Trick or treat

Pumpkin hunt

This year our annual trip to the pumpkin patch was rained out. Given the very hectic nature of this season we compromised by swinging by our local orchard after school one day. Yoda makes all things excellent, apparently.

He is eating an Empire apple.

Haunted House Visit

An afternoon of spooky fun with RHCR over fall break

Cemetery photo by Monkey. (Instagrammed by Mrs. Z.)

Sweet treats. 

Halloween/Birthday Song

Since Aunt B has headed back to her island, Monkey made her a video for her birthday (yesterday). it was about Halloween, of course, which he is being brainwashed into thinking is the best holiday ever (although it can't overcome Christmas and his birthday, for obvious reasons. We're still trying.)

The entire song lasted for an 18 minute car ride to Target, and included several other sections and a verse about 'Brenda, stop saying "you better not have fun without me"'. I was told that the 'we don't care' refers to how the kids want the candy so badly they aren't afraid of the bats. Unrecorded spin offs include 'Bats and Grampires' and several other spooky combinations.

Soccer Parade

In between kindergarten homework and house renovations, Monkey has been playing soccer. Grandma T is the coach, Aunt A is the assistant coach, and RHCR is his enthusiastic team mate. Mrs. Z is in charge of keeping our newest cousin, A, entertained during soccer type activities. It's a pretty sweet deal. 

A weekend or two ago the soccer team was in the local Fall Festival parade. Monkey had a FANTASTIC time waving to the people and throwing candy. 

With the aforementioned cousin A. Mrs. Z was the only one sunburned. Naturally. 

Their team name is Dynamite. Monkey loves to do his cheer. It goes like this: "Dynamite!"

He's really enjoying playing soccer, and it's nice to have some time with the new neph and enjoy the fantastic fall weather we've been having. It's a good break from the stresses of running our real estate empire. That being said, we'll also welcome having full weekends open for house projects when soccer ends in a few weeks. 

All Over but the Crying

Our brave boy got on the bus with no fuss and in a timely fashion. The end of the school day was not quite as smooth, unfortunately. The bus was over 45 minutes late bringing him home, which means that he was on the bus for almost 2 hours. The first thing he told us when he got off the bus was: "You were wrong, Mom. We do have nap at school. We all took a rest. You could rest on the floor or in a chair."

Soon thereafter, he jumped into my lap and wouldn't budge. He swears that his teacher told him that he was boring and stupid and she just kept using those words over and over, because of the cars and the lego men and it all started to get very confused. He says that he was not a good listener for her, because he was being 'sneaky good' which means that he was being good when she couldn't see him, but sounds an awful lot like he was up and wandering around when he shouldn't have been. 

They did feed him lunch, although he said he forgot his lunch money and they 'lost' him in the wrong line, because even though he was in the food line he was in the wrong class. The check was missing from his backpack though, so I'm guessing that his teacher took it out along with his school supplies. 

We offered him his choice of restaurants, and he wanted to stay home and eat hot dogs. Until he didn't. And then there was screaming and crying for about twenty minutes before he could be convinced to eat his hot dog. 

He said that he ate an apple and a sandwich and had some milk at school, and that he liked playing outside at recess. His class read two books that were funny and talked about numbers. There was one girl in his class that he knew from preschool, who was an afternoon kid who waved at him but he said he did not wave back at her. The kid who likes Star Wars was there and he was little but he didn't remember his name. 

We fed him watermelon and smoothie and gave him a bath and we all curled up on the couch for one episode of 80's Transformers (I quite prefer Transformers Prime, so this was a real concession.) And now he is screaming and sobbing in his bed at 7:15 p.m. because he is exhausted out of his MIND. As are we. 

Everything looks better in the morning. 

A very brave boy