Trick or Treat! It was a soggy and wet night for Trick or Treat this year, but the boys enjoyed walking around the neighborhood with Abbie and Finn’s classmate Ethan, who joined us this year. Reid made it 3/4 of the way through the neighborhood before heading home to get to bed. Griffin had so much candy that by the last house it was spilling out the top of his pumpkin!
I was able to go to Finn’s class party this week. All of the kids were dressed in their costumes and enjoying sweet treats and classroom games. The second group picture is of Mrs. Menary and Mrs. Wilkers classes together as they investigated the differences in the white and orange pumpkins. 
Here are some samplings of Griffin’s artwork. The first is a drawing of our family and the second is Finn playing football which still seems to be his all time favorite sport. 
Griffin earned his third sticker on his pink booklet this week, learning the words as, an, can, have, was. 
And here are some other photos from our week. The boys love playing in the driveway, I made Instant Pot Sesame Chicken which turned out delish (nevermind the look on Finn’s face!), the boys enjoying ice cream at Grandma and Grandpa Armstrongs, and unfortunately the last one is of them at the pediatrician’s office where they were both diagnosed with Croup! Griffin woke up Sunday at 5:30 in the morning and sounded like he was having a really hard time breathing. He kind of freaked himself out and began gagging and drooling (and then began to freak me out). Neither of them seem too bad, though our experience at the pediatric support center (affiliated with our pediatricians office) was less than ideal. The nurse gave Finn his medicine first, but mistakenly gave him Reid’s dose. I asked her if she gave him the wrong syringe as they had a confused look on her face, and she proceeded to ask Finn to open wide as she dispensed more medication from the second syringe into his mouth (down to a certain amount and then stopped). She then had Reid open wide and gave him the remaining portion. I was not happy at all and asked the physician to come back in to the room. He had the personality of a card board box and wasn’t really apologetic much at all. I’ve since voiced my concern and experience to our actual pediatricians office who were quite apologetic that we had such a poor experience. 
November 4, 2018
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It’s that time of year again where Kevin finds us fun costumes to wear to our friends Halloween Party! This year we were players from the movie Dodge Ball. Claire and Eric hosted another great party this year. We went over together with our neighbors Brian and Lisa – and Wyndbend Blvd took home some awards! We won for “Funniest Costume” and Brian and Lisa won “Scariest Costume”. It’s always a fun night. 
Griffin tagged along with me to the mall for a second time within a week. He’s always excited to play in the play space, wanting me to watch his every move as he happily jumps off the animals and runs at high speeds. Today we also brought home Tracker, his new Beany Boo. 
Griffin was so excited that he received the accessories from our Dodgeball uniform outfits. He’s loving the sweatbands for his wrists and head as well as the dodgeball itself. 
Hannah did some cute artwork with Reid this week while Finn was at school. So cute!
Cole and Cooper will not be with Brian and Lisa for Trick or Treat, and since our tradition is to walk around the neighborhood together we weren’t going to be able to do that. Brian and Lisa invited us over to their house for some pre Trick-or-Treat fun of dinner and decorating cookies. The kids exchanged some candy and had fun playing together. 
On Saturday Griffin went to another birthday party for his friend Jonas, who goes to Tyler Run but is in a different class. They play together on the playground and also were classmates at Locker Soccer for soccer lessons. His mom, Laura, sent me the cutest picture from the party which was at Jonas’ house, a small gathering of friends. He had a great time!
We celebrated Lily’s 10th birthday on Sunday. Our girl is definitely aging, she has a constant limp from the arthritis she has in many of her joints (elbows, knees, shoulders, ankles). But She’s a tough cookie. And when she’s excited about something or someone arrives home she jumps right up and darts to the door like a young pup, and a loud obnoxious one too! Her alert barking is still very much on point. And she is the best tattle-tale, often barking a signature bark when she is alerting us that Brutus is getting in to something or has something that he shouldn’t. She’s a smart and sassy one. She loves to be cuddled and finds peaces in the smallest and quietest spaces. Happy Birthday sweet Lils!
I enjoyed a fun day at home this week with the boys. As everyone knows, I’m not gifted with art, but I do love how much fun the kids have with it. So I broke out a bunch of paints and some paper and the kids went to town. Griffin is really creative and likes making many different pieces of art. We also ended with a fun bath, which was quite necessary by the end!
We completed another puzzle this week – it was another one that gave us some challenges! Those tree branches are much harder than they appear at first glance!
The Bethune’s invited us to the Dublin Spooktakular this week where the kids enjoyed dressing up in their costumes and filling their bags full of crazy amounts of candy! Reid was Mr. Independent and wanted to walk (or really wander) everywhere. Kevin had to work late so he wasn’t able to join us this year. But we did enjoy some pizza dinner before we headed home. 
Griffin was treated to a spontaneous Daddy date on Friday when Kevin was home early from work. They had a late afternoon lunch at Corner Bakery, followed by fun at Dave and Buster’s.
Reid and Griffin play pretty well together most of the time. Reid definitely lets you know if he doesn’t want to be doing something – he will scream loud and clear. He is very observant and regularly mocks behaviors that he sees. 
We made our annual trip to Young’s Jersey Dairy this weekend to go pumpkin picking. We rode the trailer out to the fields where we walked all around to find our perfect pumpkins. It was a blue-sky day with pretty clouds, though it was a bit windy!
We are building 5 new greenhouses at Millcreek in the I-pad and have had a new well drilled in that area also (that’s the white stub). So we’ve been clearing some trees and getting the area ready to start construction. It’s been several years since we’ve put up new huts!