Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween! Here are so highlights from our day:

Rick, Parker, and Erin all carved pumpkins while I was getting dinner ready. Bryant was babysitting all day and wasn't able to carve his.

Rick holding Linkin Beck

Bryant, Stephen, and Riley getting ready to trick or treat

The traditional chili dinner in our driveway

Parker and Emmett wanted to be twins

Karen, Jolene, and Linda
Adara was so excited to see the Beck twins
The boys took a break from trick or treating to get in some Rock Band

Candy wasn't enough sugar for these boys, they had to have apple pie, too!

The wacky doctor

Friday morning I woke up expecting to go to work and then go shopping for final touches for my boys' Halloween costumes. Bryant wanted to be a nerd and Parker wanted to be Indiana Jones. I already had Parker's hat and whip but I still needed clothes to make the costume perfect. After going to a few stores, I began to lose hope that I would ever find the right clothes. That's when I went to Party City and found a doctors coat. All the sudden I realized that Parker had gone to school for wacky hair day and his hairdo would be perfect for a wacky doctor. So I bought the gear and hoped I could win him over with the idea.

When he got home from school, I showed him the items I had purchased and much to my amazement, he was on board! It ended up being perfect for him - especially with his crazy personality.

Field trip to the Getty Museum

This has been such a hectic month that I'd forgotten to post pictures from my latest field trip chaperoning experience. I was asked to help with a field trip to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles on October 9th. I can't believe that we live so close to this musuem and haven't taken the opportunity to go - especially since it is FREE! That's part of the trouble with living close to so many great places. We had an amazing time there but have promised to return since 3 hours is definately not enough time to see everything. The only bummer was that I had to endure almost 5 total hours on the school bus with a bunch of high schoolers. At least they were well behaved high schoolers! Anyway, here are some pictures from our trip:


The museum itself has so many buildings and we only went in a few - this place is HUGE!

Sculpture and drawings by Bernini were the special exhibit. This is the first time this exhibit has left Italy and I'm so glad that we got to see it. I'm in awe of the beautiful sculptures that Bernini did in the early 1600s. I can't imagine how much work it must have been to sculpt marble in such great detail without the modern tools artist have today. The only bummer about this exhibit was that we couldn't take any pictures so I had to find this one on the museum website. It's great, but not my favorite one.

This was Erin's second trip to the Getty and so she wanted to show me some of her favorite paintings. This one was her very favorite. I couldn't get a picture of the whole painting because of the glare, but this is the main part. It's named Christ Crowned with Thorns by Gerrit van Honthorth painted about 1620. Erin loves it because of the use of light.

Another favorite of Erin's is this painting by Rembrandt. It's titled Portrait of a Girl Wearing a Gold-Trimmed Cloak and it was painted in 1632. This painting is on loan to the Getty until the end of December.

We only had time to view the gardens from above. That's another reason we want to return.

Erin was lucky to have Rhett in our group and the two hung out together the whole day. They have become good friends over the years that we have lived here.

Some of the students that were in my group overlooking the gardens. I had 7 students and they were all on their best behavior and always on time at our meeting places. I think that I had the best group of all!

Surprise!

Once upon a time I used to like to throw parties. I enjoyed making the invitations, decorations and fancy cakes. Now, I avoid parties like the plague. But with Rick turning 40, I couldn't help myself and decided to throw a surprise party with the help of some great friends.

Even though I decided months ago that I would have a party, I only seemed to have time to throw it together at the last minute. We have such supportive friends that took the time to come on late notice to make the evening a success for Rick. The Rocks let us use their house, the Muirs worked their chocolate fountain magic, friends and family from out of town sent letters, and Erin even threw together a video to honor Rick's first 40 years. Somehow I was able to get Rick to their house without raising any suspicions (not too good, Investigator Chase). Everyone seemed to enjoy the party, especially Rick, and I'm enjoying being done with it now! Thank you everyone who came or sent letters for Rick's birthday - it meant the world to him.

Rick, Wendy, and Scott

The dessert spread - YUM!

Heather, Suzanne, and Peggy
Dave and Jim
Kirk, Derek, and Josh
Alofa and Heidi

Bishop, Ken, and Jake
Karen and Linda with sweet Adara
Leslie and Natalie
Ron and Rick

Starting another decade.....

Happy birthday Rick! You are the best decision I ever made. Thanks for being a great dad that the kids continue to admire, a doting husband who spoils me on a regular basis, and best of all, my best friend.

Basketball

Last year Parker decided that he wanted to play basketball, but he just wasn't willing to give up soccer yet. So this season, he finally made the move to a new sport. He's been nervous that he wouldn't be very good because he's so new to the game, but thanks to his supporters (especially Emmett and Nathan!) he was ready to play competitively.

Saturday was his very first game and it went so well. We lost the game 10-12, but Parker scored his very first basket!! (which I captured on camera below) He also stole the ball a couple of times. I was so impressed that he knew where to go on defense and offense and that he hustled on both ends. After the game was over, Parker came over and exclaimed "That was fun!". I'm so happy that he's enjoying this new sport - GO PARKER!!

Neighborhood "field trip" to the air show

Rick and our next door neighbor, Nick, decided to take the neighborhood boys on a field trip to the Miramar air show yesterday. Since it was "educational", I don't didn't feel bad at all for the boys missing school.

Alek, Parker, Rick, Jake, Jeremy, and Bryant

Nick and all the boys sitting in the perfect spot to be able to see all the action in the air and on the ground.

Rick's favorite, the Blue Angels!