Strawberry Banke & Portsmouth

On a recent interview in New Hampshire (or New Hampster according to Alyssa) I had a chance to visit Strawberry Banke. Now a museum, it was the first settlement in the state. The oldest standing building was built in 1695. It is the dark brown house on the right of the picture below, next to the flag.
Below is a peek throught the entrance of the children's garden at Strawberry Banke.
The town is now Portsmouth. Below is one of the current houses. I was fortunate enough to be in New Hampshire at the peak of fall foliage.

Below are pictures of a church in the middle of town and one of the main streets. If you are ever in southern Maine or the New Hampshire coast it is worth a stop to look at the shops and architecture.

Halloween Fun

Halloween happens to top Dan's list of best holidays. Unfortunately for him, this year he was leaving for conference on top of having a very pregnant wife. While we always seem to have grandiose plans for celebrating Halloween, we fell quite short this year. But we were still able to do a few things to make the holiday special for Alyssa.

We asked her for several weeks before acquiring a costume what she wanted to be for Halloween. She consistently said "a doggy". When asked what mommy and daddy should be she also said "doggy". Dan and I didn't dress up, but we did have an adorable little dalmatian complete with tail.

This is Dan's handiwork. Several months ago he bought a cupcake decorating book for me. It is safe to say he has used it more than me. He made these werewolf cupcakes for his fellow residents and for his Sunday school kids. Everyone was notably impressed. Some people didn't believe he had made them.

Here we are at the ward trunk or treat. I think she was annoyed that we kept asking her to say trick or treat. But she did like the decorations, and of course, the candy.