Halloween

 After skipping the Halloween party last year, we resumed the tradition with a smaller crowd, a fajita dinner, some fun games, and a great time. I had a lot of fun decorating and adding some new projects I'd worked on, and on Halloween night the kids had a lot of fun trick-or-treating, adding to their haul from the night before trunk-or-treating at the church party. 

Audrey's costume was President Loki--she got tons of compliments at school and even won a costume prize at the church party.

Ian was the same scary scarecrow from two years ago--costume barely fit but he loved it and looked very creepy (the goal).

Declan also wanted to be creepy this year and went with a Grim Reaper costume. Watch out!

We gathered at a neighbor's before trick-or-treating to hang out. This is our friend Ann, Ian's buddy Mako's mom. Ian had a whole crew who went trick-or-treating together.

Here's the crew of 12-year-olds roaming the streets of PG in search of good treats!

My friend sent me this awesome soap skull. I want to use it and I don't want to use it, you know? 

The kids helped me set up for our annual Halloween party--they are pretty good sports about never being invited, but they also got to watch movies and play video games in the back of the house.

I made those gold bug plaques and eyeball plaques this year, and I thought they turned out very cute. I put them up with Command strips to complete my apothecary mantle scene.

My costume this year was Winifred Sanderson from the movie Hocus Pocus. I loved it!

Audrey's turn to play--she was the photographer for our guests' photos at the party. She did great!

Spencer was Variant Loki (from the Disney+ show), and the wig was maybe too nice? We joked that he was Loki with a blowout. 

Spencer and the kids carved some awesome pumpkins (baby Yoda! I mean, Grogu).

Fall break

Fall break brought a visit from my wonderful parents, who generously agreed to extend their visit so Spencer and I could get away! We had a wonderful few days with them (while actually Spencer flew up to WA to celebrate HIS dad's 70th--it was a busy travel month for him!), and then Spencer and I headed to Southern California for fun at Disneyland and to see our friend perform in a musical.

My dad at the beach

Ian and a hermit crab

What my kids do all the time...

See?

My parents spoiled my kids--arcade, eating out, video games, walks to the beach, decorating gingerbread haunted houses. They had a great time.

Pics from our two days at Disney--one day at each park. Everything was decorated for Halloween and even some rides were different. It was so fun!

 

Our friend Valerie played Mrs. Wormwood in a community theater production of Matilda the Musical, and she was phenomenal! Her daughter played Lavender. We got to hang out with Val and her husband Mike before the show too, and had a great time catching up. We met them in our Atlanta days and it's been my goal to see Val in one of her shows; finally I got to!!

Pictures from Spencer's dad's birthday celebration: 

Spencer and his family: Amanda, Sam, Cathie (mom), Rick (dad), Carly, and Spencer

October begins!

Declan made a bow and arrow with his dad. It was for a school project, but he's had the best time shooting the trees in our yard.

The first weekend of October is always General Conference for our church, and the kids and I had a great watching all the sessions and doing crafts and projects in the background. The kids painted pumpkins and I cross stitched a Halloween gift for a friend. We went to the park for a picnic between sessions on Saturday, and ate lots of yummy food as we watched all weekend. Spencer was in DC for work, so we missed having him around!

Spencer at the Natural History Museum in DC

We started getting the Halloween decorations out! The house always transforms in October. 

 

We also went to the Monterey Symphony outdoor concert as a family, picking up Subway to take for our picnic dinner. The orchestra was fabulous, and we all loved the performances. The theme was Love Letter to Carmel, and all the songs were either written by Carmel composers (who also happen to be famous), or feature Carmel resident film star's movie scores (like Clint Eastwood).

September

Labor day at the beach with friends--turned out to be a lovely day (until the fog rolled in, of course, but we were ready to go by then anyway).

Spencer and Declan tested for their green belts in karate--success! Spencer broke a board with an elbow strike, super impressive. Usually adults don't test with kids, but the other adults in Spencer's testing group weren't able to test for various reasons, so Spencer joined Declan's test.

(On our way to get ice cream--our post-karate test tradition!)

Spencer got veneers on his teeth to counter some enamel damage, and they look great. He's an amazing person, and I'm so grateful to be married to him.

These pictures are from a Saturday hike at Garrapata. So beautiful there.

Audrey and I went to see Dear Evan Hansen (the film). We loved it!

The weekend after our Garrapata hike, Spencer and I went back without the kids and hiked the whole loop, which was challenging!

(when we got to the top, the fog cover was so thick we couldn't see the ocean and it felt like we were in the clouds.

My three cute, sweet kids. Even though they bicker with each other, they are mostly friends and are generally delightful. I'm so grateful for them.

Audrey at a YW activity--she's part of a great group of uplifting women and girls at church.