Torturing, I mean dressing up, Toddy

Some people in the Almeida family might not know what costume they are wearing tonight , but they sure do know what others should be.

Take Toddy for instance. He's supposed to be the flying pumpkin. And boy was that an appropriate costume since he pretty much flew down the stairs as soon as we snapped a picture of him in his costume.

I have a lot of appreciation for the pet owners who can get their pets dressed up. It took three of us to work with Toddy to snap a single picture.

L.'s favorite doll was a little easier to dress. I might have to take her out tonight since L. still hasn't decided on a costume.

Decisions, decisions

Every year deciding on a Halloween costume is painful at our house. Usually L. can not make a decision about one - and stick with it - for more than a day or so. One year she wore three different costumes, one to each party she went to and one for Halloween night, simply because it was too hard for her to pick a single one.

Of course I am not one to criticize my child's decision-making skills. I still have an LL Bean gift card from last Christmas that I have yet to redeem because I can't decide what to buy with it.

Compared to L. though, I look decisive.

At the beginning of October she decided she was going to be, "Anne of Green Gables." A little tricky since it's not something people would necessarily recognize, even with the orange yarn wig and book she planned to carry to explain the costume.

And I admit that I shared a few giggles with friends over her choice but was pleased she had made her decision early and seemed to be sticking with it. But then yesterday at dinner she announced "Anne" wasn't a good costume and she needed another one.

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays but I'm re-thinking things now. My progeny is making me crazy. Of course we could skip Trick-or-Treating but then I wouldn't have any fun or get any candy either.

Idle hands in October

This is what an 8-year-old does when her sister is in class and she has some time on her hands during the month of October.

Meet the pumpkins starting clockwise from bottom left: Poodle, Mummy, Vampire, "Save" (reserved for her sister to decorate), Chiquita Banana Girl, Ghost, The Lady (love the Life cereal eyes).

Did you decorate/carve a pumpkin this year?
Post your own pumpkin pics

Swedish fish meets the Pirates

The kids and I went to the Pirates game yesterday with grandpa and L. now believes that he's a good luck charm this season (i.e., at the 2 games we've been to so far with grandpa this season, the team has won). L. has entered this new season with another round of her own special logic.

But in usual form, the girls were being silly while watching the game. This time with a couple of stray Swedish fish in my backpack. Since meeting someone recently who had never had the penny candy (which is far from costing a penny these days), the girls have been talking about how much they love Swedish fish. And that prompted them to "introduce" their fish friends to a hockey game like they did with Bunny and Flat Stanley last season.

Yup, the fish did a little of everything with us at the game.

And I think Neil Diamond's, "Sweet Caroline" song is starting to grow on us. The girls found that dancing can make the song a little move lively.

The funky fish dance
[25 seconds]

BTW, catching one of the t-shirts thrown to the fans at the game was a great birthday present. Thanks Salty Pete!

A limping, but fast-moving, Lucy

Yesterday L. tried to catch Lucky Lucy to see how her leg was doing. And as we quickly discovered, the slightly crooked leg (well, she was the first chicken leg cast Fino had ever done) is not a problem anymore. It took L. a few rounds of Walk Around the Coop before she finally caught her.

I think Lucy's leg is doing just fine.

Bugs, beetles and Bunny Foo Foo

We spend a fair amount of time in the car driving to various kid-related activities on a weekly basis. We listen to audio books frequently but lately the Punch Buggy game and some old songs keep our car an interesting place to be.

My kids and their friends have a new variation on the Punch Buggy game with not only VW Bugs, but PT Cruisers. They punch someone when they see a VW and give a pinch when a PT Cruiser (dubbed a Beetle Bug) drives by. Sometimes the kids decide not to punch or pinch someone and instead call out a "save." With the various carpools we have with other families, the kids do quite a bit of chatting about how many saves everyone has, which is much better than punching and pinching all the time. There are a lot of VWs and PT Cruisers on the road these days.

And I'm not immune to the game I enjoyed playing as a kid. This morning I spotted a PT Cruiser on my commute to work this morning and actually thought about calling out a "save."

To add to the car entertainment, the kids have learned some of those classic, silly songs I haven't heard, let along sung, in years like Little Bunny Foo Foo and Baby Bumble Bee. These songs definitely get stuck in my head - just like they did when I was a kid - and now I'm wondering if the 100th round of their favorite CD isn't all that bad.

Do your kids have a game they like to play in the car?

Fun fall hike

We hiked to the summit of Sawyer Mountain over the weekend and I am happy to say, there weren't any bees roaming about on the trail. It was about 1.5 miles to the summit with a steady climb. I'd rate the hike 'Intermediate' for kids who have some endurance for the elevation gain (about 500 feet).

G. is "practicing" her ballet leaps anywhere with open space including the grocery stores and parking lots these days.

I should have known when everyone was grabbing for tissues and taking naps at the summit that we were in for a week of bad colds (I'm sniffling and listening to L.'s non-stop coughing as I write...)

The foliage is really beautiful around the summit right now.

We decided to try some crayon leaf-rubbing on the trail after reading about it in a magazine recently. Crayon-rubbing wasn't as easy as it looked in the magazine but after a few tries, the kids made a fun work of art.

L., while collecting leaves in her hat, also got a little carried away with crayon-rubbing. She decided to make impressions of the writing on some gravestones in the 19th century cemetery we passed on the trail because she spotted a misspelling.

She was highly amused with this one even though I told her it was likely a space issue rather than an actual error.