Trick-or-Treat!

Halloween is here!

The pumpkins are done

 

I had to work the night before, but I brought some Halloween-themed treats in

 

The kids went to school in costume, Nick with his tie-fighter and Katheryn as Princess Aurora.

 

When the kids got home from daycare we had to eat quickly and then reapply makeup, and Katheryn had to do a quick wardrobe change.

 

Then it was time to start trick or treating!

The kids had their giant hands that we've used for the last couple of years
And the kids were ready to go!

Of course we needed to get a group picture first!
X-wing fighter, Darth Nickolas and Elsa

We left our pumpkins and candy on the porch and then headed out!

First stop was Grandma and Papa's house!

We had a routine as we went.
I would go up to the door with Katheryn (until Katheryn ditched us for another family), and Nick would yell "Happy Halloween" or "Trick or Treat" from the bottom of the stairs. I would have his bag, and then Nick would say Thank You.
It worked out well. And Nick had fun
When Katheryn left us, and it was just me going to the door, I got some strange looks, but usually I stepped away from the door so they would see Nick.
Some people came right out, one neighbor stopped and told me about a local accessible farm, and a group of teenagers loved Nicks costume and wanted a picture. We have 2 houses in our neighborhood who have ramps, so we made sure to go to them, so Nick could actually knock on the door.

The weather was beautiful (for the first time in a long time) and we went out to about twice as many houses as we have before. So half way through Kyle ran home to get a pillow case so we could dump the candy in.

When we got home, Katheryn dumped her candy into our (empty) candy bowl.

Nick was so happy with all of the candy he got, it was such a fun night for them! We were out for 2 hours

They are both already talking about what they want to be next year!

Gradview Trick or Treat

Grandview had a trick or treat at a local high school.

The kids had fun, and we got to trial the Death Star

 

The kids had so much fun!
Running around the school and go to different classrooms.

 

Alejandra was there too and we all trick or treated together

 They also had some games to play. Like bowling for ghosts

 

 

There was also crafts to do (Nick was off racing with Alejandra)

 

It was a fun party for the kids to go to, and it was fun meeting with the other kids and parents.
The death star tolerated everything well. So we are all ready for Halloween on Monday!

Ice Queen

When we were talking about Halloween I told Katheryn she could be anything she wanted.
And she wanted to be Elsa again. But this time, instead of Elsa at the cornation, she wanted to be Ice Queen Elsa.
And she wanted to shoot snow

The first step was for her to find a dress she liked.
Ebay is my go-to place for options regarding Halloween. Especially when we started looking in September (because shipping can take up to 6 weeks)

And she wanted to Elsa wig.
When it first came, it was and Katheryn put it on, she said it looked like a mad scientist!
I looked at the picture, and her hair is a little crazy. So I got some clips to try to tame it a bit

 

Then I had to figure out how to shoot snow.

A co-worker came up with the idea of the webshooter

We painted everything white, and the webshooter is able to shoot water as well. And it worked pretty well. We painted the spiderweb at the side with blue to match her dress.

 

Darth-Nickolas' Tie Fighter

After we completed the Death Star Nick reminded me that he wanted a tie-fighter for school. After spending days and days on the Death Star there was no way I was sending it to school (and I don't know if it would fit on the bus, and I didn't trust anyone else to get it on and off the chair).

 

I told Nick if we had enough time I would make the tie-fighter. I figured it would b easy, I just needed some black foam board and duct tape.

 

I got 3 black foam boards from the dollar store. I cut 1 board in half, and then sliced the other 2 so that they folded.

I balanced the middle board on a toilet paper rolls and then duct taped it on the angle (the angles are the same on both wings) and taped the last half on the same angle.

Easy!

I needed a way to fit it onto the walker, and make it easy for Nick and the teachers to get them on and off.  I am always looking for things that we have around the house. This was an expandable gutter-extender. You know the things that you put on the end of the drain, to direct where the water will go?
Well we had 2 of them and they were perfect to fit on the walker.

I cut it to fit on the handles and then I had Velcro to make it stay on the walker.

It worked out well. But when Nick went to a Beavers Halloween party, I found that it wasn't making it the completely right place. So I added some wire to the front wheel and middle of the bottom braces so that I won't slide off.

I added some more duct tape, and an Empire symbol to both sides and it was complete!

 

I did it all in an afternoon, and now Nick will have a walker costume for school.

Sledge Hockey



Nick has been playing sledge hockey for a couple of weeks now.

Every Sunday for 2 hours he goes on the ice and learns how to play.

Every week he gets a little better. The rest of the kids just zip along the ice, but Nick is still learning to move himself.

We come out to watch nd cheer him on (and Grandma Ridding came out this week)

Katheryn likes to be right up and close to the ice watching.

This week we got to watch a game that the intermediate league played. And after the game then Nick got out on the ice for his practice.
This week Nick also got his own hockey jersey!

 



He isn't zooming around the ice yet, but he is getting better. I wish there was a way to get him out more, maybe we ca borrow his sledge for some public skating? Once he is better at moving himself, he can work on hockey skills.

But he does like passing the puck back and forth under his sledge.

 

He is so proud of himself that he is playing hockey!