Trick or Treat

Jac came home sick from school at noon and I thought trick-or-treating was dooooomed

Leo’s pumpkin

but fed her a sandwich (to counteract all the sugar she ate this morning 🙄) 

and it looks like she’s good to go again. Hooray!

Jac asked to be a wolf princess this year and Leo is a character from the game Call of Duty. 

Donovan is a skeleton and really loves this costume (I want his shoes…)

Matt and Mary always go big (literally) with decorations.

Jac’s little white pumpkin is now a brown unicorn. 

So artistic!

Leo used a picture as a guide but did all the carving herself. 

It’s amazing!

Pumpkin Bash

We’d planned to take “studio” pictures of the grands in costume today, but…

Since I was determined to get Halloween pix,  

Plan B became a trip to the local pumpkin patch, 

which I’m sure the kids enjoyed more anyway. 

Jac was first out of the Amazing Maze

The pumpkins were *very* picked over 

but there was something to please everyone, 

although Donovan had to pick up a couple before he found one to his liking…

and was not thrilled when his hand landed in the pumpkin guts spilling out the bottom of this one. 😜

Leo was the only one to get a big traditional orange jack o’lantern.

”Look, GramGram - if you hold it this way ⬆️ it’s a butt and if you hold it this ⬇️ way it’s a baby!”

Jac tried out a few that were small or fancy 

before settling on this all white one that cradled well in her arms. 

Photo bomb!

The biggest surprise though? Donovan spotted this little striped cutie and his search was immediately over.

I love how different their choices are. 

Donovan discovered he loves Dr. Pepper, especially when it belongs to Sissy…

Happy Halloween!

Rule of 3

It’s a rule, right? Three related things happen and you’re done. Firm rule, no takesie backsies…

Doorman, er bunny 

Over 10 days, we’ve experienced kidney stones, cataract surgery and a 36-hour hospital stay for chest pains. (Surgery scheduled for mid-November; eye is improving; lots of tests with negative results is good… may need a couple more…)

Good news is that Los Robles Hospital is much nicer - facility and people - than Pleasant Valley. At least we know where to go now…. 

Halloweeeeeeen!

We’re a bit behind with decorating this year - 

too much other stuff going on -

but Jaclyn begged Pop to let her help put up the Halloween stuff.

So while I made a sweet reward (German pancakes are always a winner)

the two of them got the inside decorated Friday 

and the outside done today,

including 2 (3?) trips to the hardware store. 

It’s starting to feel trick-or-treatish!

Cyborg

I made it to … let’s just say ‘a bunch’ of years old before body parts started to need replacing.

My eyeball having its own serial # makes me officially a cyborg, right?

Cataract surgery went well and took about 15 minutes from OR wheel-in to wheel-out. Tomorrow’s follow up with the ophthalmologist should give an idea of how successful this is going to be. And then it’s on to the left eye… maybe in January? Or sooner? A lot will depend on how differently the two eyes see now (the left was much worse for double vision) and if my brain can process things. Should be interesting!

Experiments

Jac raced through two days of math homework - 

“we didn’t have time to do it at my mom’s house yesterday”- 

so she could work on her “experiments” with some leaves she brought from school.

She talked all the way home about growing up to become a scientist and getting to ‘experiment’ all day, every day.

Donovan had No! Interest! at first but Jac’s enthusiasm won him over. 

Plus, who can resist food coloring, baking soda and vinegar?? 

KaBOOM!

Visit Fail

My niece Lacey, James and the lovely Gemma came for a long-planned visit today

Gemma doesn’t like camping so she hides out in the van.

so these two helped me make Medieval Times Tomato Soup* (so good! Recipe here.)

to go with the bread I made last night. (Fast and easy recipe here. I sub garlic salt for the regular salt.)

Jac was in charge of stirring and adding sprinkles of spices - “A little more sea salt… and a bit of that leafy stuff…” -

while Leia tried out the new immersion blender (so cool!)

Then we settled down for a nice afternoon chat and… hubby got a kidney stone. So he and I spent the next 4 hours in the ER while Lacey hung out with the kids until their parents arrived. Not how I pictured the day going! I’m seriously bummed to not have had more time with one of my favorite nieces, but not as bummed as hubby who gets a follow up visit with a specialist for his very big stone. At least it didn’t happen on the cruise! Small blessings. 

* Note to self - and whoever else didn’t know that a “stalk” of celery is the entire, multiple rib package. That’s a *lot* of celery.

Snippets

Went out for lunch today and…

their windows were painted for Christmas. Halloween isn’t for another two weeks! But the poinsettias are pretty and I bet they got a good deal on the price, so 🤷🏼‍♀️(shrug). 

Jaclyn asked me to show my friends her latest vocabulary test. This is her first 100% correct test and she’s (rightfully) very pleased. Her first test of the year was -12 out of 13, so this is a big deal. 😍

The new Lexus, that we’ve had for 5 whole months, is back at the dealership AGAIN. Same problem as before, where it won’t start and the battery just clicks (or is totally dead). So tired of this…

Celebration

We put off celebrating our wedding anniversary with the family 

until we got back from our Iceland trip.

So slightly shy of a month late, 

we packed up the CA branch, 

along with 3 friends of Leia’s and Leo’s, 

and headed south to Medieval Times in Buena Park.

We wanted something that would be fun for everyone 

and this definitely fit the bill. 

Horses - check. 

Dress up - check. 

Medieval, sword fighting, Star Wars princess

Sword fights - check. 

Knights and 

princesses - check. 

Plus the food was decent (the tomato soup dragon’s blood soup is a family favorite)

and the 2 hour show was entertaining,

especially the part where our Blue Knight tossed TWO flowers to a very thrilled Jaclyn. 

Mary, Cheyenne and Donovan had never been, 

and Jac was too little the last time to remember it, 

Skeleton Man (if Jac was going in costume/dress-up, so was Donovan!)

so that made it even more fun.

If you’re interested in going, their website offers a 15% discount (currently)

and if you have a group of 15 or more, it’s even cheaper… it cost less to take 15 people at the group rate than 12 at the 15% off price.