Halloween

Because of the pandemic, Halloween trick or treating has been divisive. The city "strongly discouraged" it but I knew many people wouldn't heed their advice. I mean, if there is one holiday made for social distancing, being outside, and wearing masks, it is Halloween. Plus, kids are the lowest risk group of all age groups. Some people chose not to participate. Some made modifications, like a candy chute or pre-bagged candy on a table but many still did it the old fashioned way. I knew our neighborhood would be one to still participate. Lets give our kids some sense of normalcy as they have already missed out on SO much this year. 

Anyway, Brendan has been wanting to be a plague doctor for Halloween for a while now. He thinks it's funny given the circumstances. He wanted to stay behind and hand out candy.

Here is our Greek girl. She gets frustrated that so many people don't know who Helen of Troy is. Lame.

And Eva was a zombie with a mask (which I find amusing). I told them that they needed to find costumes we already had since I wasn't even sure trick-or-treating was actually happening until recently.

Darby decided that tonight she would be a doctor since the white coat is multi-purpose and she would wear a mask. 

Jason put on the sloth costume and started to hand out, I mean, throw, candy at kids. Its his favorite thing to do.

Here is our neighborhood. Some people go all out for Halloween. There were really creepy decorations at some houses. These two disturbing looking dead twins were memorable. 

It was a pretty good haul for one night. One house even gave full-size candy bars. I think that was an incentive for those who rebelled against the city's direction and let the kids have little fun. :)

 We finished the night by watching Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow and eating too much candy. 

Trunk or Treat

Our ward was able to have a Trunk or Treat this year. The kids were excited. Here is my crew. 

Darby was a scientist (she thought of it since she had been wearing masks lately anyway) and Paige was Helen of Troy.

Jason's heavy metal rocker/deadbeat who lives in his parents' basement/trucker/whatever he is costume made the kids squeal. They hated the wig and said he scarred them for life. Ha!

Eva was dressed up with the Young Women since they were handing out candy together. Each of them had an M&M shirt that Sister Brink made. SO cute!!

The trunks were great and the event was well attended. There were modifications due to COVID 19 (like the first part of the activity was a drive-through for those who didn't want to be in a crowd) but it went really well. 

The funniest was the Primary President's trunk. She had gravestones alluding to all the things that we missed in 202 due to the pandemic - Primary Program, Girls Camp, stake activities, choir and even your sanity. Hahaha!

 It is the first ward activity we have had since the Christmas party last year. People were dying to see their friends. After the drive-through, regular trick or treating began. It was so fun to see all the kids in costumes. I missed these people!

Carving Pumpkins

We carved the pumpkins we got at Gillis Hill today for FHE. The girls each painted their pumpkins and Jason carved our big pumpkin.

The kids loved the roasted seeds from last year so they were careful to separate the seeds from the pulp and let them dry so I could roast them tomorrow. 

Paige thinks it feels gross.

Eva's pumpkin is a cute little witch girl. 

Darby painted a zombie face with a mask on. Hahaha.

And Paige's pumpkin looked so much like a snake in a basket (that's why she chose it in the first place) that she painted it black with glowing eyes.

It was decided that this year we would have an Eye of Sauron pumpkin. It took some careful planning but Jason was determined. 

Isn't it awesome? It looks especially cool with the red light.

Here is our Halloween porch. 

 

Cornfield Maze 2020

It's cornfield maze time I look forward to this tradition every year. We are so grateful that some farms are still doing it even with restrictions. Since it is outside that is probably why they can. We went to the closest one to us - Gillis Hill Farms. It is the farm we go strawberry picking at as well.

First things first. We got pictures before we were too hot and sweaty. It was an unseasonably warm day for October. 

And a silly picture as well. It was super bright so those wearing glasses with tinted lenses look like sunglasses. 

There were fun things to do on the farm besides the maze. There were rubber duck races. Brendan won.

And the tire mound to climb on. Also, there was a bouncy pad that even Jason couldn't resist.

I didn't get a picture of it but they had plastic steers to "rope" with a hula hoop. Jason and I made a bet that the winner would get a foot rub from the loser. I roped both steers. ;)

Then we began the maze.  We let the kids take turns deciding which way we should go. It was so hot that they got very whiny very fast. A few of them gave up their turns and soon it was just Brendan leading. When he got frustrated, Jason took over. We found our way out shorty after. 

We did it in less than 25 minutes but it felt a lot longer with the heat (and whining children).

Then we went to pick our pumpkins. I found this big one with a flat face, perfect for what we have in mind for our jack o'lantern. 

We decided that getting ice cream would be the perfect end to the outing. The Gillis Hill Farm sells homemade ice cream from April to October so this would probably be the last time we could get it this year. We sat on the porch and eat the tasty treats. Mine was pumpkin pie and it was heavenly!

 

Water Issues

I had been working very hard on family history and catching up on the blog. The little girls asked if they could take a bath in my bathtub (it has jacuzzi jets). I said yes but didn't pay much attention to it. A long while later I went upstairs. They were still in my tub with all their toys and the floor was flooded. Sigh. I made them get out, dry off and dry my floor.

Later Paige comes to tell me, "Mom, a light is dripping in the kitchen." What? Sure enough, there was water dripping down the kitchen light fixture and pooling in the glass shade. I had to disassemble it to drain the water. The kitchen is directly below my bathroom. I can see where the caulk is wearing away at the tub base and so water from the girls' play must have seeped through the floorboard and ran into the nearest hole below, the light fixture. Sigh. We have some home repairs now.