Halloween 2019

Halloween was a lovely warm evening this year. There was a big storm heading our way though, which added an ominous wind to the night.

Here's Alice, Edwin, Ellie, and Simon. Ellie is Peppa Pig.

Simon reprised his role as a skeleton (I love that we get 2 years out of each costume and that he doesn't care at all), while Alice was a cat, courtesy of a hand-me-down costume from her cousin Kaelyn.

We went to our friend Andrea's for supper, along with Izzy and Genevieve.

All three third-grade girls independently chose to be cats this year.

We went farther trickortreating this year than any previous year. It was also the first year Simon didn't need carried at all. Here the kids are resting in one of the cul-de-sacs.  The parents soon shepherded them on to more candy collecting.

Once at home, the kids gleefully dumped out their candy.

Alice sorted the piles in to what she doesn't like (left) and what she likes (right).

Meanwhile, Simon likes everything, so he sorted his into categories.

Alice's brain

Alice is crazy a lot, and we think she just has too much going on in her brain. One thing that always seems to calm her is drawing. She loves to draw and doodle, especially when we're yelling at her to eat breakfast in the morning.

Jack-O-Lanterns

We carved our Jack-O-Lanterns today.  It was fun because Zac and the kids had bought one for each of us. I tried to make an owl and Alice made a cat, while Simon and Zac went with more traditional faces. Simon also carved an extra hole in the side of his pumpkin's head, just for fun.

A zoo at the zoo

I bought a zoo membership last spring, but then the weather quickly got too hot to do anything not water-related or shade-centric, so we haven't been back until now. But today was perfect weather. Everybody else thought so too. It was also the day for Boo at the Zoo, so there were a million people there and every parking spot was full in the extensive lot. But, we had a great time nevertheless.  Simon didn't have a crying fit outside the lion exhibit this time, and although it took her about two hours, Alice did eat her sandwich. Simon carried some little plant he'd found around with him for a long time, talking extensively about all the different directions the roots were going. He finally re-homed it outside the giraffe and zebra exhibit.

Here they are, with plant and sandwich...our companions for the first half of the day...

(she's hiding the sandwich behind her back)

We actually got a good view of the giraffes and zebras this time.

Much fascination with the dung beetle sculpture

Simon was excited to find his own giant dung ball!

A lot cheaper than actually going to Yellowstone (fake geyser in the North America part)

At the bee exhibit, Simon used some of his allowance to buy his own honey bear. Then he "sipped" it the rest of the time.

A superb snack

Alice had an idea for a new bedtime snack tonight...

Zac fulfilled her wishes. But we'll resort back to fruit for the normal bedtime snack.

Organized socks

Simon organized his socks. For fun. He is my true child.

Durham's new exhibit: Earth Moves

We visited Durham's new exhibit, Earth Moves (geology focus) on Sunday. It's a really cool area (which I totally failed to document) but the kids played there the whole time. Alice made several friends and Simon happily entertained himself.

Jordan Lake Hike

We decided to enjoy the cooler fall weather by taking a hike at Jordan Lake. We've camped there for several years, but we've never hiked there. The forest part of the hike was unremarkable, but we had a lot of fun exploring the shoreline, since the water level was down so low due to a long time lack of rain.

Alice the supermodel

We're trying to teach the kids some map reading skills. But it makes Simon hike even slower than normal. 🙄

Playing along the shore was fun

We found a sand toad

Some artistic trunks and roots

A bottle that had become a greenhouse was the best find

Although I did love this bark

Simon built a bridge with some scrap wood Zac found.

Simon loved finding clam shells

Cliff climbing

They always like to pretend they're gargoyles.

We had a very fun time on the hike except we had to spend a lot of time at the beginning getting Alice to eat more until she was less grumpy.

Playdate Potluck

I had an idea to have a big party with all the kids friends, to just do a massive playdate and let them all run around, but also have a potluck so they parents could stay and visit (since supervising large amounts--ok any amount--of kids is my nightmare).  The party worked pretty well, except we spent way too much time getting ready for a mere 3 hour party. It's like Thanksgiving dinner--all that cooking and people just eat it up and are done in 20 minutes.  The ROI just doesn't seem worth it sometimes, and it really made me question parties as a whole concept.

We didn't take many pictures, but here is Simon waiting at the top of the driveway for his friends to arrive at 5:00 sharp.

The kids did soon start arriving and made brief use of the playground in the back yard.

We had hotdogs for supper (plus the sides--mostly chips--that people brought for the potluck), and afterwards went to the backyard for a campfire, s'mores, and glow sticks.  We briefly managed to corral most of the kids to the hammock for a group photo.

All in all it was fun but it went way too fast and I felt like I barely got to visit with anyone. I always feel disappointed after events, actually, but that never seems to stop me from eventually planning more. 

At least for trips you do a lot of packing and preparing but then you get to be in some cool place for a couple of days. Maybe I will put more of my energies into planning little weekend trips.

Halloween is coming!

Alice absolutely loves Halloween.  It got a little better this year since our neighbor, Kim, gave Alice a bag of castaway Halloween decorations.

Alice's door

Simon's door