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Halloween 2025. It was a nice day for trick-or-treating! I attended the Lines parade — You can see Conor here who was a “Boss Man” inspired by a lego minifigure in the basement. Some people at school also guessed he was a magician or a president, so he felt like he had a 3-in-1 costume. I was out with Conor for almost 3 hours, while Jordan manned the house (aka mostly just enjoyed 3 hours to himself, with Laney the Bat). We did a loop in our neighborhood with his friend Bennett the SWOT team guy and his family, including 4-year-old Audra the Glinda Princess and 10-mo-old Declan the Duck. After a stop at home, Conor then asked me to ride our bike to Lakeview to see his friend Reid the Lions football player, and we crashed their party and did a loop in their neighborhood too. I was exhausted by 7:30 p.m…. in part due to the festivities, in part due to waking up at 5:30 AM to play tennis, and in part due to being woken up at 3:37 a.m. by a 6-year-old who couldn’t sleep and joined me in bed.

Elliott and Miles went out on their own for probably about 2.5 hours — a super heavy pillow case in tow. Elliott did a good job of checking in with us to let us know he was safe, and I was lucky to cross paths with him for 90 seconds.

Natalie’s school had a halloween party. She was originally going to be Rapunzel, but then her friends made a late-in-the-game switch to devils. She was also a devil-witch 6 years ago, so that was a cute costume comparison.

Frank the Crossing Guard for the win! Best costume!

Conor went to check on Zofie who had to leave school a little early due to allergies!

The first kids out on the block! 4-year-old Audra is so cute and always needs to be in the mix

See the Elf Wizard and his trusty bat

I hadn’t seen Elliott all day, so I felt lucky our paths crossed during trick-or-treating!

Miles was a pheasant hunter — which is also what he did for 10 days in October, so not a far stretch here!

Natalie’s friends went as devils — they had a Halloween dance at school

Elliott’s loot! (Laney may have found a hershey kiss later on in the day!) Whoops

Mr. Organization got over 50 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!

We call this “bed on the stairs”… or, making more of a mess instead of cleaning up.

Conor planned a day-after Halloween party…. Jordan and I beat Elliott and Clayton in the mummy-wrapping contest

Conor wanted to bike to Lakeview to see his friend Reid — who was having a party, which we crashed!

Right before bed time…. Conor was digging through my gift supplies under my bed. He came up with this idea….. he says, “you are to Conor from Grandma and Grandma.”

Camp Duncan (25 min north of us where Conor goes for a summer camp each week) was set up for Harry Potter Forbidden Forest. Elliott and Clayton dressed up and went through it on their own. They said it wasn’t very scary, but they enjoyed the views and their butterbeer. We listened to the first chapter of book 5 on the way up, where Harry fights off Dementors in the alleyway, which was enough to set the stage for me, personally!

The grades K/1 flag football league invites every team to the play-offs. The Ravens, led by Coach Jordan, had a great season and started out the Super Bowl with a touchdown on the first play. (We won’t mention the rest of the game.)

A lot of the moms complimented Jordan to me, saying he did a great job with the boys all season and made it a positive experience. I couldn’t agree more! Conor seems to agree too — he said he would play flag football next year as long as Jordan is the “head boss coach”.

“It looks like she was robbed”

“Did a hurricane go through there?”

“She didn’t leave it like that did she?”

“Are you going to leave it like that until she comes back for Thanksgiving?”

No

No

Yes

No — I want my parents to be able to stay in there while they visit. AND there were flies so I didn’t want two months of fermentation to make it worse.

after many hours of cleaning….

my plan for Thanksgiving is to set an earlier deadline and let her know her December allowance is conditional upon leaving with a clean room!!

She also confessed (aka laughed) that her dorm room cannot believe how messy her room is and has even taken videos to show others because they wouldn’t otherwise believe it. I knew she was a top tier offender!!! Thanks goodness school enforces cleaning your room once a week otherwise she cannot see friends.

(If you talk to Natalie, please done mention this post or the content in it!!)

“Right now I’m. A master builder and when I grow up, I’ll be a Lego designer and a dad,” Conor, age 6 and 2/3

also this  is his pic day shirt and pic day smile. He likes the side look. Gel to come — I hope his dad helps him.

Conor went to a nature center for his first first grade field trip. Unfortunately, I was in MA so I didn’t even get to try to see if I could chaperone. Poor Conor — I haven’t chaperoned a single field trip or helped out at a single school party. Hopefully I can change that this year.

Can you spot him?

(Hint: The tallest kid in the baseball hat)

MA Send-off with Holyoke Public Schools Friends

Natalie’s Dormmates

1st day of school breakfast bunch

Here’s a video from the event: https://youtu.be/dGFR-FC-QbM.

Elliott’s first back-to-school picture with his own dog!

Happy first day of school to Elliott (grade 7) and Conor (grade 1)! (Natalie starts in two weeks.)

Conor was first to drop off his supplies yesterday and first in line today. His teacher came out and said: “I can tell you know how school works. Can you do me a favor and hold this sign for our class?” He was thrilled!

Conor “C-MAN” enjoyed back-to-school shopping with me at Target. He liked picking out all his supplies (and some extra snacks). He was especially pleased that we bought 50 rhino stickers that he used to decorate all his supplies — and that his journal at school is so much more unique than his peers (most of whose parents just bought the standard school supply box and had it delivered to school). His only request for back-to-school clothes was polos because he looks handsome in them. (I agree with that — now, I just need to figure out how to get the marker, grease, chocolate, etc. out of the shirts after a full day of wear.)

Elliott is so low-maintenance… I asked him a number of times what clothes he wanted for school. All he asked for was more socks and a “save the chubby unicorn” shirt in a larger size (he’s had two smaller sizes as this is a staple in his wardrobe). I had to ask him on Tuesday morning, if he would please pick out a back-t0-school outfit. Later, I asked him what it was — he showed me — and then I asked about shoes. He admitted that he would like some new shoes, so we headed to Dick’s at 7:30 p.m. the night before school started. He did buy some new clothes too. I think we both felt equally good after that — me, more relieved because it feels like a tradition. Picking out your fav first-day-of-school outfit.

Natalie, on the other hand, is preparing for boarding school and her list of what she needs for her room and for clothes is ever-growing. She’s been thinking about her back-to-school outfit for weeks. More to come when we drop her off in just under two weeks!

We rented an Air BNB in Sister Bay. Kenzie and Cam were able to join us for a day at Peninsula State park and lots of outdoor games. The next day, we went to Washington Island which I have always wanted to go to. One of the only pebble beaches in the world. A cool old medieval Norwegian churches. And a beautiful lavender farm. We saw Becky (on her bday) and Trev for a short while too. Then G and G’s house which when we pulled up Elliott said “I love coming here. Thanks so much for taking us”.