Halloween Happenings

 Halloween time!

This time, it came at the same time as tech week for Cora's next high school theater show. She had a rehearsal before it was time for fun. 

Stace handled the trick-or-treaters out front with our neighbors, and Melanie, Nick and Ellie came over after going first to their close friends' house. 

Cora went to school like this - yellow contacts and all. She loved the reactions she was getting from everyone.

Violet kind of skipped Halloween day this year; Liana made plans with her school friends and didn't come over to trick-or-treat. She couldn't figure out a costume, though she'd had several ideas.

Violet did have fun at Trunk or Treat at VUMC, as did Ellie, though it doesn't look like she was enjoying being inside the MG.

Here's Violet having fun with Liana at our friend Christine's trunk and toss game.

Check out that dragon!

The girls went from this event to their youth group Halloween party. They've been going together to the Wednesday youth group at the church they went to Hume Lake with over a year ago.

Trunk or Treat

Here's Stace's annual entry to the Trunk or Treat festivities: Dracucar!

Stace went all out and repainted the cornhole board, to go with the car.

It's fun that Ellie is now old enough to enjoy Trunk or Treat, and Melanie was able to bring her. Here, she's getting candy from Pirate Colleen after walking the plank. 

We thought the Gravity Falls-themed trunk was fun.

 

Trunk or Treat

On Wednesday, it was time for our annual tradition of Trunk or Treat at KidZone/Pioneer Club.

This year, Stace and Violet created a Sleepy Hollow/Headless Horseman theme for our trunk.

Violet kind of dressed in character, with a beautiful old-fashioned Renaissance look. She painted her corset herself.
 

Colleen and Rigo looked awesome as sheriffs, with poor Hula their jailbird in the back of the Bronco jail!

My friend Tiffany and her baby came - haven't seen her for a while but it's Dodger playoff season, so we've been doing a lot of in-game texting!

Here's Liana, playing cornhole at our trunk for her chance to win candy.

Cami, Melanie and Cora came, too. 

Crazy how all the girls are about the same height now!

Thankful for this tradition...and still having kids young enough to enjoy it...barely!

World Series Win! And Halloween Happenings!

This was the fateful week, one that Los Angeles has been waiting more than 30 years for. Our Los Angeles Dodgers WON the World Series again! 

After falling just short in 2017 - and later finding out that the Astros cheated to attain their victory - and then losing again in 2018 - the Dodgers finally closed out the season as the ultimate winners. 

The team closed out the series with a fourth win Tuesday night over the Tampa Bay Rays. Yes, I teared up, especially when seeing pitcher Clayton Kershaw finally hold that trophy. 

Such a strange year - 60 games instead of 162, no fans during the season at Dodger Stadium, nearly the entire postseason played in a "bubble" in Dallas. At least, Texas is much more open than California, and the stadium was allowed to have fans up to 25% capacity. So, some very fortunate Dodger fans were able to see the wins in person.

I celebrated with a morning-after coffee from Starbucks on Wednesday.

Later Wednesday, we went to VUMC for a modified, drive-through Trunk or Treat event. We were one of a few cars, and the event was open only to the church, not the community like normal.

Violet had the idea of a dragon theme for the MG this year. The dragons had glowing eyes! We had to have a contact-free candy distribution method, so Stace also made a dragon that could shoot candy out its mouth, through a tube.

Cora dressed as a pirate for the trunk or treat. She was supposed to be working as a witch for a drive-through Halloween event all week, but the event was canceled after the props were damaged in heavy winds. She was really disappointed, because she was excited to have something so fun to do. 

We got to see Kelly, Noah and Ethan! And the dragon-shooter worked!

Violet and Liana had a fun night, working at their families' cars, and then going around the event themselves.
 

On Friday, Violet's class had a Halloween "lunch bunch" online meet up. I'll not go on about how sad it is that she's not having a Halloween party with her class! I love being involved with those.

We met up with Christina and Melanie at Quigley Canyon Friday, and this time we saw a family of deer. Two adults and two young ones. 

Here was how cool Cora looked for the event that ended up getting canceled. 

My mom had been so excited, too, since Fright Fest has been canceled. Oh well, next year!

Trunk or Treat!

We returned to Dr. Lavin's office Monday, and received the welcome news that Violet is *almost* 48 inches! Like, she is an eighth of an inch away, officially. That means that in 11 months since starting the treatment, she's grown over four inches!

We're so very pleased, and though Violet won't jump and down with excitement, she's pleased, too.

It's World Series time! And our Dodgers are in it! Since we've watched all the playoff games at home, I wanted to see Game 1 out among a barful of fellow fans. And since it was Tuesday, we headed to Bunker Hill to take advantage of their Taco Tuesday specials, with the dollar tacos and the $2 margaritas (when you wear Hawaiian).

Stace met us girls there, and later took Cora to her football practice. The Dodgers lost the game, but it was still fun seeing it with lots of other eager fans.

On Wednesday, we went to Pioneer Clubs' Trunk or Treat at Valencia Methodist, where Stace again brought the MG, this time disguised as a vampire.

Cora came dressed in her blue morph outfit, because her real costume is a bit scary for the church/young child crowd. But Violet was able to try out her costume for the first time - she is a Cuddle Team Leader, a character from the popular video game Fortnite.

Stace created, with the girls' help, this monster bean bag toss game.

Jake and Charlie came out, and Sophia (the banana) and Cami also hung out with Cora. Violet spent much of her evening with Liana, at their truck.

Another World Series game was going on - we followed along as best as we could. Toward the end of the night, Sophia streamed the game on her phone from inside the MG.

Would you look at that, streaming a game on a phone, inside a 50-year-old car (that lacks an AM/FM radio!)?

Real Life Halloween

Our own church's Halloween event was Saturday, and it was pretty much a daylong affair. We helped set up our Life Group's booth in the morning, and returned in the afternoon to help run our games.

Many hands made for light work at setup. We have a great group of people and it's fun to hang out together.

Stace and the girls loved helping with the game, a bean bag tic-tac-toe.

Stace changed costumes, since he wasn't near his car. He came as an old-fashioned newspaper boy.

Violet enjoyed the hay maze and the petting zoo, with chickens, goats, sheep, and bunnies.

Fun photo props abounded.

It was a great (if tiring!) day and night, and nice to come together as a larger church family to put on something fun for the community. More than 20,000 people showed up!

School Trunk or Treat

On Thursday evening, the girls went to Magic Mountain for an employee family trick-or-treating party, but we weren't there very long so we didn't get any photos.

On Friday afternoon, we were back at it, with the MG taking part in the school's first ever Trunk or Treat event.

In past years, the PTSA has held a Fall Festival in October, and the students can dress up there. This year, the festival (with carnival games, food and a DJ) will move to the spring, but we still wanted a chance for the children to get together dressed up.

Hence, a trunk or treat event.

More sword play

Our friends Tommy, Emily and Charlie - Emily won first place in the costume contest with her creative portrayal of spaghetti and meatballs!

Pioneer Club Trunk or Treat

Now, we come to the Most Busiest Time, of the Year...
No, not Christmas, though that is also gloriously full of fun.

I'm talking about Halloween, which is super crammed with events because we have kids the right age, AND we're involved in a school and two churches, AND who doesn't like to celebrate dressing up and collecting candy?

First on our list this week was Pioneer Clubs at Valencia Methodist on Wednesday.

For the second year, Stace brought his MG over and decorated it as part of the Trunk or Treat fun. He dressed as an old-time racing driver.
His trusty helper, Darth Vaderette, helped pass out candy for a bit.

Violet found Liana and they took Clifford around trunk or treating.






















I later went into the craft area to help out, and Violet came in and made a few of the crafts.





















Cora caught up with Sophia, channeling her inner Kylo Ren, and another friend dressed up as Rey, for a Star Wars light saber battle.

I swear, Violet had a good time!

She didn't have as good a time the morning after. My oh my, we've never had such a tough, tear-filled morning! It was early to bed for her Thursday night!