Happy Halloween!

We had a nice Halloween evening. We started out with a pizza dinner, which turned out to be great because the pizza place has big windows looking out to the mall, so we enjoyed the parade of costumes.

(Before we left, James had filled up his pumpkin bucket with toys, and was a little miffed that he couldn't take them all along!  Fortunately he got over it quickly.)

James had a great time pointing out the different costumes, with occasional commentary ("That's a good costume!").  For a while, he kept asking, "Where's the vampire?"  (I'm not sure why he was so fixed on that!  Maybe from Scooby-Doo?)  We pointed out one boy that was dressed as a vampire, but James didn't believe us.  Then a man walked by wearing a witch's hat with a veil, and James said, "There's the vampire!"  (Whatever you say, kid.)  Then he kept asking "where's the monkey?" (I think this one was inspired by Curious George, their current favorite.)  Fortunately, we did see a little boy dressed as a monkey.  :)

The boys also liked the trick-or-treating part.  Even though James doesn't like candy, he did enjoy getting the candy.  Mattie was happy to get a lollipop, which I let him eat while we were still out.

Doing Fine

The effects of Hurricane Sandy didn't reach this far south -- we've had cold and grey weather, but nothing storm-related. 

Costume Day

The boys had fun wearing their costumes at preschool today. Mattie said, "They said I was going to swim to school today, since I'm Nemo!"  (He also said, "the girls are going to be princesses, and the boys will be orange.")  He also cheerfully explained to one of the other parents that "my brother Jamesie is a dinosaur, but he's not wearing his dinosaur hood because it's too heavy."  (It was too heavy, but we took most of the stuffing out of it, so now it kind of works.)

The kids did a little a parade out to the courtyard so the parents could take pictures, and they sang a song ("the fat little pumpkin in the pumpkin patch"), which was adorable.  Then they went trick or treating to the two four-year-old classrooms and the director's office.  :)  (Now when I ask James what you say when you go trick or treating, he says, "knock knock", since that's how his teacher started out describing the process.)

[The top picture is Ms. S giving Mattie a high five on his fin.]

More Fall Fun

The shopping center near our house had a little fall festival today. Based on last year, I did not have high expectations, so it turned out to be great! There were just a few little activities, but no crowds or lines.

At the first stop, the boys got inflatable bats. Then, we had a carriage ride (just around the parking lot, but still fun). James was carrying on a conversation with the driver the whole time. He pointed out our car, told the man he'd gone on a donkey ride yesterday, and found the letter J ("J for James!") in the Trader Joe's sign.  :)

We stopped to listen to the bluegrass band (Big Fat Gap) for a song -- they were really good!  And James was dancing and having a great time!  (Mike put in a request for them to do the ABCs, and they gave it a good effort, which was pretty funny.  Not surprisingly, they said they'd never had that request before!)

Then we went to the the balloon animals, and each boy got his favorite color (the balloon lady gave them fish on fishing poles -- Mattie got the idea, but James kept asking where the pole was. I wonder if maybe he thought we were saying pool.)  Mattie also picked out an orange lollipop (and since James didn't want his lollipop, Mattie put in a claim for Jamesie's as well).

Then we went to the bouncy castle, and the boys had a great time.  It wasn't crowded, so they could stay in as long as they wanted and go in and out.  James went down the big slide four or five times.  Mattie was perfectly happy jumping around, but he didn't do the slide at all.  I'm not sure if he had trouble getting up the ladder inside or was just intimidated because the slide seemed too big/steep.  (Of course, it didn't help that several times when Mattie went over to the ladder, James came up and tackled him from behind.  I had to tell them that no wrestling was allowed in the bounce house.)

After getting out of the bounce house, James insisted on putting his shoes on the wrong feet, and walked around with them like that until we got home.  He can certainly be a stubborn one!

Lunch and a grocery shopping trip rounded out the afternoon. Coming tomorrow: the long-awaited costume day at preschool.

Cloudy with a Chance of Pumpkins

The weather was not great today -- sadly, not the perfect blue-sky fall days we had earlier this week -- but we ventured out to the farm/pumpkin patch anyhow.  (The only downside of going to Italy was that we missed two prime pumpkin-patching weekends!  And the State Fair.)

We went to Green Level Gourd Farm, which is one of the smaller places, great for younger kids (and a bit less expensive, in case it started raining midway through!)

The boys had a blast.  They loved chasing around the mini corn maze with Mike pretending to be a monster, they enjoyed playing on the toys, they liked the donkey ride pretty well, and they loved the hay ride.  The place wasn't too crowded, so we had the hay ride to ourselves, which was fun, and the driver stopped a few times so the boys could get a good look at the different Halloween decorations they had set up through the forest.

The boys also liked the homemade skee-ball set-up, although they didn't want to roll the ball up the ramp -- they just treated it like basketball!

(P.S.  The trip did not get off to the best start -- Jamesie got his fingers caught in the automatic car door -- but as you can see he recovered quickly once we got to the corn maze.  They seem to be well on their way to healed up already -- just a little mark on two fingers.)

Radicofani

Friday was our last day in Tuscany. We spent a relaxing morning at the villa, sitting outside eating breakfast and (for some of us) drawing or writing postcards.  (There were bees living in a tree near the picnic table, but fortunately they didn't bother us!)

Some of us headed out for Radicofani -- which was new and different because we were turning left rather than right out of the villa!  (There be dragons!)  Radicofani's claim to fame is their Fortezza, a twenty-minute hike up from town for some nice views.  It's interesting -- the landscape is noticably more dry and barren-looking going that direction.

Craig, Mary, Mike, and I ended up going by the town and finding the road up to the fort.  But alas, it was closed!  The sign claimed it was open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but that was clearly wrong since the gates were locked and large signs warned that trespassers would be videotaped and fined.  Bummer!!  We walked around the nearby cemetary (mostly relatively modern graves as it turned out), and around some paths nearby, which provided nice views of their own.

Then we descended into town in time for lunch at one of the maybe two restaurants in town.  This one was called La Grotta (the Grotto), and it was packed!!  Another car from our group had arrived there when it first opened, and was surprised when they were asked if they had reservations -- but then moments later the placed had filled up.  Three-quarters of us had a delicious meal (unfortunately, Craig didn't like the pasta he choose). Their soups (onion and mushroom) were especially yummy.

We wandered around the town afterwards, and it was almost deserted, but still pretty.  :)

Fall Art

The boys have been having a grand time with their chalk lately -- they've colored the deck, their fire truck bed, rocks, the bridge in the back yard, and of course, their clothes. :)

They had a pumpkin patch at preschool yesterday, and Mattie has been enjoying carrying his pumpkin around and pretending to be a pumpkin in a pumpkin patch.

(The boys also got their flu shots yesterday -- I wasn't there for it, but I hear they were very good boys!)