October

 I'm not always ready to decorate for Halloween right at the beginning of October because I hate saying goodbye to summer. This year, the holidays have been more important than usual though we made sure to get our Halloween tree up on October 1st. It was one of the last really warm days of the year and Mason had swimming party for his PE co-op so he decorated it in his swim suit! Haha! We waited until Spencer was finished with school so he could go swimming with us. Thank heavens for the few people who have backyard pools in Sherwood!

Mason and I did a week long homeschool unit on apples. Making these apple boats was his favorite activity.

Just like last April, I looked forward to General Conference for the hope, peace, and direction it provides even more than normal. The pandemic had dragged on so much longer than more people had anticipated and we desperately needed our Savior's direction. And, as always, the Holy Ghost whispered the answers I was searching for as a listening during Conference and studied afterward. We weren't able to watch the Sunday sessions with Alan's parents like usual and we missed that! Mason played lots of bingo, Spencer took a few notes for the first time ever, and we ate some yummy food. 

After sitting and watching the sessions for two days, we needed to get outside and move our bodies, so we went to Cooper Mtn. Nature Park on Sunday evening. Mason wasn't happy to go on another hike, but the rest of us enjoyed it. ;) Spencer had fun taking some pictures for a photography unit for his Outdoor Living class at school.

For some reason we didn't wind up with any individual pictures of Mason from our family photo shoot in August, so I took some of my own in our front yard. There was definitely a clear winner! 

We had been wanting a leaf blower for years and Alan finally bought one. Mason loves to help take care of leaves now.

We were so happy that our favorite pumpkin patch was still open this year. We went close to the beginning of the month and there was hardly any one else there. It was great and one of our favorite traditions.

October is often a rainy month, but we had the best fall weather this year! It was crisp and sunny and lovely. We soaked it up and spent tons of time outside.

Spencer had several cross country meets on Saturdays during October. This group of about 20 kids was all so kind and supportive of each other. As each kid finished, they stuck around the finish line to cheer on the runners still coming. There was a big focus on competing against their own times and not each other. It was really great to see and such a positive experience for Spencer.

Mason had a lot of fun riding his scooter in the skate park during this foggy race in McMinnville.

Following in Spencer's footsteps, Mason suddenly became an avid Harry Potter fan in October. Spencer was already planning to wear this robe for Halloween, so Mason couldn't wear it, but he had playing pretend before Halloween.

One cold morning, Spencer put his shirt on the heat vent to warm it up and Kiki climbed in all by herself! Spencer snapped these pictures of Kiki wearing his favorite "Sunday shirt."

Long before October, Mason saw a cool robot costume in a Michael's catalog and decided that's what he wanted to be for Halloween. Since the costume was made out of cardboard, tape, and ribbon, we worked on it for art time in school for a couple of weeks. It was a fun project to do together.

Halloween slime from our fun neighbors!

Mason's PE co-op met at a corn maze on a rainy morning just before Halloween. We mostly had the place to ourselves because of the rain. Mason and I stuck with a group of older girls who got totally lost and it took us over an hour of wandering to find our way out. Spencer had a day off school and joined us too. He ran ahead with the older boys and they finished super fast. Mason was wet and cold by the time we finished, but the muffins and hot chocolate provided by one of the other moms made it all worth it.

We celebrated Halloween quite different from normal this year, but it still turned out to be a great day. Spencer had a cross country meet first thing in the morning and ran his best 3k ever! After the race, the group had a small trunk or treat. It was nice to have it while it was light and with a small group instead of a whole ward. Not really knowing what to expect, we had lots of candy left over. Spencer chose to be Harry Potter or Ron Weasley once again and Mason was happy with his robot costume. 

Debbie brought Great Grandma over to see the boy's costumes for a few minutes later in the morning. And we finally got our pumpkins carved in the afternoon. Our neighbors also invited us to break a pinata with them. Instead of trick-or-treating in the evening, we opted to watch Harry Potter after our spooky, Halloween dinner. Spencer and Mason got way too much candy and were perfectly happy. I actually preferred it this way since I don't love trick or treating. ;)