Halloween Preparation and Practice

We did some pre -Halloween activities, Vivian's costume came so she wanted to try it on.  She choose to be a vampire, I painted her face and she put the whole thing together.  Then she looked in the mirror and said, "no mom, I wanted a butterfly on my face."

I said, "so this is usually how people dress up as vampires."

She just looked at me.

"Viv?" I asked, "do you know what a vampire is?"

"No," she said.  

I guess I really shouldn't have been surprised.  She went through the catalog that came in the mail and "chose" several costumes, until I figured out she was choosing only the costumes in which the models were wearing high heels.  We had a long talk about how the costumes didn't come with shoes and how she was not wearing high heels on Halloween.  I think the vampire costume was just the next best choice to her.

 Lanie by default is either Curious George or an owl (costumes we currently have in the house).  She wore the owl costume to go to a Halloween celebration with her caregiver.  Ironically she is currently scared of monkeys but loves Curious George.  However, looking in the mirror with the hat on also alarms her.  It just seemed like a warm choice for Halloween night.  Sam wants to be a mummy, which is fine as long as the gauze stays wrapped.  We went with gauze instead of toilet paper in case it rains.

Practice round to my parent's neighbors, MaryEllen and Mark.  Sam is half wrapped.

 On another note, they actually participated in carving pumpkins this year, I guess I complained enough about getting left with the pumpkins that they did it.  Vivian wanted a skeleton with flames, we settled for just a skeleton face and Sam pretty much did his by himself.  Lanie choose the littlest pumpkin she could find and then got distracted because we got "Booed" mid carving and she started to eat candy.  She drew "numbers" on hers (I think she was copying how Sam does his homework), but I carved a smiley face. 

Finished products.

 There's a street in our town where every house has a skeleton dressed differently with props.  It's really fun to walk down and check out.  Unfortunately I'm pretty sure Lanie dropped her prize Barbie somewhere on the street, she had earned it potty training and would not put it down.  Of course it's now long gone.

Hurricanes and Pumpkins

Hurricane Sandy hit this past week and more or less kept us inside for about 48 hours.  We fared really well, all things considering.  The only damage we really had was a few downed limbs and lots of leaves to clean up.  Our power flickered once and never went off.  Compared to the news of New York and New Jersey, which are still turning power back on, without gas, and essentials, we were really lucky.  Even parts of surrounding towns got their power back on mid week.

We also had a house guest during the storm, Chris's sister Katie, who was visiting from Florida for a few days.  She flew up Sunday as the storm was beginning, on one of the last incoming flights to Logan.  

My school was canceled Monday and Tuesday and Sam had no school Monday and a delay on Tuesday.  Some of the teachers at school were relieved to come to work and have electricity and charge their electronics.

All the inside time was a little tricky with Sam and Katie, while Chris was answering flooded basements, leaking roof, and downed tree calls late into the nights.  He also got to shut of alarms from power going out and being restored, among other things.

Here are a few photos of the pumpkin carving we undertook while we were waiting out the storm.

 Scooping out the seeds.  He actually sustained attention to this task for a good amount of time.

 Here he's telling me, "Ok.  Now I figure out how to draw a face on my pumpkin."

 Here's the face he drew in marker.  I carved the face that I thought I saw in the design and left it at that.

Farmer's Market