Halloween Happenings and Cru’s Celebrations

The week started off with Halloween parties at school and trick-or-treats around the neighborhood and ended with a birthday party for Cru on Saturday followed by Finnley’s baby blessing and Cru’s baptism on Sunday.

We all had a full day Monday with activities at Las Posas School. While the kids had a costume parade, Mike and Hallie (the room parents) got last-minute supplies together for the kids’ parties. Mike was so enthusiastic to get things started that he got to Eliza’s class an hour early (oops!). We had Eliza’s party first then Landon’s a little while later. Both groups of kids and their parents had fun. Hopefully we didn’t disrupt the instructional day too much! On top of it all, the parents still had normal business to do, such as crossing guard duty for Hallie.

After school, Landon had a shortened gymnastics session, and then Dad took the kids trick-or-treating while Mom passed out candies. Mom said she enjoyed her time passing out candy as she was beat after her full day of Halloween festivities. We saw several families we know from school. We have lived here nearly 2 ½ years, and who knew there were other kids that went to our school in our complex? Funny how it takes little minions begging for candy door-to-door to find this out.

On Tuesday, we started the day with Kinder Eggs and then had a pretty normal day considering everybody had a candy-induced Halloween hangover (it could have been worse – no one got sick, but Landon had a stash of goodies in his bedroom). Hallie said this day should really be called the Day of the Dead because that is how she felt the next day. Both kids had gymnastics in the afternoon, and Landon has said things are getting harder in gymnastics.

It was a very warm day Wednesday. If the kids could pick up the clothes in their room Hallie was going to take them to the beach. Well, it didn’t happen so no beach, but we did cap off the day with our fire pit in the evening. We had s’mores with some of the Halloween candy and tried out Strawberry/Vanilla marshmallows. Hallie usually likes burnt marshmallows, but not this time. Kind of yucky.

Mike has used Chatbooks to create some photobooks of Instagram and Facebook pics of Landon’s and Eliza’s adventures over the past several years. He wanted all these fun digital pics to exist in the real world. The 5-by-5 inch photos have arrived, and Mike put up several of them in his office. They add a lot of fun and color!

Thursday and Friday were a lot of “normal” days. Work, school, gymnastics. Friday night we had our regular pizza and a movie. It was Mom’s turn to pick out the movie, and she chose Matilda. Let's hope the kids don't get any ideas. . . .

On Saturday, Landon went to gymnastics, Hallie got her nails done, and Mike and Eliza had daddy daughter time in the morning. We baked cookies! From a box. Eliza enjoyed mixing and scooping, so that’s what matters.

The stinkin' mouse, who apparently no longer lives at our house according to the exterminator, got to Mike's Birkenstocks before it left. Grr.

In the afternoon, we went to Lindero Country Club in Westlake for Cru’s birthday party. The kids played foot golf on a portion of the golf course especially set aside for use with soccer balls. Landon got the low score in his group. Go him! The kids saw several friends from gymnastics who Cru also knows.

We felt glad to have the extra hour with the return to Standard Time to get ready for the day Sunday. We ended up waking up early when Eliza came crawling into bed. We spent time in Thousand Oaks celebrating Hopkins family milestones. After Hallie got home from choir practice, we went to Carly and Shad’s ward and participated in Finnley’s baby blessing. Eliza’s nurturing instinct has really come out with Finnley. Every time she sees the baby, she wants to hold her. She’s very gentle.

After church and early dinner, we went to the TO stake center for Cru’s baptism. Hallie gave a talk on the Holy Ghost with lots of visual aids to give to Cru as part of his birthday present. Congratulations, Cru!  

The kids had such a full day that they both fell asleep in the car on the way home. For Landon, this is rare indeed.

(Post script: Both kids decided that they should wake in the night just to make sure Mom and Dad did not get a full 8 hours of sleep. Thanks guys!)