As most of you know, yesterday was Halloween. And to help celebrate Halloween, both of the older kids had Halloween parties (actually, Ryan's was called a "Fall Festival" because the public school don't promote or celebrate any holidays so as not to offend anyone - dumb). Anyway, I've always wanted to help out at their parties, but have never been able to in the past mainly because I always have other children to take care of. Well, this year I made a point of ""dispersing" the other kids so I could make it to at least one of the parties (Ryan was not happy I couldn't do his, but I am going to try to make his "Holiday Party" in December work). So off the kids went, (Colt stayed with his mom, Ellie went to the neighbor's house, and Ryan was in school), and off we (Lauren and I) went to her Halloween party. It was so fun to see how Lauren interacts with other kids and her teachers when she is, "on her own." She is so confident, so calm, and so GOOD when she is at school (why can't she always be like that at home?). Overall, the party and the experience of seeing how things work at her school was great! It was fun to meet some of her friends that she talks about and finally put a face to their names. Like I said before, I'm going to try and do Ryan's party in December and going forward, I am certainly going to make more of an effort to get into their classrooms and learn more about their lives outside the four walls of our house. Below are a few pictures from Lauren's Halloween parade, and the rest are of the kids (and one with the neighbor kids) before we hit the town for some serious Trick-or-Treating (we actually made it around an entire block this year before the kids were ready to go in - 1 block took about an hour, 6 kids, lots of talking, walking, and more talking makes for a long "walk around the block"). Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!
