officially a swimmer

Due to COVID, kids are not allowed to swim in most public pools on Hawaii.  However, CORP has recently changed their policy to allow kids to lap swim if they can pass a swim test - swim freestyle 25 meters without stopping or holding onto the side / lane lines.  Gordy accepted the challenge and not only made it, but swam 5 additional laps!  Each lap took almost a minute and half, but he made it and he can now swim at CORP!

spooky surprise!

Partially due to COVID and mostly due to our desire to keep Gordy away from candy as long as possible, we've kept our Halloween celebrations pretty low key.  We usually carve a pumpkin, bake up the seeds, decorate the house, dress up in homemade costumes, and then take Gordy to 1-2 houses on our street for trick-or-treating.  Our friends are pretty good about giving him healthy snacks (i.e. mac nuts, raisins, etc.) and he's always been pretty happy with the whole thing.

This year, we still decorated the house, carved a pumpkin, and cooked up the seeds, but Gordy asked if he could trick-or-treat at more houses.  

I told him that we could ask around and see if anyone wanted to participate, but also told him not to get his hopes up since, sadly, our street never gets any trick-or-treaters.  So, last weekend, we made up notes with ribbon on them introducing Gordy and explaining that he was planning to be on the street between 6:30pm and 7pm.  We asked that if anyone wanted any scary creatures visiting their doors, they hang up the ribbon someplace visible.

Almost every day last week Gordy and I would take a stroll through the neighborhood to see if anyone had put their ribbons out.  And, each day we would walk back home with our tails between our legs feeling defeated at not finding any.  

On Halloween day, we finally struck luck!  Three houses had hung up their ribbons (1 after a gentle reminder from Gordy while he was out in his yard)!  So, we confirmed our evening plans with Gordy's best friend, Alia, and we started getting ready.  

Alia and Gordy got their costumes on (scary ghost and queen barb), had their faces painted and glitter added to their cheeks, got their buckets, scavenger hunt list and flashlights ready in hand, and then we all headed out to the street.

As we exited our driveway and turned left onto Kaiea Place, we found a glowing ghost with our ribbon tied onto it at a house that we hadn't counted before!  At the end of the driveway, we found a shark and a witch ready with a bowl of treats accompanied by a friendly cat and bird who replied "hello" to anyone who'd talk to it.  The night was off to a great and surprising start!

We hit the next few houses that had put up their ribbons early and then we decided to check out the rest of street just in case... we found that nearly half of the street was out and ready for us!  We found a dancing flamingo and chicken with disco lights and thriller music, some friends throwing sweets down from their lanai, bowls of treats set outside gates where people weren't home but wanted to support, and of course Oscar kitty.  

Without even finishing the last few houses on our street, we all headed home completely pooped with buckets overflowing.  About 45 mins later, Todd got a call from a neighbor letting us know that we'd missed one house and they were still out there waiting for us!  So, we threw costumes back on and ran to apologize.  This house was the most impressive.  They had made a poster with a message for Gordy and they had made individual goodie bags for Gordy and his friends to fish from over the fence by pulling on some twine.  It was so adorable and so sweet.  They said that this was their first trick-or-treater at this house and they were so excited to get to participate.  

Once we finished up on our street, we made our way to some of our favorite people's house (Victor and Priscilla) where they gave Gordy some homemade brownie bites with frosting ghosts on them.

After our big night's celebration, Gordy was absolutely exhausted.  In between the trick-or treating, he and Alia were wrestling and playing like crazy COVID kids who haven't seen other humans in years.  When they finally stopped, they had sweated off all their face paint and their hair was all wet and stuck to their heads.

Looking back at the night, I'm so grateful to all of our friends and neighbors for what they did.  Everyone went above and beyond what any of us had hoped for and they really made our kids' day the incredible event that it was.  Thank you to everyone for all that you did.  We love you all and we can't thank you enough!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN