A Few Malihinis: Halloween and Polis like Old Times

The next morning after my return from Utah, I took Kate to school, Owen to preschool, and Zac to surf. It was the best hour of my week, seeing him get so excited about surfing again, and surfing wave after wave together. He typically does boogie board tricks and boogie surfs waves, so getting back on his regular board was a big deal to him.

We rushed to the store before piano lessons to pick up the food we needed to host Edwards Eerie Edibles that night. It was some sort of miracle that we got it all done and ready-ish in time for everyone's arrival.

No menu this year, but we did get all the dishes named.

Dead Cinnamon Bats with Lizard Guts (aka Cinnamon Sugar tortilla chips cut out like bats, with fresh fruit dip):

Monster Mash with Heidi's Mucus (Green Salad with dressing):

Troll Fingers (bacon wrapped mini links):

Vomiting Pumpkin:

Jack-o-Lantern stuffed with Goblin fingers (Stuffed peppers with sausage):

Group photo with Ellis, Edwards, Clarks, and Petersons:

Mary and Chad's kids, Nora and Eli, were enamored with the princess dresses.

Kid Shot:

Thursday was Halloween. Kate printed out a calendar for Owen this year, who has been asking every morning, "Is it Halloween yet?!" since October 1st. He was so happy to attend Kate's costume parade first thing in the morning, marching with her and holding her hand as showed off around the school.

After telling everyone he passed about his Boss Baby costume, he opted to go as Ironman. Owen kept commenting on his big muscles. "They are so EPIC!"

I love that this kid had no reservations whatsoever about walking into a crowd of people and then marching with Kate. That same lack of inhibition also helped him today during the primary program for church, when he sang (loud and proud) the right tune to all seven songs without apparently knowing a single lyric.

Toy Story theme was huge this year. Ms. Swart as the spork, and Kate as Evil Audrey from Descendants 3. Kate loved that she picked a "bad guy" character.

Zachary's Parent Teacher Conferences were at his school that day, too, and Brady came to meet each of his teachers. I loved hearing from his English teacher, Mr. Leary, that Zac was "pervasive"--meaning that his influence was felt throughout the whole classroom. We went to lunch after conferences.

That afternoon, we prepped for Trick-or-Treating, this time convincing Owen to dress as Boss Baby.

He had a tough day at the office and fell asleep on the way to Nic and Heidi's before the main event.

Zac was Marshmallow, the DJ. I had to look him up. His face glowed and I thought he rocked the white jeans.

We had soup and salad at Heidi's house before taking on her neighborhood. I was so happy she stayed in costume.

Owen was independent and never wore out, probably thanks to his power nap. Kate tripped over a scooter in the dark, and ripped up her costume. Even with her bloody sore and torn costume, she did not let it ruin her night. Candy and friends helped, I'm sure.

Friday morning, Zac and I took our sugar highs to the beach to surf again. He was gutsy and paddled out to Waiohai with me--even paddling hard for several waves at the reefy, unknown-to-him break.

Owen and his friend Ivy played together for several hours while we prepped for camping and for the Petersons to stay with us. The kids were as helpful as I've ever seen them, gathering things and getting us all out the door at 3pm.

Owen did not last long in the car, and stayed asleep even on the extra-bumpy drive to Queen's Pond.

He woke up ready to run.

I paddled out with Nic and surfed some shore break. I do not like shore break much and Nic proved to me that it's a valid opinion.

Poliperfect.

Kate took this photo of Shay for her Reflections photography entry:

The night was just like old times. We potlucked dinner with the Ellis' family, Clark family, and Peterson family, had a bonfire, and laughed and talked. I lasted to the late hour of 9:30pm before falling soundly asleep in the two-man tent with Kate. At 3am, she needed to use the bathroom, and we saw a brilliant shooting star with it's flame tail shoot across the sky. It felt like magic, and she held my hand and snuggled with me in the sleeping bag. At 4:30am, it started drizzling. I laid there, hoping that it would stop so I would not have to get out and put on the rain fly. Nope. It started pouring and Brady and I laughed hysterically as we tried to put on both rain flies as we got drenched.

Kate and I got up early to collect sea shells, and I gazed down the beach to see Chad hunting with Zac for a sunrise shell. It was so sweet and reminded me of all the time and love Chad and Mary gave to him as a young child. That day, our kids all played together, we taught Nora to boogie board, and we enjoyed a nearly-empty beach until rain clouds chased us out in the early afternoon.

Sand dune surfing:

Zachary scary mis-hap when his leash broke in a wave and the metal attachment smacked him right by his eye. He had a black eye but we are glad he still has an eye.