Trunk or Treat

On Wednesday, we met up with lots of our friends at Pioneer Club's Trunk or Treat event, where we've had fun year after year since Cora was 2.

This year I helped for an hour manning the "chalk creations" area, and while we waited for the evening to begin, Cora decorated a square with kitties, my leopard's favorite thing to draw these days.

 Cora then ran off to help Rigo pass out candy from his decorated trunk.

I love Lucas's homemade bat costume, with wings that open up. Nice one, Colleen! Cora was also happy that Sophia came to Trunk or Treat for the first time, and the leopards together handled the candy-passing.

 Cora also had fun with her friend Talitha, who is part of her Pioneer Club class this year.

Violet decided to dress as Alice at Trunk or Treat; she emerged from her nap in the dress, very pleased with herself. She loved Trunk or Treat, walking around eating candy and a cupcake from the Cake Walk.

The blue lollipop stained her mouth, making her look pretty bizarre in Cora and Sophia's photo booth picture. It looks like she sneaked into the frame.

October fun

I've mentioned this before in past years, how amazing it is that one simple holiday about dressing up and getting candy has morphed into a days upon days of activities for families.

I've already blogged about several events, and here are a few more things we've done this month...

Stacey and the girls carved two big pumpkins - well, Stacey and Cora gutted and carved them. Violet watched. I love the Hello Kitty and owl designs they chose.

At Violet's preschool party on Wednesday, one of the parents is a photographer and brought in his camera and equipment. We all went home with professional photos, a group shot and an individual (which I photographed below; I didn't want to mess with the scanner).

Violet wanted to wear her Cinderella dress again, and was happy to have me put her hair up, princess-style. She also wore Cora's Tinkerbell necklace, because "Tinkerbell made the Cinderella movie." She wanted to wear her "loud shoes," the blue plastic dress-up Cinderella heels, but thankfully agreed that her glittery "real" shoes were a better choice.

Violet also was able to dress up at Mom2Mom on Tuesday, and go trick-or-treating through the church office. On this day, she chose her Ariel dress and slippers. She wanted her Ariel plastic shell necklace, because it gives her Ariel powers, but we couldn't find it.

In what has become an October tradition for me and Stace, we had a date at Magic Mountain, courtesy of the Witch.

My mom has found her niche, and the crowds love her act. This year, she added to her costume contacts that glowed blue in the black light.






We found our friend Jen, who also was checking out Fright Fest, with her older son. We made a group trip onto the Revolution roller coaster before calling it a night.

Real Life Halloween Fun

 We had such a great time Saturday with Rigo, Colleen, Lucas and Liana. They came over for a family lunch playdate after soccer, and then we all went together to our church's Halloween extravaganza.

This year the theme was "Halloween at the Castle," with medieval decor, costumes and activities, including jousting and (foam arrow) archery.

Because our church has become so crowded, and this event draws from the SClarita community as well, this year they set up off-site parking and shuttles. They were comfortable and convenient, and the little girls loved sitting in big seats with seat belts.

 After watching the jousting show, we trick-or-treated at the decorated trunks, before checking out the archery and indoor games, and more trick-or-treating.

There was also "knight training," where Cora and Stace learned some proper sword-fighting techniques for their playroom foam-sword battles.

 A separate area featured the "king and queen" photo prop, and arts and craft projects. Of course, this included coloring swords and shields.

We had so much fun together, finishing our evening with dinner from the food trucks.

Halloween Party

Friday was full of fun. After Violet and I went to Lombardi Ranch, we headed to a Halloween party thrown by Cora's friend Vivian, and her mom Elaine.

They rented a bouncer, had lots of good food and drinks, crafts, games and cupcakes to decorate.

There was quite a turnout!

At one point, the cats and leopards practiced and performed a dance for us.

At one point I came out to find Violet drawing with chalk on the patio, and she had written her name. This is the first time she's been so successful, in my knowledge. Often when I ask her to practice her letters, she says she can only write "V"s. Here, you see the V is upside down, and she's missing the "e." Other than that, wow!

Lombardi fun with Mom2Mom

Shhh, don't tell Cora, but we went back to Lombardi Ranch on Friday with our Mom2Mom friends.

We went as a family twice already, but on this trip, I paid for Violet and me to ride the train, visit the petting zoo and buy a small pumpkin. Violet loved all of it.

Lucas happened to have a Friday off from school, so he entertained all the girls while we waited for our turn on the train.

 L

 My friend Kasia took a lot of these photos - they are great!

Pioneer Club awards

Our little Skipper Violet was so excited to earn her first two badges Wednesday in Pioneer Club.

For Cora, in her fifth year in the group, awards nights and badges have become a bit ho-hum.
But Violet, she talked about her badges all day prior to the little ceremony, and begged to put them on her shirt immediately.

Our friend Morgan is doing a great job as their teacher, making it a fun program for the 3-year-olds.

Here, the Skippers are singing their song and playing instruments in front of the Pioneer Club kids and parents. Violet is a bit of a ham, and several parents afterward told us how she made them laugh.

 The Skippers recited Genesis 1:1, "God made the sky and the earth," with hand motions.

 Later, Cora's Voyager group got up to say their verse and review what they have learned this unit.

Then all the children were on stage to sing "Jesus, You are My Best Friend," with dancing and hand motions. Our girls took the moves seriously, especially Cora, who kept quite a straight face as she tried to remember everything correctly.

We then enjoyed baked goods that the older club members were selling to raise money for a ministry that works against child trafficking.

Bits and pieces

We missed out on our Tuesday ice cream night.

I think this bothered me and Stace more than the girls, so we decided to fix it Thursday night. I'd heard good things about a new local, family-run place across town (in deep Saugus) where the ice cream is handmade.

It cost twice our normal "dollar scoop night" treat, but it was delicious, well worth it for a special treat.

 Like Violet's new face art? The girls put on tattoos a couple of weeks ago, and Cora asked to put another one on Violet's arm.
Sure, I said. And here is the result. Not sure how my 6-year-old got "arm" and "face" confused...

We had Cora's friend Sophia with us Saturday, when we participated in the Walk for Life for the SCV Pregnancy Center.

The walk started from our church, headed across the street to Bridgeport Park, made a loop (or two if you did it right) and then came back to church.

 Then we headed to Valencia Glen, where Cora and Lucas played soccer and Violet and Liana "planted grass" in the dirt. Violet explained it all to me, and it made a lot of sense.

On Sunday, we had a normal morning and a relaxing day getting things done at home. Stace did some more work on his MG - not long before he'll be proud to drive it to work, wind rushing through his hair.

Cora went out back to bring in the cats, and I was amazed she was strong enough to carry Sebastian. They are such good boys. We are blessed with fantastic cats.