A Super Halloween

Today during the day we went to a Halloween open gym at our gymnastics studio. We don't often go to open gyms since it adds up for three kids, but I thought it would be fun. Plus, it was cold so going to the park wasn't that appealing. And Joshua was so excited about the holiday, he was having a pretty rough day so it was a good way to let him get some energy out. The pictures didn't come out that well because they were mostly just blurs the entire time we were there. The bigger kids liked jumping into the foam pit a lot and jumping on the trampoline. Hannah was pretty cautious. I thought she would like the trampolines more. But she mostly really enjoyed chasing the hula hoops and rings that I would roll for her.

I wish we got a better picture of the kids in their Halloween outfits. Here is Hannah in hers, which you can't really see it that well. And I didn't get a photo at all of Clara or Joshua.

After dinner, it was time to get into costumes. My kids were super excited this year, mostly because Joshua was. Previous years, they were like, "Okay, sure, whatever you say we are doing, I guess that's what we are doing." This year it was like, "When can we go trick or treating" all day.

Cousin Benjamin (aka Thor) came over for a little bit early in the evening. Though we didn't plan it, he kept with the super hero theme (great minds, etc.) so we had to get a photo of the League of Cousins.

In fact our entire family stayed "on theme". Jason was Captain America and I was Wonder Woman. I love Halloween and I certainly was not going to pass on the opportunity to dress up. I didn't feel it was feasible the last few years because we always had a baby and it was just too much. But now I have at least some time and I can put together costumes. Also, don't you love my boots? I found them used, but I really love them. I don't have many occasions to wear gold cowboy boots with rhinestones, but I wish my lifestyle contained far more. I had originally planned to get rid of them after the holiday, but am now keeping them in case I have a reason to wear them again and I sure hope that I do.

For awhile the Fouts family hung out, and the kids looked at who was coming next and helped hand out candy. 

But soon they had to go and the moment Joshua had been dreaming about all month and certainly all day arrived. It was pretty much everything he hoped. This year he has been really excited to learn that pretend scary things are a part of Halloween and it's funny to pretend to be scared. So he has enjoyed screaming around ghosts and jack-o-lanterns and other things like that. Imagine his delight when a flower delivery guy left this huge balloon bouquet on someone's porch who wasn't home. He thought the giant spider was great. I wasn't as sure. We live in a pretty friendly neighborhood and I haven't heard of anything like egging, pumpkin smashing, TPing, or other mischief you hear about on TV happening here or really any place I have ever lived, but I still wouldn't suggest leaving something like that unattended on Halloween.

Joshua was also really enamored with this Stormtrooper, who he thought was a robot. He wanted to follow him all night. We had a really fun time going out together. It was cold, but it wasn't too bad until the end and then Clara was really ready to go home. But it was 8 by that time anyway and that's when trick-or-treating pretty much shuts down.

Once we got home, I gave the kids some time to enjoy some of their candy. They certainly enjoyed that part of the evening. Once Halloween is over, I put all the candy together into one dish and we have some a few times more and then it just disappears one night, never to be seen again. But on Halloween, I pretty much let them eat what they want for awhile because I think that's part of the fun for kids. Hannah did have to have some limits because apparently her initial plan was to open everything and lick each piece and then discard it and I didn't feel that was a good plan. It was definitely a fun night and it is exciting that Joshua is starting to understand and show enthusiasm for holidays.

Preschool Fall Festival

Today was Joshua and Clara's fall festival (Halloween party?) at school.  Meghan was working, but I had some time this morning, so I went to it.  They started off by singing a few songs.

Joshua and Clara were so glad to see me, that the second they were allowed to get off stage, they ran to me and mobbed me with hugs, joined by Hannah, whom I was holding.

After the songs, we went to their classroom where they did an art project to make ghosts.  Hannah joined in with Clara on hers.

They then had the opportunity to do some fair-style games, including throwing pumpkins at plastic jugs.

Hannah wasn't sure about everything and felt safe sitting with Halie, but after assessing things for awhile she decided she wanted to play too, and the teachers were nice enough to let her play and win a prize packet, even though she's not a student.

So Close. So Very Close.

Most people thought the Royals had little chance at making the playoffs when the season started, and probably no one thought they would make a deep playoff run. The Royals were under .500 in July (later than any team that had ever made the playoffs), and everyone thought they were done. But then they went on a run and got better and better, actually holding down first place in the division for a few days, and people really started to believe and get excited about the team potentially making the playoffs. That's no small feat for the Royals, as they had the longest playoff drought (29 years) out of all the teams in the four major professional North American sports. They finished last in the league in home runs and in walks, and no team that had ever done that had made the playoffs. But they somehow won a Wild Card spot and beat the A's in the Wild Card game in what pretty much everyone agrees was one of the most exciting and dramatic playoff games in recent baseball history. They then faced off against the mighty Los Angeles Angels in the ALDS and swept Pujols, Trout, and company in three games. They then advanced to play the powerful Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS and swept them away in four games. The Royals were playing a new type of baseball (though ironically it's more of an old school, "small ball" approach) with speed, pitching, and defense as the key components of their success, and it took them all the way to the World Series against the Giants. 

The magical run swept up many non-baseball fans in KC, as I heard story after story of someone who didn't normally care about baseball and/or the Royals who was now excited to watch the games. Nationally, the entire country got behind the Royals. In an ESPN poll, 50 out of 50 states were rooting for the Royals in the World Series, with even the majority of Californians on our side. We were all confident we could compete with the Giants, but it turned out one thing, and pretty much only one thing, stood in the way: Madison Bumgarner. He gave up only one run in a Game 1 win for the Giants and pitched a shutout in Game 5 to give the Giants a 3-2 lead in the series, meaning the Royals had to win the last two games at home. They won yesterday in the game I attended, resulting in tonight's Game 7. The worry was that Bumgarner might pitch a few innings, even though he just pitched on Sunday, but no one knew if he'd be effective on such short rest.

Well, it ended up being worse than anybody thought. He entered the game in the 4th inning with a 3-2 lead, and not only did he pitch a few innings, he finished the game! And not only was he good, he was outstanding and completely dominant, allowing only 2 hits. Alex Gordon reached on a single in the bottom of the ninth and advanced to third on the hit after an error, but Salvador Perez struck out to end it.

So it's over. We were so close to winning the World Series. Possibly 90 feet away, as that would have tied it, or one pitch away if Salvy would have gone deep. A miracle run that was as surprising as it was exciting. It was so much fun for this city to go along for the ride, and I really think we deserved it, given the passion we felt as a city and the length of time we'd waited. And without Bumgarner, I really think it would have happened, and it would have been amazing. But it was still an extremely impressive accomplishment to make it this far. We are all fortunate to have been able to experience it, because for a full month the entire city had something to rally around. There were no divisions by college affiliation, political leaning, age, race, or even which side of the state line you lived on. I'm not trying to over-dramatize this, even though it sounds like it, but it was really fun to know that especially by the time the World Series rolled around, almost every person you'd meet anywhere in the city was excited by the Royals and what they were doing.

So now we wait until next year. But I think the Royals have established themselves and have found their footing as a team and an organization, and I think and hope that we've moved beyond the annual cycle of a small bit of cautious hope in April that is extinguished by June to a point where we can have genuine optimism in the spring and by the fall still have realistic hopes of playing in October, at least for the next few years while this core group of players is together. Dayton, Ned, and the boys brought us on a Hollywood-esque ride that perfectly followed the so-clichéd-it-wouldn't-be-believable script until the very end.  Hopefully next year the Royals can compete for the playoffs again, and maybe somehow they can even make another deep run, and maybe, if everything falls into place, make the World Series again. And if they do, I'm pretty sure they will have learned from this year (and not be facing Bumgarner three times again!) and will "take the crown" and finish what our Boys in Blue started in 2014,

Going to Game 6

This Royals postseason has been magical.  I've always been a Cubs fan, but after having lived in KC for 22 years, I've become a pretty serious Royals fan as well.  I don't get to see many games, even on TV, because of my schedule, but I always want them to do well, and I closely follow everything about the team.  They amazingly made the playoffs this year, causing the whole city to get swept up in their sudden success.  I had considered trying to go to a playoff game, but I've been traveling for work for some of the games, and the cost of tickets has deterred me as well, as the city's decades-long unquenched thirst for postseason baseball has resulted in sky-high prices.  During the ALCS, I looked on StubHub to see what World Series tickets were going for, and even the cheapest ones were in the $800 range, which I wasn't able to do.  The Royals didn't close out the series in San Francisco, making Games 6 and 7 in KC move from  "if necessary" to necessary.  Yesterday I checked prices for Game 6 and saw they were still close to $400, which was still a whole lot of money.  But then I got a call from my friend Jason who offered me a ticket for face value ($200), and I could hardly say yes fast enough.  So today I did something I never really thought I'd do: I went to the World Series.

Jason and I left our respective jobs early to get to the K in plenty of time to hang out and enjoy it.  I saw Royals broadcaster Rex Hudler and made sure to get a picture with him.  Jason and I took a few pictures of us, but I really liked this one where Taylor Swift somehow marketed her way to the forefront of our picture.  We saw all the news stations with their tents (and Brian Busby, Phil Witt, etc.).  Some station left a microphone on the ground, and Jason couldn't resist commandeering it and leading a fake broadcast.

ESPN had their set in the parking lot too, though of course it was much bigger than the local stations.  It was cool to see Curt Schilling, Karl Ravech, Barry Larkin, and John Kruk so close, and it was also really interesting to see how the production of the show worked.  All the fans could be around the set, but most people congregated behind it so they could get on TV including one costumed fan who made a poster that had a decently clever tie-in with Batman/bats and Commissioner Gordon / Alex Gordon, except he's such a big fan of both Batman and the Royals that he couldn't spell "Gordon" right?  Oh well.  Soon, though, it was time to go into the game...

Our seat were behind home plate.  Waaaay behind home plate, but still behind home plate.  I actually think my seat was literally the center-most seat and was actually straight back from the plate, which gave a pretty cool perspective.  The stadium was electric, and the fans were LOUD.  I've never been to a baseball game like that.  It was like being in the student section of a K-State football game.  Everyone was pumped up and ready to go.  The Royals got the scoring started in the second.  On the left was when Nori Aoki was up with the bases loaded, before he singled in the second run of the inning.  On the right is when Hosmer pounded the ball in the dirt in front of home plate and it bounded like a superball into the outfield and into the gap for a double after being hit into the ground inches in front of home plate, which is hard to do.  You can see the ball to the left of the second base umpire as it heads for the gap.

On the left the players are running around the bases, and on the right the stadium has erupted in utter delirium.  The Royals would go on to score seven runs that inning, all but destroying any hopes the Giants had of winning the game.

With the game mostly in hand, we decided to walk around the stadium to see what else was going on, eventually settling in some seats in the lower level that had been abandoned by Giants fans who were probably too disgusted to watch another inning.

The score was 10-0 at this point, so it was just a matter of time.  On the left is the final second of the game as Gregor Blanco swings through a pitch for strike three, followed by the beautiful Kauffman Stadium fountains shooting high in celebration.

The Royals won, forcing a Game 7, which is going to be crazy.  It's almost literally unbelievable to think that the Royals have a chance at a World Series title.  They are one game away from making it happen.  This city will go bonkers if it does.  I'm pretty sure I'll be watching tomorrow's game from home, and that's okay.  I may someday go to another World Series game, but I easily may not.  But as a fan of baseball and a fan of the Royals, I'll never forget the day I had the opportunity to go to a World Series game in Kansas City and see the Royals put 10 runs on the board and shut out the Giants to force a deciding Game 7.

Good Bye Deanna Rose

 Deanna Rose closes on Saturday so we decided to go today for one last time. They are decorated for Halloween. Joshua really liked the inflatables, although some of them kind of freaked Clara out.

We fed the animals first. It was a first for Hannah. Normally she stays in the stroller and doesn't want anything to do with them, but today she fed them. Clara is still more comfortable with throwing the food in the pen than directly feeding them.

We spent a lot of time just walking around the farmstead and seeing various animals and looking around. One thing that Joshua has always been really nervous about is using the hand dryer. They are super loud. But today, he wanted to go ahead and do it and he was pretty excited about conquering his fear.

We ended with the playgrounds, which are always a hit. We had such a fun time and will look forward to going again in April.

Later in the evening, we went to Culvers for dinner because our preschool was having a fundraiser there. Since their dinner involved both fries and ice cream, I am not sure the kids have ever been so happy. It was a nice way to end the day.