Halloween 2020

Happy Halloween from Andrew the Candy Corn Dracula...lets just say candy corns are an important part of the season (Thank goodness Natali is in Provo and Greg goes to work everyday because they don't appreciate the glory of the candy).  We conducted experiments this year to see if each layer tastes different -our results were inconclusive.  We have weighed the benefits of corns vs. pumpkin shape - both delicious in their own right.  Our conclusion (after three bags) is that candy corns are wonderful and should be eaten all month long.

Natali made this weekend amazing by hitching a ride home to enjoy the holiday with us.  She even got her nose cauterized Friday morning; hopefully no more nose bleeds.

Lily really wanted to go to a pumpkin patch this year - well we put it off til the 30th and sent Natali to take her while I worked on Halloween dinner.  Somehow the first place was closed,  pick your own in Star only had ginormous ones left, none at Bi-Mart, so they got the runts at Ridley's.  I guess we will take the poor girl to a pumpkin patch next year.  She (read as Greg) did an amazing job creating a pirate kitty pumpkin helping her forget the pumpkin patch fiasco.  Kate did a pinapple, Natali a note, and Emmy made a great face (somehow didn't get a pic).

For costumes this year I told the girls to just find something in the bucket.  Emily found a Peter Pan shirt (Andrew wore it in Kindergarten I think) and decided to be an elf (I thought Santa's helper but she thought Lord of the Rings)...somehow she roped me into creating a cape. She designed it and glued most of the leaves on herself- I did the last bit of glueing after she burned two of her fringers 😬.  Kate found this cute idea for a strawberry online and made it all herself.  Lily wanted to be a pumpkin so suddenly we were sewing a lot to make her vision come true.  Grandma helped us get a pattern going and Lily sewed quite a bit of it together and made the headband all on her own. 

 

Halloween dinner was just family this year to reduce Covid risks. Grandma, Grandpa, and the Wilford kids loved all the silly food.  They needed lots of refills on drinks.  The dessert "Eyeballs Three Ways" was a big hit as was the "Cyclops Soup".  The kids had a blast, filled their bellies and then played for hours.  Natali took the Wilfords home and our kids got ready for trick or treating.  Having Natali home was wonderful - she walked the neighborhood with the kiddos and Greg and I got to stay home and pass out candy.  We set around chatting while the kids feasted.  I miss how Natali's presence seems to create chatting opportunities.  Wonderful to have her home for the weekend.

High School Soccer 2020

Greg designated himself team game photographer this season.  He started taking photos at every game and posting them on the team app.  He even ended up buying a new lens to take better action shots.  Everyone loved it and it means we have a TON of soccer pictures.  I asked him to send me the top 10 for both the boys.  He sent me 10 or so from each game.  So here are just a few...

Mack got injured and Andrew was right there to make sure he was okay.

I loved watching my boys play together - especially when they passed to each other and had opportunities to score.

Garrett did a flip whenever he scored; so cool.

Mack started the season right off of his weird lightheaded summer health thing so he was pretty out of shape.  They put him on JV and he quickly became a play maker for that group.  Of their 12 season goals he made 2 and assisted 4.  Andrew made 3 goals inspite of his broken arm.  They didn't have a great season but the games were so fun to watch.  Mack also got to play in a lot of varsity games.  He often played the entire JV game and then played 10-20 minutes of varsity.  The season was "meh", to quote Andrew, but we loved watching all the games and cheering our boys on.

Mack Attack

The weekend before Homecoming Mack still hadn't asked the girl (or told us who) he was intending to go to the dance with.  Friday night I told him he had to do it - he had to give her at least a week to find a dress.  Luckily Emmy had just made cookies.  I said, "Just write HOCO with Mack on them."  He actually agreed to it and it was done in less that 10 minutes.  Yea!

They asked Greg to take the photos - for an animal photographer he did a pretty good job.  

Mack was bit awkward posing for the pictures but I think he and Hikke had a really good time.

The next day we got to celebrate his 17th birthday.  So hard to believe next year he will be a Senior.  Life is changing too fast.  Grandma and Grandpa and the Wilfords came over for steak and plain chocolate birthday cake- well they all had a lot of gummy worms so I guess they got over the plain cake.

I'm sure no one is surprized that almost all of his gifts were soccer related or edible.  Love that kid.

Easiest birthday cake ever!