Falloween Party, part 2

As crazy as it sounds to have a party during deployment, it really was fun.  The kids helped me with everything; from planning to cleaning the house to scooping the poop and taking care of the dog to prepping the food.  It ended up being a really great day and I'm so thankful for church friends to come to our little shindig.  My goal for the day was to enjoy some treats and be done with the sugar.

The kids jumped right into the games.

The boys face painting:

Ben painted Colin's face:

 

Alison, Aline and Alison:

Alison was the most excited about bobbing for apples.

Meredith and baby Katherine:

All the kids eating dinner:

 

So, remember how Fourth of July was HUGE in Michigan?  Yea, Halloween is HUGE in Arizona.  I did not know.  I was unprepared.  I thought our neighborhood would be quiet since there are no kids and our light was turned off.  Completely wrong.  All of the sudden, Eli came to me and said that he opened the door for some trick-or-treaters and gave them some tootsie rolls.  Then, all of the sudden, the kids were handing out all of our candy, plus the fruit snacks in our pantry, to the swarms of kids walking down the street.  SWARMS. When Ivan picked up Alison from the party, he said that he could barely get down our street and informed me that this is the neighborhood everyone comes to because it's safe and they give out good candy.  Yea for safe, not yea for swarms of kids coming to my dark house.  My Alison finally put a sign on the door saying we were out of candy.

All of our kids passing out candy: 

My other goal was to party instead of trick-or-treating but once they saw the massive amount of kids in the streets, it was too hard to resist.  So after a major safety talk, Brian took all the kids around the block and I enjoyed every minute of quiet while they were gone.  Colin came back and said, "Look at the candy I got!  AND I didn't get lost!"

The kids each got about 20 pieces of candy and spent the rest of the time sorting and trading candy.  It was enough to be fun and be gone quickly, so it still met my goal.

Tolson and Colin lined their candy up to count and compare:

 

All the kids:

The success for me came with Eli that night.  He struggles with talking, it's true and Brian will consistently try to draw him out.  Before trick-or-treating, Eli had to agree that he would talk if he went with Mr. White and he did.  Then, before leaving, Brian took his hand and asked him to look him in the eyes and asked if he would like to come to the station (he's a border patrol officer) and see all his weapons.  Eli answered him while looking in his eyes and when the door shut, Eli said, "I did it! Can I really go?!"  He was so proud of himself and I am so thankful to have people in our life that will help our kids in ways that we can't.

And, guess what?!  It's November!!!

Falloween Party

I think it's funny that my Halloween story is going to require 2 posts, but here we go.

I've wanted Halloween to be different for several years.  Nothing super spiritual, but because my kid's teeth cannot handle the candy (lesson learned the hard way) and I hate the constant debate about candy for months afterwards and I usually end up throwing all of the junk away.  Alison was very stressed about her costume because what she picked was hot and itchy.  For weeks, she tried creating several different things but remained stressed.  Finally, one day I told her that Halloween didn't have to be what she thinks it should be; we could do something different.  Her eyes lit up at the thought of not having to worry about a costume.  I suggested a little party instead and off she flew with plans.  We called it a Falloween Party, to focus more on fall fun with friends and she did a great job coming up with ideas.  She was still a little anxious yesterday because she wasn't sure I could pull it off.  She kept saying, "We've never had a party, momma."

First key to a party, is keeping kids busy for the day.  Eli was counting down the minutes until friends came!  So, first up, we painted spiderwebs.

 

It was in the 60's yesterday morning and I cranked open all the windows and Alison ran to bundle up.

 

The kids spent a long time at the counter, helping me prep things.

They made lollipop ghosts:

 And I realized how few craft projects I do with the boys.  Eli worked so diligently on making the ghosts:

They turned these cups into ghosts for a game:

Eli putting silverware in and Alison making signs for the food:

Colin organized the pente marbles that he destroyed...nothing to do with the party, but it kept him busy.

We peeled grapes to turn them into eyeballs:

 I made chili and Alison and Eli made cornbread:

After all that work, it was time to relax before we got all sugared up.  If Colin is going to nap, he always crashes on the red chair.  I folded laundry and the kids watched Hotel Transylvania 2.

Then we carved pumpkins.  I learned that most people here don't carve pumpkins because they wilt within a day if you do.  Eli really wants to roast the seeds, so we did anyway.  Quickly into this, I realized that 3 kids and 3 pumpkins and 1 momma doesn't go very well.  Even with the kid-friendly kits, they still need help.

They were not picture worthy results of pumpkins, but we did it and I think they had fun.  We were finally all ready for the party!

This kid's artwork:

Food ready and you can see the games set up in the living room.  We had "shoot ghosts with a nerf gun", "build a tower with candy pumpkins and toothpicks" and a ball toss into pumpkins.

Next up, party time!

Trip to the San Diego Zoo

Before I begin this post, I just have to say that my family and friends and church family have been beyond, beyond, beyond wonderful during this deployment.  THANK YOU.  Seriously, it's been amazing.

Long story short, kids get in free to the zoo in October and when I asked a friend, she said, "Let's go!".  We made a day trip out of it and it was fabulous.

Grandma sent Eli some film for an "old school" camera and he was set on taking his own pictures.

What's really funny about this picture is that Eli wouldn't get out of the stroller.  I debated about bringing it, but thought Colin might need it.  Nope, the 6 year old still wants to ride.

The zoo had some great animals!

The boys watching the hippo:

Lesson learned: always take friends with you to the zoo.  The White boys fought over who would push the stroller.  Win!

And Laurel brought this awesome wagon that the little boys could ride in.

 

More than that, the kids loved having friends there and it lessened my load of listening to questions.

boys petting a goat

All the kids:

Alison, Aline, Tolson, Eli, Colin, Jon, Ben

I'm pretty sure the boy's favorite part was the reptile house.  Colin and Tolson were laughing so loud at the ants.

I first thought of Laurel when debating about this trip because A.) I just really enjoy spending time with her and B.) We are pretty similar in a lot of things.  Those attributes made for a great trip.  Laurel is a little more adventuresome than I am (must be a thing when you have 4 kids) and when we came to this giant camel, she said, 'Here Alison, I'll hoist you up!". 

I was really impressed with all the animals we got to see and how close they were.  I read several blog posts that said the lines to see the panda's was out of control, but we didn't have to wait at all!

Looking at the Panda's:

 

We had to make a special trip to the other side of the zoo so Colin could see the elephants.
 

Aline turns 11 in a few weeks, but her and Alison get along great and have so much fun together.  Aline also understands the long leg/clothing problem so they have much to commiserate about.

Oh, the many stories I could tell of these two.  Let's just say they wore vests to evening church to go with these hats on Sunday and I had to take away guns they were playing with during worship.  Then they both looked at me in shock, like I was the crazy one for thinking gun playing during church was unacceptable.

We chose sitting on the beach over sitting in traffic and it was the best decision EVER.  Laurel and I sat and made plans about another trip.  The kids played together on that beach, so content and happy and we thought maybe if we came together, we might actually be able to read a book!

Colin stayed pretty far back from the ocean.  He was happy drawing in the sand.  This is his snowman:

We cleaned up at the car and went to Smash Burger for dinner because apparently that's where I go when I'm in San Diego.