Life and Times of The Johnston family: Halloween!!

Ok so the week leading up to Halloween was filled with fun things! Monday night Elizabeth's theater class had a super fun Halloween party, Elizabeth came out of it just brimming with excitement and happiness! She couldn't stop saying how much fun she had, made me so happy for her!! Tuesday was typical, Wednesday evening Devin got a turn to wear his Batman Halloween costume to his tumbling class and they played some fun Halloween movement games and did Halloween dancing and such, he really enjoyed himself! Elizabeth got brownie points for not only knowing that his teacher was dressed up as Dorothy(even though she's never seen the movie) but for knowing all about her! When his teacher asked her how she knew all that Elizabeth told her that she read the book last month....man I love the looks on peoples faces when she says it as if it's nothing! :) I also was greatly comforted in knowing that her reading comprehension is most definitely NOT a concern(even if I didn't make her prove it by burping up a book report about it after reading it!) Elizabeth is doing really great in her new piano class, her teacher snagged me and told me that and I quote "Elizabeth is amazing!" He told me he gave her a harder piece of music for the Christmas recital after it was clear the first song he gave her was obviously too easy for her! And she reports loving piano so much more now it's not so boring! He's definitely pushing her though as she has to really practice her music now, and he gives her two songs to work on a week....what's amazing is her determination! I rarely have to remind her to practice, she wants to work on the songs until they're easy to play and she can say, "I can play it without even having to look at my hands!" Love it!! Thursday at preschool a police officer visited Devin's class and he was super excited about seeing his cool car and hearing his siren! Friday was of course the big day they'd been waiting for....Halloween!! We didn't do school but we did have a very fun Halloween party! With games and crafts and books and shows and tons of fun! After a fun filled morning they had a "picnic lunch" while watching Spooky Buddies then in the afternoon they took turns playing Halloween games on the ipad. Elizabeth had special Halloween cereal for breakfast and a Halloween microwave meal for dinner! Tony came home a little early and then we got the kids in their costumes and took them trick or treating around the neighborhood. It started off a slow(lots of houses not participating) but when we got past that part of the neighborhood it picked up quite a bit and the kids had a blast! We didn't even scratch the surface of the neighborhood before Devin was begging to be done and go home and Elizabeth consented that she had more treats than she'd ever be able to eat. We kindly agreed to help her with that. ;) Our last trick or treat spot was Nana and Papa's door then we visited with them and handed out treats for a while then came downstairs and called it a huge success! Saturday morning we took down all the Halloween decorations and boxed them up and took them to our storage unit and got out the Fall/Thanksgiving box. Then we went to the movie theater to see "The Book of Life" which is based on Dia de Los Muertos or Day of the Dead as is celebrated in Mexico around Halloween. Elizabeth and I spent a few days learning about it, and Devin seemed enthralled by the trailer(as he watched it over and over!) so we thought it would be a good one to see with them! It was Devin's first time at a movie theater and he was truly just in awe of the giant screen! It was really nice that there were only a couple other people there. It was such a great movie! We all highly recommend it! After the movie we did our grocery shopping, then that evening we went to Tony's parents house for a fall family dinner where everyone brought a soup, it was good! And that was the week!

Halloween breakfast, Devin's is not very exciting ;)