Halloween Costumes

Halloween is Dan's favorite holiday of the year. While mine is Christmas, Halloween is a close second. We have been somewhat lamenting moving away from the Northeast, because this is an awesome place to experience Halloween. We live not too far from Sleepy Hollow, just a few hours from Salem, MA, and there is nothing quite as Halloweenish as a full moon under the autumn colored leaves with the mist rising from the ground, and the wind howling through the trees. This year, our Halloween experience was seriously dampened by two events.

 

One, a wonderful event, was the birth of our third baby girl on October 4th. In the grand scheme of life this totally trumps any Halloween celebration, but it did mean instead of decorating and having Halloween parties, I have been recovering from a C-section, and am kind of a walking zombie from lack of sleep, without the undead part.

 

Two, Hurricane Sandy. Thankfully, our power was only out at our place for two days, but there was no trick-or-treating in Greenwich because the power is still out there. Maher Avenue, the ultimate in suburban trick-or-treating experiences, so perfect it looks like a street from Hocus Pocus, was completely without power. So, no trick or treating this year.

 

That didn't stop us from dressing up to take some pictures. Here are our Batgirl and Rainbow Unicorn. They were great troopers all through the hurricane and power outage. We will have to make it up to them next year.

 

Stamford Nature Center

A few weeks ago we took the girls to the Stamford Nature Center for some much needed outdoor fun. With the stress of moving, preparing for a new baby, and a much bigger move looming on the horizon we needed some time to just have fun together as a family.

 

Look at that smile on Abigail's face. She is so excited to go see all the animals. Along with the regular farm animals, they had an exhibit on tarantulas.

Here are all the girls in the family, including the one that will be here in a few weeks. No, we don't have a name yet.

These statues outside the trantula exhibit reminded us of the weeping angels on Doctor Who. Don't blink!

Apparently Old World Tarantulas are larger and more venomous than New World Tarantulas. It was really interesting to read about the differences. The girls mainly liked pressing the buttons to see the lights on the map illuminate.

They are playing their insect roles very well. Alyssa is the menacing tarantula ready to feed on the terrified cricket. I'm happy to say that this is not a depiction of their real relationship.

They were fascinated by the tarantulas. They tend to be very girlie. Tinkerbell and princesses are popular figures in our house right now. I'm glad that there is some balance in interests.

 

Feeding the goats was one of their favorite things. The goats were so sweet. Abigail was so excited to see the horses and other animals that when we were done with the goats, we had to go running to see the ponies, pigs and alpacas. Abigail even found a shed of young cows that she insisted needed help. So Dan had to go over and show her that they were okay. I love that Abigail and Alyssa love animals. It was a good day, and a much needed reprieve from stressful events.



Darien Beach

 We unfortunately have not done a lot this summer. Here is one day where we actually made it out to the beach in Darien. Thunder and lightning from a storm across Long Island Sound kept us out of the water for most of the time we were there, but that didn't stop us from having some fun in the sand. Or from searching for seashell treasures.

Hopefully, we'll make it out to the beach more in the time we have left. It is, after all, our last summer in Connecticut.

Boston

 Since we are leaving the East Coast in a few months to move to Arizona, I thought at least one more trip to Boston was is in order. Dan, unfortunately, couldn't come with us, but Alyssa, Abigail and I drove up for two days to see some of the sights. The beginning of our trip did not go as smoothly as planned. Alyssa threw up in the car twice on the three hour drive. Pulling over on the side of the Mass Turnpike to clean up vomit was not the way I wanted to begin our trip. Gratefully, the trip improved rapidly after that point. We didn't have a lot of time on Wednesday to see things, but we did go to Harvard Square. One of the things we saw there was the Curious George Store.

 I told the girls that they could each choose one thing from the Curious George Store. Their choices? Butterfly nets in green and pink. Since we've been home, we've been on several outings with these butterfly nets. Alyssa especially wants to catch one and bring it home. So far, we haven't caught any but the fun is in the chase anyway.

 Out for ice cream in Harvard Square.

 In our hotel room. Abigail fell asleep in the car right before we got to the hotel. I had to convince Alyssa she was tired enough to sleep. They love our "sleepovers" when we are on trips. I think they would like it best if we had just one big room at home that we all slept in together.

 We planned on going on a Duck Tour around Boston on Thursday morning, leaving from the Prudential Center. We were late getting there, and so rescheduled the tour for later in the day. We found these fountains behind the Prudential Center that the girls were excited about. So we had an unexpected side adventure that morning.

 The girls really loved the Duck Tour, especially when it went onto the water. They each got a chance to "drive" the boat.

 I have wanted to go on a Swan Boat ride in the Boston Public Gardens for a few years. We were all pretty tired by this point in the day, but I didn't want to leave without having this experience. I'm glad we forged ahead because this was my favorite part of the whole trip.

 After the Swan Boat ride, we bought a copy of "Make Way for Ducklings" and went over to the duck statues in the Public Garden. We settled down on a bench and read the story together. Then we spent some time taking pictures on the duck statues.

 Alyssa especially loved the momma duck. I had a hard time convincing her to share the momma duck with Abigail, as well as other people waiting to take pictures.

 Abigail did get a turn on the momma duck, but this is my favorite picture of her on the duck statues.

As you can see, Alyssa was not very happy about taking a turn on one of the baby ducks. Overall, it turned out to be a fun experience with Alyssa and Abigail. And I'm happy to say, the trip home was much more smooth sailing than the trip up.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday

Even before we went to Disneyworld Alyssa was in love with Mickey Mouse. Our trip just cemented her love for him. So, when it came time to plan her birthday party, what other theme could she want besides a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party?

I love hanging streamers for birthday parties. And I loved using three different colors. Mickey Mouse loves primary colors, so we had red, yellow and blue streamers hanging. Alyssa was a little disappointed there weren't any green streamers, because that is her favorite color. I told her next year we could have a jungle theme for a party, and then there would be a lot of green. My intrepid little girl of course reminds me of this every couple of weeks.

I don't know why I decided to make the cake myself. It would have been so much easier to have a Mickey Mouse cake made by someone, anyone else. But I do like doing special things for my beautiful girls. And it was nice to make her a special cake for her special day.

For those of you who know the show, there are always puzzles to solve, and mouskatools to use. One of our puzzles was the land of disappearing shapes. They had to dance and stop in a shape when the music stopped. A shape disappeared every time until there was one shape left, which became the "key" for the next part. Dan was O'Toodles, bringing us our mouskatools. But since he doubled as photographer I don't have any pictures of him.

And of course, opening presents is fun for everyone.

Overall, I think it turned out very well. Happy birthday, my little three year old girl!