Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving activities started with a "Feast" in Caleb's class on Wednesday morning.

Caleb learned that a "feast" means "lots of yummy food" and there was a lot of food. I think most of us parents had a little trouble eating a feast at 9:00 in the morning, but it was fun to see the kids all together at this long table.

Thanksgiving Day, I got up at 7:00am to get the turkey and the stuffing ready. At 10:00, I finally got to sit down for a small break all the while thinking "wow, how has my mom done this all these years?"

Our wonderful friends, The Benefields, joined us for the day. It was such a treat to have them with us. We have been so blessed to have them in our lives over the last 2 years. They will be truly missed when they move next week...

Jen and I

Riley, John, and Caleb in true play mode.

Riley, REALLY enjoyed pumpkin pie. He had 3 helpings and still wanted more.

Us...picture perfect and what I am most thankful for.

Halloween

We started our Halloween day with a boat ride around Monkey Island. The rides were free if you wore a costume. So at 10am we were walking around the base dressed up.

Amy and Zachary went along for the ride.

Riley was devastated by wearing a life jacket. He literally threw the worse tantrum EVER!! He pulled and tugged on the vest and stomped his feet and threw himself to the ground and then he got up and slapped me. I really thought this was going to be the worse part of the morning....

I was wrong. We (about 9 kids and 5 adults) were escorted to perhaps the smallest boat in the marina. It was high tide and there was rough waters. Needless to say, I was counting down the minutes till we hit the pier again. It took every breath to keep from vomiting over the side. Caleb was turning green and Riley was clung to the deck of the boat. It was not the ride I was expecting. (Thanks Jen).

Later that day, we headed out for Trick or Treating.

Of course, we went with Amy and Zachary. Riley and Zachary were ready for whatever each house offered them. Caleb on the other hand kept saying that he was tired and that he wanted to go home. He would not go up to doors. I really thought he was just being shy and difficult.

Riley was having a blast!

After awhile, Caleb went up to a few doors, but started complaining about not feeling good, so we decided to go home and give out candy.

I have to tell you, Trick or Treating on this base is CRAZY! They open the base to the Japanese and there are more kids then there is candy. Most houses post signs, "Out of Candy" an hour or so after it all starts. So when we got home to give out candy, the kids just lined up down the street. Literally there was probably 20 kids in line at any given moment.

I really think that the boys' highlight of the day was giving out candy. Riley was so cute! I never thought he'd actually give the candy away. I though he'd sit there and eat it all instead, but nope. He was very eager to give it away and then once he did, he'd clap, like he just did a good deed. And Caleb would say, "your welcome" before the kids ever said, "thank you". I was very proud of them.

So the video above was taken literally seconds before Caleb vomited all over the sidewalk. One moment he was giving out candy and the next he was throwing up. I think the kids waiting in line thought maybe it was part of our Halloween show.

He'd been saying all night that he didn't feel good... It was the perfect ending to the day!