Halloweeeeeeeen (except not yet, and we're only barely celebrating)!

It's Halloween weekend and the kids still haven't worn their costumes. It's not that I haven't tried, but rain cancelled one event last weekend. Schedules cancelled the event Thursday. And now it's two days until Halloween and there are only two more chances to wear the costumes. Oh well!

Tomorrow we're going to Boo at the Zoo with Maxwell and his brother and mom. Maxwell's dad is a HUGE Cubs fan and since tomorrow could be the last game . . . he can't be chasing children around a zoo during the game. I assured Jen that with three adults and four kids, we'd totally have it under control. Which means we will probably lose each of the kids at least once. It will be awesome.

Monday we're going to work as usual, and the kids will go to school. They don't do costumes at school, but they do pajama day for Monday and Tuesday, so Jayden and Dakota can "dress up" for those two days. But again - no costumes!! Oh well.

We have no plans for Halloween evening - there's a local fair in Tustin that I think we'll try to attend, and then we may just stay home and answer the door for our one trick-or-treater. We'll see.

In the meantime, the other GIANT news is that we're all alive! We survived the last week. I worked four of the five nights. I am completely exhausted but everyone is alive.

We got some lovely rain last week. Dakota was confused about the wet stuff coming down from the sky, plus is never super happy about me dropping her off, even though she loves school.

Tuesday night I got to check out the new Federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. I was appointed as a Ninth Circuit Lawyer Representative, which means I am part of a group of lawyers representing the lawyers' perspective to the Central District of California, and the Ninth Circuit as a whole. I am the only person from a public interest organization, so a large part of my role will be to speak up for those who are low-income and who are representing themselves. Tuesday night was orientation - where I got to speak with some judges and see the new courthouse (nobody has moved in yet - it doesn't open until next week). It was fun, but it was a trek, and it was exhausting, because it was networking, and I hate networking! But it will be a cool experience, I think. It's a three year term, so I've got a while to figure it all out.

Just a morning picture.

And child #1. When I forget their names, I'm just going to start saying "1" and "2." Totally acceptable.

Friday night there was a Halloween party to raise funds for the Public Law Center. They raised $43,000, which is crazy. So great. Carmen and I decided not to be Ninja Turtles, which is the family costume, and we went with something we had handy in our closet - cowboy and cowgirl.
It was a fun party - open bar, lots of dancing, fun people - but so exhausting!

And the craziest thing ever, a potential client showed up! This woman came and claims she is involved in some crazy probate case where she thinks her cousin unduly influenced her uncle into leaving more of the estate to her, and this woman believes she is entitled to more than $1 million. So yeah. That's going to be a fun phone call next week. Oof.

Carmen's full outfit. Enid, I feel like this may look eerily similar to what he wore when he was eight, just maybe different materials!

They had a s'mores bar! I got to roast my own marshmallow, they had peanut butter cups, chocolate squares and chocolate/mint for the middle, and graham crackers of course. Obviously I went for peanut butter cups. So so good. I may have had four of them. 

Here we both are, towards the end of the night when my freckles started to wear off. We got lots of compliments on our costumes, which was funny because I actually wore the shirt to work that day, I bought the hat this past summer and the jeans a few months ago. So all totally current items, but apparently we put them together well.

We were out late, until almost midnight, but luckily I wasn't drinking since I was working. That meant I was tired this morning, but not feeling gross. So even though 7 am came really early (or really, 6:10 am when Jayden woke up the first time), it wasn't horrible. We had a quiet day around the house, which was really nice considering how busy the week has been. And how crazy the next couple of weeks are going to be as well.

I saw this cool thing online, where someone melted crayons on a pumpkin. So, I told Jayden about it and we decided to try it today. We glued something like 15 pieces of crayon to the pumpkin, let the glue dry, and then got a hairdryer to melt the crayons. It was awesome. You have to find the perfect balance to not get too close where you blow the crayons off the pumpkin or splatter the crayon everywhere, but still be close enough to actually melt the crayon.

Some splatter is inevitable, obviously.

The kids were definitely intrigued. Next time, I will use a larger garbage bag base. 

Finished product!

Jayden wanted to take pictures, so he took a series of me and Dakota. This was the best one we got. Pretty good photography skills by Jayden, though.

And then we decided to decorate pumpkins - Jayden wanted to paint his since we had already told him we couldn't carve it since it doesn't sit upright. So we all decided to paint. And if you're going to paint, you pretty much need to be in diaper/underwear only (if you're a kid - for grown-ups clothes are encouraged). As expected, Dakota painted everything - pumpkin, hands, knees, toes, concrete, everything. Blue and yellow and green everywhere!

But the end result was awesome! Check out our fantastic family of pumpkins. Carmen's is the orange one on the left with the purple top and the tongue. In case you weren't sure, Dakota's is the orange one in front. Mine is the one on the right with the green "hair." Jayden's is the one in the back with the face and the red, which is what connects the brain to the ear (his explanation, not mine, obviously!). And our melted crayon pumpkin is on the table in the back. I'm pretty proud of our pumpkins this year. And I love the different colors of pumpkins. We forgot to put the green gourd out there. Maybe we can get creative with our decoration tomorrow and add that one.

The front of our house. Not overwhelmingly Halloween-y, but still festive. Since we're not expecting trick-or-treaters, it doesn't really matter. But it's definitely fun to decorate with the kids.

And then, obviously, we have a dance party!

This video is for blog readers only. But please re-watch many times.  I already have, and I saw it live! Dakota dancing is just the most amazing. As is the five year in his underwear (they're Superman, in case you're wondering). But Dakota's moves are nothing short of spectacular. In the last couple of days she has started trying to jump, which is basically her bending her knees and sometimes lifting up one foot, sometimes just standing up straight with emphasis. It's pretty awesome. And she puts such effort into it, she often ends up on her booty. Hilarious.

I'll put up some Halloween pictures after Monday. But in the meantime, here's a preview:

Next week is relatively calm. Thursday and Friday the kids are off school, so Mom flies in Thursday evening. I have court Thursday morning, so Carmen will stay home with the kids in the morning and I will relieve him before lunch. Mom lands late that night, so either Carmen or I will pick her up after the kids are in bed. Friday I have a presentation so Mom will stay home with the kids while I go to work. We'll hang out for the weekend, which will be nice. Carmen and my mom will probably leave Monday morning .Carmen gets home Tuesday night and leaves against Wednesday night. I have to be in L.A. Thursday night, when my mom flies back in to Orange County. Because my aunt (my dad's sister) passed away this week and her service is November 12 in Florida. And my mom is the nicest person ever, so she is going to fly from Seattle to Santa Ana on Thursday evening (while I'm in L.A. probably - she may relieve the babysitter!), and then she will fly with me, Dakota and Jayden to Florida first thing Friday morning. We'll land hopefully in time for dinner. The service is Saturday, and then Dakota, Jayden and I will fly home Sunday afternon. Carmen will fly to Florida on Thursday/Friday, then will fly to New York on Sunday. He'll be back home the following weekend, probably the 19th or 20th. So the week of the 14th is going to be one of solo parenting. It will be fine. It always is. And we will survive. I can pretty much guarantee we'll eat take-out or frozen food every night for dinner. But the kids will be alive, they'll be loved and that's what matters.

All that to say, I may be somewhat absent from the blog in the next couple of weeks. I know that's nothing new really, but since I know it this time, I figured I'd warn you all! I hope everyone is doing well, and that you are avoiding the disaster trio that so often hits us. We have had our three for the week, so I'm pretty sure we can't have any more, at least not until December. We'll see. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? RIGHT?