This morning, the boys had their character parade at school. The students can't wear scary costumes, but they can choose a character from a book and dress as that character. They have to carry their book with them in the parade. John-William and Jackson both chose to be knights. John-William has a Magic Treehouse book about knights and was certain he could find one at school for Jackson to borrow. So, they were both knights. Michael was a lion. He walked in the parade with Jackson, but didn't have to carry a book. The kindergarten classes had a pumpkin patch after the character parade and the kids played games, got candy, went on a hayride and then ate hot dogs and played on the playground to burn off all the sugar they had eaten this morning! Michael and I were at the school until after noon today and he enjoyed every minute. He's gotten really comfortable being there now, so he sits with the Jackson and the other kids when books are being read or plays with the blocks or other items that the teachers have in their classrooms. He really enjoyed being outside on the playground with Jackson and the other kids today.
Of course, we went trick-or-treating tongiht, but only to a few houses. We met Tina, Tommy and Trent at my parents' house and the boys got candy there. Then, we went to four houses on our street. We only have seven houses on our street and it's easy to drive by if you don't know it's here, so there aren't usually very many trick-or-treaters that come down this street. But, we have some very kind neighbors who always prepare for our boys and Trent and they make special treats for them. The boys always enjoy going to those houses and seeing what treats are in their bags this year. After that, we went to the Civic Center for the Halloween festivities there. They had moonwalks and games for the kids, hot dogs for dinner and then a candy hunt on the softball fields. They spread thousands of pieces of candy on the outfields and then turn out the lights for the kids to find as much as they can. It becomes a madhouse when those lights go out! The boys all found plenty of candy and each came home with a bag full. And, by the way, more candy is just what I need!! I'm still eating mini bags of M&Ms and miniature Reese's cups left over from John-William's birthday party a couple of weeks ago. Now, I have three bags full of candy!!! Fortunately for me, a lot of the hard candy doesn't appeal to me. I just go for the chocolate! I'm trying to hold back, though. I didn't do a very good job of it today, but I'll start trying again tomorrow. The Civic Center also had a haunted house this year and we went through it tonight. Last night, Adam took John-William and Jackson even though I was worried about how scared they would be. They were brave on the way there and on the way home, but somewhere in between they got scared! Jackson had a really hard time with one scene where there are doctors and body parts and bloody people in the haunted house. From there, he just wanted out. I can't say that I blame him. I knew it was coming and it was still a little spooky. Tonight, Tommy kept Michael and Jackson outside on the playground and Tina, Adam, Trent, John-William and I went through it. They made me lead the group which meant that John-William and Trent were hanging on to me for dear life. At some point, John-William grabbed on to Tina, but that just meant that Trent was pulling on me even harder. He would even start pulling backwards while we were walking and then I had to ease my way through, watching for ghouls and goblins who were jumping out from behind each corner
and pull Trent through! I would pull my hands free so that I could check for things around me and push open the next curtain we had to go through and he would just hang on to my waist. At one point, I was trying to pull my right hand out of his grip and he kept hanging on so tight that he broke and bruised my thumbnail! And he went through it last night, too. They say it wasn't as scary tonight because some of the "characters" were busy with other activities going on at the Civic Center. If it wasn't as scary tonight, I can't imagine what Trent was like going through it last night!!
My pictures won't upload right now, so I'll have to try to do it tomorrow. Happy Halloween and good night!
eld trip, there were really only a few opportunities to take pictures. We did get to watch ourselves on an overhead screen from a camera that was mounted to the front of a train that was set up in the lobby. So, I took a couple of pictures of the train and John-William
watching himself as the train passed. There's also one from the theatre of him and me together. 
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es that were cut off my uncles' property and they've been piled in the yard waiting to be cut up. Troy manned the chainsaw and had help from Tommy at times. Once the wood was cut into the right lengths, then Adam, Matt, Tommy and my dad took turns running the wood splitter. John-William and Jackson helped with that, too. After it was split, the wood had to be taken to the barn (b
y tractor and 4-wheeler with trailer) and then stacked up for the winter. They all worked hard all day long and then were many sore muscles the next day!!
to get everything done until next spring. We took turns using the weed eater and trimmed around the house, pool and shrubbery. Tina trimmed the shrubs and I pulled weeds from the decorative rocks around the pool. We also cleaned up all the limbs that had been cut from the shrubs and made one big pile to be burned. Tommy will enjoy himself burning that!!
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m attaching pictures of his jury summons he was given tonight. They aren't great pictures, but that's what happens when you're taking a picture of something lying on a desk with overhead lighting. But, they're too dark without the lights! We had a nice evening and really enjoyed the performance.
