Halloween milestone

As many of you may know, this last week has been an extremely difficult week for Hayden and our family. While every minute was focused on getting Hayden well in the hospital, he missed out on a lot of fun Halloween events at school and in his community.  One of the most important things he didn't want to miss was Halloween. Halloween and Christmas are probably the two most important holidays celebrated by our kids.

We are grateful to those of you who are always looking out for us. This year we were fortunately referred to two nonprofit charities and to be the lucky beneficiaries of their good works. One is Walkin' & Rollin' Costumes.  The other is Flying Vikings. Hayden's costume wish was custom designed and built free of charge from a kickstarter  nonprofit out of Kansas. This was my first year not to spend weeks designing it on my own.  He loves airplanes. He is Dusty Crophopper and Garrett is his best friend El Chupacabra.

Below are pictures of the big unveiling of the costume.  It was designed to be shipped and assembled easily.  He couldn't wait.  We were glad to have family around to see the big exciting news.

 We told every nurse and every doctor in the hospital how important it was for Hayden to be healed so that he could wear his costume and attend the Flying Vikings event. We are happy and relieved that Hayden healed and for the stay of rain so that we could get up and enjoy the most magical morning with the Flying Vikings.

I made this one manic day in the hospital room with doctors and nurses in and out.  I told them I am not forgetting my other children.  I made this out of foam, felt, staples, glue, a bowl and lots of duct tape.  I needed it to be light, sturdy and to stay up with suspenders.  Unfortunately for a 2 year old, he still thought it was "too heavy."

I swish my cape at you, you have been shamed.

Who is the plane who breaks wind – and it STAYS broken? It is I, EL CHUPACABRA

 We took the family photos before we possibly got rained out or we all fell apart.

One of my favorite quotes from the movie:

El Chupacabra: Are you tired? You have been flying through my mind nonstop! 

Rochelle: And why would I be tired from flying through such a teeny-tiny space, hmm?

 El Chupacabra, Dusty Cropphopper, Princess Sophia & Top Gun (the original/oldie planes movie).

The car show that zoomed up and greeted us as we were the first to arrive at the event!

 This was Hayden's favorite orange car.

 Crafts to do while we waited for the skies to clear.  Thank you God for giving us this morning!

 Our wonderful pilot PT and his plane.

This was Hayden's favorite UT hookem' orange car with the owner being a philanthropic UT student.  This isn't what my college transportation looked like:)

 McLaren 650S Spider.

Garrett thought this should be his car since it matched him.

This wasn't a paint job, it was a custom wrap for the kids just for the show.

Getting ready for his first flight he was very concerned and focused.

He actually flew most of the time we were in the air.  He held it very steady and loved every minute!

Going over Georgetown lake.

He held steady for the landing.

While he didn't fly this plane he did love it's orange stripes.

Hanna was off to her crafting event and had no time for pictures.

   She didn't event want to drive in the race cars.

It isn't everyday that you see a car seat in a Ferrari.  The nicest owner, Stuart, gave Hayden an Italian Lira as a prize.

Yes Scott spotted Ikea:)

Whew, naps this afternoon and then off to trick or treating!

Today we made happy memories. Thank you to oh so many who made today possible.

While Hayden has not yet learned how to walk, today he learned how to fly.