Halloween Quotables

Last night while we were trick or treating, the kids said some things that made me and Dan just crack up. I wanted to record them here so we can remember them.

At one house, as they were getting their candy Drew says
"What's wrong with your house?!"
Apparently, they were doing some remodeling.

Along the way the kids were asking us what kind of candy was our favorite. Then at the next house we went to they offered Drew some peanut M&Ms. At which point he said:
"Hey, my Dad likes these!"

Along a particularly dark stretch (no street lights in our neighborhood), Drew said that it was pretty dark and he was a little bit afraid of the dark. We told him not to be afraid because his parents were with him, and Ava pipes in:
"I'm not afraid of the dark, ever!"
Which is interesting, since she's been asking us to leave the hall light on at bedtime recently.

Another house that had some spooky spiderweb decorations across the entrance looked too scary for Drew to go to the door. Ava said she wasn't scared. So as she's marching up to the front door, Drew asks her from the driveway:
"Ava, will you get me some candy from that house?"
I convinced him to go to the door himself, but stood close by for protection.

As we walked up to one house there was a trick or treater at the door and his mom was waiting on the sidewalk. Drew looked up at her and said
"Thank you!"
To which she looked at me and said "Did he just say thank you to me?" Yeah, it must be all the "Don't forget to say thank you!" reminders.

Then, this morning Ava wanted to dump out all her candy. I asked her if she wanted to sort it and she said yes. There was a piece of trash in there and she asked me to throw it away. I said I thought she could do it. And she says to me:
"Well, I have a lot of candy to sort up."

Something both kids did that was very sweet though, was ask us what candy was our favorite. Then when they got one of those, they would immediately give it to us. It warmed my heart that on a holiday known for greed, gluttony, and hoarding, that they so willingly shared with us. I love those sweeties!

Sorting up their candy

Halloween Fun

Last night we had a fun family night. We started the evening with carving pumpkins. The kids were so excited, they kept asking all afternoon if it was time to carve them yet. We started out by cutting off the tops and scooping out the guts. Both kids helped a little bit with the scooping. Then we drew our faces on. After Dan drew the face that Ava requested on her pumpkin she proceeded to draw all over it, making it difficult for him to see which lines to cut. This year was the first year we let Drew do a little of the carving himself, using a special pumpkin cutter and with close adult supervision, of course! Once they were all finished we put a candle in each one and looked at our spooky jack o'lanterns in the dark. Then we talked about how Jesus scoops out our icky goopy insides and then puts his light inside of us.

We saved the pumpkin seeds and baked them. We made four different flavors. The salt & pepper and garlic salt are our favorites. We also made seasoned salt and cinnamon sugar. After the pumpkins were finished we had pizza and pumpkin pie for dinner. Everyone was happy! And after that we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown."

Ava scooping out the seeds

Drew doing some scooping

Drew carving his own pumpkin!

Ava's finished pumpkin, with her lovely drawing

Our jack o'lanterns outside on the porch

Today has been filled with fun halloween things too. Like jack o'lantern pancakes for breakfast and pumpkin and ghost sandwiches for lunch. Tonight we are heading over to a friend's house for dinner, then doing some trunk or treating at a local church, and if we have any energy left, some trick or treating around the neighborhood before we all fall into bed exhausted and high on sugar!

Fun jack o'lantern pancakes

pumpkin and ghost sandwiches

Best dogs ever, plus cute kids in halloween shirts sitting on them

Ava is going as a cow this year

Drew is going as Darth Vader

Happy Halloween from the Himmelbergers!

Spiders

Tuesday was spider day at Ava's preschool. So of course I had her wear her favorite spider shirt.


And, the look wouldn't be complete without the addition of some special, made by mom, spider hair bows!

After school we went to the gym. Sadly, only one spider bow made it home with us. Oh well!

My little gymnast

About a month ago we started Ava in gymnastics. I was going to sign her up for dance again, but she said she didn't want to do dance, she wanted to do "nastics." It is a pretty natural fit for her actually. She is constantly in motion, trying to headstands and flips and somersaults. And she is very flexible! So we started her at Tricks and she loves it!

She is in a small class with three or four other girls and each week the teacher has something different for them to try. I am impressed with how quickly and how well she performs each "skill." Her favorite part seems to be the time on the giant trampoline. It is crazy to watch her tiny self flying through the air like that! I'm glad that for now we've found something she loves and wonder how far she might go in gymnastics.

Ready to jump in the foam pit

Working the double bars (with a little help)

And the balance beam

Jumping on the trampoline~sorry it's a little blurry!

GOAL!

Today was Drew's last soccer game and team party. Soccer has been a lot of fun, but with two practices and a game every week, I am kind of looking forward to having more free time in the evenings. Drew had a great team, with nice kids and a good coach. We enjoyed spending Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights with them!

After the game we had a great team party at a local pizza place. We used the money from our quarter jar (every time our team scores a goal all the parents drop a quarter into the jar) to pay for the trophies and pizza for the kids. The kids all enjoyed playing in the arcade, eating pizza & cake, watching the slide show and of course receiving their trophies. We came home with tired kids who were in bed and asleep within fifteen minutes!

I know I've shared on the blog before why soccer is special to us...just that we never thought that Drew would be able to play soccer because of his heart condition. But he has played his little heart out! And tonight, during his last game of the season, he scored his first goal! I am so proud of him and how hard he works at things. Most things, especially physical things, don't come easy to him. He really has to spend time practicing to be on the same level as his teammates. I don't know what it feels like to run with a mended heart, to have to work a little bit harder than everyone else, but when Drew scored that goal tonight, I do know that I felt so proud of his accomplishment. It brought tears to my eyes and I felt truly blessed to witness this moment in his life. I know that may sound like an exaggeration, but truly, these moments are a little sweeter if you weren't sure that they would ever be possible.

Hayden, Connor, Austin, Drew and coach Wes

Number 10 is ready to play!

Sweaty teammates Drew and Connor resting on the sidelines

Drew receiving his trophy from Coach

Coach Dan receiving his plaque from Team Mom Jenny

Family Reunion

Continuing our summer wrap-up...


At the end of August we attended a family reunion for my maternal grandfather's side of the family. The reunion was held at Pismo Beach and we were looking forward to seeing everyone and were hoping to turn the trip into a mini-vacation. My parents, brother & sister, aunts and uncles and cousins all got rooms in the same hotel. Our room was on the ground floor which was great for letting the kids play outside in the courtyard and gave us a little more space. The early mornings were spent taking walks on the beach with the kids. They loved exploring and collecting shells & sand dollars and looking for crabs. We all had fun spending time with the family and I know my grandpa especially enjoyed having his entire family surround him.

Me and my brother and sister

Drew and Ava walking down the 100 steps to the beach

Exploring a cave

Climbing on a big rock

Drew took this picture of me and Dan on a morning walk

We found this hermit crab and followed him for a while

My mom, Uncle Tommy and Aunt Marie with Grandpa

The entire Oddone family!

And the view from our room

California State Fair 2009

Hearts of Hope gets free tickets for the California State Fair every summer and we were lucky enough to be able to go once again this year. We only had a few hours free between school and soccer practice, but with temperatures well over 100 degrees that was plenty of time to go on some rides, see some animals, and eat some fair food before heading back indoors to the air conditioning.

We spent most of our time in the Kids Zone and I was surprised at how many rides the kids wanted to try. Drew even went down the giant slide with me. They liked most of the rides, but I convinced them to try the jolly roger and lets just say...we won't be doing that again.

After the rides we headed across the fairgrounds to see the animals. On the way there we passed the "everything fried" booth and I just had to try the deep fried s'more. It was pretty good, but very very sweet! But hey, when in Rome...Anyway, once we got over there we got to see all the baby animals including baby pigs that were born that morning. So cute! Then we passed through the insect and reptile house, grabbed our free M&Ms ice cream sandwich, and hurried out of the fair and off to soccer practice!

My cuties on the boat ride

Jolly Roger-not a hit!

Mmm...deep fried s'more!

The kids with a baby cow

Ava petting a snake

Drew holding a snake

Hot and tired kids grabbing our ice cream sandwiches on the way out