Zoo Halloween Party

October has become a crazy busy month for our family. There are several birthdays among the cousins, now Will's birthday is in there too, and it seems like there are tons of school events, sports ending and starting, etc. But this is Will's first Fall at home, so we don't want to skip any of our usual traditions. We bought costumes early this year so we were all set to go to the zoo party just as soon as we could find a free evening. We ended up buying tickets twice because we forgot we already had something scheduled on one of the days, but it all worked out! We ended up going on the evening of Will's birthday and he was more than okay with that plan.

This girlie decided that she wanted to be the same pumpkin that she was last year. Of course it still fits! 

Ben kept hugging the minion instead of smiling for photos. The guy playing Gru had more of a mafia accent and he kept saying Nathan was David Beckham, hee.

Noah chose his costume and thought it was hilarious at home, but then started to doubt himself when he noticed everyone was staring at him at the zoo. We told him they were all laughing and smiling because they liked it, but he wasn't enjoying all of the attention...to the point that he started saying he wanted to leave. When we got over to these Toy Story characters they called his horse Bullseye and had fun talking with him. As we walked away he said, "I changed my mind, mom. My costume is awesome".

You can see who was out in the front running to every candy booth. That little pumpkin had some crazy fast legs that night!

This one is extra blurry, but it cracked me up...especially Iron Man Will.

Most of the characters weren't super enticing to the kids, but the princesses especially looked so lonely standing there waving as we walked past. We convinced Kate to take pictures with a few of them just because we felt bad for the girls! She did question this one pretty relentlessly though, "Where da Beast? Why he not here?!".

They zipped through the hay bale maze in 4 seconds. Remember when they were teeny and we'd have to go in and find them? Oh, Little Monkey is breaking my heart!

Hee hee hee!

The boys had to have this picture. Will has been asking for an Iron Man suit since we met him, so he was thrilled to finally have it.

Kate was so funny with that big ol' hook.

It was about 80 degrees that night and it was humid because storms were on their way. Some of the kids were super hot in their costumes and I busted out laughing when I pulled off Kate's pumpkin hat and saw her hair completely slicked down with sweat.

And poor Will! He was so determined to stay in character, but he was drenched by the time we took his suit off.

We don't normally strip out of the costumes right there at the zoo exit, but they were more than ready to get out of them on that night. I kept telling them that Halloween night will be cooler, though this week's temperatures have me unsure. Come on, Fall weather! We're depending on you to show up!

I'll leave you with this one just because it's hilarious.  ;)

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Well, like all holidays, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival was here before I was ready. But that morning I decided to pull something together quickly and make the best of it. Kate never really participated in many Chinese holidays because she was just a little bitty when she lived in China. But I knew Will had real memories so I wanted to talk to him and see what he could tell me. He knew some of the basic stories and definitely knew about moon cakes. He told us that celebrating the mid-autumn festival is all about celebrating family, so we went with that and told him we were using that time to thank God that we could all be together as a family. He liked that plan.  ;)

That morning I decided to start our school day with some China coloring pages. They were way more excited about those than I thought they would be!

While they colored I played some of the stories and songs from online. They were in Mandarin and Will knew the words to several. He sang along and Kate tried to sing along.  ;)

I tried to get a little sneaky video of him singing but he usually caught me. Here's a snippet.

After a while of that we had to get to work on our other school work before it was time to take Kate to speech, but we kept the music on low in the background. Once we finished we zoomed over to the Asian market in search of moon cakes. I didn't know if they had any and I had no idea how much they might cost. I also knew that we might not even like the taste of them, but Will was so excited at the idea that I had to try. Sure enough they had them so we grabbed a box along with some other food and some Japanese candy, because chocolate mushrooms.

After dad got home we had a mish-mash dinner of stuffed peppers with vegetable jiaozi and steamed buns, mooncakes for dessert. All of the kids were excited to try them but we started with just one cut into little pieces to share. Excuse the bad lighting in all of these. We made little paper lanterns with battery operated candles inside and the kids insisted we keep the overhead lights off. 

We ended up with coconut and sugared egg yolk cakes. The coconut part was pretty tasty, but the egg yolk wasn't a favorite of anyone. I've omitted the photo of Kate with her head half way in the trash can trying to get it all off of her tongue.

But this boy was happy. He ate his little piece in 2 seconds and immediately asked for another.

Since no other kid wanted seconds, we let him have a whole one to himself. I almost skipped driving over to buy these because I honestly didn't know if having them would make a difference to him or not. But I'm so glad I went. He must have thanked me 50 times that evening. "Thank you for taking me China store, mom. Thank you buying me mooncakes." Such a sweetie, and I loved how they got him talking more about his China memories. I've been planning to maybe just do moon cookies next year, but if mooncakes mean this much to him then by all means we will get some more next time!

Of course I had Moon Pies as a back up, and those were a hit with all 5 kids! 

So it wasn't a fancy or well planned day, but it felt just right. Will loved starting the day with songs in Mandarin and all things China and all of us enjoyed the stories (and treats!) that came with them. 

****Will's surgery went well. Thank you for the prayers!****

Weekending

This was a good weekend - not too busy and not too lazy. The little boys had a soccer game bright and early on Saturday morning and for the first time this season there was a chill in the air. I loved it but the kids were a little cold at first because of the breeze. Luckily Noah shared his blanket with Mei Mei.

And when she got tired of him she was happy to crawl into my cardigan. Her face here cracked us both up when we saw it in the photo. My little papoose.

That evening we went to a little backyard Fall party at our friends' house. Everything was so cute.

The kids had fun eating snacks and soup, jumping on the trampoline, riding scooters, and just running around all night.

And of course s'mores are always a hit.

Little Piper went after her first s'more with gusto.

Sunday was laid back, but we did a lot of cleaning around the house and I spent hours (and hours) organizing school books and papers from the last two years. I've learned to save everything from Anna, so if Noah forgets his math book - no worries! I have the 5th grade math book in my closet! It's a lot to store and organize but it pays off over and over again.

Unrelated photo of Ben's water bead creation. He insisted that I not only take a picture but then "post it somewhere". So here ya go.  ;)

I maybe finished the final episode of Gilmore Girls while folding laundry yesterday. And maybe I cried a little because it was ending. I loved it all and like all of the other fans I want to move to their fictional town ASAP. Even though I read a big fat spoiler accidentally (boo!), I still haven't watched the reboot thing they did this past year. Since there are only 4 episodes I feel like I have to ration it out, although I hear Netflix is in talks to do another round. Middle aged women rejoice! Well. middle aged women and these guys, who I just discovered this weekend too. (insert all the Nathan eye rolls right here, hee hee)

This week has some big events. Will is having a minor surgery on his nose this Thursday so prayers appreciated for that! They have to spend the night in a hotel though because the next morning is his appointment with the cleft/ craniofacial team. Luckily the Thursday surgery is a super quick outpatient procedure and he should be good as gold in time to celebrate his very first birthday at home on Saturday. Can you believe that little strong man is going to be 9 years old?! An Iron Man explosion is in the works. He's been asking for an Iron Man birthday party since before we even left China, so we're happy to do it for him!