the haul

I stayed at home to answer the door while Lew took the kids out trick or treating tonight.  I will save the costume pictures for another post.  Maybe we can get Lew to be a guest blogger again like he did 2 years ago for Halloween.

Anyway, they were gone a lot longer than I expected them to be.  Look at the insane amount of candy they came home with!!!

and remember, Carl doesn't eat candy.

But he did want to take a picture of it like Mommy was!

 
I thought it would fit into this container I had leftover from animal crackers.  Nope.  The overflow is in their treat bags.

Halloween sneak peek

I would hold off, but since there are only 3 people who read this anyway and we can't ring your doorbell next Monday, I figured I'd put up the Halloween costume photos right now.

They want to be characters from our current favorite cartoon, Phineas & Ferb.  It's one of those shows that I think Lew enjoys more than the kids.  Oh wait, anything animated falls into that category.  But really, the show is very cute and the songs are clever.

I do know that 99.44% of the general public is not going to know who they are - but this is what they wanted to be.  Gretchen is already equipped with her clarification.  "I'm a teenage girl from a cartoon.  I'm the daughter of the evil scientist Dr Doofenschmirtz."  Carl is just happy to yell, "Agent P!!"  His character is the family's pet platypus who is actually a secret agent.  Of course, the family doesn't know this.  He fights the evil scientist father of Gretchen's character. 

Lew is going as Dr Doof.  And for myself, I have been piecing together an outfit to match the mother of the main characters.  No pictures of us yet.  Guess you do have something to look forward to after all. 


Here is Carl as the family pet, Perry.  One of the catch phrases on he show is "He's a platypus.  They don't do much"

 The hat makes him Agent P!  (I made the pants, but not the shirt)

I didn't make any of this costume.  I tried to make her a long brown wig, but it didn't come out good.  Looked like a nun's habit. 

 Trick or Treat!!!

 Happy Halloween 2011!!

in my backyard right now

how observant are you?

You don't know us. 

You happen to be in the Target bathroom with Gretchen, Carl & me. 

We are washing our hands as you come out of the stall. 

Gretchen tries to use the hand dryer. 

Carl asks, in his inquisitive form of a statement, "I have to listen to a sound that is too loud and scary?"

I lower Gretchen's hand about 1 foot.  The noise level drops considerably. 
*by the way... Target has recently installed the world's loudest hand dryers and removed their paper towel dispensers.

I tell her loudly, "If you lower your hands, the sound is much quieter."  (it also does not affect how well your hands get dried.  It still works fast to do that.)

Carl tries to cover his ears with his upper arms and keep his wet hands ready to try the hand dryer.  He cannot bring himself to do it and looks at me with a look I know very well.

"Yes, Buddy.  You can dry them on my pants."

By now, you have finished washing your hands.  Gretchen is done drying hers.

You step up and stick your hands way up high in the dryer where the sound is loudest. 

Carl yells and covers his ears dramatically.



Really?  Are you that oblivious that you didn't hear my kid announce his fear of the noise?  Or hear my very loud - and on purpose so you could eavesdrop - directions to hold your hands down lower???  Or, don't you care to make one small accommodation for a special needs child?  Are people really that wrapped up in themselves they did not overhear that whole thing play out?

I try to speak up, but the hand dryer is so loud, I cann't be heard over it.

We leave as quickly as we can.



Maybe I am way off base on this.  Maybe she had a hearing disability and I owe her an apology.
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a kick to the face

Yesterday afternoon, the kids were playing on the monkey bars out back and Carl managed to kick Gretchen right in the face.  Her other top tooth was already pretty loose, but this really loosened it up!   The cut on her lip is unrelated.  She managed to do that to herself with a pair of scissors doing her homework about 30 minutes before getting kicked.  Let's hope the "don't put scissors in your mouth" lesson has been learned.

Loose tooth!!  Tuesday afternoon.

Sure enough, this morning, before school....  she pulled the other top tooth out!  Wednesday morning before going to school.

NY has.... fun! and lots of it!

OK, this first shot is not fun.  Carl threw up on the drive to NY.  It was horrific.  110* heat and we spent about an hour and a half outside a McDonald's dragging every single thing out of the van and cleaning it.  Poor kid threw up a few more times on the rest of the trip, too.  By the third or fourth time, he knew to grab one of the bath towels we have in the van and use that to contain it.  He never ran a fever or threw up again.  Just car sickness.

But anyway, this is a shot taken at the Wilkes-Barre Wegmans that we always stop at for dinner on our trips north.  Carl felt so bad, he didn't want to go in, so I gave up going into my favorite store in the world and sat with him.  Lew and Gretchen went in and bought rolls, roast beef and a jar of peanut butter.  We made sandwiches in the car so we could stay on the road.  It was still a pretty long rest stop.  Always is when you stop with kids.

But, later in the trip, we enjoyed several other trips to various Wegmans.  Here we are outside the one in Binghamton on our way back to Albany from Corning.

There was plenty of fun swimming at Uncle Kenny & Aunt Annie's.  Especially with the cousins!

He is usually under the water more then he is above it.  Love the feet in the background.

The playground behind Grandma's got a face lift while we were there!

We enjoyed home grown food.  Veggies from Aunt Annie's garden (yes, lots of green tomatoes... for frying..mmmm) and eggs from her chickens.

Uncle Allan wasn't home when we stopped by.  Probably a good thing, huh?  I'm pretty sure Carl filled the gas tank and turned the radio volume down before he brought the Falcon home.

Yes, Aunt Annie has 2 goats, too.  They now have the playhouse and Carl was pretty jealous.  But, a few times, they got to join them in their pen and play while Aunt Annie and her friend sat inside and visited.  Yeah, that sounds pretty redneck, doesn't it?  If you were 5 - it would sound awesome!

Sidewalk chalk in the driveway was a big hit, too.

Tricycles in the driveway rock, too!

 Cousins!!  (age 5 and age 8)

just a couple more from our day with Geri and the girls

The twins got to go to their first Tom Chapin concert thanks to Aunt Joanne for calling and telling us about it.  They had a ball dancing the night away right up in front.  Well, you can see from the shot that our seats were dead center front "row".  It was an outdoor park and we got there early enough to grab the bench right in front.  I love Tom Chapin!

2 weeks in NY!!!!!  Took you probably close to that long to go through all the photos.  Sorry.  But, since this is my own digital diary, it was more for me than for you.

Can't wait for December when we can go back up north!!!  We love all of you!!!  We ♥ NY!!!!!!

NY has..... Hoffman's Playland

Carl has been waiting all year to go back to Hoffman's and ride the Red Mustang!

 For her first ride, she picked the small ferris wheel.

then on to the merry go round

If you look in the background, you can see Grandma & Grammie watching the boaters.

 both kids are in this shot

 He calls these the Target Airplanes.

 This is the big ferris wheel.  Gretchen & I are in that seat that is about 9 o'clock if it were a clock.

Roller coaster.  Gretchen in front car, Carl in last car.  Neither one liked it which is silly because they loved roller coasters last year in Disney.  Guess this one was too jerky.

 2 truckers

 They both enjoyed these spaceships.

 Carl wanted to ride the train all afternoon so we ended with that. 

Then, we all had ice cream and popcorn!  Well, Carl had popcorn.  He loves popcorn more than anything!
Look at those missing front teeth!

We keep hearing rumors that this season will be the last one for Hoffman's.  We heard it last year and yet they were open this year.  We aren't going to sign off on next year until we see it in person.  Until then, we'll anticipate riding that Red Mustang again!!