Halloween

We had a great Halloween. We hosted a car at the church's annual Trunk N' Treat night. Bryce was Peter Pan, Faith was a Fairy, Mandy was Tinker Bell and Trey was a Storm Trooper. They all looked great. Bryce had a blast going from car to car. He probably went around to each car 7 or 8 times. After going around a few times I recycled his candy into our basket to give out knowing he didn't need that much candy. Somehow we still managed to come home with tons. Bryce also had fun singing and dancing with Pastor D.

Faith didn't get the concept entirely. She had more fun digging through a huge cauldron filled with candy and taking candy from her pumpkin and putting it into the cauldron. She did however enjoy her first sucker (first piece of any type of candy). After a few minutes Nathan decided she was sticky enough and we took it from her.

Grammy and Gramps and Pops and Julie also came to Trunk N' Treat. It was great to be able to see them also.

Dinner Honoring Pawka

The Sonoma County Bar Association honored three people for Careers of Distinction. My dad received one of the three awards. He was notified of his nomination back in May while in the hospital. Normally a couple of letters come in from the legal community supporting each nomination. The Association received over 20 letters supporting my dad, including one letter from the entire Sonoma County bench. My mom was able to read the letters to him while he was in the hospital. He was very proud and humbled by the award.

A special dinner was held in honor of the recipients. They played a video for each recipient showing pictures of their life. Then Cerena Wong, a Judge and friend of my dad's gave a wonderful tribute to my dad. My mom then accepted the award and gave an acceptance speech. She was very nervous to get up and speak in front of 500 or so people, but she did a beautiful job. The evening turned out to be very pleasant. The food, drink and company was great. It was also wonderful to have so many people come up to us that we didn't know and tell us what a wonderful person my dad was and how he impacted them.

Pumpkin Carving

Nathan and Bryce had a good time carving the pumpkin. Bryce didn't want to touch the gooey inside, but was happy to watch Nathan do it. He was given the choice of a silly or scary face on the pumpkin and chose a silly face.

He named his pumpkin Jack and wrote Jack on the back. He also taped a small piece of straw on the back side of the pumpkin and said it was his feather. He likes feathers since Peter Pan and Captain Hook have feathers in their hats.

Faith's Birthday Party

We had a ladybug themed party for Faith. We decided to have a brunch in order to accommodate nap schedules. We figured that most morning naps would be over and that afternoon naps would not start until 1 or shortly thereafter. We also thought a brunch would be better in case it wasn't BBQ weather. We served six different kinds of frittata, bagels and cream cheese, sweet breads, bear claws, cookies, and a huge fruit salad, along with apple juice, OJ, and mimosas.

Faith had lots of her family and friends there to celebrate. The kids enjoyed playing in the sandbox, jumping on the trampoline, playing on the grass, and surprisingly enough considering the time of year, playing with water guns. The grown-ups enjoyed the unseasonably warm sunny weather.

Unfortunately the morning of her party Bryce woke up with a 103 degree fever. We hoped it was a reaction from the H1N1 vaccine he received two days before, but not knowing we decided to quarantine him in the play room. About half-way through the party he was feeling better and wanted to come out and play. Of course we couldn't let him and risk him getting other kids sick. Bettylou, Auntie Hannah, Grammy, and Nanny took turns playing with him. When it was time to sing Happy Birthday and have cupcakes and ice cream Nanny brought him outside so he could watch and have dessert.

I was hoping that Faith would blow out her own candle since she likes to blow. I guess with all the people watching her and never having experienced a candle before she was too overwhelmed to do it. She did jump right into eating the cake. She ate a lot, but didn't throw it or rub too much in her hair. I was expecting her to do both.

After the party was over and after she had a nap and a snack she opened her gifts. Bryce and Amanda were very interested in the presents and wanted to help. Faith was not very interested in opening them. We had to coax her into opening each one. As soon as she ripped a piece of paper or took out tissue from a gift bag Amanda and Bryce were there to help her finish opening the gifts. She received a number of very nice presents.