Happy Halloween

On Halloween, after 2 soccer games and lots of chores inside and out, we headed over to the church parking lot for a pizza dinner and trunk-or-treating. We lucked out with wonderful, gorgeous weather. It was fun to visit with friends and have pizza. I loved not having to worry about dinner! G sat at the trunk with his dog costume to hand out candy as the boys walked around the parking lot. I walked around visiting.

We recycled costumes from last year -- the boys were all very happy about that. So it was super easy!!

Here's T with two of his buddies. They had so much fun running around. Good times!!!

After we returned from the Ward party, we all headed out in the neighborhood for trick-or-treating. G went a while with us, then headed back home to hand out the candy. The boys had I stayed out for quite a while and made a HAUL! We had to come by the house (strategically, of course) to dump some of the candy and get a drink of water. This trick or treating was hard work!

Couples Night / Amazing Race Edition

On Saturday night (the 24th), my dear friend, Julianne, and I hosted a super fun Couples Night -- The Amazing Race Edition. We got the idea from another friend, Laurie, and just HAD to do it. It took a lot of planning, but it was worth it. We had a blast!!





We met at Julianne's house. We assembled the teams, read them the directions for the night, handed them their "Mission" envelopes, and sent them on their way. They had to get their first set of instructions from the CD we made. First, they had to come up with a team name. Second, they had to find somewhere to eat, anywhere of their choosing. Then they could go to the start of the RACE. In order to get their first clue, they had to figure out where to go for their first clue, had to find someone with a certain license plate #. Once they found them, then they had to give their team name AND show their dinner receipt with the time-stamp. They had to have at least 20 minutes from the time stamp until they could receive their first clue.

Before the race .... unaware of what was ahead ...

Little did MOST of them know ... they were looking for ME in the parking lot of the Nugget shopping center. I verified the receipts, gave them their 1st clue, and sent them on their way to their destinations ... which included: a puzzle challenge, a boxing challenge, yogurt (a certain amount was required), Rock Band challenge (at my house) AND a swimming pool challenge -- yes, you read that right. One member of each team had to put on a swimsuit and dive to the bottom of our friend's VERY COLD pool to find the 1 Canadian penny amidst the 19 American pennies.

Once the teams finished all 5 challenges, we all met back at Julianne's house. We wrote down the times when the teams returned, factoring in any penalties. If they couldn't figure out the clue to get them to the next location, they could call me or Julianne for a 10 minute penalty. There were a few phone calls! Extra points were earned if they put the puzzle together in less than 20 minutes. They could also earn extra points by seeing how many songs they could recall from our mix CD (they did not know about this opportunity ahead of time -- they probably thought we were being nice to give them a music CD =))

So, Team "Kogan's Heroes" finished in 1st place. They won a fabulous 'Best Actress' trophy and each received a $100 grand bar.

We visited and ate more yummy food. It was fun to hear what happened at the various sites. Thanks, Raimi, for sharing your pictures!

It was so much fun! There was so much excitement and laughter. Those who didn't come REALLY missed out. It was a huge success and many are talking of 'the next time' ... which is a good sign. I think Julianne and I started something here!

Subtle, huh?!!

I found my most recent recipe magazine opened to this page with a sticky note on the bottom. Subtle, huh?!!

I'm Still Here!!

I've been MIA on my blog lately. I had been so busy with planning a big couple's night with my friend over the past few weeks. Our activity was last night, and it was a blast! I will post some pictures shortly. I was also finding some rare, quiet moments to prepare my Relief Society lesson, which was today. Phew!! I feel like I can exhale =) I'm just moving onto other things on my never-ending list, which includes digging out my kitchen! I know ... exciting .... I hope to get back to posting more regularly soon. One can hope!

Hot Pink 5K

On Saturday morning, B & I ran in a local 5K. N came down for support and to take pictures. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and this 5K raised $$$ for research. There was lots of pink there, especially HOT pink. The HOT stands for Historic Old Town for our neighborhood. The weather was perfect for a run. A little chilly to begin with, but it felt SO good during the run.

Here we are before the race. B looks pretty tired. He's NOT a morning person, but he wanted to come and give this a try.

Here we are working off some nervous energy before the race!

We had fun listening to the live band, seeing all of the people, checking out the vendors and getting some freebies. N carried around our loot in the backpack for us. Thanks, N!

Here we are at the end of our race. B got a late start because it was really unclear for him of when to start. He caught up to everyone, and did awesome. He's got such a HUGE stride when he runs. I'm so jealous!! He wants to do another run with me in the future.

I improved my running time a few minutes. I finished in 30:49 minutes. I was so happy about that! We had some small hills during the course. The Crooked Bridge was very challenging with its incline! And we crossed it twice on the course! I'm still working on increasing the distance I run as well as decreasing the time. It's a slow process for me, but at least I'm DOING it! Running has been great for me in so many ways. Again, I'm already looking for my next race and setting my sights on a 10K in the future.

A Quick Update!

Once again, my blog has been a little neglected. We have been SO busy!! Here's a little of what we've been up to:

J had a great soccer game on Saturday. He scored a goal!!

Here he is beginning to dribble the ball down to the goal ....

... and he gets past the goalie ....




.... and finishes it!! He was so happy!!

Victory!!!

On Tuesday night, we headed down to Sacramento for the free Lego kit of the month. THIS time, there was a huge line. It took us about 45 minutes to an hour just to get into the store! I guess word got out this time around. Last month, we just walked right in and got to make the kit right away. While the boys stayed in line, I went next door to Bath & Body. I got a great deal with a sale + coupon + $5 gift card. Even though we had to wait for a while, the boys were still glad we came. We just needed a break from routine ... all of us! (G was off teaching Institute class)

They got to make a pumpkin and were very happy about it.

Thursday morning, all of the K-2 students at the elementary school were part of a World Record reading. They read the Very Hungry Caterpillar, wore antenna hats, and got a free book. It's a very nice hardback of the story with a matching game attached to it. I'm not sure how many other kids/schools were doing this, but apparently, they set a world record and T was a part of it! A local Sacramento magazine type show taped a live segment, and you can see T in the background!! Awesome!!



Below, they made the caterpillar out of balloons. It was so cute. I had to use my cell phone to take a picture because I had no card in my good camera!! Ugh!

I will hopefully get back to more regular posts. Between piano lessons, cub scouts, boy scouts, soccer practices, soccer games, homework ... it just gets more than crazy here. That's why we busted out from routine and went down to the Lego store for a little reprieve (we skipped soccer practice that day -- trust me, no tears were shed!)

*A little footnote: I found out that there were 2,500 children in the Sacramento area involved with the reading and 1.3 million worldwide! How cool is that?!?!