Sugar high

The day after Halloween was warm and beautiful. All the neighborhood kids gathered in the street to ride bikes and burn off the sugar they had been eating from their triumphs the night before.

We had all kinds of bikes, scooters, motorized vehicles to keep the kids moving.

What's important to note here is what's NOT in the photo? Can you tell?

On Nate's little bike, I took the training wheels off. He's been looking at Jake's bike which has no training wheels and begging to get his taken off. On his bike that's a little bigger, I was debating on what to do. One of the neighbors suggested that we take off 1 wheel and someone else suggested to take them both off his smaller bike. Since he can stand on the smaller bike a little easier, I thought it was a good compromise. Nate picked it up right away. Only thing he really had trouble with was starting, but once he was going, he had no problems at all.

Well, almost no problems. He still doesn't stop well, but that happened with or without the training wheels.

Halloween

We didn't get any good pictures of this, but the eyes that Maria bought for our garage windows were a big hit. We got lots of comments from our neighbors about how cool they looked. With the light on in the garage they glowed and made a really neat effect.

We had to wait until the last minute to add this decoration to our garage door. Once attached we couldn't open the door without ruining it, so we were set for the rest of the day. Good thing we had a lot of work to do, finishing the decorations, carving pumpkins, parties and of course some trick or treating.


This is the patter Nate picked for his big pumpkin. After cleaning out the inside, it was time to trace the pattern onto the pumpkin.

Carving these patters seems to take forever.

But it's neat to see it come together.
I could never carve this on my own.
I started this one, but Pamela finished the carving here. I was busy helping Nate do his pumpkin. Video of Nate carving is at the bottom of the post.


Nene, Dani and Claudia arrived early to help with the decorations, carving and to eat some Pastel De Choclo

Claudia helping to point he way to the party down the street.

Our neighbor, Barbara hosted a pre-trick or treat party for the kids and adults.

Quite the spread for an early afternoon party.

Barbara's daughter Emily was helping Claudia do crafts at the craft table. I suggested to Barbara that next year Emily should go as Martha Stewart.


Nate was on the teeter totter with his buddy for the night a local power ranger. emily jumped in the middle to have some fun.

In the foreground is Logan, who went as Batman. In the back is Barbara's other child Jimmy. Nate and Jimmy are close in age and could wind up in kindergarden together next year.

This is Logan's younger brother Jake. So if your keeping track, Superman is the younger brother to Batman, and friends with GI Joe and the Hulk.

Jimmy and Logan playing with the Handy Manny truck.
Maria's cousin Pamela was meeting up with her friends later in the evening and heading to San Francisco. She's dressed up as Alex from A Clockwork Orange.

Superman and Snow White are now dating.

Ever try and get 15 kids together for a group shot at night?

A whole cast of characters, getting close to turn them lose on the neighborhood.

Almost there, before they head out, got to get some candy from Barbara.

Ready, set, log jam. Just as all the kids start to race outside, another group of kids knock on the door wanting candy.

And they're off. Not many shots because the lighting is horrible. either that, ot Nate never slowed down long enough for me to get a good shot. He was following several of the slightly older kids, racing from door to door. Only time he came back to me was to tell me when he got TWO pieces of candy.

Maria had gone home to hand out candy and Nate and I got separated from Claudia because she couldn't run fast in high heels. Pamela, Nene and Dani went their own way around the block.

Ding Dong, trick or treat.

Nate carving his pumpkin

Halloween warmup

Ready, Aim, Fire!

Been a busy week. Going to try and catch up in the next few posts. Wed, we decided to take Nate to a local bounce house. As we were trying to find a time to go, we noticed they were having a Halloween special, where the kids could come in costume. This allowed Nate a perfect time to try out his costume in an action environment. Of course he loves to bounce and this was no exception. Hardest part of the night was convincing him it was time to go, even though it was way past his bed time.

Read, set, slide!

Can we do that again, and again and again....

Friday was a busy day. We had to get our pumpkins to carve. We headed out for the local pumpkin patch, since we failed to grab pumpkins from Del Osso's farm. This place wasn't nearly as fun and very business like. $10 for a large pumpkin.

Apparently the new way to choose a pumpkin is to see how well it rides and handles through the turns.
Good thing there''s a wagon to carry that thing, it was heavy.

Friday after getting our pumpkin, we headed back to Merryhill school, for the Halloween party. They had a parade, pumpkins to give out, lot's of candy and of course fun and games for the kids. This is the scarecrow that Nate's class built.

Pamela taking a picture of Nate by the class scarecrow.

Nate show how strong he is. Padded muscles help a bit here.

The parade was cute. Amazing to see how many transformers there were this year. Although the two costumes we talked the most about were the UPS boy and the shark girl.

As usual, Nate is distracted easily.

Nate and his class getting stories read before being allowed to go out and play. Amazing how quiet and attentive they are for story time.

Nate loves trains and it was great to see that the school had one to take the kids on a ride around the yard. Too bad the parents had to go for the bumpy ride too.