Our Marvelous Family

Pun intended. Evie came up with the crazy idea for our family to do a joint Marvel costume. "Who US?!", I said. "No way!", I said. But as usual she pestered me until I gave in. The Incredible Hulk was the only Marvel character I could get into (I did love the show as a kid.).  But I have to admit in the end it was a lot of fun! (Despite the usual stress because everything is always more difficult than one would think: painting shoes, cutting wigs, ordering impossible to find items, modifying masks, altering costumes.) Somehow we pulled it together the last week while Steve was in California on business. Ainsley is Ant-Man for those who don't recognize her. Steve loved being Thor and Adrian tolerated being Captain America (he loves his sister). We wore the costumes to a Halloween party at the Rogue Brewery (all ages welcome) in Issaquah. Unbelievably we tied for first place in the group costume category which was a huge surprise since we didn't even know there was going to be a contest. We arrived quite late as we often do. I will never forget the look on people's faces as we walked into the party together and their mouths hung open. I heard many times that people couldn't believe it was me. The whole thing was really pretty fun!

Grandpa David with his Grandkids.

Adrian had the most fun of all the 13 year-olds and maybe even anyone else at the whole party. 

NOT! What can I say....he's 13?!

For those not up on comic book fandom, there is a rivalry between Marvel and DC Comics. Superman is DC not Marvel even if it is "Super-Dog" it's not Marvel but it was the cutest costume for a dog and she's still marvelous if you ask me! No she didn't get to go to the party or Trick-or-Treating.

Besides Halloween what have we been up to? A ton has happened since my last blog post 4 months ago, so much that I think I will have to follow up and write separate posts with more details* on some of these topics to avoid another one of my super-long mega-posts.

• Ainsley went to Camp Korey
• We went on a 5 State Road Trip to Yellowstone, amazing!*
• Ainsley's school aide left. We decided to homeschool starting 9/20/16.*
• My mom (adoptive) fell unexpectedly and got a head injury in late September. My medical experience with Ainsley all these years (17 surgeries and hospitalizations, multiple specialists) helped. I was at her bedside in the hospital for many days until she went into a nursing home (skilled nursing/rehab center) for a week before coming home. We are trying to reduce her care demands for my brother who has advanced Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy. She's doing well and is slowly recovering her strength and energy. 
• Evie got a part in the school musical, Chicago, and started rehearsals 5 days a week on top of dance and her regular stuff. With Adrian's school carpool changes this year (I pick up 3 days a week at the next town over.) it feels like I'm always in the car!
• Ainsley turned 10! Wow! I'ts crazy to think about everything we've been through in that time! *
• Steve and I celebrated our 20 year Wedding Anniversary! Wow again! 
• Evie had Homecoming (2 of them). 
• 3 Sick kids, doctor's appointments, late homework. Ugh!
• Halloween

I'll finish up with more Halloween photos. Yes it's a little late, but that's the way life has been for us lately. I'm hoping you agree better late than never. 

*****

Evie started out her Halloween day at 6:30am as Peter Parker.

Evie was awesome as Spider-Man. You would think it would be an easy costume and it is if you are a child or a man, or want a Sexy-Spider-Girl/Man dress thing, but if you are a young woman who wants to be an authentic Spider-Man you can count driving all over the city(s), ordering an adult hood and gloves. If you are the mom of said young woman you can count on altering every single piece of said costume the day of the party when your daughter cries because her vision fell flat.

Ainsley loved her Ant-Man costume! We had ants living under our patio stones and she would go out to feed them and watch them drag the crumbs into the cracks. She LOVED the idea of being able to shrink to the size of an ant! And the thought of being super strong! It was perfect for her!

She used her walker instead of her wheelchair this year and her talker to Trick-or-Treat and scored lots of candy! She's become such a great eater it's hard to believe there were years where I had to force her to lick a lolli-pop. It was truly joy filled for her this year! Though she came down with a fever that evening. She made it through and still had a great time!

For my readers interested in AAC.

Ainsley wasn't the only one to score big on candy. 

I was happy to see our 3 out together again. At 15,13 and 10 this might be the last time. 

Evie begged me to bake our Alphabet Soup in a Pumpkin from page X of this book when they were little kids. I modified it to be fully vegetarian for Adrian's benefit (it's been 2 1/2 years) and it was surprisingly really good (since the chicken really was the best part). This was the first year I had it ready to eat early. Ironic since I nearly couldn't find a pumpkin because I forgot until the night before to buy pumpkins and the only remaining pumpkins were huge or rotted except this one found at the 3rd store. Oops.

I stayed at the house to pass out candy to our 18 Trick-or-Treaters. I enjoyed the candles, wine and roasted pumpkin seeds while the rest of the family was out. Every year we do a graveyard with lights and spooky music so someone has to be home and I'm fine with it being me.

Evie's Teen Wolf Jack-o-Lantern (and Ainsley's cutie). We cut back on carving this year.

Every year I like to get a picture of my Trick-or-Treaters. It might be silly but it's tradition and we love our traditions. When the kids are young it feels like it will last forever but they grow up so quick. This year we've had a lot of family, family of friends or friends of friends pass away and I was really struck by the fact that change is inevitable and comes when you least expect it so it's wise to make the most of each day as best we can.