Justin went back to school this week. It was good to get back into our routine. Of course since I couldn't sleep in, the boys were much quieter in the mornings. Grrr...
Justin won an award for best fantasy book (really a story) in the school contest. I don't know what the age categories were. I knew there was a contest, but I hadn't know that he had actually been using his free time at school to work on his story. Unfortunately, by the time I retrieved the story out of his backpack, some of the pages were missing. I never told him because I figured he would have a fit. He was so excited about receiving recognition for his writing that I didn't want to ruin the mood. The story was based on one that he had written last year in kindergarten. A man buys a bag of jellybeans and one by one they escape from the bag and cause some sort of trouble. A lot of their mischief involves noises such as bam, pow, ow, and boom. In the end, the man is able to enter a secret code into the computer to make them normal jellybeans again. I was just thrilled that he wrote and used lowercase letters appropriately instead of all caps.
It was a busy week to prepare for all of the Halloween festivities. I was not foolish enough to volunteer to be in charge of the Fall Festival at J's school, but I did try to help as much as I could. That meant assisting with decorating and making up over 200 treat bags. I am glad that it is over.
Wednesday at about 3:00 AM I found Ryan standing by my bed crying. He had thrown up on his hand and foot while trying to get to the toilet. He had been complaining about his stomach on and off Tuesday, but in typical Ryan fashion he generally complained when it was time to do something. We had some bile and raisins come up again, but Ryan is pretty good about getting it into the toilet or a bowl so there was minimal mess. Because he had thrown up and been up since 3:00, I told him that he could stay home from school and rest. He cried and promised that he would be good at school. I explained that if his tummy hurt he shouldn't go. He acted like I was crazy and told me that his tummy didn't hurt anymore because he threw up. I let him go to school. He seemed fine except for not wanting to eat. We went to the Embassy for trick or treating and he continued to act fine. We went to the Marine House to watch a movie and have some treats and he was excited for popcorn. He chowed down and the promptly told me that he didn't feel well. We went outside and he puked on the lawn. Poor kid. He wanted to go in and have popcorn, but I said it was time to go home. Such a mean mom!
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| This is Justin in what he calls a dancing zombie costume. The wig didn't last long because it was hot inside the Embassy. |
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| Ryan got another year's use out of the alien costume. People thought he was adorable. |
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| Here are my boys getting ready to get their candy and sit down for the movie. |
On Thursday I made cupcakes for Friday's Fall Festival and went to Justin's school to help decorate. When Justin got out of class, we came home to get ready for Halloween. We went to the little community party, but didn't stay long. Ryan was enjoying the games, but Justin was annoyed that they were speaking Armenian most of the time. Imagine that, speaking Armenian in Armenia! I told him to just watch what the other kids were doing to know how to play the games. They were translating too, but Justin was just not that into it. The boys were both a bit tired from the previous night and excited for trick or treating in a couple of hours, so that didn't help either.
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| Zombie cupcakes with bones |
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| Some of the decorations ready to be put up. Dagny MADE all of them by finding patterns online and cutting the pics out of tissue paper. I think there were about 60 of them total! |
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| These boys are impossible to get a picture of because they are always playing around. |
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| Here's Ryan the pirate and Justin the skeleton. |
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| Ryan got into the games and the dances. |
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Could it be Justin participating?!?!
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FINALLY after Rob came home it was time for trick or treating and the party and Cyrus' house. The boys were incredibly loud and hyper as we went through the neighborhood looking for houses that were participating in trick or treating. Even though Armenians typically don't celebrate Halloween, there are enough expats in the community that it has caught on. I was out with the boys while Rob stayed home. Our house had over 100 trick or treaters which is MANY more than we had in the US.
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| Hansen's house the day of the Halloween party. |
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| My knight and Batman out trick or treating. |
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| Back home with some treats. :) |
Friday was Fall Festival day. I went over to help with final preparations and then back home with the boys to rest a bit before the big evening. I was hoping they would rest too since they had a late night on Halloween, but they were pretty excited. We went back to Justin's school and the boys played games, ate some treats, and went through the haunted house TWICE! Before I went through with them, I told Ryan that if dressed up people jumped out and made noises to scare him, he should just roar right back. He did and he came out wanting to go right back in. Daddy took them back in while I did a few other things.
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| My cute Luigi! The mustache didn't last long. He said it hurt and it sure did leave a mark! |
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| Mario's mustache didn't last long either. |
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| Aren't they cute?!? |
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| J did well on the egg walk, but Ryan wouldn't try it. |
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| Waiting in line. |
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| Ryan made it across the spooky swamp. |
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| Finding prizes in the haystack. |
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| Waiting to fish for a prize. |
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| Pumpkin bowling |
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| Pumpkin bean bag toss. It took Ryan MANY tries, but he didn't get up and he finally got one in and won a prize. |
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| Justin's teacher (Honest Abe) had the kids eating apples off a string. |
Friday's party ended with a bonfire. Rob took the boys home while I helped to clean up. Another late night for the boys. Saturday was a chance to have a laid back day. The boys rode bikes and scooters outside and played a little basketball with Dad. We had breakfast for dinner so everyone was happy. So far it looks like we are going to have a calm week coming up. Yay!
