While Keith’s parents were here last weekend, we took the kids to an “Autumn Festival” sponsored by the Child and Youth Services (CYS). The gym where it was located was filled with booths and tables set up by different child oriented services that are available to Army families here.
Just in case I haven’t mentioned it before, I want to let you know now that the Army really does a lot to support its families. I have sixteen hours of free respite care for each of my children every month…I use four hours a week to give myself a chance to relax. I also am able to have hourly care for the children at a very reduced rate. And remember those swim lessons that the girls took, well, tried to take (they were interruped with pink eye). Anyway, remember those? They were free…we have four free classes available. We make a lot of sacrifices by being a part of an Army at war. But I am also grateful for the many ways that the Army is taking care of us.
Since the festival was being held the week before Halloween, it just made sense that we would dress the kids in their costumes and get some use out of them. I told the girls that they were going to a Halloween party. There were many other children there dressed in their costumes as well.
The girls got dressed in their costumes as soon as they woke up from their nap. EA was JoJo the Clown and MC was a court jester.
Once there, we basically just walked around. MC voiced her request to do “art” there before we left home, so we made sure that she had a chance to do that. She did some leaf rubbings and made a construction paper pumpkin. I was also able to get a picture of the three of them together with a cute backdrop to send to their Daddy. It was also made into a button.
The workers at one of the tables were passing out fruit and of course, our little monkey got himself a banana.
It didn’t take long for Will to become comfortable with the excitement of this event. He did not want to be held very much and by the end, I was chasing him down.
The girls, on the other hand, were a little overwhelmed by the size of the gym and the amount of people there. They spent a lot of their time looking around, with very wide eyes.
The girls and Will got lots of comments on their costumes. The funniest comment of all was, “Those are cute costumes! You should go to a Halloween party.” Well, that’s where we thought we were!
Nancy says
I don’t know how I missed this post before! I can see the monkey costume now. It’s so cute!
I’m very thankful that you are being taken care of over there!
Andrea says
I heard that was a great event! We decided that since that was the one day that we didn’t have to drive anywhere…we would relax at home. maybe next year! Cute costumes also! 😉
LifeatTheCircus says
GREAT costumes! I am glad to hear that there is support for the families of our troops. We are so grateful for all of your sacrifices on our behalf.