All That is Halloween

On Sunday our church hosted their annual Harvest Festival. It was lots of fun hanging out with old friends!! On Monday evening (Halloween) we headed over to our favorite red headed family's home for some pizza and then it was off to trick or treat! Here are some photos representing what we did-enjoy!

Jason Crout- aka "Luke Skywalker"

Nathan Crout- aka "Mexican wrestler?"

The boys at the Harvest Festival

"Pie The Pastor"
best $5 I spent! I got Rob smack dab in the face!!

Julie and Melissa- best friends!

Pickle is rockin' the mouse!!

Big & little- best buds!!

Livianne- 8 weeks old!

Dan with the "littles"- so cute!!

Nathan's bloody mask-
too scary for church and the little kids!

Claire and Nate

The Trick or Treat Crew 2011

Bags FULL of candy- yum!!

Nathan sorting out his spoils!!

Friends are Friends Forever!!

A dear friend from church moved to England over 2 years ago and is in town for a visit with her family. Our girl's night has been on the calendar for months and it finally came!

We met Sharon at On The Border (just don't get good Mexican for a good price in Great Britain). We stuffed ourselves on chips, salsa, tortillas and tortilla soup! We laughed, shared and had just a grand time.

Julie & Betsy

After dinner we walked over to Old Navy for some retail therapy and then headed to Dairy Queen for our traditional Blizzard. It was a fun night to say the least!!

Sharon & Julie- shop, shop, shop!!

Dairy Queen-
love the bright light!

Brywood Pizza Night

During Red Ribbon week the Irvine Police Department delivers pizzas as a fund raiser. My sweet neighbor coordinated for our community to have a little party and to put our orders together. I think since we were such a large group we were visited by a fire engine and a police car, plus a DARE truck. Their lights were flashing and their sirens were blaring. It was quite exciting. The officers were great and so happy to be out there passing out yummy food (Thank you Northwood Pizza)
They came to our community pool where we ate our food and some of the kids even swam. Surprisingly the air was warm and the pool was warmer. I let the boys jump in with their clothes and they thought that was crazy and fun too.

Nathan "falls"

Go Jason!
The thing I enjoyed the most was sitting around with my neighbors and having a really great time! We are always waving hello and goodbye as we are coming and going from our houses, but we rarely get to just hang out. We are so blessed to have such wonderful neighbors!!

Pumpkin Time

This year I let the boys do most of the carving themselves. There was no drawing on the pumpkins beforehand. I did gut the pumpkins and cleaned them for them, but Nathan did all of his work. Jason needed a little help with his face, but it was all his idea!

All in all- it was another fun pumpkin carving experience!

Walk To School Day

This week in Irvine is RED Ribbon Week. What is that you ask? Red Ribbon Week is all about teaching the kids to make healthy choices for their bodies (ie. NO DRUGS OR ALCOHOL). There are fun theme days and all week long the kids bring pennies for "Pennies for Prevention". We saved up our pennies all summer long and finally brought them to school!
Today was walk to school day! Now, we walk to school everyday so it seems silly to drive to a park to then walk to school from there, but the boys REALLY wanted to be a part of their school spirit. Two elementary schools plus our local jr. high were represented at Northwood Community Park (aka-Castle Park) at 7:15am- yes, you read correctly- 7:15am. Dan ended up taking the car to work so we ended up walking all the way to the park and then walking from the park to school. We were tired and cold, but it was a great way to start the day!!

Unfortunately as we were crossing our last street to get to the park, Nathan tripped and fell right on his forehead (SMACK- I heard him hit the concrete). So, he cried the last steps to the park and thankfully a first aid kit was near by (Thanks Mr. Maynard).
To makes things even better, tomorrow is picture day!! Why is it that before a family photo shoot or the school photo someone ends up getting a boo boo on their face? CHEESE!!

Glasses?

Well, it was inevitable! Nathan is going to need glasses. Hey, I am just stoked that it took till 3rd grade and not Kinder like me or 1st like Dan. The teacher must have requested that his eyes get checked because he had a special eye exam at school today- and yes, he failed the long distance portion of the exam. "Mom, the nurse put the paper on the other side of the room and the letters looked liked dots."

Looking back I can see evidence that he wasn't seeing as well as he should be, but I am glad we are getting it taken care of now. Unfortunately the earliest eye appointment is in two weeks.

Tonight Dan and Nathan were watching an old anime cartoon called "Robotech" and Dan let Nathan borrow his extra pair of glasses- and they helped!! Lately when he is watching a show on the weekends, he is always sitting up close- duh, it didn't dawn on me that he couldn't see. I would just keep telling him to move back- poor kid!
He is excited to get the glasses and nervous too. I think he will be able to stay on task EVEN better in class once he can see what is on the board clearly (and he already sits in the front row). Thank you Harry Potter for making glasses cool. I was teased so badly for having glasses, but now so many of our friends wear them and they are definitely hip now!!

"Friend"ship

Nathan had his first oral presentation assignment for first grade. It was on friendship- what does it mean to you and why? They also had to do a poster illustrating friendship. Nathan really wanted to make a friend ship. I helped print the photos, but he placed the photos, did the drawing (I did help color since he used colored pencils and they take forever).
He also thought of the words that mean friendship to him- kindness, respect, love, playful, talk, hang out, share and fun!
The poster turned out great and I hear from his teacher that his oral presentation went well too!

Way to go Nate!!

A Practically Perfect Day

Today has been an amazing day. I don't have any pictures, but have great memories.

The perfection started this morning when Dan and I got to sleep in and the boys took the dog for her morning walk. After waking up I finished a great book I was reading. We then took off on our bikes and headed the The District to see The Lion King in 3D. I could have done without the 3D part, but the movie is amazing still. As Dan said, "it is timeless". It still brings tears to our eyes and it was cool to see it with the boys on the big screen.

After lunch at 5 Guys we enjoyed some live music while the kids ran around. We had a nice ride home (9 miles total) despite Jason running into the Bus stop and falling over. When we got home I took the dog for a nice walk and just enjoyed the sights and sounds of this beautiful Fall day.

Really, what can be better here on this earth than a day with your family?