We had Luna with us for the first two weeks of October, and then she was with her parents the rest of the month. She's getting bigger, talking lots more, moving lots more, and wedging her way deeper into our hearts.
Jack is developing best friendships with two boys from school, Adam and Jonah. We try to have them over to play as much as possible. It's easier with Jonah, because he lives just 10 or so houses away from us. It's fun to see Jack feeling comfortable with his buddies, being silly and playful, and being smart and creative with them. Neither boy is in Jack's class this year, but they all three gravitate together at recess, and their friendships are proving strong over time.
Sometimes we luck out and have Kate Ellsworth over to play. She's Hazel's age and in our ward, but she's one of those magic kids that pulls everyone together. When she's over, all three of my kids have a friend to play with. (Even when it's pouring rain outside!)
We had school off the first Friday in October, and spent it well. In the morning, we went hiking at Brushy Peak with Hazel's friend Adrianna's family. It was tough work with the stroller!
That afternoon, Suzanne Hope brought her crew up from Sunnyvale and we went to the awesome local corn maze. Although, first we had to check out the animals and the corn box at the pumpkin patch.
General Conference was awesome. Everyone was excited to hear the announcement that starting in January, church meetings will be shortened from three hours to two. Todd and I talk often about how to better use our time on Sundays to study the gospel with our kids. We're excited about the challenge to make our worship more home-based.
Todd flew over the house one evening while he was out getting hours. It's always fun when the kids get a chance to run out and wave to him.
We had parent-teacher conferences. All the kids are doing great in school. It's pretty awesome when your biggest pet peeve is that your kids read too much.
My game night group had a getaway weekend and it was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. We all went out for dinner and then spent the night at a local hotel. We brought music and games and snacks and just played and laughed and talked late, late into the night. Everyone was pumped and silly and happy to be there. It was one of those times that just makes me smile in satisfaction every time I think about it. We literally just played game after game after game until two in the morning, and gabbed and connected and left refreshed and recharged.
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| Me, Elaine, April, Kirstan, Katie, Joleen, and Karrie |
Todd blew me away with his amazingness and took our kids to San Francisco for the day while I was out with my game night girls. They rented a canoe at Golden Gate Park, found a great place to fly Jack's kite, toured the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory, rode a taxi (Uber, actually, lol) and who knows what else. When the kids came home, they could not stop talking about how much fun they had. What a dreamboat Todd is. He came home early from work on Friday so I could head out, had a pizza and movie night with friends that night, and took our kids on a city tour all day the next day. I was blown away with how cool and supportive and fun he was. He tricked me into falling more in love with him while I wasn't even spending time with him!
We drove down to Santa Cruz to check on Luna, and took the kids to the Henry Cowell Redwoods while we were there. I remember being so amazed by those trees when we first moved out here (in 2005!) and it was kind of sad to me that they looked normal-ish this time around. We really live in an amazing place, full of beauty. I hope I appreciate it enough.
We had Red Ribbon Week at school, with different themes to dress to each day to pump the kids up. I always love crazy hair day.
Halloween contained itself and all its parties to under one week this year, which I appreciated. We had the school carnival on Friday night, then the church trunk-or-treat Saturday night, followed by festivities on actual Halloween (a Wednesday this year) with a school parade and trick or treating in the evening. Lots of fun, but all at once, so it didn't overtake all of October like it sometimes does.
We had awesome Harry Potter-themed family costumes this year. Hazel was a Hufflepuff, I was Professor Trelawney, Gemma was (a totally darling) Hedwig, and Todd and Jack were Lucius and Draco Malfoy.
Hazel's best friend, Aarna, was a Slytherin. They commiserated together on the back row as the entire fourth grade danced to Michael Jackson's Thriller in front of the entire school AND parents.
We ran into Adam and his family while we (and the rest of the city of Livermore) were trick or treating at Winding Stream, or what we refer to as "Halloween Street." I'm sure I mentioned this last year. This street is over the top with decorations and is a total party. There's even live music. I haven't talked to one person yet who didn't go over there on Halloween night. It's tons of fun, but is probably at least part of the reason why our neighborhood is empty and we had to go looking elsewhere to have a fun night on Halloween in the first place.
