friends

Spooky skeleton guys and King Pumpkin and Batty!  Aiden made Batty at school and loved on him so much that his wing kept falling off.  King Pumpkin was the result of hitting the lucky pumpkin jackpot!  Our waitress asked if we'd like a cleaned out pumpkin that they were planning to use for a carving competition that never happened because of the snow.  Um, yes please, how did you know that is just what we needed!?  I think all people with kids under four should get free clean pumpkins ;) especially when their foam pumpkins are missing since the move - boo.  Aiden also helped make a pumpkin friend in Ohio, and he says that jack-o-lantern making is "his new trick."

Three CTY skeleton prodigies ;)  On the far right is our great friends (from the original CTY days in Bristol) little guy, who is two months older than KC.

bzzz

Hey it's Haaaalllliweeeeen!  Hope it's happy!

Aiden dug out some old costumes at my folks' house - bzzzz, sting:

parade

The lake hosts an annual Halloween parade and the weather made an epic turn around delivering a bright sunny crisp fall day! We were shedding our coats by the time we hit the beach. The marching band led the march in costume. It all felt very festive and fun! It was so fun to share it with some of my favorite fun people (they even came with pumpkin muffins to refill my stash ;) thanks!). We had some smiley excited guys on our hands - Aiden especially when the women's club handed out their cookies on the beach.... and he ran into one of his best buddies.

treats

We beat this doldrums weather with an invite to a costume party in our neighborhood. They live close and know how to party - Check out the DJ (an upper elementary Montessori student at Aiden's school ;) - turns out the five to ten year old crowd is pretty cool... AB and KC were keeping up ;) and enjoying the treats.

snow snaps

Still coming down... 4:52pm

um snowtober!

You can barely see the flakes in the video, but they have been flying all over and leaving slush puddles! Ick - this is only the third time this area has had October snow in recorded history.  The last time was over 30 years ago!

pins

My aunt had all these photo ideas from pinterest that she wanted to try.  It's harder than you think to get a successful photo with little guys and bright sun, but here are some attempts:

wild guy

TGIF - tee gee eye eff!

I'm busy looking at photos and I'm just going to ignore the weather report that it is supposed to SNOW tomorrow!?  Waa, everyone say it with me - mild winter, mild winter, mild winter!

This is just wild!

Just about a week ago Lizzie helped this wild guy take a bath - Thx Liz!

school

Aiden's school has a photo stream online that I picked these off.  He's having snack (very normal compared to the olives and pickles he usually tells me about) with his buddy Leo.

The class photo never disappoints in the laughs department.  This year the teacher came out to the car and Aiden was carrying his portrait package.  The teacher made a face and said they were going to try for retakes. Aiden pulled it out to show me, and it wasn't until I took a good look that I knew why.  She then went on to say that they are always smiling at the kids and she doesn't know what happened!  HA what sour pusses!  (I stamped out the other kid's faces because they are so strict about kids online and I don't know the families.)  Aiden is a tall guy in the back row despite being one of the youngest in a 3-5 year old class.  Smiley guy had a crooked smile which is better than the barracuda smile or the stone face...  I just took a photo of the little id card they gave us.

bday

The birthday cousins - Ages 21 + 18 + 4 = 43!

This was the second of two cakes to celebrate in Ohio.  Big thanks on behalf of the birthday boy for the kick off celebrations and the presents!

Some soon-to-be four year old I know was really excited to get the space shuttle lego set (which happened to be on the cover of his favorite lego magazine this month) from the Henrich clan - HUGE thanks from the little guy with orange icing on his finger, and yep even in his ear:

Thanks to the rapid fire camera timer we had fun with this year's family shot - KC tooted right as the camera took a shot so we all had huge smiles ;)

fall

The Halloween friends made another appearance in Ohio.  They are playing a game of ring around the rosey in my parents' front lawn this year:

Giggly guy liked the clown ghost the most:

At the pumpkin patch with all the cousins:

Thanks, thanks, thanks for all the fun times!  More photos coming soon...

Aaaah, sweet relief of being home... After a morning where KC was dry coughing and squeaking at lunch, I was worried that the flight home was going to be a doozy. But to my pleasant surprise, KC konked out in the security line and stayed asleep against my chest until we were getting ready to land! A miracle! AB and I had lotsa QT coloring and decoding letter codes (his current fav) in his fun book. Super cooperative AB and sleepy KC both get A++! So it is possible to travel with two kids and one adult and keep everyone happy ;) What a relief!

crisp

Enjoying family time in cool crisp Ohio... Pumpkin cutting, playground romping, crafting at the fall ball, and cuddling...

spooky science

We had fun at Spooky Science Night at the science museum. They had a spooky story abroad the Mather ship, a science of fear goosebumps exhibit, tarantulas and jumping cockroaches to greet, a fire show with a fire breathing pumpkin and electrical current jumping through the scientists fingers, glow in the dark painting, and slime making with the mad scientists. Aiden picked the last thing he saw as his favorite - "the exploding pumpkin which can you believe it - broke into pieces!" (the chunks of pumpkin flying amazed him for some reason) I think by his reaction he liked the glow in the dark painting a lot too. KC was a good sport looking all around.

art

We cruised to the art museum on this rainy day... KC was there strapped to my chest sleeping ;)

visiting

We started with lotsa nice visits. Gigi enjoyed some giggly guys and stories read by Aiden. My cousin Tim's trip overlapped a bit with ours, so it was nice to see him (check out his biz: http://www.paddleboardnewengland.com/). We also cruised in to meet my mom's class and bring the kiddos a popcorn party. This was all before more family arrived at dinnertime! More fun to come...

family

Snaps from a fun week with the Brennan clan! Thanks for everything! We miss you already!