Halloween Fun!

Ryan House is a state-of-the-art pediatric hospice and palliative care home in Phoenix for children with life threatening diseases.  But once you're a part of the Ryan House family, you're always welcome--and that's how we found ourselves celebrating Halloween over the weekend, a few days early!

The kids put their costumes on (Jenna was a leopard, Kyle was Han Solo, and Lauren was a black cat), together we set foot into Ryan House and that was the last time I saw all the kids together in the same area at the same time.  They all took off in different directions a moment later.

Jenna enjoyed the playground and the pumpkin painting craft table.

Lauren enjoyed the face painting and playing games.

Kyle wasn't interested in much other than convincing the staff to turn on the Wii (they didn't) and playing with the drinking fountain.

Do you like Lauren's black kitty cat costume?  It has an interesting story behind it.  Check it here.

Halloween 2011

Halloween '11 was sort of awesome.  It was filled with tricks (check out the costumes our friend made for our wheelchairs) and treats (check out the cavities the kids have from all the candy two months from now).

I initially wrote about our Halloween costume selection process here and here, so I won't repeat the stories.  But I do have additional photos--yay!  Here you go.

Here the kids are with my friend Kelly's girls--Super Girl and Bat Girl! That's a lot of estrogen for Han Solo there to navigate his way through.

Here's a good look at Lauren's beehive--our friend Marie made this for her! She also made Kyle's Millennium Falcon! Marie is good people.  You can gaze adoringly at Marie's gorgeous smile--and read about her life with lupus--here.  Many thanks to Marie, who I hereby appoint chair of the Committee to Develop Wheelchair Costumes for Halloween 2012.

Trunk Or Treat '11

The kids enjoyed Halloween Part 1 tonight--a church sponsored trunk-or-treat event!  This is such a fun age to watch kids enjoy Halloween!  They had so much fun.  Lauren is so pleased with her costume that she might just continue wearing it to bed for the next few weeks.  Jenna made quite the stylish ballerina princess--probably because her new Twinkle Toes cost more than all of the rest of her costume combined.  Kyle barely looked in costume (a pirate) since he wouldn't wear the pirate hat ("too scratchy") and his mother misplaced the pirate shirt (vest?) and so improvised with a pocket tee (if pirates didn't have pockets, they deserved the scurvy).  Therefore, he was mostly a kid driving around in striped pants and otherwise in street clothes, begging people for candy.  This only bothers me when the candy is cheap and tonight it wasn't, so you won't find me complaining tonight.  Also, this was Kyle's plan B costume--his eventual award-worthy frock is still being built by our good friend Marie, so we sort of half assed it tonight.

I took video, for those of you who are unfamiliar with how a Trunk or Treat works.  My video is actually not very interesting otherwise, but that's because there were too many third parties wandering around who I could not control and so just filmed the kids doing their thing.

Halloween Costume Brainstorming

For Halloween this year, the six year old wants to be a vampiress.

Three year old girl wants to be Snow White. Three year old boy claims he wants to be a pig (?).

My challenge to you, blogosphere, is to help me come up with ways to incorporate the three year olds' wheelchairs into their costumes. I'm not sure what we can do with them for Snow White and a pig, so throw out for our consideration even better original costume ideas which can incorporate their chairs.

My pal Lorraine set the bar high last year with this masterpiece for her daughter, Zoe. See what I mean?




The gauntlet's been thrown! Brainstorm away!

How about I make your Friday?

You're welcome.

;o)

Spinal Muscular Atrophy

The babies were diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) type 2 this week. It's pretty devastating. But I think it's better to know what we're dealing with right now, rather than them being "medical mysteries", right? I'm so glad we have Phoenix Children's Hospital to work with. They've been great so far. In the past, with other random issues and doctors, it seemed like we managed to slip through the cracks in terms of test results and call backs and such, but this has absolutely not been the case with PCH. My only complaint is that PCH isn't closer to my house! But actually 20 mins drive isn't that bad. And it's awesome that their facilities are so kid friendly--we had to bring Jenna with us to an appointment and she felt right at home at a coloring table watching Sprout, so that was a relief.

If anyone knows of tactics I can use to convince my husband that we now more than ever need a big family trip to Disneyland, please share! I want to go now, while the babies are still small enough for our normal double stroller and we don't have to travel with wheelchairs or other equipment.

I could post so much more about SMA and the ramifications, but I have no energy left. I've been talking about it and crying about it for four days now and I'm all out of words and tears for now. Many, many thanks to anyone who includes us in your prayers.

And in honor of Halloween tomorrow, here are a couple photos to get you in the spirit of the holiday--enjoy!