Four Feet More

This year's Halloween was a huge success. The kids enjoy it more every year. My mom's neighborhood really goes crazy for Halloween, so we take the Vika and Eamon over there for trick-or-treating. It was fun to see them running from house to house, laughing in joy over the holiday. Here are some other highlights from the evening.

• Every time Mom's doorbell rang, Vika and Eamon ran to the candy basket yelling "Customers!" They were very good about passing out candy equally.
• While trick-or-treating, we came upon a house blaring Halloween music. As the kids were getting candy, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" came on. Eamon got this huge grin on his face, began shaking his butt, and then danced all the way down the sidewalk - much to the amusement of everyone around. I believe one of the men at the house even said, "That kid's awesome!" Vika just rolled her eyes and hurried on to the next house.
• My stepfather, Ed, likes to scare the neighborhood teenagers by dressing all in black, with his face covered in black nylons, and sitting still as a statue on the front porch. It's fun to watch the teenagers walk around the corner and then stop in their tracks, unsure of whether or not Ed is real. This year, Jeff joined Ed on the porch, and they got this one kid good! He was about 14, wearing a long black cloak, an orange glow-necklace, and was acting all cool in front of his friends. Then he rounded the corner and saw Ed sitting on the bench next to the front door. He stopped dead in his tracks and wouldn't move any further. His friends were egging him on, but he wasn't budging. Little did the kid know that another shadow (Jeff) was slowly rising up behind him. Jeff tapped the kid on the shoulder with a stick and yelled, "AHHH!" The boy shrieked like a little girl and ran screaming through the front lawn and down the street with arms flailing at his sides. It was hilarious! He never did come back to get his candy....

The only sad note this Halloween: there is an appalling lack of Snickers, Twix and Kit Kats in my kids' trick-or-treat bags. What am I going to eat after they go to bed? I certainly am not going to steal any of their Big Hunks or Laffy Taffy. *sigh* I guess I'll have to buy my own candy this year.

I hope you all had a great Halloween!

Here's the annual Family Jack-O-Lanterns shot. Can you tell which one is Eamon's? He carved a very small portion of the pumpkin, and then I wound up carving the rest. It was a pain in my butt, getting out all those small pieces, but Eames is happy with the result. Oh, and in case you can't tell, it's Darth Vader. Vika carved her pumpkin (the cat by the tree) all by herself! The rest of the night she kept saying things like, "That looks like a professional pumpkin!" and "Never has a kid done one that good!" As the evening progressed, it became harder and harder for me not to roll my eyes when she complimented herself.

Tonight we'll go trick-or-treating in mom's neighborhood, with Vika dressed as a fairy and Eamon dressed as a Clone Trooper. The kids wanted Jeff and I to dress up this year too, so we're going to humor them. After sorting through entirely too many trampy costumes at the Halloween store, I finally decided to be a Hogwart's student. Honestly, it was the only costume I could find for an adult female that wasn't slutty! Well, the nun costume was pretty modest, but I decided to skip on that one. Jeff's going as Zorro (who I had a mad crush on as a child - only the Zorrro I liked was the George Hamilton version, from "Zorro, the Gay Blade." Obviously, the whole "gay" part went over my head....). Fingers crossed, the kids will bring in plenty of Twix bars and Snickers which I can sample after they go to bed. ;)

I hope you all have a happy Halloween!

I finally got around to loading my photos onto the computer. I know, I'm a slacker - but better late than never. So without further ado, here you go:

This first one is of Eamon at his birthday party. Doesn't he look dapper in his little tie? I saw it at Old Navy and knew I had to buy it for him. The best part is that the little white designs in the black stripes... they're skulls and cross bones. As my friend Mel said, it's "preppy, with an edge." That's my son. Edgy. :)

Here's a shot of Eamon wearing one of his favorite gifts. For those of you non-Star Wars fans, it's a Clone Trooper (the army that later becomes the Storm Troopers when the evil emperor takes over). The hilarious thing about this costume, which unfortunately did not transfer onto film, is that it is almost completely transparent. So, when Eames put it on, with nothing but his black chonies underneath... well let's just say he made quite the fashion statement. Every guest at the party pulled out their cameras and quickly began snapping pictures. Sadly, Eamon played so hard in this costume that he ripped a hole in the leg within a half hour of putting it on. Did he take it off and return to his earlier “edgy” look? No. he continued to run around, with a pale little knee poking though the rip in the fabric.

The weekend after Eamon’s party, the four of us went to the pumpkin patch with my mom. Unfortunately, our regular pumpkin patch, where we take our annual family portrait, was closed this year. Some nonsense about letting the fields rest. ;) So we went to a new patch this year, which was still fun, but not nearly as picturesque. As a result, we didn’t get a great family portrait, but we did get a couple of nice shots of the kids.



After our family portrait session, we found the perfect pumpkins and assisted mom in her quest to acquire a cornstalk for her front porch - an annual tradition for her. As an aside, mom used to get a large haystack for her front porch as well, and it would sit there for months because she couldn’t get rid of the darn thing! For Christmas, she began wrapping it like a large present, and by January, the hay would be molding underneath. So glad she has abandoned that part of her Fall décor.

As we stood in the checkout line to buy our pumpkins, I did a quick tally in my head and realized that our four pumpkins were going to cost us nearly $100!!! I know that part of what you are paying for is the experience of going to the patch, but this seemed a little excessive. So, we quickly scrambled to set 3 of the pumpkins aside (we arranged them artfully by a corn stalk at the beginning of the checkout line – where several others were arranged. Were these also hastily set aside by families horrified at the exorbitant costs?). We still purchased Jeff’s pumpkin at the patch, but later bought mine, Eamon, and Vika’s at the local grocery store ($15 for 3. A much more reasonable price).

I hope you all are enjoying your Fall traditions. Next up for us is the annual “Fall Leaf Hunt.”

I love Fall. It's my favorite time of year. Even though I was anxiously awaiting Summer (the school vacation was desperately needed), around the first of August, I started wishing for Autumn.

Crisp, cool days. Leaves turning colors. Hot apple cider and warm pumpkin scones. Decorating the house for Halloween and visiting the Pumpkin Patch. So many of our family traditions revolve around Fall.

Since bringing the kids home, Fall has become even more special. It is when we celebrate our "Metcha' Day" with a Russian feast in honor of Vika and Eamon. Carving jack-o-lanterns has become a much more light-hearted event. Before, Jeff and I would compete to see who could create the best jack-o-lantern. Now we laugh as Eamon cringes in disgust each time he pulls the goo out of his pumpkin, and Vika carves so thoroughly that her pumpkin's "face" becomes one big hole. We go on leaf hunts and watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" while drinking hot cocoa. On Thanksgiving morning, we watch the Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade in our PJs, marveling at the Broadway dance numbers and enormous character balloons.

To me, more than any other season, Fall is about family. What are some of the traditions your family shares in the Fall?