Happy Halloween Eve

Today the kids got to wear their Halloween outfits to school and we had festive food (mummy dogs, ghost bananas, and kitty litter cake) for dinner to celebrate Halloween. The kids are totally excited to go trick or treating tomorrow.

Cake Prep

Saturday is Halloween. For Halloween I usually don't really do a lot for food because it's always such a rush to get out the door and trick or treat. However, this year, Halloween is on a Saturday so I plan to do festive food on Friday and then do our customary quick pizza on Saturday. So today I am making this cake. Joshua really enthusiastic about helping with clean up and pretty much got it everywhere. He's a kid who loves cake.

Reading with Benjamin, and some Esky Magic

The Royals are in the World Series again!  It's been a tense run through the playoffs, with multiple classic Royals comebacks, but here we are facing the Mets for the finish the unfinished business from last year.  Last night was Game 1, and Julie and Andrew invited me over to watch the game at their house.  Before the game I got to spend some time with Benjamin, including reading him a couple books.  He loves reading and books and already having people read to him.  After he went to bed, Julie, Andrew, and I watched the game, and what a game it was!  Alcides Escobar opened the game with an inside-the-park home run,   The Mets went ahead, and the Royals looked doomed, except they're never doomed, and Alex Gordon hit a homer in the bottom of the ninth against Jeurys Familia and then won in 14th with an Eric Hosmer sacrifice fly.  It was a thrilling game, and one the Royals needed to defend home field advantage in the series.  Jacob deDrom and Noah Syndergaard are up in the next two games, so the Royals still have their work cut out for them.

Until Next Year

 Today we went to Deanna Rose for what will surely be the last time this year since they close on Saturday for the year. It was a shorter visit this time, but we still had a lot of fun.

 Joshua just loves the tractors. Hannah really isn't good enough at pedaling to do them yet as they are pretty hard to do. Even the other kids struggle a bit, but seem to really like them anyway.

After that, we fed the baby goats. We rarely feed the baby goats as the adult goats are cheaper and the kids seems to enjoy it more, but this time they were excited to feed the goats bottles, so we did that. These goats were pretty aggressive and obviously used to being fed. Clara and Joshua really enjoyed it, but it was a bit much for Hannah. 

I feel like we didn't go to Deanna Rose as much this year because we went to the pool all the time in the summer instead, but it's such a great place to go that I am glad we got to visit one more time.

PowerPoint by Day, Lobster by Night

My new job is going well so far, although it's mostly been training.  I spent my first week in Boston (well, technically Waltham) at SE Bootcamp, and then I had a week at home, and last week I was here in Boston again for Sales New Hire Training, so there are people here from around the world.  It's been fun to get to know some of my new coworkers, even though I won't deal with most of them on a daily basis, as many are in different departments or countries.  Here we are at the Red House enjoying exactly what we should be enjoying: lobster.

Pumpkin Carving Party

Our friends the Hansons have hosted a pumpkin carving party for years, always inviting us.  This year I decided Joshua was old enough to do it, so I took him and Clara. We stopped to get a pumpkin on the way (the selection was not ideal).  At the party there was a lot of great food, including a delicious pumpkin cheesecake that Clara couldn't stop eating, which is how you know it's really good.  Then we carved the pumpkin.  Our pumpkin had been commandeered by someone else, but Jason had an extra one that he lent to us.  I asked Joshua for his input on the design, but and chose various facial features from the other ones that had already been carved, and I dutifully drew the outlines on the pumpkin.  I then cut out the top, and removed the innards.  Joshua really enjoyed using his hand to dig out the goop and throw it in a pile.  It was disgustingly awesome to him.  I then cut out the face, and he helped me carve.  The resulting face looks more surprised than scary, but were happy with it.  Joshua also enjoyed exploring the premisis, where he found a helmet that he thought was a football helmet (it wasn't), and what he thought was a couple dog bones, which Jason informed him were actually deer antlers.  Joshua was really pumped about both findings, and especially about combining them into a single horned-helmet thing.  We had a great time, and we'll definitely plan to go back next year.

Raking with Dad

Jason was gone this past week and Joshua was super excited when he came back. He really really wanted to rake with him. Joshua's favorite activities are usually physical and useful so raking fits the bill. I am not sure we have quite enough leaves that Jason would have raked except Joshua was so pumped about it. They had a fun afternoon raking.