Happy Halloween!

I feel like Halloween is a whole week. We started the week with Trunk or Treat, and ending it with Trick or Treating in downtown Northville, with a lot of fun in between.

On Monday, I went visting teaching while Keira was at school. We are picking her up outside now:

We had really mild weather that afternoon and evening. We took advantage of it and that evening went to Maybury as a family. We didn't stay terribly long since it is getting dark really early, but we had a good time.


On Tuesday, we started the day with a playdate with Katie and Luke. Keira loves playing with Katie, and everyone had a great time.


That evening, we had a fun time at church for Trunk or Treat. Keira and I had matching poofs in our hair. Since Keira was a princess, that made me the queen! Ryan went as a Safari Man to go with Soren's monkey.

On Wednesday, while Keira was at school, we went to the gym and I swam 1.2 miles for the first time! Soren and I also stopped at the the nursery closest to our home so that we could look at the big pumpkins. Both Keira and Soren are huge fans of these, but Soren has been very excited about them.

A couple shots indoors:


That evening, it was another nice day, we we played outside a bit before heading to Sears to pick up some light bulbs for the truck. While we were there, Keira and Soren were able to play with Sidney and Carter in the play area.



On Thursday, we did some errands during the day and played around the house.








That afternoon, Cristina came over for a short run, and then we went to the gym for a swim workout. Cristina gave me so good tips and we actually did a swim workout. Soren is so funny, he kept asking where Cristina went all evening after she had gone home.

On Friday, Keira had her "Fall Holiday Party". The children were encouraged to wear orange and black, but no costumes were allowed. I had not initially volunteered to stay for the party, but bring donuts instead. When I came back after buying the donuts, I decided to stick around for the party. Miss Jan said it was ok that I bring Soren. It was fun Halloween stories and songs, followed by a ton of snack- ghost, bat, and pumpkin shaped cheese, apple slices, popcorn, and donuts.

After school, Lorelai came over so Dianna could go to Dominic's Halloween party at his school. Soren loved Lorelai, so he was very sad he had to nap while she was there. Keira and Lorelai made great helpers to make Halloween cupcakes and played very well.

On Saturday, Ryan woke up early to head over to church, and I bundled up the kids for a quick run.




I had to be cleaned up by 11, when we were scheduled to have someone look at our furnace, which wasn't turning on. While I was getting cleaned up, Soren made this huge mess in his room. He had emptied 5 out of the 6 dresser drawers on the floor.

Thankfully, it had not been that cold lately. It took me almost a full day to realize it wasn't working, and then another half day to get an appointment. In fact, our indoor daytime temperature had not dropped below where a lot of people keep their thermostats anyway, and the kids' room is always cold in the winter, so we have a space heater for them. The verdict was that the pilot light had gone out and the sender was very dirty. Our furnace is 37 years old, and the man said it looked pretty good for its age, and got it cleaned, relit, and we have heat again, for just the price of a service call. Relief! I really thought we were going to have to get a new furnance. Next, I went to a baby shower for Jolyn, who I worked with at Ford. She lives outside of DC now, and was just home for the weekend. She looked fantastic, and is very excited about her baby boy due in February. It was great to see her. After the shower, we went to Parmenter's for some cider and donuts. The kids had a blast as always. Soren loves cider so much.

That night, I was able to finally carve our pumpkins. We had a vampire theme, with the bat and vampire pumpkin.

Sunday was Halloween, and we went to church in the morning. Before breakfast, I got these pictures of Keira and Soren. It was great to go to church with no worries! We also got to see Kris, who was visiting our ward today.


After church, I finally got both Keira and Soren to take naps. Neither wanted to because they wanted to go trick or treating now.

We went into downtown Northville for trick or treating, and left treats on our porch. We had a few left when we got home. Keira and Soren did pretty well with trick or treating in the beginning, but once it started to get dark, they both got a lot more afraid. We didn't stay the full time alloted, because Keira had finally had enough. The homes are amazing, and somem of them are pretty scary. The large skulls were very frightening to both children. The house with the cats in the windows was the last house we could convince Keira to do, because she really liked the cats. Once home, we took a few pictures of our home in the dark.

Up for next week, we have voting day, so Ryan has the day off. We also have tickets to another UM game!

Hallowe'en at Greenfield Village 2010

For this week, the highlight was attending Hallowe'en at Greenfield Village. We also took Soren in for his 2 year check up. This was about 6 weeks late since I waited too long to get the appointment. Keira was also Star of the Week at school.

On Monday, Keira was Star of the Week. This meant that she got to do special things at school, such as be line leader and special helped. It also meant that I could come in on Monday to read a story. She brought her Snow White doll for show and tell, and I read "Fancy Nancy's Splendiferous Christmas.



Soren loved playing with the toys at Keira's school, and did not want to leave. We did go workout while Keira was at school, and then after school, I took Soren for his 2 year check up. He is pretty skinny. He is in the 10th percentile for weight, and 12th for height. He is starting to drop in his growth, which is not shocking given the size of Keira and me, so we have to go back in 3 months for a growth check. His immunizations cause him to be pretty fussy the rest of the week. He was pretty pouty, even with his stickers as a reward.


On Tuesday, we really weren't too busy. Keira decided that she really likes wearing her black Halloween shirt with leggings and pretends to be a cat. Soren took it up as well. Keira is sitting like a cat (meaning her hands are on the floor).


Wednesday was a busy day. Keira had her final day of Star of the Week, and really didn't want to have her picture taken with her badge.


She was also invited to Bryn's Strawberry Shortcake party that afternoon. Linda picker her up on her way home and brought her while Soren napped. He woke up with enough time for me to squeeze in a quick run before heading over to pick her up. It was super windy, so I was really glad I only had Soren today and not both to push.

Bryn was all decked out in a strawberry costume for her party.

Thursday was a low key day. We did errands. Keira wore her cat attire again today since I worked on laundry last night. Soren was still a bit crabby from a combo of his immunizations and coming down with a cold.

That evening, once Ryan got home from work, I went out to Sticks in Brighton for a free open workout. There was a lot more to a full workout than the baseline evaluation that I did previously with Cortnie. It was pretty tough. The warm up consisted of 6 exercises where we did each for 20sec followed by 10sec rest, with 1 minute rest after each set of 6. We did that 4 times. Next, we did 4 exercises with a partner where we did ladders going from 1-10. We did "wall balls" which I found to be the most challenging, mostly due to being uncoordinated/new to them. We threw a medicine ball in the air while extended and then caught it during a squat. the next exercise was sit-ups, then jumping squats with a 35lb barbell, and then finally burpees (up/downs). I got through the workout and didn't feel too bad. I actually wasn't that sore the next day, but was super sore Sat and today still. Chris Tamer put together this video from the workout.

On Friday morning, I did a swim while Keira was at school. Keira did not want to go today because she was too excited about going to Greenfield Village tonight. Today's topic was owls, so that helped get her out the door.


It was hard to occupy them all day while we waited, but it was a nice day. We were able to play with chalk outside before getting ready to go.



We met up with Kris, Linda, Greg, Ellyn, Bailey, Avery, Bryn, Llyeton, and Sharon at Greenfield Village. It is such a fun time. Keira and Soren did really well. They were afraid at a few times, but overall had fun. The costumes and pumpkins were impressive. Keira and Soren really liked the house that had the singing pumpkins outside of it. You can't really tell how cute they are in any of the pictures, as the best one that shows the faces was blurry, but they had these large pumpkins with faces moving around as they sang. The also liked the dancing skeletons. Keira was terrified of the covered bridge, which was probably the scariest thing that she had to go by.

On Saturday, Ryan went to church for his new calling, which is over the building cleaning. It was his first Saturday, and he needed to get everyone started with the cleaning. While he was out, I went running with Valerie and both Keira and Soren. After that, we had a low key afternoon at home for a bit.




That evening, we took Keira and Soren over to Kris and Linda's for a sleepover so that we could attend Valerie's 40th birthday dinner at Bonefish Grill. We had a great time, and are very thankful that Kris and Linda helped us out. We finished off the night at Coldstone. Here is a photo of just the ladies: Shirley, Valerie, Me, and Kimberly

On Sunday, we had a rather crazy morning. We picked up Keira and Soren just fine before church, and it was amazing how much easier it was to leave the house with just the two of us getting ready. We arrived at Kris and Linda's and finished getting Keira and Soren ready. During our drive to church, Keira kept saying that she wanted to go home, and that she didn't feel well. She kept complaining and eventually got so worked up that she threw up from coughing in the car, less than a mile from church. She said, "that is why I don't want to go to church" right after it happened. Smarty Pants. She did a have a cold, but we didn't think she was that bad. We got Keira changed into her dress from yesterday so that we could hear the ward business and partake the Sacrament. I GOT RELEASED TODAY!!!! I really wanted to hear it, as well as the announcement of the new presidency. Ryan took Keira and Soren home shortly after the sacrament was passed and I stayed so that I could say goodbye to the Primary Children. I didn't think that I would get all emotional when I spoke to the children, just because I wanted to be done so badly, I didn't think I would miss it at all. I am an emotional person, though, so I really shouldn't be too surprised how I cried talking to the junior primary and when they sang goodbye to me. I asked to have them sing "I will Follow God's Plan". I did do better in Senior, but had a hard time answering one of girls questions as to "why I wasn't the Primary President anymore". When I got home from church, Keira seemed to be doing fine.


That evening, I finished up my Halloween Pops! Here are a few pics.


Up for this week, we have Trunk or Treat, Keira's Fall Holiday Party, and Halloween!