Happy Halloween

 We have had a very busy month. It went by so fast, but I am sure my travels helped it go by fast. We were in Cancun for Fall Break and then shortly after that I was in California for a week for work. In between the two travels my best friend, Kelli, came to visit for a few days. We went out for wine and bruschetta to a new place and it was fantastic. 

We also did the tortilla challenge with Max. This was hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing. 

Max received a Pride award from school for good behavior during first quarter.

My favorite holiday came up fast and due to being so busy this month we just visited a parking lot pumpkin patch this year. Max carved his creepy face pumpkin and I made a blowfish pumpkin out of candy corn. I submitted my pumpkin to my firm's pumpkin contest and I took first place for the non-carved category.

We kicked off the Halloween weekend with trick or treating at my work. The team members at my work go all out for Halloween. It's so fun to see all the creative decorations. Marketing did the Little Mermaid from Ursula's point of view. We did not win the decorating contest, but we got an honorable mention. The team that did medieval times won and it was definitely well deserved. They did an awesome job transforming the audit department into medieval times and even created branded flags for their castle.

For Halloween night Max wanted to trick or treat in our neighborhood with his buddies from school. We went over to his friend's house for pizza before we hit the streets. Max dressed up as DJ Marshmallo. He is also a character in Fortnite. Max picked out our costumes too. I just love dressing up, but Andy hates it. I believe he was a pretty good sport this year. 

Fall Break

 For Fall break we headed to Cancun, Mexico with our "framily" to an all-inclusive resort. 

After dinner the first night the kids explored the Kids Club and they had some really cool activities in there. They had food, an obstacle course, mini golf, bumper cars, etc. The hotel also had a "wired lounge" with video games, arcade games, air hockey, etc. The resort had plenty of activities for the kids including a small water park and plenty of pools.

At night we checked out the shows and they were ok. My favorite was the "glow" show and the circus. The group liked the magic show the best. 

One night Max slept through the Hispanic Heritage show and I honestly am not sure how. It was so loud in there due to the dancing and music, but like I have said many times before, this kid can sleep through anything. 

Another show was a fire show on the beach and this was fun to watch. Especially since it was the night before a full moon.

We went to the Coco Bar one day to get coconut drinks. They didn't taste very good, but it was still cool to drink out of the coconut.

We had one rainy day so we spent it bowling. We let the kids bowl while we played cards and had a couple drinks. 

We spent plenty of time at all of the pools and they had a flow rider that the kids got to use. Max only did the belly boarding and it was fun to see him try something new. 

One day we went mini golfing and this was a lot of fun, but it did get hot outside and so we only made it about 12 holes. I do have to say that I am the only one who got a hole in one. 

Every night after the show, the group wanted ice cream before bed. This became a nightly tradition that everyone looked forward to. Not only did everyone get ice cream but they also snacked on macaroons. Max ate so many macaroons that week that I'm surprised he didn't turn into a macaroon. 

The kids got their hair braided in the spa and Max was excited to get his done once they confirmed that his hair was long enough. 

The beach was terrible, but we knew that before we went. They are known to have a seaweed problem and the water was brown, so I was not interested in hanging out at the beach. Even though I knew this ahead of time I was still bummed, especially once I saw how soft and silky the sand was.

The last night we were there we did the turtle release. They have a turtle sanctuary there and when the eggs hatch you can be a part of the turtle release into the ocean. We each got a baby turtle placed in our shell they gave us. Then at the count of three, we all kneeled down and let our baby turtles go. We watched as they all scurried into the ocean.

Also, on the last night, we celebrated Brian's birthday at a Brazilian steak restaurant, with a bottle of champagne, some Mayan coffee and some drinks at the bar.

Another framily vacation is in the books and I can't wait until we book our next trip together.

Breakfast, Baseball, Volunteering and Birthday Party

 We had a busy couple of weekends right before we left for our Fall break trip. We started Friday morning off with breakfast with grand friends at Max's school. This is generally with grandparents since not every kid has a grandparent or at least one in town, so you can bring a grand friend or grand buddy. 

Friday night we went to a baseball game. Of course, Max ate his way through the ballpark. 

Saturday, Max and I volunteered our time at the Phoenix Toolbox. This was done through my work and I was excited to take Max to his first volunteer event. I thought for sure he would complain the whole time, but he never did. He never whined or complained at all so I thanked him after the event. He said he was looking forward to it and was happy to participate. He wanted to see what volunteering was all about. He enjoyed it and will do it again, but next time he wants something more physical to do. Those were his words.

Saturday night we went to see Stella's performance in Newsie's. She did another great job and Max loves to watch her in plays. He's wondering when the next one is.


On Sunday, we celebrated Mona turning 8 at a local roller skating rink. I honestly didn't even know they still had these skating rinks so it was pretty fun to introduce Max to one. He first tried rollerblading and hated it, so he gave rollerskating a try and hated that too. He's just such a cautious kid that he was so afraid of falling that he just couldn't get into it. He gave up the skates and hung around to sing happy birthday to Mona.