Entries from October 2014 ↓

We had a great time at the Halloween parade where kids march for about 4 blocks in their Halloween costumes. We were a party of 7 with the two kids and parents and Grandma Liz and Jason and Lori.

It didn’t take long for Ezri to find a friend from her dance class who was also dressed as Queen Elsa.

Elsa was definitely THE HALLOWEEN COSTUME this year. I counted 39 Elsas at the town Halloween parade.
A number of younger siblings were Olaf the snowman. I counted 8 Olafs. The Olaf behind these two Elsas is not Ivan, but the other Elsa’s little brother.

Ezri noted that there were many Elsas, but she was the only one gifted with a magical balloon wand with which to do her snow magic.

This is the woman behind the balloon art and her consort here known as “the carrier of balloon art.”

While the Great Pumpkin armed with a dracula wand tried to defeat Elsa, the vampire wand was no match for Elsa’s superior freezing powers.

Before leaving for the parade, I told Ezri that she should not twirl wildly or she would show her underwear. She nodded and said, “I better put on some leggings.” Let nothing impede the joy of a good parade twirl.

Here is Elsa with the Doctor. She said of her balloon wand, “It is shaped like a heart and I love it. Isn’t that funny?” Later when it was popped by her little brother, she did not melt or rage but noted that balloons don’t last forever.

We returned home for epic pumpkin carving, but that’s another blog post.

We went to window painting with the kids again this year. I love this downtown tradition of letting the kids decorate the windows of the downtown business for Halloween with their original paintings.

Ezri’s window features a rainbow monster, a ghost saying “boo,” a haunted house, a brain, an alien sticking its tongue out, a zombie, green grass and a blue sky.

Jumping into the life pile

Throwing leaves up in the air like confetti

Picture of a vampire mermaid

The arboretum hosts a trail of scarecrows decorated by local school and scout groups. We walked the scarecrow trail, got caramel apples, played in the hedge maze, saw the glass pumpkin patch and hiked back to the car.

Meghan gave piggyback rides. This is just one thing that makes her awesome.

They go together like mustard and ketchup.

This is Ivan with the bag of kettle corn that gave us the strength to get back to parking lot P4.

This scarecrow was all ‘stache. Here’s the crew trying to make it look like they have mustaches. It didn’t really work, but I love the Dada of the pink pole with mustaches as scarecrow.

Ezri got the camera while in the backseat and takes a car photo on the ride home.

This scarecrow is straight out of Gaiman’s Coraline. She is the other mother.

Ivan loved running from scarecrow to scarecrow proudly proclaiming, “There’s a other one! There’s a other one!”
Elsa scarecrow with ice palace.

It was grey with occasional flashes of blue sky, but it did not rain on us. Here’s the pretty that the trees were doing.

Ezri is posing as an Ezri statue.

This is the leaf fight at Blau house after our adventure.

The caramel apple bar where you get to pick your apple color (red or green) and your toppings (sprinkles, m&ms, toffee, snickers) is a highlight. YUM!

A couple quotable moments from the trip included the moment when I was saying you could only marry one person. Meghan pointed out that you could marry only one person at time. I said, for example, that if your husband died you might remarry.
Ezri said to Meghan, “So, if you marry someone and he’s 99 and then he has a birthday and then he dies. Then you could marry someone else.”
Meghan said, “Yes, but I’d marry someone a little younger than 99.”
Ezri asked, “Like 90?”

Ivan’s best quote was about the scarecrow who had a hammock made for him and was lying down and roasting s’mores. When I said we should go have a look at him, Ivan said, “No, that one’s already dead. Let’s go see the other one.”

Some recent quotes from Ezri:

“I am the best skipper in kindergarten. If there were a race for skipping I would win.”

Ezri looks like she struggling with her cutting so:
A: Do you need help?
e: No, I have scissors.

“What if the way it worked was people had no hands when they were babies. Then when you turn one you get one hand. When you turn two you get two hands.”

e: There’s a bump growing in the middle of my head it wasn’t there before. It’s how I know I am going to get my magical powers.
A: Are you a unicorn girl?
e: Yes, you might be one too. One day you are regular and then you feel the bump in your head and know you are magic.

The photos are from Constantine’s 2nd birthday. Ezri was the biggest kid there and she had a blast with the dress-up clothes.

Fan art of Elsa and Catwoman.

Brobee for Ivan who has started naming all kinds of things Brobee like the two mold-a-rama giraffes from the zoo who are named Brobee and other Brobee. The giant green costumed character from Yo Gabba Gabba is his “John Smith.”

Ezri and Ivan did this one together.

Ezri drew herself with Ivan. She tells me, “Ivan helped. He did the cutting.” They are wearing a unicorn and a Spike dragon shirt.

Ezri draws Monsters University characters for Ivan. Mike, Sully and Don.

Ivan finds Yoda who is green.

Miss Tracy constucting a Jedi on the flannelboard with help from the audience. The audience thought that perhaps the Jedi should carry a baby Ewok rather than a light saber, but Miss Tracy went with the classic light saber. The Jedi also got nice Princess Leia style buns. It was a very fun storytime.

Posing with Vader and the astromech droid Ezri decorated herself. Some of the red dots are lasers. Some red dots shoot flames. The blue dots can squirt water.

Sometimes Eric and I have those moments when we don’t feel like the best parents. When we are exasperated and yell at the kids. When we forget a class we signed up for because life is extra busy. This photo is just to show that the evidence points to excellent parenting – with occasional lapses.

It’s a serious time of day.

The “chocolate coffee” is warm milk and ovaltine.

We got cold on our tree walk to see what the trees in our neighborhood are doing. So we warmed up with a hot beverage.

This was the prettiest leaf by Ezri’s estimation. It was dark and richly mottled with color. Ezri preferred it to the brighter oranges and reds.