Happy Halloween!

We just experienced our first Halloween in Virginia Beach. We had so much fun with the kids' fall activities. Last Thursday Emma's ballet and tap classes had a little Halloween recital in their costumes, which was adorable. The next day Will's school had a very fun fall carnival. They set up different games in the classrooms, passed out candy in the hallways, had crafts for sale, fair food, and Emma even won a cute pumpkin cake in the cake walk. Will's class had a party today, which we made cupcakes for, and tonight we took the kids around the neighborhood before the Trunk or Treat at church. Our housing community has a requirement of at least 2 children per household in order to live here - so there were LOTS of kids! Throngs and throngs of kids. We gave away 5 bags of candy, plus all the candy our kids had collected when they went trick or treating. Virginia Beach has an under 12 yrs old, lights out at 8pm rule for trick or treating, so that was nice too. We never got to trick or treat in the neighborhood we lived in the last 3 years. The first year we tried it, not one single person answered their door! So we usually went to a friend's neighborhood or our old neighborhood in San Diego. The kids had fun at the Trunk or Treat too - Jered took them while I stayed home and passed out candy. I'm so glad the children had fun and it was a great way to go around and meet all of our new neighbors.
It's been a beautiful fall season here. The trees are all sorts of lovely shades, the air is cool, but not too cold, and we love to see the leaves blowing in the wind. Until we got sick last week, the kids and I have enjoyed biking 1-3 miles almost every day around our neighborhood. The kids are better enough now to want to play outside, but my voice is still gone and I have a terrible cough. We hope to be back enjoying the outdoors again soon!
Jered had the opportunity this month to go on a men's retreat with our first church up in Washington DC. They went to Ocean City, MD, for a few days. He loved catching up with old friends and worshipping with them again. The only thing wrong with this is that he has now been up to see our friends and family up there twice, and the kids and I still haven't been able to go! Hopefully soon we can coordinate a school break with a short trip up there. It's so great to see people we thought we might never see again on this earth. Will had basketball try outs for Upward Basketball this month. They start practice in December and have games until March. Jered is going to be a coach for Will's team. They are excited to play together. It's a great program because they get the "official" feeling - uniforms, games, regular practices with 300 kids - but it's a Christian program that has team devotionals and facilitates team work and kindness above competition. Hopefully that's what Will gets out of it!