Halloween Parties!

I was in charge of the Halloween parties for Mackayla's preschool and Cody's class.

They fell on the same day, but luckily one right after the other.

 Here's the cute preschoolers when they first got to school.

Of course their costumes were ditched after the first half hour.

We decorated pumpkin cookies ate frosting off knives, pounded tees into pumpkins, searched for pumpkin seeds in sand with tweezers, played at the park. 

Preschoolers are so happy with cute little things!

 Cody's class decorated cookies, painted pumpkins, colored witches, and were supposed to do the cutest story writing center. (The woman in charge of it couldn't for the life of her figure it out!)

 This little girl was my shadow for the next couple hours. Every time I made a move she was right next to me.

 Then we went outside and had a "potato sack" race with garbage bags. Cody was first in his line and immediately punched holes through the bottom so he could just run. Cheater! Smart though, I would've done it! Then they had to get candy corn on a spoon and run them over to a cup to fill.

I felt a little twinge of sadness for Macey, who lives for friends and parties, and the only thing she did was color a pumpkin after solving all the math problems on the page. It's fine, it's school, and that's life. I saved her some cookies though!

Fall Soccer

Cody had a great season of soccer.

We originally signed him up to play football and his registration was messed up and he was left with nothing. It's fine, but it was frustrating because in Orange County if you want to play something mainstream you sign up months and months in advance because there's so blasted many people. This left us with no options after that, because everything was full. 

Anyway, it's all good. One of Cody's friend's mom was coaching and a player dropped from her team and she added Cody. We are so grateful. She was a great coach, and in her words "their team may not have won many games, but they are going to have a killer after party!" They were fun good boys who didn't lose sight of the point of these games: fun! (sometimes some parents forget that!)

 Cody decided he also loved playing goalie and he did great at that

 He was one of two players chosen from his team for an All Star team put together after the season. He was so excited! Unfortunately, half of the games are played on Sunday, so we had to turn it down. Such a bummer.

A few October Things

October flew by in a huge blur of lessons, practice, volunteering, homework, and appointments. And now I'm not going to remember details about all this, but at least I have pictures to know some of it happened:)

We made Mackayla a "brave" chart for doing anything out of her comfort zone.

She finally filled it this month and her and I went out for ice cream after dance to celebrate!

Cody's class sang the school song in their Friday flag ceremony so he really wanted me to come watch. Which meant we had to get ready and run to school. Macey rode her bike and Cody rode his scooter and that seemed like a brilliant idea while I jogged beside them with the stroller. Until I had to turn around and take it all home.

 Halloween costumes came out early and the kids changed costume ideas several times.

 

Our fireplace was decorated with Halloween stuff - but not so cute and fancy that you can't tell I did it!

Carving pumpkins and getting booed on the same night worked out well!   

 We Finally went to a pumpkin patch that Macey has been asking to go to for two years. We did just a couple things there, and it quenched her curiosity for this place. It's called a pumpkin patch, but it's in a parking lot!

  

 Not long after that Mackayla had a preschool field trip to a pumpkin patch in Irvine.

 There's also a little zoo by the pumpkin patch. It's only $2 but they have quite a few animals -mountain lions, bears, snakes, etc., and a petting zoo.

 And I finally got a new rug. It's amazing how such a small thing makes me happy. It's NOT brown!

Grandma Bonnie and Birthdays

Grandma Bonnie came a few weeks ago.

We definitely made it to the beach and pool, it was a blazing hot week!

I always seem to have random places I would love to visit and she is always up for an adventure, so right as I picked her up from the airport we went to the Packing District to try some of their eclectic food. And we got some of the best gummy bears in the world. From what I hear it's usually really crowded but not on a random weekday morning. 

We went to Montage and Salt Creek Beaches. Waves were kind of big this week.

I turned another year older, woohoo. Birthdays are great, but so much less iconic now.

We had Blueberry Breakfast Cake for cake, and, for breakfast.

I tried thinking of several other things to call it so it wasn't cake for breakfast but it's not really a bar, or a breakfast square. It's cake for breakfast. Blueberries and lemons are in it, though. That's good.

 

The best part of my birthday was going on a date with Ben.

Bonnie was nice enough to watch the kids while

we went paddleboarding in Newport Beach.

It was only $10/person for 2 hours at American Junkie,
and then swimming at the beach

And such a fun date!!!

I didn't take any pictures, this is from Ben. It was just so nice to not have to carry anything, that I didn't!

We always love having Grandma Bonnie come spend time!