Halloween Parties!

Before anyone says anything, yes, we know. We haven't been perfect at updating this blog on time every week. But, you see, we have our reasons. The blog is a lot of work. And on top of that, one of us will often start a blog entry but will only have the pictures from one of our phones because iCloud has a ridiculous 5 gb free limit. So. We have a plan now, and it involves having a shared photo library through Microsoft OneDrive, because Amit works at Microsoft and Microsoft is the best!

Just kidding! We set up Google Photos and it works great! So now we will be better at actually doing the blog!

This week Amit's parents (Jejemaa and Jejebapa) came to visit! Luke was so excited to see them! Earlier in the week Marinda was working on getting the guest room ready for them but needed to take a short break. Luke wasn't having it though. He said, "Mommy, we need to get the guest room ready for Jejemaa and Jejebapa! You can't take a break!" When they finally got here on Thursday, Luke ran out side in his bare feet to give them big hugs and kisses. And because Luke got excited, Jacy became abnormally adventurous and wandered all the way to...just outside the door before coming back to Amit, because if Amit is present Jacy won't tolerate being more than 5 nanometers away from him.

This was a fun weekend for them to come visit, because had two Halloween parties this weekend! In case you weren't aware, we generally try to do family Halloween costumes. Last year, Luke was the Neverbeast, Jacy was Fawn, Amit was a rock tower, and Marinda was the lightning storm. This year, we went something a little less obscure, with Luke going as a firefighter (Costco costume!), Jacy as a dalmatian, Amit as a fire fighter on Luke's crew, and Marinda as the victim who Luke rescues. We weren't as cool as last year when Marinda made all of our costumes by hand, but it was still fun. Funny side-note - it's not particularly easy to find an adult male firefighter costume that is family-friendly. Marinda was wracking her brain over this and then Amit found out that his co-worker bought a real firemen's jacket at a garage sale that he was willing to lend Amit. Not only was it free, it looked way better than anything we would have ended up spending a ton of money on. It even had real black spots from real fires!

Friday, we had Luke's preschool party. They had trick-or-treat tables set up and a bunch of game stations around their gym. On the way to the party, Luke was telling us about how Jacy should play with Zeus (our neighbor's Rottweiler puppy that Luke sometimes plays chase with) because Zeus is a puppy, and Jacy was dressed up as a puppy. Then when we were trying to find a parking spot, Luke was talking into his walkie-talkie pretending to tell his teachers that we were trying to find a parking spot. "Mrs. Lyons, we're in the parking lot trying to find a spot," and then "Mrs. Partin, we're driving around the parking lot right now." Luke was also a very, very good big brother at the party. Jacy didn't quite get the whole idea behind trick-or-treating, so Luke decided to help her by picking out candy for her and putting it in her bucket. Then to top it all off, at random points during the party he'd inform us that he wanted to give his puppy dog a hug and go grab Jacy and essentially tackle her to the ground. Big brother of the year!

This was the only picture we could get of Jacy where she kept her puppy ears on long enough

It didn't take long for Jacy to get the hang of trick-or-treating

This is important firefighter training for all the times he'll need to use a bow and arrow

Amit tried to get a happy selfie of him and Jacy. Jacy was not having any of that

Another key part of firefighter training - fishing

Jacy being super-cute while playing with the boats

Luke wanted to give his puppy dog a big hug

On Saturday we had the second Halloween party - our church's ward Halloween party! Instead of doing a typical church trunk-or-treat, our ward decided to have different game stations in all the classrooms and a haunted house. Luke had a blast, especially since he won a cupcake at the cake walk, but he got a little scared at the haunted house. At first he was really concerned that the church was always going to be like this, and he didn't want to go back to church ever again. Then we explained that everything would go back to normal and he was okay. But he even had to check that the haunted house was gone when we were at church this morning, just to be absolutely sure it wasn't scary.

We got a picture of them BOTH looking at the camera!

The elusive family shot!

One with the four of us and Jejemaa and Jejebapa

Jacy was much happier at this party

Before our ward Halloween party we had a fun-filled day! In the morning we went to the zoo because they were going to feed the animals pumpkins (or meat-filled pumpkins for the carnivores). We got there just in time to see the jaguar. Unfortunately, Luke was tired and just wanted to go home so we didn't stay long. We went over to the meerkats (who are always a riot) and then meandered back to the car - but not before stopping at the gift shop! Luke asked Jejemaa and Jejebapa for a rescue plane and he helped pick out at arctic fox for Jacy. She seems to be happy with it!

There's supposedly a fish inside the pumpkin to get the jaguar's attention

Jacy and the arctic fox

Right before the party we went out to dinner to celebrate Marinda's birthday since my parents were here. Marinda picked Red Robin because she knew it would be stere-free and she could enjoy the food. An extra advantage of Red Robin is the balloons! Luke grabbed one on his way in and then Jacy wanted one. And then the battle started!

Balloon fight!

Jacy stories:

•Everyone came to visit Amit for lunch on Friday! Here's a cute shot of Jacy in the leaves.

•Jacy has figured out that you can put TWO pacifiers in your mouth at the same time. AT THE SAME TIME!

•Jacy is also starting to get obsessed with babies, even though we haven't been talking to her about it and we are definitely not expecting. She's been saying 'baby!' while carrying around her Bobo, and then wrapping him up in a 'blanket' and even feeding him a bottle.We're chalking this up to the gender stereotypes being true for Jacy.

•Here's a cute video of Jacy, just because:

Luke stories

•November is national novel writing month so Marinda is going to try to get more into writing. And since kids want to be just like grown-ups, Luke wanted to write a story too. So Marinda helped him type one out that he could trace the letters out. In case you can't read it, the story is "Once there was a dinosaur. His name was Luke. He was a T-rex. Luke lived underground. He lived with his mom, his dad, and Jacy." Amit noted that Luke's hand-writing and the red marker combined to make a very Halloween-appropriate style to the story.

•Luke is starting to be more photogenic. Remember when he had a really big, eyes closed, teeth flared smile that he would make for pictures. He's getting better now!