A Dragon, A Ninja, A Teenager in Orange and Black

Our entire family dresses up each year for Halloween.  Blood, guts and horror are not allowed and we encourage creativity and thriftiness.  For years, I dressed up as a pumpkin.  One year Hannah asked why I was always a pumpkin.  She couldn't imagine choosing the same costume year after year.  In my mind, I thought it was great for my kids that their mom would dress up.  Perspective.  The last couple of years, I have been a scarecrow.  It was a cheap costume to put together: overalls, raffia to look like straw, some hot glue, a flannel shirt from the Goodwill and a straw hat.



This year Hannah wanted to be a dragon queen.  She has some dragon wings she bought at the Renaissance Festival.  She bought red paint for her face and I bought a set that is supposed to be a devil's tail and horns for a few dollars.  Dressing as a devil is on our "no" list, but she just used the tail which worked well for a dragon.  She has a couple dragon puppets she also bought a the Renaissance Festival and she put one on her shoulder.

Aaron decided to go as a ninja.  He has a black belt and just wore black.  He made a throwing star out of paper.



PK was his usual wizard sporting his Harvard robe and a hat.



Rachel wore the same thing she did last year.  There is a rule in the county that kids over twelve can't trick-or-treat, so Rachel happily walked around with us.



Hannah spent several hours making a costume for Holly.  She was a princess.  The costume lasted about two minutes, but Hannah was just glad that we managed to snap a few pictures.



Several years ago roast and veggies with pumpkin muffins became our traditional Halloween dinner.  It is an easy crockpot meal which is helpful on a night where kids need to get into costumes and have some fun before bedtime since Halloween usually falls on a school night.



We enjoyed our yummy dinner and then met up with our neighbors to trick-or-treat through the neighborhood.

Aaron and Hannah finished up the night with their annual candy swap.  They set up a place to conduct the swap and make a boundary line (in this case the computer cord).

Then on of them will put down a piece of candy they are willing to trade.  Aaron has offered up a FULL size Hershey Bar.

The other person offers up a trade.  Hannah has offered up a miniature Twix, Milk Duds and Rolos.



The trade is either accepted or rejected.  They continue this until they one person has no more candy they are willing to trade.

Pumpkins and Power Tools

Carving pumpkins is a favorite tradition.  Rachel didn't want to carve one this year.  The kids' least favorite part has always been scooping out the "guts" and I think she was just over it.  Maybe next year.



Aaron and Hannah enjoy having free use of the sharp knives and I cringe with each move they making praying they don't miss and stab themselves.  PK really enjoys this activity, too.  Again, I think it is the use of sharp objects. 

 



This year power tools were mentioned and PK thought that was a great idea, so he pulled out the drill to help Hannah with some details.  I was a bit worried when the power tools came out.

 



In the end, everyone had all the fingers and blood they started with, cute pumpkins and seeds to roast.

Next year I am going to carve a pumpkin using the drill and just make small holes all over it.  I think it will be really pretty when the lights shines through.

Mom and Mary

My mom and my aunt, Mary, came to visit.  Mary wasn't feeling well for most of the trip, but we still managed to get out and about a bit.

We took Hannah to a local farm one day.  It is free, so the price was right.  It also has paved sidewalks which made it easy for Mary to get around.  There are bubble-gum type machines to dispense food for the animals.  Mom made sure Hannah was stocked with plenty of quarters.

We drove by the ocean one day which required driving over a bridge and through a tunnel.  We didn't tell Mary about the bridge and tunnel because she has a bit of a bridge phobia, so she didn't know about them until she saw them.  When we got in the tunnel she asked if there were other cars over us.  I didn't say anything or glance her way.  Then she realized it meant we were under the water.  Hannah found this very funny as she had been waiting to see Mary's reaction.

It was a pretty low key visit as Aaron and Rachel were in school and we tried to keep Hannah on schedule with her school work.

Traffic

The traffic back-ups here are horrendous.  They often happen for no other reason than someone slowed down.  I was taking Hannah to meet her Girl Scout troop when we got stuck in two separate traffic back-ups.  We should have arrived at our destination in 25 minutes maximum.  Two hours later, we made it. 

PK decided to make a long commute to work in order for the kids to attend better schools where we live.  He has to cross a bridge and go through a tunnel to make it to work and back.  It can take him forty-five minutes to get to work or he can get stuck in traffic and take two hours or more.

Aaron was riding home from work with PK, when they got stuck on a bridge.  PK has an app on his phone that he always checks so he can choose the least congested route home.  On this particular day, he made it to the bridge right after the accident had occurred and the map on the app had not been updated.  He texted to let me know they would be late arriving home.

Then I received this picture of their sad faces with the all the cars in the background.

Here is another shot of the traffic and other passengers getting out to stretch their legs.

But they at least had a gorgeous view while they waited.

We are now conditioned to check a traffic report before heading out just as we would a weather report.  And like a weather report, the traffic report isn't always accurate.

A Little Georgia

Aaron had a visit from one of his best friends.  Coleman's sister is visiting colleges and William and Mary is on her list.  Her mom asked me weeks ago if we would be able to get together when Tad brought Allison to visit the school.  Sarah couldn't come as she had to work, but we could not pass up the opportunity to see the rest of the family if they were going to be so close.

 

I thought about letting Aaron be surprised when Coleman showed up at our house, but they were only going to be able to have dinner with us and visit for a couple of hours.  I wanted Aaron to be prepared for the fact that the visit would be short.

 

When their car pulled into the driveway, Aaron ran outside in his sock feet.  Coleman jumped out of the car and they gave each other a huge bear hug.  I had to fight back tears.

 

 

I later found out that Coleman was so excited when he found out he was going to be able to visit with Aaron that he cried. 

 

We were sad that the visit was so short and it made us homesick for Georgia, but we were so thankful they made the time to see us while they were nearby.

Message in a Bottle

When we had our farewell party before leaving Georgia, I set out a bottle for each of the kids and slips of paper so their friends could leave the them a message in a bottle to read in our new home.  I held onto them for a while and we sat down tonight to read them.



It took some work and some tools to retrieve the messages without breaking the bottles, but it was so much fun and reminded us of our friends back in Georgia.