halloweek: pumpkin carving, camano island, trick or treat

 we had a really fun and busy week around here. in addition to our normal stuff like school and soccer practice, we had halloween festivities and also went out of town. i know, we are kind of nuts. ;)

 

i'm going to miss the halloween decorations...good thing christmas decorating is just around the corner 

 

i finished my 40th book in 2021. that was my goal for the year and i still have 2 months of reading left! 

 

monday after school, the kids came home and cleaned out their pumpkins. 

 

 

we carved them after dinner and i roasted the seeds. yum! 

 

 on wednesday after early dismissal, my friend kay hosted a kid halloween party in her backyard. she's done this the last couple of years and it's so much fun. she has games with prizes and treats for the kids. her parties are always epic. 

 

friday after the kids got out of school, we hit the road for camano island. we booked the same little rustic cabins we stayed at back in july for the weekend. we stopped on the way and had mod pizza for dinner. it was dark when we arrived and you have to load all of your stuff into a shuttle and they drop you off at your cabin. we were just a few cabins down from where we stayed last time. it was definitely colder, but the cabins are heated so we spent a lot of our time inside. it was cozy.

 

 

 

the stars were incredible at night.   

 

 

saturday morning thatcher made us pancakes (in 38 degrees) and brought them into the warm cabin for us to enjoy. 

 

 

 

 

we spent the morning reading, drawing, and playing on the beach.  

 

 

 

 

they also had boat making for kids at the center for wooden boats. we ran into one of azalea's 5th grade teachers who was also staying there, which was a fun surprise! 

 

 

after lunch, we went for a little hike in the state park

 

 

we made italian sausage hoagie sandwiches for dinner. after it got dark, we tried out for the first time the light up bocce ball set thatcher bought almost a year ago. it was so fun!

we had high hopes of seeing the northern lights that were forecasted for overnight into sunday. we set an alarm for 2am and stayed up for over an hour, checking periodically....but it never happened :( someday i hope to see them! 

 

sunday morning we made french toast and spent the rest of the time packing up and cleaning the cabin. it was a fun little getaway, but it was time to go home for trick or treating! the kids were a purple dragon and a minecraft creeper this year. i wasn't anything in particular, but i sort of looked like a hipster pixie. ha! 

 

 we met up with a few families from school. it was a pretty big group, so we naturally split up after a while. the kids had a blast. there were lots of more bowls of candy set out than pre covid years, but fewer creative setups than last year, and more people actually giving the candy out themselves. after two hours, we were back home with a big haul. 

i've put away all of the halloween decor and now i will have a 3 week breather before christmas takes over. i have started listening to christmas music, though. let's be clear on that :)