Halloween 2015

Another Halloween has come and gone. 

But first, the week before.  The kids had Monday off because it was the end of the quarter.  Unfortunately no one else had the day off.  Thankfully my very flexible boss allowed me to work from home on Monday.  It was kind of tough with the dog going out every ten minutes and the kids wanting to play with me all day.  They don’t truly understand why I’m there but can’t play because I’m working.  They did pretty good and really I wish I could have just played with them all day!  Monday night we carved pumpkins.  Will drew his and carved almost all of his.  He would get tired and let Drew carve a little.  Lindy requested a puppy so I drew it on there and had to carve most of it.  She didn’t understand that since she chose something harder that I had to do most of the carving.  She helped me some and carved an L on the back by herself.

Tuesday I went to school and stuffed Tuesday packets for Will’s class.  I did it during lunch so I really only saw him on his way out of class on his way to lunch and then I saw Lindy in the hallway on the way to her lunch.  Tuesday started the World Series and more late nights than I’m used to.  I couldn’t stay awake for the 14-inning all nighter they played – and the Royals won!  Wednesday was another late game with the Royals.  And another win!

Friday night started a busy, but fun weekend.  Wake Forest had a Friday night football game at 7pm against Louisville.  Sadly, they lost by 1 point.  I cooked a chicken stew and we met Katie, Kris, and kids, my parents, and Ed and Jamie to tailgate.  It was a yummy warm meal on a chilly October night. 

Saturday we were able to sleep in because we had no other plans in the morning besides Will’s tennis at 10:30am.  Lindy went with them because she wanted to see Belle, the puppy of one of the other kids in tennis lessons.  I headed over a little while later with Aiden and took him to the dog park.  It’s silly we live across the street from a dog park and this is the first time we’ve taken him.  Considering it was his first time, he did well.  There were two other pups when we first got there and then one left.  She got tired of Aiden humping her.  Then four other pups showed up.  He did a bit of humping on one of them.  So embarrassing.  How do you teach a dog not to hump other dogs, people???  He ran and ran with the other dogs and it was so good for him!  We finally headed home for lunch and I spent the afternoon working on the garage.  We moved in and hadn’t touched it.  I organized some shelves, unpacked some boxes, and we packed the car with another donation.  There is still too much stuff for the car but it felt good to make a little headway in there.  

We ate an early dinner, changed into costumes and headed downtown.  Our church is a block off Main Street and they do front porch trick or treating.  We started there and then headed to Main St., where they shut the streets down and let kids come trick or treat.  And I think every kid in town was there.  It was basically one long line through all of downtown.  The stores (just some, not all) would be out front of their stores and give out candy.  It was interesting.   The good thing was you could see people’s costumes.  Lindy started getting tired and whiney after awhile but it really was a night of standing in line.  The highlight for Lindy was seeing some blood hound dogs that were there.  Lindy said I shouldn’t sleep with a bloodhound because they snore loud.  The owner told her she was right!  I’m not sure we’ll do it again.  We headed home and at my request, we hit up some houses that still had lights on.  They didn’t get a ton, and honestly it was cheap candy (because they have to buy so much) at the downtown thing.  They got better candy on our block – even scoring a full sized candy bar from one house!  Total winner of the  night!   At another house there was a dog at the door and she asked the owner if it was a Beagle.  The girl has studied her dogs!  After sorting their candy, they headed to bed. 

My extra hour of sleep was kind of ruined by staying up to watch the Royals come from behind in Game 4 to win.  The World Series times are killing me! 

Today we had church and then I went grocery shopping.  It was raining so it was a good day to stay inside and play.  And get groceries to eat for the month.

Pictures from Halloween 2015.  Meet our pumpkins and let me introduce you to Yoshi (from Super Mario brothers) and the Dalmatian Guide Dog.

This girl loved the pumpkin guts
This guy – not so much!

Who is that big boy carving his own pumpkin??
Teamwork

Finished products!
The L she carved

They were giving out the funniest hats at the football game Friday night!  How cute are these?


A Dalmatian and Yoshi

In character mode!


Our Dalmatian guide dog


The Yosh!


Trick or treating at church
Lindy and the bloodhound
Examining the haul!  With the prized possession!

Fall Fun

Another week and we’re inching towards the end of October.

Last week held a family advisory council meeting for me at Brenner Children’s Hospital.  We got to meet the new super cool robot they recently got and we got to tour the PICU.  The PICU looked great – nice and bright.  I just hope we never have to see the inside because we have a child there. 

The rest of the week was our usual humdrum of activity.  The week was spent rooting the KC Royals on to victory and the World Series!  Thankfully there were a couple late afternoon games.  Lindy started in with a running/stuffed up nose (only she could do it at the same time) so Lindy and I stayed home Friday to watch the Royals.  We also went to Target to check out all the Paw Patrol toys.  We definitely got her Xmas list started.  Drew and Will headed to the Wake Forest Soccer game and cheered them on to a victory over Notre Dame.  It ended up being a good sports night for both our teams as the Royals pulled out a win and are headed to the World Series!

Saturday was another busy day – aren’t they all.  Wake Forest had a football game at noon so Drew and Lindy headed out to tailgate before the game.  Will had tennis lessons that we headed to and then we headed to the football game.  We got there half way through the first quarter and Wake was already down two touchdowns.  The game wasn’t too pretty but the afternoon was.  It was a beautiful fall afternoon to be at a game – no matter the final outcome of the game. 

Sunday we had church and then we headed out to a new corn maze.  We’ve gone to a corn maze every year since 2010 but we’ve always had to go out of town because we didn’t have a local one.  This year the Children’s Home in Winston-Salem did a corn maze so we stayed local to check it out.  It was one of the more difficult corn mazes we’ve ever done.  The questions they gave you that were supposed to give directions were practically useless and the map was too confusing, except for Drew who finally had to take over and lead us out.  Will walked the whole way and Lindy walked about half way.  There were random hills in the maze which were surprising! The kids had fun doing all the fall activities out there.  Lindy loved the corn pit and Will liked the big slides and apple cannon.  It turned out to be a beautiful –if not a bit hot – afternoon.  We had a hankering for breakfast for dinner afterwards so after trying 3 different restaurants which were all closed, we headed to IHOP and then home.

Pictures of our weekend fun are below.

Cute girl in a cute outfit!

With her cute puppy!

My friend Brian passed on another cheerleading outfit for Lindy so she was decked out for the game Saturday.
At the pumpkin patch/corn maze on Sunday afternoon.

Lindy and her friend, Sparky, at the game.  They have sat behind us for years at the Wake games and they had a baby girl last January. 
IHOP has wiki sticks as a kids activities.  Super cool and kept them busy for a long time.