Trick or Treat!

I really, really, really hate that we have trick or treating on Sunday night. Especially since it's Sunday night after fall break, when I really just want to get the kids relaxing and to bed early. Instead, let's let them run around and hype them up on sugar! It makes no sense to me that if you're going to have trick or treating on the night before a school night, why not put it on actual Halloween? But, whatever. At least the weather was really nice (no rain! no sleet! no snow! no wind!), so there was a ton of kids out. But still...

 

Buca wanted to show off his costume first.

This was at the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago.

I think this is funny, with Ava peeking out the bottom.

 Yup. It's a big rooster.

 Hay ride!

Trick or treating! Isn't the cowgirl the sweetest cowgirl you've ever seen?

And here's the crew that called our house home base. We had a few people over, Dave made chili and pumpkin ginger soup (from the kids' pumpkins!! How industrious is that??), and then the kids toured the neighborhood.

Just my kids. Nolan was a banana, Ava a cowgirl, Max some crazy something, and Abby... big kid. She decided she was too old to trick or treat this year, and instead volunteered to take Ava (and any other little kids who tagged along). I just can't believe it. How could she possibly be old enough to not trick or treat??

 

 Nolan won his class costume contest with his banana outfit. He went trick or treating with a friend on Saturday in a neighboring town and got 10 pounds of candy. Then went again on Sunday around our house. Needless to say, he got a LOT of candy. (And Buca only ate a little of it. But more than Nolan would've preferred.)

Happy Halloween!!

I've got a ticket for the long way round...

Last week I had the opportunity to go to Loveland, Colorado for a training session. Loveland is an hour north of Denver, and really quite beautiful. Training was long and a little arduous, as there were 5 of us, with 2 trainers, and it felt like we spent all day every day together. Literally. We would start at 8 in the morning, go until noon, walk from the conference room to the private dining room to eat from 12-1, then training from 12-5. On top of that, we had dinners together on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. The people were nice, but that's just a lot of time with people!

Fortunately, on Wednesday night we had off, so I went to Golden, CO to go see my friend Holly. She moved there two years ago, so I haven't seen her since then. I used to work with her at West Group, and it was just really nice to catch up.

And another fortunate was that I got into Loveland early enough on Wednesday to change and go hiking for a bit. After the floods last month, we weren't able to be at our initially scheduled place, with views of the mountains and a river, so instead we saw the inside of the Embassy Suites all day every day, so was very grateful for the trail I found to walk around. I thought I was going to be foiled as I was driving to Rocky Mountain National Park and I realized that the road was closed, but I made a turn, and one more turn, and then just kept driving up, and up, and up. I was definitely not disappointed!

It's got mountains, it's got rivers, it's got sites to give you chills... (for anyone who knows the Cup song)

 Snow! Brrr! But it was 65 and sunny all week, so not really cold.

 Me, at the top of the mountain.

 I loved the rocks that were there for some reason. I just kept thinking Max would love them. So I brought some home for him.

 This is where I was. Could probably never find it again!

 I just loved they way this guy looked. Totally a rancher in Colorado. I was listening to him talk, and apparently he was displaced in the flood. Not sure if he's staying at the hotel indefinitely, or what the scoop was.

 Ok, even though we had to go out with the group at night, at least we had a nice ride!

 And this was my rental car. If nothing else, Nolan was impressed!!

And that's that. Another week down... and I'm happy to be back home!

Happy birthday, Buca

Buca is 1 year old today. Don't worry, I'm not nearly as nostalgic about this as when the kids have milestones. But it does just seem like we brought him home, a tiny little pup. He's come a long way... He doesn't pee in the house anymore, he rarely chews things he's not supposed to, his tail is strong enough to wreck havoc wherever he goes. Sometimes he's a pain, but there's no denying he's the perfect dog for us.



See mom? I blog about all the important things!

Ewwwww

On Sunday I got a juicer. I've read lots of great things so thought I would try it. Amazingly enough, I (usually) like it! I really never thought I would drink a green drink... Kale and spinach with my apples? No thank you. But, turns out it's not so bad. And the funny part is I have to share with the kids, especially Max! He and Ava both like to drink what I have to the point where I'm fighting over breakfast. Carrots, spinach, ginger, apples, who knew Max would like it so much? But their favorite thing is to make their own. Max had one called Guinea Food because it literally looked like what we fed the guinea pigs. And then there was this one, with plums and grapes and blueberries.



He called it liquid poop. And still drank it. Ugh.

But then there's Ava, who made this concoction:



It's root beer, shredded cheddar and Parmesan cheese and crushed up Doritos. And someone dared her to take a drink and so she did! Ick. I thought we were all going to die when she brought the cup down and she had a piece of cheese hanging out. I shutter at the thought even now!

I guess I'll be happy they're good eaters. But seriously. Ewwwww!

Appropos of nothing

I do love that the school communicates quite well. And even when I ignore it and completely miss things, I still appreciate that I got it and they tried. But sometimes I have to scratch my head at the random things. The email below, for example, came on the third day of school. I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. Do I need to buy those books? Talk to Abby about them? Read them myself? Or, is it just for my information to stay a little more tuned in? Who knows. But, it does make me want to go back to 6th grad Language Arts just so I can sit and read all day!

This email is regarding: ABIGAIL GAWRYCH.
Class: LANGUAGE ARTS 6 ADV Prd: 3 Teacher: J SCHOENBECK
-----------------------------------------------

Here is a list of books that Advanced students will read in LA this year.

A Long Way from Chicago

Gulliver’s Travels

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Out of the Dust

Ulysses (The Odyssey)

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Inside Out and Back Again

This is not a complete list because some units allow student choice.

Mr. Schoenbeck