Coming back from our Disneyland trip, the fun for the kids just doesn't seem to have slowed down at all. Because of Halloween, and the part that the school does not do a costume party during school hours, that left for a lot of "parties". Trevor got to wear his costume at the school's Costume Party that took place the Friday before Halloween. I was with Gwen during the party where she met up with two classmates and spent most of her time dancing at the dance party. They also had a photo booth set up to take pictures, so now she has a photograph to remember the event by. I have to say, it really made me want the time to slow down because it really was very easy to see her just a few years older going to a middle school dance. She behaved exactly like those kids do...giggling and running around, dancing to the music. I don't even know if they have dances like we did in Jr. High. I do remember how much fun it was though. After the party, Gwen was excited that she became good friends with one of the classmates she doesn't usually see.
Then last weekend, Trevor had his hockey tryouts. This is his last year of mites, and he is hoping to make the advanced mite team. Last year he was in intermediate. He made the callback scrimmage on Sunday, and we found out on Tuesday, he made one of two advanced teams. He was overjoyed. So was I. I knew it meant a lot to him to be able to progress every year. The team already has 4 practices this weekend...so let the hockey begin! Also on Saturday, we headed to an Apple Orchard/Pumpkin Patch with Derek, Kyrsten and Adam. It was a little chilly, but we got our warm cider, apple doughnuts, pumpkins, pictures and a hay ride. Harvest time complete! I couldn't believe what a well-behaved kids Adam was! It was so nice of him to let us play around while he enjoyed snuggling in his warm clothes.
Gwen was invited to a classmates Halloween party last Sunday. She was REALLY excited to go, because she had yet to have any actual playdates since school has started. We know the girl from both school and she is in her dance class for the past two years. It was a two hour party and when I picked her up, she didn't want to leave. So we'll have to have the girl back over to our house sometime in the coming weekends. Unfortunately, her parents work during the day, so she attends a daycare place when she is not at school. Weekends are the only time. So Gwen was able to get out her costume again for that party, and she got out her Jasmine costume again for her dance class costume party. It was nice to be able to use that one again and I know it was much easier to move around in, than in her Merida dress.
Then, last Tuesday was the All-Star lunch. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in my previous posts or not. This lunch was set up by the school as a prize for selling their goal amount of fundraiser product in September. The school's top 2 sellers were to be at the lunch and 5 more were drawn from the entire school. At the lunch, would be Tony Oliva, who is a former Minnesota Twins baseball player. The lunch was catered by TGIFridays and they had candles, flowers, a nice tablecloth, plates and made it all fancy for the kids. After the lunch, the kids got to ride in a limo to Dairy Queen for a blizzard and back to school. I made it a point to order all the product from family and friends through Trevor's name because I wanted him to have as many chances as possible to go to this lunch. I did buy one ticket for Gwen so she could be in on her class drawings for treats. So the drawing happened, and Trevor was one drawn! I was so excited and so was he. Shortly after, Gwen was drawn. I was shocked....well, not really since I know she has a wild good luck streak. Her odds were something like 1 in 400 or so. I was just so glad that Trevor was already going, or I'm pretty sure there would have been a quick Hunger Games situation: "I, her brother, nominate myself in her place to go to the lunch!".
I made sure to lay out the expectations for both kids, in order to behave at their "fancy restaurant" and had Trevor think of some questions he wanted to ask Tony. He did, and I also said he probably would want to get his autograph. Because both kids were at the lunch, I asked if I could go to take pictures and really to observe Trevor and his awe. The other 3 kids that were drawn were two second grade girls and one first grade boy. The two top sellers were two 3rd graders that Trevor has had in class before. Yes, Trevor was in his element. He sat across the table from Tony and chatted his ear off as much as he could. He asked him if he remembered him from when he met him at the Metrodome. I guess he did a meet and greet there when Trevor was...4??? Tony politely said no. Trevor asked him what it was like to play for the Twins. He said that he was very lucky. He came from Cuba and didn't really know what it meant to play professional baseball. He just knew he liked to play it, and loved the people he was with. Although Tony has retired from playing baseball, he has had a lot of different roles with the Twins. I believe he was a batting coach during one of the times the Twins won the World Series, so he had a World Series ring on. He passed it around so the kids could take a look at it. Trevor's eyes lit up. Then he started rattling off all the baseball facts about the world series that he could remember: How many times the Twins won...how the Twins weren't always the Twins....then started veering off into history lessons...why WWI started....my eyes started rolling at this point, but Tony was a good sport. He found out that he was my son, and he told me that I must have raised him right because he really knows his baseball stuff. He would love to sit down with him more to chat about it. Trevor was giddy at this point.
Tony had brought some pictures that he signed for the kids, and on the picture had some of his stats. It stated that he has had 220 career home runs. Trevor was again, in awe. I felt bad that I didn't have him study up on Tony Oliva before we got there. But all was good....the lunch ended, we got some pictures in front of the limo, and the kids were off to have their ice cream. I knew Gwen enjoyed that part the best. Limos are cool! The principal was riding along with them, which was good since the kids were contained.
The kids got back to school at 1:00, and Gwen headed right to class. We carved more traditional pumpkins than we had in many years. And then the next day she got another treat: Another kid from her class asked if we would like to have a standing playdate on Wednesdays where every week they would go to each other's houses - trading off. That week it was her friends house. And it was Halloween...so the day was extra special. I was able to get my windshield replaced on my car and have it back before the kids were done with school. I made sure everything was set, and we headed out for the night. It was chilly so I rode in a car while the kids walked. We were able to hit a lot of different neighborhoods and get plenty of candy. I was glad when that day was over.
Too much fun! It should be illegal. It sure is tiring on a mom. It is now November: another birthday month, and party month. Less than 8 weeks until Christmas...I guess I should be starting to organize the Christmas stuff as well. Happy Holidays everyone!
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