Random Halloween notes:

We tend to have themes around here. I'm like that. This year's theme was, um, Star Wars. Big surprise. ;) Anyhow, we'd had fairly inexpensive or free costumes for the past few years, so I sprung for buying the costumes the boys wanted this year. I even got one for me. ;) (Nathan refused my offers...party pooper.) Yes, I know the theme thing won't last forever, so I'm taking advantage of the fact that the boys are willing to go along with it for now. Here we are, earlier this afternoon:

Micah was Plo Koon (he opted, though, not to wear the mask because he said it smelled funny, lol). I was a fellow Jedi (I named myself O-mommy Kanommi, lol...mostly I just bought the cool Jedi robe...a child's large fit quite nicely and was on sale). Asher was the Sith Lord, Count Dooku. (He picked him because he didn't require a mask but then wouldn't wear the beard or let me color his hair.)And Noah was, obviously, Darth Vader. Mostly, I think, they all just wanted lightsabers. I'd refused to buy them until now and didn't let them play with them until today. I'm mean like that. ;) (The lightsabers light up, btw...which helped during trick or treating, as all of our costumes were fairly dark.)

As I said, this picture was taken this afternoon. I gave up on trying to take pictures in costumes just before trick or treating. No one wants to stand around for a picture and the lighting is just plain bad. So. I make them dress up in the afternoon and take pictures then take off the costumes to eat dinner and such before going back out later. ;) Of course, just a group shot wasn't sufficient. Had to have some front yard battles between the forces of good (Micah and me) and evil (Asher and Noah):

Pumpkins. I need to remember that carving pumpkins is a pain and takes more time than I think it will. ;) I'm thinking we may paint pumpkins next year or buy some of those fake ones. Seems wrong, but also so much easier. :) We'll see. In the meantime...here's how this year's came out:

Yup. Do you see the theme? Micah's and Asher's were too small for carving (or at least too small for the designs they wanted carved), so I just drew those with a Sharpie. (One's a Republic symbol and one's a clone trooper helmet.) Noah carved "Jack" (the happy little pumpkin there in the middle that he was quite pleased with...it was his first attempt at carving one himself). I carved the big three. I'm crazy like that. Nathan's in charge of scooping all the guts and such (and lifting them and hauling them around before Halloween). And I ended up carving while Nathan handled lighting (more on that in a minute). Oy. I think they came out great, but that's one night of my life I'll never get back, LOL! Here's a better picture of Yoda:

Since Micah's finally *mostly* over his freaking out about scary Halloween stuff and since we were home this year, we finally did some actual decorating for Halloween. Here's what it looked like during the day:

Those spiderwebs are kinda cool. We'd never used them before but sprang for these green ones that are supposed to work well with blacklights. Sounded fun. We also hung our friend Skully out along the walk. He's been sitting in our dining room this month and, um, he talks. ;) Anyhow. At night, this is what it looked like:

Sorry for the poor quality but I couldn't even use my tripod to try to get a better pic. The tripod was being used to hold up the blacklights shining on the webs. We also had strobe lights in two of the pumpkins and one in the tree along with blacklights replacing the normal outdoor lights in the fixtures. Yeah, we went a little crazy (well, crazy for us anyhow, lol). Next year I'm thinking we need a fog machine and some spooky music. ;) 

Anyhow. Strangely warm here this Halloween. Which meant a HEAP of trick or treaters out and about...more than 100 at our door for sure (we kept a loose count but stopped after 100). On the plus side, it was warm enough that I didn't have to figure out how to fit coats beneath costumes (Micah and I didn't even have long sleeves under ours) and was even willing to walk with the boys, myself, while Nathan stayed home to hand out candy. (I've been known to stay home instead as I didn't want to walk out in the cold, lol.) I figure I'm good now and, if it's snowing again next Halloween, I can reasonable tell Nathan that it's his turn. ;) 

And. For the record, though he refuses to wear a costume, Nathan tends to start trying to scare trick or treaters after the main wave is over and he's fairly sure it's just teens. One year he stood by our fence and jumped out at people when they walked past. This year he stuck Micah's Plo Koon mask on a stick and started opening the door leading with that. So. You've been warned. Happy Halloween!

Haven't posted about some of the entertaining things the boys say lately. ;) So, here ya go:

Not long ago, Noah, Micah and I were at a bookstore and Micah was delighted to find that they had an entire shelf of Star Wars books. Back at home, he was telling Asher about it, and Asher declared, "I'm gonna buy the whole shelf!" Micah looked at him and said, "but then you wouldn't have any books." ;)

The boys were telling me the other day that Micah's kindergarten teacher sometimes calls him "Noah." I explained that she'd been Noah's teacher a couple years ago (when she was teaching 3rd grade reading and science) and that he (Micah) kind of looks like Noah. Micah quickly and indignantly replied, "but I'm so much cuter than Noah!" No offense to Noah, but it's true.

So, the boys were randomly talking about what they'd grab to take with them to the basement in the case of a tornado (I think they'd just watched something about tornadoes on tv). This is what they decided on (or at least what I overheard them decide on):

• Noah: his bike (and helmet), the Atom I (a Lego set he designed), his wallet and his netbook
• Asher: various Lego sets (mostly Star Wars), the laptop the boys use, his wallet and a cribbage board
• Micah: his wallet, a cribbage board (in addition to the one Asher grabbed so that we could play two games at once, lol), and a slew of Lego sets that he listed by name
• (Guess you've gotta have priorities, lol!)

And, earlier tonight, Nathan was trying to explain the world of Star Trek to boys obsessed with Star Wars. He was telling them that Klingons are a warrior race. Noah, in trying to understand, asked, "So, Klingons are sort of like Wookies?" Yes, I suppose they are. ;) 

That's all for now. Hope to be back this weekend with some Halloween pictures! :)

So, pretty much every year, the boys and I go for a "leaf walk." It's a fall tradition that we love. We watch the trees...waiting for gorgeous colors and plenty of leaves on the ground. Sometimes we just walk around or find piles close to home. Most times, we wander our neighborhood with our kid rake in hand. In any case, yesterday was "the" day. ;)

We headed out just after lunch, having scouted our desired destination earlier in the week. Just north of our subdivision, there's a little area with a pond. We'd never walked there before but drive past it regularly and saw that it was beautiful and, more importantly, had plenty of leaves on the ground. It was a fabulous afternoon...about 70 degrees and sunny (actually warmer than our leaf walks usually are, but I'll not complain lest the snow come sooner, lol).

Noah opted to ride his bike while the rest of us walked...rake and camera in hand. We got there and began raking up our pile, taking turns with the rake while others floated leaves in the pond. As it turns out, we picked our day well...as a groundskeeper showed up with his leaf blower shortly after we'd begun. (There are various pediatric doctor and dentist offices just south of the pond.) He explained that he'd be mowing soon and was just blowing the leaves away from the edges first but that he wasn't planning to do the side where we were just yet. He then even helped us build our pile much bigger (man, leaf blowers are cool, lol). 

And, so, without further ado...pictures of our annual leaf walk (click on any of the images to view them larger)...

We started out with some jumping pictures, because that just seemed like a fun thing to do. ;)

 
Noah took this last shot (of me) but we're still working on our timing...so here I am, having just landed. ;) After that, and once our pile was large enough, the boys took turns burying each other and then dissolved into just throwing leaves at each other and everywhere:

And then we walked/biked around some more, just enjoying the fall colors, before heading for home:

And that was our annual leaf walk. ;) (The boys, though, have decided that we may need to take a couple more leaf walks this year...to hit some of their other favorite spots from previous years, lol. Who am I to argue?)

So, did you do anything fun on 10.10.10 earlier this month? I know I'm a bit late, but I did manage to snap a couple pictures (at 10:10 am) and even made a layout (the first I've finished in months!):

(click on the image to view it larger)

Yup, just a quick little list because it seemed like the thing to do. ;)