Halloween 2010

It was another fun Halloween! Although, I must admit that I am Halloween-ed out at this point. More than ready to move onto the next holiday...

This morning I had a great time with a group of my friends running the "Superhero 5K" in Cambridge. Most of us dressed up as District 12 Tributes from the "Hunger Games" book series (if you have no idea what I am talking about, you should read them!)

Showing off our capes:




The whole group:




My friend Emily, The Flash, won runner up for best female costume! There were a few other people dressed as The Flash, some not as attractively:




It was really cold, but a great run, and I beat my time from my last 5K by over 2 minutes!



After all that running, it was time to move on to the candy eating. We met up with a big group at Henry's friend Lila's house.



(I'm Harry Potter, but alas it is hard to tell in this photo...)

The Cat in the Hat:



All the kids (someone's blindingly bright flash went off at the same time as you can see...)




We all headed out trick or treating. Some of the houses had very impressive decorations:



Henry looks a little concerned over some of them:



Henry was fully into the swing of things this year, running right up to houses, yelling "trick or treat" and then a brief yell of "thank you" before dashing to the next house:






The kids taking a break from the insanity:





Henry had a great time, but after about an hour of going door to door we were all exhausted. Luckily, he has enough candy to last him until Christmas. Happy Halloween!

Halloween Party #2

We have a replacement camera - just in time for all the Halloween pictures! (for all of those I have been bugging for camera recommendations, for now we just got another Elph to easily carry around. The DSLR will come at Christmas, so look forward to many more questions from me :) )

Today Henry's preschool is having a Halloween party, so all the kids came to school in their costumes:



One of their activities was to go "trick or treating to a neighbor's house". Since we are on the same street as the school, we got to be the lucky house to hand out candy:








They are supposedly now bobbing for apples, playing "donuts on a string" and enjoying the rice krispie treats Henry and I made. It will be quite the sugar rush this afternoon.

Halloween Party #1

This Saturday was my MOMS Club Halloween Party - a fundraising event to raise money for the Brookline Food Pantry. Other than somehow being wrangled into being the auctioneer for our live auction, it was a great time :) Luckily, my friend Michelle took a few pictures for me (don't worry - a new camera is on order and should hopefully arrive this week!)

With Michelle and Jake:



Henry and Jake getting cozy while they listen to the performer:



I was also wrangled into leading the costume parade - look at that enthusiasm!



Henry, Jake and Alexander examining some decorations:



This morning we had a little park time with Jake, so once again got some pictures (thanks Michelle!)

Cameras and reading

Bad news - our camera has gone to camera heaven. The timing - the day before our first Halloween party - is not good. So, we may sadly have a dearth of pictures until we are able to get a new camera over here.

The good news - right before it went up in smoke (figuratively) I was able to get a video of Henry and his new skills: sounding out words. He is REALLY into the sounds that letters make and has been attempting to do some early reading. He has a little trouble with the fact that you are supposed to read from left to right, but other than that he is pretty good when he sets his mind to it. I still don't think he has had that lightbulb "aha!" moment where he truly gets that all those things he sees around him are words, made up of letters that he can sound out and understand, but he is doing the first steps. It is fun to see! (No, he was not bitten by a vampire - he had a run in with some shelves):



And, we had a beautiful full moon tonight that Henry gazed at for a long time. The camera did not do it justice in any way (I am not that sad to be getting a new one), but it is still pretty cool:

Fall Playground Fun

Apple Picking Take 2

It was another gorgeous autumn weekend here. Today we decided to try our luck at apple picking one more time for the season (most orchards are closed for picking already - a lot of local orchards were hurt by a hard freeze we had in May, and those that did well had an early picking season due to how warm it was this summer). We headed out to Shelburne Farms in Stow with Jake and his family, and were pleasantly surprised by the number of apples they had left.






Henry enjoyed the cider donuts:



Many apples were picked:






And eaten:





After picking we relaxed while listening to a jazz band:






The tuba player got up close and personal with Henry and Jake:




Upon our return home we baked and decorated some Halloween cookies: