Halloween 2018

Where to begin?!?!  Well I should give a quick Madden update seeing that he is now in costume.  At the 11th hour, after Jake and I told ourselves we were going to stick to our guns and not allow him to dictate on when and when he doesn't go to school....we broke.  Yes, when we were all getting our costumes on and our make up done, we came up with an alternative punishment for him and he had a choice to make.  Either stick with the original plan of no Halloween and one week of no screen time, or get to dress in your costume, only pass out candy, still no trick or treating but it will be two weeks of no screen time.  Well from the photo you can see he went with the option number two, which we were really grateful about.  It would of been heartbreaking to not have him participating in all the Halloween fun.  

Viking warriors was an idea I'm pretty sure I came up with on November 1st, 2017.   I'm pretty sure I slowly started planting the seed in the whole families mind throughout the year and once I found the costumes and showed the kids they were in.  The weapon is what sold Madden on the idea.  When the costumes arrived I was definitely underwhelmed by them.  We took scissors and made alterations to the kids costumes to make the more authentic.  The icing on our whole look was of course the make up.  Rochelle was so sweet to come over and turn us into real warriors.  This could be our best year yet in the whole costume game!!

Skylar, Brooke, and Madden.

Sticking to the deal of no trick or treating, Madden and I stayed back and passed out candy while Skylar and Jake headed up to the Rossittos for dinner before hitting the streets.

Viking Warrior and Lady Gaga.

Trick or Treat.

Madden and I got our first trick or treater a little after 5:00 PM and it honestly never slowed down for what felt like more than 20-30 seconds.  The crowds of people where wild.  There was a constant stream of people walking up our stairs for two and half hours straight.  I remember last year worrying that I was going to run out of candy so this year I made sure to only give out 1 piece per person.  And yes I have to say person, because its not just kids trick or treating, its adults; which annoys me more than anything in this world, but I won't get into now.  So Madden and I passed out one piece of candy per person and we started with a total of 1238 pieces of candy.  By 7:30 PM we were completely tapped out of candy.  I was shocked, I never thought we would run out before 8:00 PM.  It's so fun to for us to pass out candy and have friends come up, that truly is the best part of the whole evening.  This year Skylar and Madden had VIP candy (full sized candy bars) set aside for their friends who came by.  

All night we received a ton of compliments on our house decorations and our costumes.  It was a rough day, starting off with Madden's epic meltdown but it definitely ended in a ton of fun and excitement for all.

Harvest Parade 2018

Definitely no better way to kick off the Halloween Day fun and excitement than the annual Harvest Parade at school.  All the kids marching through each class room showing off their Halloween costume to each other brings them so much joy.  Skylar not wanting to wear her costume for Halloween night, went with the Elf on the Shelf costume from last years Christmas card.  She was the only Elf in the whole school that day.

Madeline and Skylar.

Sydney, Sage, Skylar and Madeline

Aubrey, Ivy, Emma, Madeline and Skylar

Mrs. Fullers 3rd Grade Class. 

Skylar had a great time in the parade and her class had a little halloween craft/game party where I got to host the charades game.  It was a great day at school for her, unlike someone else.....

As you can see from all the photos and videos of the parade, Madden is no way to be found.  Sadly, Madden woke up on the complete WRONG SIDE of the bed and after getting upset about what chair he wanted to sit in for breakfast and which cartoon wasn't on he lost grip and refused to go to school.  We begged and pleaded with him all day to go to school.  Telling him he was going to have a party in his class where he would be able to eat candy and donuts and being the stubborn child he is, he refused to go.  As a result Halloween was completely taken away from him.  No trick or treating, not dressing in costume, not youtube or minecraft for a week.  More to come in the next post about all that.

Field Trip to Bates Nut Farm

It has been a couple of years since our last trip out to Bates Nut Farm.  It was an annual thing for us but once the kids started full time school, we just never made it out there.  Lucky for us, Madden's class had a field trip to Bates so we were excited to check it out again.  All the first grade classes came on the field trip.  There was a big pumpkin presentation that was given to the kids, we all rode the tractor, the kids ran a muck in the corn maze and then they got to pick out a pumpkin to bring home.  It was a very successful pumpkin patch trip for these little first graders.

Madden, Andrew, and Justin.

William, Madden, and Ando.

He told me he wanted to do a a snow angel in the pumpkins.

Pumpkin Patch

I must admit that the last couple of years my Pumpkin Patch game has gotten really bad.  I don't know if it has to do with the kids just getting older or what, but I haven't really made it much of a priority during this time of year.  Halloween is only a week away and I still haven't picked up any pumpkins for the house yet.  I know, its pretty sad!!  Luckily we did make it do one of the patches near our house.  It's a pretty small one, but we met up with Stella and Izzie one afternoon after dance and let the kids run around.  They had fun racing up the haystacks and check out the pumpkins.  We all did the enormous corn maze they have there that is 1.5 miles long.  I never thought we would make it out, but after 45 minutes we were able to find the entrance of the maze and decided to call it a day. 

September 2018

I finally got to live a life long dream by eating at the Max from Saved by the Bell.  I grew up on Saved by the Bell, watching every Saturday morning as a kid.  When they opened up a pop-up restaurant after The Max I knew I had to make a reservation and go.  

At Poinsettia 1st Annual Pancake Breakfast!  

These three have been together non-stop since school started.  They have been begging for a sleep over so we finally made it happen.  Lucy hosted the girls at her house where they did spa treatments, went tee-peeing for the first time ever (they got caught though...haha), and planned to wake up at 3:00 am.  Luckily Lisa turned their alarm off.

We are half way through soccer season and its been a blast.  Skylar's team is 5-0 right now and are playing so hard.  Madden is doing great.  Last week he scored 6 goals in one game.  

Catalina Saltwater Swim

OMG!! I can't believe I did want I did in Catalina Island.  So several months back a group of my swim friends mentioned putting together a fun ocean swim in Catalina.  Once I heard it I was totally in.  I love swimming and I wanted to do something to challenge myself.  I swim 3 to 4 days a week so I knew the physical part of the swim I could handle, for me it was all going to be a mental challenge.  With the swim coming up within months/weeks I started getting really nervous and wanted to back out so bad.  I kept trying to come up with excuses, but Jake wouldn't listen.  He told me I was doing it and he and the kids were going to be there to cheer me on.  Jake was so supportive and leading up to it he keep telling me how I had to swim in the ocean at least one before the swim.  Yes I have never really swam in the ocean besides jumping in the waves for fun.  Finally 5 days before the big swim in Catalina one of my friends got me down to La Jolla cove and I did my first ocean swim.  I finished that two mile swim hating it!! I was so scared, the waves were rough that day, and the water was so dark and murky I didn't see any enjoyment in it.  But I told myself I survived this, I can survive Catalina and I never have to go into the ocean again after that.

The day of Catalina I was full of nerves.  I honestly hadn't felt that much anxiety in a lot time, but once I got on the boat to head over I started to relax...thank goodness.  I think being around the amazing positive energy that my swim friends have helped.  The kids were so excited to be on a boat.  They loved ever minute of the ride over and we even saw a whale, which was extra exciting.

Once we got to Catalina we dropped our bags of in the room and all headed to a nice dinner together.

Breakfast of champions before moms big swim.  

Surprisingly the morning of the swim I felt good.  I had been telling myself I was only going to do the two miles loop, but that morning I felt like I could do three no problem.  Having the kids and Jake also made me less nervous and when the whistle blew I was ready to go.  The water temperature couldn't of been better and the water was so clear that I could see everything underneath me.  

I swam in a group with my friends Nicole and Mike.  We stopped for a could minutes at each mile marker.  Got a couple jelly fish stings, but kept swimming on.  In the end I swam 3.3 miles in 1 hour and 25 minutes and surprisingly I enjoyed it the whole time.  When I was swimming in the kids were in the water cheering me on. 

I was pretty proud of myself in the end!

After the swim we hung out on Descano Beach for a while and then took the kids to the jumpy in the middle of the bay. 

That evening we had a wonderful potluck dinner at the host of the swims house to celebrate everyone's hard swim.  We are already planning on making it a yearly event and I plan on beating my time.

Side note:  Madden won a couple mustaches at the local arcade that he had to wear during the trip...haha!