home.
Katie could've walked another 2-3 miles - especially if it was to get more free candy.
Huzbend pulled off a very eerie Count.
It was kinda creepy how closely he resembled the character.
Mikey and Katie were not impressed.
"Nothing is going right for me today! I'm beginning to think that washing my face was a complete waste of time!"
The candy haul was substantial.
The candy they couldn't eat was traded in for either candy that they could eat or money.
Their choice.
Best part is that the parents get to eat the candy they trade in.
Huzbend's favorite - almond joy
My favorite - every other kind of chocolate but especially KitKats, Twix, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Butterfingers, Krispie bars, etc.....
It works out nice.
