Connor had outgrown Logan’s old kid bike for awhile now and we had been searching for an used bike.  Finally we saw a good possibility and Stuart and I went to check it out on Saturday.  The bike was an older model, but a reliable one and still in a reasonable condition, thus we bought and took it home.  After adjusting down the seat and did some minor cleaning, it fit Connor quite well.  All of us accompanied Connor to go for a short test ride around the neighborhood, Connor seemed to like it ok.

   I am thrilled that we finally found a bike for Connor, so now we could ride bikes again as a family and I could stop looking on the websites.  Saturday was definitely a great day.  Getting a bike was an icing on the cake after the incredible official news that we will have a new president in 2021.

     This year the boys had decided not to go trick and treat, but we still wanted to prepare for others if they arrived.  Because of the pandemic, we had bought a pumpkin bucket to place in front of the house so kids could just pick up.

    Connor was excited for this day and was doing his usual countdown.  The night before he wanted to give us a preview of dress up, so he wore his animal winter hat.  On the day of Halloween, our neighbor knew that the boys would not be trick n treating, thus he dropped off even bigger chocolate bars than any other years; the boys were thrilled.  Throughout the day, Connor had come down in old costumes to show us. 

      By evening time, we set out the bucket with candies and Stuart also set up the fog machine.  We then had our dinner while watching The Nightmare Before Christmas from the boys’ request.  To our surprise, the whole evening we only had 2 set of kids coming to our house.  They did like the fog machine and we could see their reaction with our security camera.  Connor dressed up and scared me with his zombie costume, then he walked around different part of the house to get treats.  Sometimes after 8pm, Stuart and I took Buddy out.  The neighborhood was quite quiet with no one walking outside and the only noise was from one house having a party.  There were only 5 houses (including us) prepared with goodies.  The boys were a bit disappointed how quiet the evening was, but we all hope to make up the fun next year.

    Stuart had noticed Buddy being bothered by his ear for a few weeks now, so Stuart tried to help clean his ear.  Finally he decided that we should take him in for a check and an ear wash.  I took Buddy in last Wed (10/28/2020) and the vet confirmed that he has a yeast infection and this is not uncommon for dogs with flappy ears.  He placed some medicine in that ear and will stay for a month to treat the infection.  Once infection cleared, we can consider prevention treatment thereafter.

    While Buddy was there, they checked his weight and it indeed went up again to 114 lbs.  I talked with the vet about that and we will switch him slowly to a less calorie diet to keep him in healthier weight.

    We were reminded and decided to have a visit to a pumpkin patch this morning.  It has been at least 2 years since our last visit as a family.  We went to the Spina Farm which is a nice one closest to us.  When we arrived, we learned that this farm has become like a theme park now as we had to park in the big lot after paying for parking and lined up to get in.  They did have safety measures in place.      

  We walked around; we noticed that they had re-arranged and added new things.  After checking out all the activities, the boys wanted to do the corn maze which was much bigger and more involved than what we anticipated.  It was pretty inside too.  The maze turned out to be quite hard.  Logan and I finally got out of it before Stuart and Connor did.  Afterward, we picked out the pumpkins we liked before we left to head home.

    This year in 2020 marked our 15th year of marriage.  It is hard to believe how fast time has flied by.  With the COVID pandemic, we did not have any special celebration in mind.  The anniversary also landed on a Thursday this year and thus it was basically like any ordinary days.  After the usual school day, the boys did home work and had some game time afterward, we went out for a dinner.  It was nice to finally have a drink outside of our house.

     Connor wanted to decorate his room this year, so when he goes to class, his classmates and teacher could see them.  Thus he and I put up a couple of spiders along with some of his previous Halloween things in his room.  Connor later told us that his teacher said he inspired her to decorate her space too.

    After sharing a couple of spiders with Connor, I decided that we needed more and so I bought some more.  Now I think I went a bit too crazy with these spiders.