Back to School & A Halloween To Remember

I'm sure this will be a surprise to you, but 2020 is an election year. We had the opportunity to vote for our local politicians all the way up to the President of the United States of America. Voting is such a privilege. I am so grateful that we have the right to vote and make our voices heard. This year was an extra crazy year that surrounded the election. On top of having a pandemic, we had a division in our country over politics. In all my life I have never seen an election get so out of hand. Loss of respect, real listening, and any kindness seemed to have completely disappeared from politicians and the general public. In my opinion, it was heart breaking to watch the country divide and have so much anger against one another. Especially in a time when we should be uniting and doing our best to help those in need. Let us all look a little more to the Lord and a little less to the anger of those around us. I'm praying for a more unified and better 2021. 

I VOTED

The boys head back to school!! 

We hit a huge milestone here in California. Jack and Beckham are officially back in the classroom with their teachers. HOORAY!! We have in-person instruction 4 days a week and one virtual learning day on Wednesday. Jack attends from 8a-1p while Beckham goes from 8a-10:40am. They LOVE being back in a classroom with structure, and they love receiving instruction from their teachers. I get the sense that the teachers love it just as much as the students (and their parents, haha). 

Jack had orientation first. His teacher Mrs. Adkins planned to have class for two hours so they could do crafts and get to know their classroom. Jack was so excited to tell us all about his first day back to school. Love that cute little hat and the little boy under it :)

Beckham's first day of Kindergarten

Next, we headed to Mrs. Meadow's classroom. The kids (and adults) had a temperature check at the door and received hand sanitizer before entering. Everyone was very willing to except the new norm. We were all just grateful to have made it this far.

Beckham's desk! Ready to learn. 

Beckham's orientation was much shorter than Jack's. Mrs. Meadows explained what would be expected for both students and parents. After receiving our instruction, we could go home. I think Beckham was a little disappointed that he didn't get a day like Jack, but he was excited to see Mrs. Meadows and his classroom. 

Halloween

Our adorable Skye!

"Let's take to the sky"

Love this girl!

I wasn't able to get a good picture of the boys together. They were too excited to be Mario and Luigi, haha.

Love these three! 

We had the cutest little crew on the block.

We made lots of different crafts to celebrate the day. Beckham was excited to show off his witch hat.

Our table turned into quite the crafting spot. The kids had SO much fun making their special contribution to our Halloween day. We hung up each piece of art that was created. Pres and I dressed up as salt and pepper, but I don't have a good pic of us together.

Making mummies and eating candies :)

Spider time!

Jack opted to make his own haunted house scene :)

One of the greatest thrills of the day was playing Halloween Bingo as a family! The kids LOVED playing over and over again. They won a candy prize every time they got a Bingo. Thank goodness for Etsy and being able to find a fun little game for the day.

Painting pumpkins!

An epic balloon race around the house. I haven't laughed that much in a while. 

Jack threw on this wig with his hat and we about died in laughter. HAHA. Looking good Mario!

Due to the pandemic, we did not have trick or treating here in Manteca. We opted to hide the candy and let the kids run around to find it. They had such a BLAST looking for candy. They asked us if we could do this every year :)

Beckham looking for candies.

The last activity of the night was decorating cupcakes. 

The finished product. They were delicious!

We topped the night off with Curious George: A Halloween Boofest and pizza party. 

I think it is safe to say that the kids had a TON of fun at Halloween this year. Even though we were unable to trick or treat, we found ways to make it memorable. We really enjoyed the entire day. At the end of it though, Pres and I were ready to sit back and relax, haha. How grateful we are for this family of ours. They are flexible and "go with the flow" kind of kids. We are so blessed to have been able to make it a fun day.

October was such an incredible month. We filled it with family fun. We had our family vacation to Portland and Seattle, a fantastic Halloween, and the kids were able to head back to in person school. We sure LOVED our October this year. Looking forward to a more chill November :)