I'm eventually going to catch up, I promise.
The weekend before Halloween I was brave and decided to take Brother and Sister to a little celebration in the neighboring town to the Riverwoods (basically just around the corner from us). I was mostly brave because my friend, Amanda, and her kids Ali and Pepe and their student they had with them for a week from Japan, Conan. Marc was home with Baby. (He was not as brave as I.)
I know it may sound trivial to most of you, but taking my kids to a crowded Halloween Celebration with loud music, surrounding vendors and bounce houses is pretty darned overwhelming for any kid let alone one with hyper-arousal, anxiety and sensory processing issues...
But, with their friends there, they did GREAT! And I do mean GREAT!
I was so happy and so were they.
I have become so reluctant to take them to any big activities because how overwhelming it is for them. But I was feeling like I haven't been giving them all the opportunities they need to learn and mature.
So there I was, in the middle of this shopping center with music and all and my kids were loving it. Yes, you could see that some of it was overwhelming for them, but they were able to adapt and calm themselves to enjoy the time we spent there.
I was so proud of them. I just had to keep telling them so.
Sister couldn't have been prouder of herself, and Brother just kept bashfully giggling.
Man, I love these kids.
 | |
| Brother, Sister and Pepe thought the Alpaca's at the petting zoo were pretty cool. |
 |
| I had to get Conan in there too. |
 |
| They had lots of free games there for the kids and Sister thought this one was pretty cool. I was surprised she let them blindfold her. She was so proud of her self when she saw her work. |
 |
| She really got into the pumpkin bowling. That was my favorite to watch. She was giggling because she was so excited! |
 |
| Now these are the kind of displays I hope to see at the Parade of Pumpkins next year. These were awesome. |
 |
| It was pretty cool because this was my favorite one and I found out after posting it on Facebook that it was actually done in honor of my friends niece who had recently passed away. It really was an amazing display. |
 |
| Brother just had to have me take a picture of him with the "water fall." To say he loves waterfalls would be an understatement. |
 |
| Another thing Sister was VERY excited about. |
 |
| It was really cute because we were wandering around the bounce houses trying to decide if we should let our kids do it and the daughter of one of my neighbors saw Sister and offered her their extra ticket. She hardly knows us, and we hardly know here but she knows Sister from playing with her kids in the neighborhood. So sweet. So since Sister had a ticket, of course, we had to get one for the rest of the kids. And good thing too, the next series of pictures will show you how much fun they had. |
 |
| Sister was pretty excited about the next part of the petting zoo with the miniature ponies. I don't think I have ever seen them so small. Sister just could not stop giggling about them. |
 |
| They even had free horse-drawn wagon rides. Brother thought that was the best thing ever!! |
 |
| Sister really liked Conan and stuck to him like the glue the whole day. |
 |
| The headless horseman was pretty impressive! |
 |
| Then, because we had the kids with us, we, of course, had to go to the Blickenstaff's toy store. But, Brother didn't seem to care as much for the toys as he did the mummy display. I think that was the toy he wanted to take home the most. |
 |
| Ali had fun joining in to see what Brother was so excited about. |
 |
| I think I need to get him one of this "wiggle" bikes. That was awesome and he was so confident on it. |
 |
| Trying on the hats for my camera. |
 |
| One last moment in the mummy case. |
The next day we had a birthday celebration for my mom at her house.
Sister wanted to make a pumpkin pie for her with the pumpkin she picked with her class. I thought it was so cute that she wanted to use her precious little pumpkin for grandma.
I have NEVER made a pumpkin pie from scratch and I can count on one hand how many times I have made any kind of homemade crust pie.
It was a lot of work, but it was so worth it as Sister was giggling with excitement the entire time we were getting everything ready. She even oversaw my pumpkin preparation of cutting, peeling, gutting, cooking and pureeing the pumpkin. When it came time for her to help me with the crust and then the filling she was ecstatic.
I hate to inform you that our pumpkin pie was awful, but the pictures I took of the memory was awesome!
She was so proud to let grandma have a piece of her homemade pumpkin pie.
The party was a lot of fun. We had food and roasted hotdogs. But, Baby was so active that I really didn't get much time to socialize.
My uncle, Jeff saw how much she was keeping me busy and thought she would enjoy seeing the animals, so he took her to see the bunnies...
and the horse...
and the dog...
 |
| Just before the end of the party I just had to snap a shot of the beautiful sunset. |
0 remarks:
Post a Comment