Saturday, November 1, 2008

Happy Halloween!

The day finally arrived after much anticipation and drooling over how much candy we were going to be getting. It was kind of a wild day at school, because of course all anyone really cared about was what was happening after school. The wildness seemed to continue on into the day as questions kept coming up of why can't we go now? No one is ready for us yet I would reply, but that did not seem to be a good answer and the natives were restless a lot today. Finally the time came and I forced the issue of eating some dinner before we could go. We got suited up in their matching Darth Vader costumes (I almost had Evan convinced he wanted to be a Storm Trooper, but when he saw Eli dressed up that was it. I figured since Eli did not mind them dressing up the same, it was not a big deal for now) and I quickly took pictures, because I knew that the masks would not last long on their faces, and off we went. We began next door and Pete and Gail's. We then went to a neighborhood close by and walked around a few of the blocks where houses that seemed to be participating in trick-or treating were grouped together. The kids had a lot of fun ringing doorbells and receiving their treats, except for one house Evan got scared by a boy in a mask, but was fine when the mask was removed. He spent the next five minutes convincing us, in other words himself, that it isn't scary, it's just a boy. We then went to the Awesome October Festival at church. It was so much fun for the kids to play games and run around together in a safe place. We now have more candy than we can eat and the boys had a great time. They were wound up for bedtime and Evan did not want to take his costume off, but eventually they got to bed and went to sleep immediately probably dreaming of how much candy they are going to eat, and hopefully not about the boy in the mask!


Trick-or-treat! Once again frustrations rose with our camera, so there are not many pictures as it was too dark outside and in the church building
The costume show
The song in the next three videos is "5 Little Pumpkins," which was our favorite Halloween song
and book. The first video is of them doing it together, and the following two are solo performances.






Little Swimmer

This week Eli finished up session 1 in the fall session of swimming at Mount Hood Community College. He absolutely loves being in the pool and I am so amazed and proud of how well he does. Over the past two months he has improved so much and is doing really well swimming on his own. Eli is also very proud of his swimming, but mostly about the fact that he gets to swim in the big pool like Michael Phelps does. I am happy to say that he was able to graduate to the next level, so we will be beginning those classes next week, which he is very excited about!

Doing the front crawl, or scooping ice-cream as they call it!

Having a bit of goggle malfunction, but not really caring


Evan being helpful by putting himself in a locker

Pumpkin Carving

Ah, that messy part of Halloween festivities! Of course, the kids ask all day when we can carve the pumpkins, and usually only remain interested for about five minutes. This year we let them play in the pumpkins guts, which they seemed to enjoy, but it took a lot longer to clean up! This year Eli wanted a scary face and for or "character face" Evan chose Diego from one of his favorite shows, "Go, Diego, Go!" We also had two little pumpkins that Eli got from his school party, so I free-handed them. It took awhile as usual to carve all the lines, John actually did most of the more difficult carving, but the kids have loved the results!

John had a good idea this year of using a "handy saw" which was way faster!

Go, Diego, Go!

Scary-face!

These two I just made up as I went

Scary-face all lit up! My camera has not been liking dark pictures, so this is the best we could get.

Church Retreat

What a beautiful weekend! For the second year in a row, our church retreat has taken place at Eagle Fern Camp, last weekend, and the fall colors on the drive there and at the camp were particularly amazing this year! The boys had a great time playing outside running, throwing rocks in the creek, swinging on the tree swing, and just playing with all of their friends. They were worn out every night! John and I also had a good time visiting with friends. I feel very thankful and blessed for this time that we spend with our church family. It was nice to get away, and it took all week to recover!!






Evan poking nature

Eli on the tree swing


Pausing for just a moment for a picture