More Birthday and Some Early Halloween Festivities

Birthday celebrations for Landon continued this week. While he was at school, Mike put together some storage units and stocked them with thousands of LEGO bricks.

Each drawer is labeled with a different color or type. Hallie got the idea from a couple of blogs she reads. 

Mike got a chance to see Landon at karate on Monday.

On Tuesday, we took the birthday boy out to lunch at Smashburger. We let him open his gifts there, and he treated the other customers to an impromptu guitar recital.

He got the crown from his friends at preschool. 

The new Leo. He is a lavender scented toy from Scentsy.

Afterwards, Mike watched Eliza at her speech therapy session at Kaufman. She has made huge strides and is now routinely using one and two word combinations such as “Mommy up!” when it’s time to get out of bed and “I too [my turn]” when she wants her turn. She loves to help clean up and has a very clear sense of what she wants, which lately means her pacifier and a blanket (she will climb all the way upstairs to her room to get them). She will let us know when she needs a nap and when she wants something to eat with both words and gestures.

Hallie took Landon trick-or-treating for a Mom’s Club activity.

Eliza had a Halloween parade on Friday. 

Later that evening, Mike and Hallie celebrated the 14th anniversary of when they first met. We got home at about 8:30 and couldn’t keep ourselves awake to watch the movie we rented. Maybe it’s because we’ve been staying up late watching baseball and making Secret Santa handycrafts (we gotta get started early—the holidays will be here before you know it!).

We had made plans for Saturday morning, but neither parent was feeling well, and the weather was gloomy, so we ended up putzing around the house. By the afternoon, we’d had enough of each other, so Mike ventured out into the chilly fall with the kids. He persuaded Landon and Owen that raking leaves was play, not work. They pretended the leaves were Halloween candy they were hoarding.

We had our branch Halloween party at church in the late afternoon. Eliza, who earlier had dressed festively, suddenly had a meltdown when we tried to dress her up as a frog. She went in her onesie and leggings as a little fluffy cloud instead. Landon dressed as a pirate again, and Mike had the sudden inspiration to use his tan trench coat and fedora and dress as a hard boiled private detective. He was aiming for this:

But more people asked him if he was this:

 or this:

 or even this:

Hmph. At least he dressed up.

On Sunday, Landon sang and Hallie directed our branch’s Primary program at church. The kids sang beautifully, and Hallie is glad the program is over for another year.

Our little diva ready to brave the elements in her hounds-tooth frock. Tres chic!

Landon kept asking questions this week about what would happen if lots of toilet paper were flushed down the toilet. Well, he found out when the downstairs toilet began to overflow and leak through the wood floor into the subfloor and down into the basement. Could have been worse, but we hope Landon has now learned firsthand what happens when you stuff the toilet. Grr.

We have let Landon stay up a little later than normal to watch the World Series. We stayed up to watch a disappointing end to a great post season. Oh, well. Better luck next year.