Preston had a fun, (relatively calm – believe it or not), Halloween party at preschool today. He was so excited for it! I just have to take a mommy moment and say, he’s such a cute kid!!
Rachel did a great job of hosting it, and I think all the kids had a great time! And Kudos to Zach West who was the only dad there (which is hard for any guy :>) and ran a game, helped with everything, and wasn’t rushing to get out asap! :> Thanks to everyone that helped make it fun!
I’m not usually a “blog ranter.” In fact, it kind of drives me crazy when people rant and rave all over their blogs. But, I just have to say that I’m very sad that they don’t let kids celebrate Halloween at school anymore. (Well, at least at our school. Feel grateful if you still do at your school!) I think back to when I was a kid, and dressing up for school was the coolest thing ever! In fact, I think it was way cooler than trick or treating! And I feel bad that my kids don’t get to dress up at school for Halloween. And I think it’s so silly when they say it’s because it “takes away from instructional time.” I’ve taught school on Halloween and I guarantee you aren’t having effective instructional time on Halloween afternoon even if the kids aren’t in costumes. So, there’s my rant. I’m sad the my kids don’t get that. But, what do you do?
Luckily, the PTA did do a Halloween carnival last week, so that kind of made up for it. (Kind of). We weren’t able to stay long because we had already made dinner and temple plans with the Holmes’, but what we were there for was fun! We didn’t take many pics, but here’s one!
I cannot even begin to tell you how excited my boys were when the Medsker boys came to our door and told them that it was time again for the great pumpkin festival! My boys LOVE the Medsker boys and look up to them so much. In fact, just last week Zach prayed that he was grateful Josh was getting baptized on Halloween and he hopes Josh feels good as he comes out of the water. I thought that was so sweet! Anyway, back to the pumpkin festival – we all had a great time and are grateful to have great friends!!
Hooray for the first Halloween party of the season! We love Halloween, and were so excited to kick it off with the Oveson side of the family! Everyone got together at Mike’s parents to eat, play, and show off their costumes. The boys love getting together with their cousins! Here’s all the cousins minus our little spiderman that didn’t want to be in the picture. And you can see how happy Kyle was to be standing their for the picture:
The cookie decorating was a hit with kids and grown ups alike!
The babies didn’t decorate much, but they sure are cute!
So, I had this great idea to be Lego’s for Halloween. Well, I actually got the idea from a magazine Rachel had, but the idea came nonetheless. Everyone I’ve told asks how in the world we are going to be legos. In fact, even my sweet husband doubted me. :> But, the legos are well underway and coming along great! It’s been way fun. So, we thought we’d give a sneak peak at the building of a lego:
Only 4 more legos to go!
Both Zach and Pres went on field trips to Black Island farm – Zach in September and Preston in October. If you’ve never been there, it is way fun! I even enjoyed the giant slide this time! Too fun! Here are a couple pics!
Well, we’re now back from our wonderful cruise and we just have to say, “WE LOVED IT!!” It was so nice to get away from all the million demands of everyday life and just relax together and spend time together. And we are so grateful for our wonderful families that helped with our kids! One of the best parts was knowing that we could relax and be 100% confident that our kids were in good hands. So THANKS to “the grandparents” and the Statens who made it possible!
So here’s our cruise in a nutshell… We sailed out of L.A. on the Carnival Paradise Monday morning, stopped in Catalina Island and Ensenada Mexico, and came back Friday. The ship was AWESOME! It had everything you could imagine or want, and made it so easy to relax. I think our favorite part of the ship was the back deck, called the “serenity deck.” It was an adults only, quiet, calm deck and was such a nice place to sit in the hottub or just sit and relax.
Our other favorite parts of our time on the ship included: all the AWESOME music, shows, games and entertainment; the yummy, yummy food; Walking along the decks and watching the sunrise over the ocean; and DANCING!
As for Catalina, we had a way fun, romantic, relaxing time exploring that small island. We just walked around, shopped, played on the beach, and had a great time!
Check out our pathetic little sand castle (or mountain as the case may be)…
I had to put this picture in because those of you that know our family know that Lego’s are a major (almost obsessive) part of our home. And we found these cute little lego candies to take home to the boys. And not only are they cute, but you can actually build with them. The boys love them!
As for Ensendada, we’ve decided that the only reason people go to Ensenada is to get really drunk for really cheap. Not so much fun for a sober Mormon bishop and his wife. :>
But we enjoyed roaming through the street vendors and buying things like “genuine name brand Mexican sunglasses!”
And looking at giant gold heads…
And Mike got into the flavor of things, and thinks he looks thoroughly Mexican!
Once we’d had our fill of pushy street vendors we rented a couple horses and went horse back riding on the beach. Now if that doesn’t sound romantic I don’t know what does! It was so much fun! Mike was a little nrevous to begin with as we rode off with a couple strange men toward the beach, but was glad we did it when it all turned out fabulous in the end. Loved it!
So that’s the short and sweet version of our early 10 year anniversary cruise! It was a wonderful vacation, and I’m already plotting when we can take our next cruise!
