Halloween

It was a pretty quiet Halloween here - especially with it being Friday night.
We're just winding down. Sam is asleep in his bucket and Caroline is trying to convince her father to take her lollypop so she can have a new one.
The kids were just great. Sam waved at everyone and Caroline said "Trick or Treat" and was extremely polite. She just loved "bibbity bobbity boo"-ing everyone with her princess fairy wand (glow stick) and only freaked out at a couple costumes she saw. We didn't have to carry her much at all (thank goodness - she's getting heavy).
They got some great candy. I don't ever remember people giving out full sized candy bars when I was small. But she still remains partial to the lollypops. And Milk Duds. Sam continues to prefer to gnosh his candy with the wrappers (preferrably metallic) still on. At least he's consistent.

Here the kids were prior to the festivities. Like the new house color? It's a work in progress.

They looked utterly adorable in their costumes.

We went over to Ria's to show off:

Someone was "bibbity-bobbity-boo"-ing me while I was trying to take her picture in the car:

Sam was exhausted - but wouldn't let go of his glowstick:

Here's what everyone looked like when we got home:

Once we come down off our sugar high - we're going to bed.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Before I start - I just want to let everyone see the "Leahy" in Caroline (face taught courtesy of her fairy Godmother)...Cute, huh?
On Friday we did some more leaf raking. We did the back yard again last night, too. But you can barely tell it because of all the wind we've had. At least it's better than what's happening in other parts of town where all the trees are coming down. I'll take raking over having no trees any day. And yes, Caroline is dumping leaves on Sam's head. She throws them up and says she having a party. He didn't seem to mind.
Okay - now time for the embarrassing photo of the week for Caroline. She has been carrying around a pocketbook lately with all her carousel pictures in it. I was driving home on Saturday and she said, "Look Mama - my helmet." Needless to say, it was difficult to stifle my laughter. But little did I think she would actually fall asleep like that. Note the pictures from the carousel are still in her hands.


We had a busy weekend. We were out visiting and catching up with old friends (gotta love Facebook). Caroline was very excited to go to Boston (or Dorchester - it's technically Boston, right?!?) and loved wearing her princess fairy gown.

And here she is "bibbity-bobbity-boo"ing Sam (in hopes that he will turn into a pumpkin)...

And kissing Dada (her prince):

But this, I think, constitutes Dada Abuse:
Tonight at dinner, Sam was a total giggle monster:

Early Halloween

We took the kids trick or treating tonight with friends at a nursing home in our community. It was a lot of fun - the place was packed, actually. The residents really looked like they were having a good time and once Caroline got over being totally petrified ("I want to go home. Give me hug. I need to be carried.") she had fun, too. Sam enjoyed munching on candy with the wrappers still on it. He TOTALLY gnoshed a couple Kit Kats - though he seems to prefer metallic labels. Oh, well.
It was a good warm up for next week.
It was nice to be in a place with so many people smiling.

"No Sammy, No. That's MY lollipop."

More an the Beetle Invasion

Karen wrote something about this a few weeks ago...now it's gone national with a Yahoo article...

Tuesday Night

The children are in bed.

They are not all sleeping, but at least they're quiet. And I can handle that.

Not much has been happening here - we've been getting together things for Halloween.

It's nice to just be.

Sam has three words now - "cat", "dog" and "cookie". It sounds like he's working on "this" when he's pointing out something he wants, but we're still trying to figure it out. He's started a thing where he's "Hulking out" and tenses up all his muscles when he's excited - it's cute and we'll try to get a picture. His interest level is rising in walking - he's taking a few steps here and there, but mainly relies on crawling. It seems, not because he has to, but because he wants to get places as quickly as possible.

We took our semi-annual pilgrimmage to Fenway last Sunday. It was kind of cool (and downright cold) - as we rounded the corner from The Fens and saw the Park and Caroline says (totally unprompted) - "That's Fenway Park." We're still trying to figure out how she knew, since from that angle it really doesn't look like a ballpark and she's only seen a game or two on television. She has an amazing memory, though. It was neat to see Johnny Pesky's number up on the outside facade. We are a bit disappointed in the outcome of the game, but grateful to finally get some sleep. And we've never had a bad meal at the BeerWorks. We didn't get many pictures simply because it was so cold out.

Friday Fix

In the effort to get at least a million and a half things done before the kids wake up, here are some pictures from dinner last night.


In other news:
The Red Sox are KILLING me.
But I love it.

Sam, shall we say, is less than NEAT when he eats.

Caroline said that she "had" to be a princess to go to Ria's yesterday. The good news is that we get to mingle with royalty on a daily basis now. The bad news is that she thinks Sam is her "pumpkin" (I hope she doesn't think he's going to turn into a coach and sprint her out of here)...

And Sam just before a well earned bath:

Autumn

Per Dada's request - here are some pictures from today.

The leaves were great fun.

But nappies afterwards was even better.

Questing to the Rock

We had our semi-annual quest to Plymouth Rock today.
Actually, that's not accurate - we were so underwhelmed by the rock last time that we skipped it this time and just hung out around Plymouth.
We had a very nice day - the weather couldn't have been better.

The tide was out and the shore was huge. We ended up in the ocean. Surprise! Good thing I brought a change of clothes for everyone.

We had a lovely late lunch at the Cabby Shack. The clam chowder was so thick it was like eating clam custard. It sounds gross, but it was wonderful - I assure you - I could feel my arteries clog with every bite.

Giving Thanks...

As I was "giving hug" to Caroline an hour after we put her to bed (a tactic of hers to avoid sleeping), she started talking - unprompted - about what she was thankful for this weekend:

"I thank for the softball game at night [she was talking about watching the BoSox game Friday nite on TV, see Karen's post below]. I thank Papa for showing me the circus ostrich with the bea-u-ti-ful neck [one of the animals on the carousel]. I thank Nina for the white ice cream and ALL the CHOCOLATE sprinkles... I thank Dada for riding the Piggie [yet another carousel animal]."

After that, I put her back in bed...then she told me:

"The ponies eat APPLES...the giraffes eat oranges," as she nodded her head in the affirmative, "and ostriches eat PANCAKES," again nodding her head 'yes'.

And, if you can believe it, while looking for the name of the park we went to, I found this on Youtube - you really can find just about anything in the internet these days! This is the carousel with the ponies, piggies, ostriches and the rest of the circus animals:

The Weekend

We had a marvelous weekend with Nina and Poppa.
We got to Rochester early and were able to meet Nina at work. Then we went to Chili and suprised Poppa, too.
After we ate dinner, we got to actually watch the Red Sox game (instead of listening to it over the radio) - it's good to see what everyone looks like - but frankly, I think you "see" more when you listen. And I missed hearing Joe. It's all exciting, but if they do win the series, I'm still not sure they can get by the Rays (I NEVER thought I would be saying that). But it should make for some great baseball.
On Saturday we went to the Carousel at Ontario Beach Park. At first Caroline was totally freaked out. But after one ride with the organ turned off, she loved the "circus horsies". Sam just seemed to love everything about it. We got to walk on the pier and have dinner and frozen custard. I think I put on about four pounds. But it was worth it. Sam sang his way through church and we're looking forward to lunch (Thank you, Nina).
We were sorry to leave - but now we're winding down and getting ready for the week ahead.
As usual, we got some great pictures from the weekend:






















Images courtesy of Caroline and Sam's Poppa and Mama (who finally got her hands on Pop's camera).