About a month ago I asked Marcus if he knew what he wanted to be for Halloween and he quickly responded, "Yes. We're assembling the avengers and I'm Thor." So I ordered him a Thor costume.
Last weekend we were dog sitting Kodiak while Ellie and Lila went with the Phelps to the state mountain bike races in St George. We took the boys out to dinner Friday night since they didn't go out to eat at all while Lila and I were in New York. We also decided to hit Lagoon Saturday, October 24th, and went straight after breakfast. We walked over and saw Cannibal wasn't running and the line to Primordial was huge. So Andrew convinced us all to do Nutcracker. Marcus even agreed to it before I did. I stayed in line debating it and decided to do it with Marcus. It was pretty intense and at one point I looked over and Marcus look terrified. I told him we were almost done but then when we got off he said it was, "AWESOME!" Andrew said it didn't go as high as it did the first time he did it with Lila which I remember Lila saying they could see the mountains upside down but to be honest I'm grateful it didn't got that high.
Then we hit Spider one of our families favorite rides then Colossus.
After which Steve needed a little break so we decided to walk through Pioneer Park to see if they could to the candy street but it turns out they were too tall (they should put that information on the flier).
They did not want to do a haunted house so we walked by Cannibal and the line was way too long so the boys did the bumper cars and then we headed home. As we were leaving cars were streaming in so we were glad we went early and hit some rides.
We started watching the BYU football game but had to leave after the 3rd quarter for Andrew's double header basketball game. People next to us were streaming the game so we kept getting snippets of information and found out they lost in double over time. 😓 Andrew's team played great, they have several new players so they are learning how to work together and it is coming. They were both close games and the refs were not our favorite (I really try not to say anything bad about refs because as I tell my boys they are human and make mistakes too but these games were really rough). They lost the 2nd game in the last minute. Andrew's team had a chance to go up by 1 in the last few seconds but there was a blatant foul that the refs did not call. Oh well, we just try to learn and let it go.
Here are some pics of the boys with Kodiak from the weekend. We bought him some new toys when we went to buy him food because Ellie did not bring us any more food for the weekend and he was eating a lot.
Onto Halloween week. I really enjoy this Wednesday group of ladies I play pickleball with and they had setup a fun Halloween game and treats. I managed to get with a partner that we play really well together and we stayed on Witches court for most of the day.
Thursday, I had staff meeting and it was potluck so I took up some pumpkin custard treats to share (I made them gluten free for my supervisor). Then Friday, Andrew had breakfast bookclub and we got Marcus ready for all the festivities at school.
Steve and I quickly worked out after I dropped Marcus off then I left for the parade. I could see people walking as I left the house so I ran down and made it, whew! The boys would not stay still for a picture, they kept making each other laugh.
I love this picture the teachers sent out.
Andrew decided to have a party Friday, October 30th after school with some friends.
Steve was a trooper and took them to the temple.
They actually ran into Lila's friends leaving as they were walking in (Lila had a dance performance down in Cottonwood Heights so she was gone all day Friday). They came back and I had copycat Chick fil A sandwiches ready for them and fun drinks, caramel apple cider and butterbeer.
Then they started playing Villainous, most of the boys love the strategy games. Then they had another friend join so they decided to pause Villainous and they were discussing other game options like Apples to Apples and I pulled out Grounded for Life which Andrew exclaimed is similar to Apples to Apples but better. It has a lot of boy humor in it and they played that for a couple of hours because they wanted to go through the whole deck of cards to read every funny instance. Then they went back to Villainous and then they went downstairs to play air hockey, ping pong, and giant tetras. (However, I realized after they all left that I did not have Lila clean her bathroom before the party. UGH! Hopefully the boys didn't see anything too embarrassing because she leaves clothes and underwear everywhere. Andrew said only one of them used the bathroom.)
Marcus also had a friend over. They enjoyed dinner, played a game or two, and then we let them have some Switch time.
Lila got home from her performance about the same time the boys party was wrapping up but she wanted to go hangout with friends so she left.
Saturday, October 31st. Lila was meeting her communications group for the service time. I let the kids have cereal and then I made Steve breakfast for his birthday since I can't do it on Sunday because it is fast Sunday. Then the boys started carving pumpkins.
Steve and I quickly ran to the store to get supplies for his birthday dinner (trying to use up our $10 credit for getting our flu shots but you have to use it in person not the pickup option). Then we worked out. After which the boys left for the Jazz game. Marcus had 4 free tickets for his Bantam basketball which I thought would be a good activity to keep them doing something instead of watching the clock waiting to go trick or treating. Marcus invited a friend to go and they go J-Dawgs and Steve said the seats were pretty decent (I managed to score 2nd row in the upper bowl because usually the free tickets are like row 22 or above).
While they were at the game, I mowed the lawn, picked up lunch for Lila and I (had a BOGO deal for Costa Vida) watched BYU football, and carved my pumpkin to look like a pickleball. I was proud of myself for using Steve's fancy drill to cut out the holes. Although I tried it inside first and pumpkin pieces went flying every where so I took it outside to do the rest of the holes but still had to do a quick clean of the kitchen.
The boys got home and we watched a little more of the BYU game, it was closer than we wanted and as the commentators said, "Spooky weird things have been happening in college football." It's still anyone's chance at the title. Then we got Marcus dressed and off to his party where they were having pizza and homemade rootbeer and roaming 2 neighborhoods getting candy.
I started working on Andrew's costume while Marcus was getting ready and I think it came together nicely. He said no one really knew what he was but when he told people they would laugh.
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| Cereal Killer |
Steve and I started watching a cheesey Halloween movie, Hubie Halloween. We asked Lila if she wanted to watch or do anything but she didn't. Then NelRae showed up to pick up Lila for their Halloween party.
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| Wild Kratt brothers. The girls loved that show growing up. |
We received a message from Marcus's friend's Mom saying, "The boys were playing football in the backyard, living their best lives!" So they played for 45 more minutes. Then we picked him up at about the same time Andrew returned home and the candy sorting began. Marcus insisted on taking something bigger than the pumpkins we normally take trick or treating because he didn't have enough room last year and he filled that giant bag with treats! When I dropped him off I told him to be good and listen to the adult in charge and stay together as a group. When he got home he said, "There was no adult walking around with us. We were free to run wild and gather treats." That's what Halloween dreams are made of and I'm grateful to his friends and their families who made it possible.
The boys then watched Megamind while Steve and I finished our movie. Then we slowly trickled off to bed.