Happy Halloween 2026!

I'm not a huge fan of dressing up for Halloween. Maybe when I was a kid up until about 5th grade it was cool but after that, I just really never liked to do it. So aside from when my kids were little, once middle school hits, I don't really get involved in picking out Halloween costumes for them. They tell me what to order and I do it. The girls tend to have coordinating costumes with friends and then Austen was always something sports related until he was older. 

Hailey in the middle in the orange sweater

It changes too - the trick or treating. Eighth grade is usually when they trick or treat around the neighborhood. After that, it's all parties - from high school to college. So Hailey has one more year left now to trick or treat and she's making the most of it. Her group of 12 met around noon (she did not get there until 1pm since she had hockey) at a friend's house. where the mom had so much food - Chick-fil-A, desserts, drinks, etc. They watched movies, hung out, got ready and finally decided to start their night of fun at 5pm. Hailey was a fox (her favorite) and all of her friends were some type of animal with little cone party hats so they called themselves the "party animals." They did come to our house so I got to see them all (Tom happened to be on a run to Costco for more candy as we had about 165 trick or treaters this year probably because it was a Saturday although last year we had about 150) so he missed them and was bummed. But hey, last year, he was at U of I for Dad's Weekend so Peyton and I had to man the door and I had to make the run to Costco (next year, I put in my notes app on my phone how much candy I need to buy so I don't have to make an emergency run for a third year in a row!). I think they finally stopped trick or treating after 7pm and headed to another friend's house to eat their candy and hang out. She finally got home after 10:30pm!

Peyton on the other hand had two costumes. One for her party on Friday night and another costume for a different party on Saturday night. No idea why she couldn't just wear the same costume on Saturday since it was two different parties. I only got a picture of her one night and it was after she came home because we had gone out before she got ready. The next night she wouldn't let me take her picture even though I helped her "craft her costume." On Friday, she was a leopard and on Saturday she was a clown (I glue gunned a few colored pom pons to the front of a white tank top.) She wore yellow shorts and did some clown make up although she was missing the red nose! 

Austen sent me his costume request about 5 days before Halloween and it needed to arrive before Friday (because his party was on the 30th). Of course he never looked at delivery dates so his costume ended up being the most expensive so it got there before Friday. (It arrived Wednesday.) He was some type of mechanic in navy blue coveralls from some show that I didn't know and I got no pictures of him dressed up (I guess he's not 5 anymore). 

Anyway, I'm glad Halloween is over for another year!

Peyton's 1st costume and the only one I got on camera

Austen Comes Home for the Weekend

Two weekends ago, Austen decided to come home for the weekend. He wasn't planning on coming home until Thanksgiving but he said there was no home football game and they didn't have any big parties at the fraternity so it was a good weekend to relax at home (and eat some good food). 

On the glass at the Hawks Game

We picked him up from the bus drop off (nice coach buses drive them to within 10-15 minutes of our house) and we went to dinner at the club. Hailey had her own plans so it was just me, Tom, Austen and Peyton at dinner that night. So lots of catching up over a good meal. Then home for some sports on TV (baseball). 

The next day, I took Hailey to hockey while Tom drove Peyton to her ACT test (about 25 minutes away) and Austen slept in. After that, we had to watch the IU vs. Ohio State football game. Austen did some homework and then he, Hailey and Tom left at about 4pm to drive to the city for the Blackhawks game. Tom had gotten three on the glass tickets so the three of them went while Peyton and I stayed home and went to dinner ourselves. 

On Sunday, we took Hailey to her hockey game and Austen woke up and met us there to watch her. She loved that and loved that after, he took her to get munchkins at Dunkin Donuts and she got to ride in the front seat. I forgot to say that now that she's officially 13, she can ride in the front seat!

We enjoyed a leisurely day of hanging out, homework and watching sports with a dinner at home. Austen's plans for a ride back to college fell through about mid-afternoon and by then the buses back were fully booked. Luckily, it's only a two-hour drive from home back to campus (this is the best part about U of I) so Tom gladly drove him and his roommate back (he has the electric car). 

It was nice to see him and it definitely feels more normal not having him home this second year. As Hailey told one of her guy friends whose sister just left for college, "it's hard but the second year is easier." She's right although we definitely do miss him at our family dinners. The girls haven't quite mastered the art of conversation yet!

Hailey Starts Playing In Her First Rec Hockey League

In action

A year ago, she didn't even know how to skate and now she's playing in her first rec hockey league. Make that a coed rec hockey league (they aren't allowed to check but there's still lots of falling down). She definitely has come a long way and is improving each week. She has practices on Fridays and Saturdays and then games on Sundays (which is great for our weekend schedule and going to Michigan!).

She can get almost all the gear on by herself except the helmet and the skates but she can get it all off by herself which is a bonus because going into that locker room twice might make me seriously ill because it smells so bad. 

But she loves it and there are quite a few girls too. More girls than have been in any of her other practices/drills/hockey classes. The only issue is that this is where it tops out. She has maybe another year and a half in this league. She started too late to be a serious contender for a travel league at this age and the rec program ends after 8th grade. So not something that she is likely going to be doing for awhile but it makes her happy so I guess we let her enjoy it for now. 

Austen was home last weekend and came to watch one of her games where she almost scored her first goal. (More on his visit in my next post.) He can't even skate so he was impressed with how far she's come given that he hasn't seen her on the ice in awhile. 

Faceoff - she's in blue

I wish if she loved it so much, she would have started sooner (maybe). I'm not a fan of starting sports (especially very expensive ones) much later in life. I think you are just too far behind the others in your age group at that point and the hockey age bracket has her playing with kids much older than her too (2012 and 2013s, and she is a late 2013 bday). So not great odds for her. Still, she finds joy in doing it so we'll let her continue to play for awhile. 

We Love NY - Where Hailey Turned 13!

We hadn't been on a trip in over six months and we were all getting a little stir crazy since we typically don't do a summer vacation (because of Michigan). Well, maybe not Tom. He probably would prefer to go to Michigan rather than any other place.  

Happy 13th Bday Hailey!

Still, my Southwest Companion pass was expiring this year and I had some hotel points and other credits so why not take the girls to NYC. It wasn't a big trip that Austen would miss out on and he probably would prefer not to do half the stuff we did anyway. So off we went on Hailey's bday weekend (and with her permission to miss hockey - reluctantly). 

We arrived on Friday and visited our nephew and his family right from the airport. Extra bonus was our niece was arriving from Detroit at the same time so she Ubered with us to her brother's place so we could spend some time together. After a quick lunch, we walked part of Central Park. It was a beautiful day and it was great to be outside absorbing the sounds of the city. 

After that we had to hurry back to check into our hotel before our 5:30pm reservation at The Rock which was an observatory point where you could see the whole city. We got some great pictures and then leisurely strolled around Rockefeller Plaza before heading to dinner at Quality Meats where we enjoyed some great steaks. We were so full, we happily walked the 20 minutes back to our hotel to digest! 

Hailey at the Rangers hockey game

The next morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast and Ubered to the 9/11 Museum. We had a guided tour scheduled and were planning to spend most of the morning there. We did. That museum is huge and I think the kids were done after 3 hours spent on the tour, at the reflecting pools and in the museum. After the 9/11 museum, we went through the cooly designed Oculus (transportation hub and shopping plaza), we grabbed a quick bit to eat there and planned out the rest of our afternoon. The weather was gorgeous again so we walked the Brooklyn Bridge and then went through the DUMBO (down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) neighborhood and then back over the Manhattan Bridge. We were still quite a distance from our hotel and it was much too far to walk so decided to try out the subway. Our niece had showed us how easy it was to navigate it from our phones and once we did it, we were hooked. We just had to load Apple Pay onto the girls' phones so they could go through the turnstiles on the subway. 

SoHo Matcha from Enly

We took a much needed hour break back at our hotel before our early dinner reservations at Pecora Bianca. We shared a pizza and pasta and an appetizer and a little gelato before heading to our 8pm show. We decided to see "Six" after the six wives of Henry the VIII. It was fun and fast paced and a great way to learn about history. We all enjoyed seeing a show on Broadway. After all, you can't go to NY without doing so. We picked up some desserts at Magnolia Bakery (not my favorite) on the way back to the hotel and watched the end of the White Sox game (where they lost - but it was a good run). 

On Sunday, it was Hailey's 13th birthday. And, it rained, the entire day. We'd had such gorgeous weather the past two days that it was such a bummer that we had to contend with rain. We scrapped Grand Central Station and the Staten Island Ferry due to the rain and took the subway directly to SoHo. From there it was a lot of shopping! The girls bought some items that soon became heavy to carry especially while managing an umbrella too. The bags became wet and ended up breaking where all the clothes fell out the bottom. They were Peyton's clothes and she is a huge germaphobe so she was none too happy! But it was pretty funny. We made it back to the hotel after we couldn't hold anymore things (and stopping for a matcha that Peyton had to have) so we could get on some dry clothes and get ready for an early dinner at a pretty highly rated soup dumpling restaurant - Nan Xiang Soup Dumplings in Koreatown. It was something different for dinner and we all enjoyed it before heading over to Madison Square Garden for the Rangers game. Madison Square Garden was really big and we had decent seats to watch the Rangers win 6-2. After the game, the rain was finally lightening up a bit so we went to Carve Cafe for some desserts and then sat in the lobby and Hailey got to blow out her candle. We officially have three teenagers now!

Monday we headed to the airpot for our flight home and the sun was finally shining again! It was a great trip. Hailey loved New York. Peyton said she likes LA better - it's less dirty! Me, I always like NY. I love the energy and that there is always something to do. And, it's especially beautiful during the holidays.

The perfect shirt for Hailey

More bday presents (the housekeeper actually accidentally threw out this bag with the gifts in it!)

Seeing Broadway Show - Six

Rockefeller Plaza

Top of the Rock - Empire State in distance

The girls at the Top of the Rock

Szurgot Family in elevator heading to Central Park 

Peyton Visits IU

The college visits have begun for Peyton. She'd been planning to visit one of her friends (from her summer job where she lifeguarded) at IU for awhile now so I told her if we were going down there she needed to do an official tour.

My Happy Place

We left early on Friday and made good time for our first general welcome tour. Stepping through the Sample Gates marking the entrance to IU was like coming home again and reminded me why I love this place so much. The color of the leaves weren't quite peak season yet but you could tell in a few short weeks how much more beautiful and magical this place was going to be. We passed The Union where out back the fire pits were ablaze welcoming the first signs of fall. Our welcome was at Ernie Pyle Hall - my old journalism school. (It's so much easier touring a college campus when you know exactly where you're going.) The inside is completely redone now but there were glimpses of the old building still, including the windows where I studied in the j-school library.

We toured, I loved, Peyton loved and then hurried back to our other tour which was the Media School (which now encompasses the journalism school). Communications have changed so much over the thirty plus years since I've been there and IU has morphed right along with them, keeping up with social media and content creation plus game design and a myriad of other opportunities through their school. I was impressed. And, of course their building is pretty new and gorgeous. 

IU vs. Maryland Soccer Game

From there, we had to hurry out as Peyton was meeting another friend (sophomore at IU) who was giving her a tour of the Kelley School of Business and some other key areas. I was glad to sit down at the library (which is also way better than I remember) after a ton of walking. By this time, I was starving too so after Peyton finished her tour, I knew we'd have a long walk back to our hotel on Kirkwood (we were staying at The Graduate) so suggested we get some Pizza Express (now Pizza X) breadsticks and carry them to the Mellencamp Center (workout facility with natatorium) where I knew they had seats so we could eat. It was the perfect plan. We walked leisurely back the hotel but not before I saw Match Day signs for IU's soccer game that evening vs. #4 Maryland. IU was #2. We had to go. Now I had to just convince Peyton. She wasn't Austen but she finally agreed to go and we enjoyed a very nice night and a great IU win (3-1). 

The next morning, we were up and walking the Bloomington Farmers Market, had breakfast at Gables Bagels, shopped on Kirkwood and at The Union all before she met her friend for yet another tour and dinner. I also met up with an old IU friend and her husband for a few hours at Yogi's Bar and Grill before heading back to the hotel to drive the girls back to her friend's sorority for a night out. 

After that it was watching the IU vs. Rutgers game on TV and heading to bed before turning on the emergency bypass on my phone just in case I got a call from Peyton. She did text me at 2am but only to let me know what time to pick her up the next morning so I didn't get a great amount of sleep. 

I picked her up at 9:30am, we went to breakfast (in the old Denny's that is now something else that's pretty good) and we drove on home. 

Peyton did declare (more than once) that she was going to Indiana. I would love for her to go there so I get four more years at IU but there are so many schools to choose from and I want this to be her right fit not mine. So I'm going to keep encouraging her to visit others (and making her go). But, I can clearly see why she loves IU so much. I did too. 

Bagel Stop

Ernie Pyle and Peyton

Love!! Campus!

Old friends are the best friends. 

Hailey's XC Conference Meet

It was a short cross country season for Hailey this year. The heat at above 90 degrees had the district canceling many practices and meets. That's a total bummer too since she was really starting to enjoy running and it seems just when she was getting started, it was over. 

So last Wednesday, we trekked up to Bensenville to watch her in her final meet as a 7th grader. It was a tough course run primarily on grass and with a big hill you needed to run up twice. She got to see it earlier this year as one of the only other races that wasn't canceled this year. So this was her second time running it this season. 

The race started with the hill. And, I missed her going by there were so many kids and she tends to switch which side she runs on but I caught up with her after she came down the hill and she was at a pretty quick pace already running with the top girls at her school. Good pace, I told her but the real worry was if she came out too fast and she could maintain that pace the entire race. It was still very early. I wanted her to leave enough at the end for some kick as she got closer to the chute too. We'd been talking about the need to sprint in the end and she hadn't left enough in the tank to do that the previous meets. Plus, she says her strength is really her sprinting ability (can't comment on that since I haven't seen her sprint in a race yet but she says she beats all the fast long distance runners in sprints). 

Anyway, she was maintaining a pretty good pace the entire race and in the final 1/4 I could tell she was tired. "Do it for Connor Bedard!" she yelled to me as she rounded her final turn. And, then she was almost at the chute with two runners in front of her. "Sprint!" I yelled, "when you're in the chute, sprint!" And, she did. She's not that tall but she has long legs and they carried her past two runners and across the finish line where she placed 30th out of about 200 runners and #4 from her school. 

She probably ran her best race of the year. She learned a lot in the short season, made some new friends and told me that she's going to miss cross country! 

Running with the #2 and #3 runners at her school

HoCo 2026

Junior year homecoming is in the books for Peyton. These high school years are just flying by for Peyton but not fast enough as she still can't wait til she gets to college. 

Peyton & Luke

Still, she was able to enjoy a fun week of HoCo prep with her friends - spray tan, nails, football game. Finally, it was Saturday and the Homecoming parade was canceled due to the rainy weather we were having. Then pictures at the club were canceled due to flooding so they had to pivot. Luckily, one of my friends offered for all the kids and parents to come to her house. That doesn't seem like much but there were like 40 kids in the group plus parents! We all sprang into action to help her host that many people in a short amount of time. 

Luckily, we had a little break in the downpour so we were able to get some pictures outside. The kids then got into their limos to take them to Capri for dinner. Peyton said she was so full but the food was really good. They then went to the dance for about an hour (I'm surprised they still went to the dance since so many don't go after freshman year). They then headed back to houses to change for the after part(ies). But she was home just before 1pm and said it was really fun. 

Meanwhile, we Door Dashed Hailey some food (I almost had her Cane's go to Austen's fraternity since our Door Dash app is set to him) and went to our club for dinner with our friends (who were at the pictures). Fun night for parents and kids alike. (Hailey was even happy because she got her favorite home and the Blackhawks were on TV for their first preseason game.)

One more HoCo to go til Peyton graduates! Then we'll run it back for the next four years for Hailey! 

Cheer friends

One more pic!

Picture party!

All the kids

P&H

            The girls

Peyton & Luke