Guess it's time...

After reading our other family members' blogs for a few months, and getting pressure from other family members, we (Theresa) finally felt guilty enough to create a blog. It isn't that we don't recognize the convenience of posting pictures, etc., for anyone interested to see, it's more that we'll have to keep it up. But let's see how it goes.

This week saw Halloween AND Elijah losing his first tooth (at school, the best place to lose a tooth). Halloween is such a crazy time, getting costumes assembled and accessories in place, buying candy for the freeloaders- I mean, trick-or-treaters, getting kids ready for the several parties to which we are invited every year. This year, we had two parties that happened a full two weeks before Halloween, which helped me get in gear to get costumes finished early rather than at the last minute.

Since it's hard to see who is who in the group shot, Elijah is Bret Favre (Green Bay Packers- since we already owned the outfit, I got off easy this year), Amelia is GLITTER GIRL (a fashionable and glittery super hero of her own creation), and Ivy is a witch (timeless classic). We have several good friends that have kids our kids' ages, but live out of town, so they drive in to trick-or-treat with us. They also contribute big bags of candy, which is nice since we typically get 250 or more kids at the door each year. Their kids are the other kids in the photo.

This was the first year Elijah actually walked around town with us; in previous years he has done a block and then gone back to help Jordan hand out candy. He did well, especially considering Halloween this year was on a school day, including Halloween parties at the end of the day. So much fun for one day! I only have one "after" shot, but it says a lot. Amelia and her friend Christopher, resting in the wagon. Ahh, to be a kid on Halloween!

As usual, our town really goes crazy for Halloween. A local catering company made their entry into a fog-filled scary house with those portraits that change from people to skeletons when you walk by; the photo studio took pictures of each kid or group of kids and then gave away the prints later that night (must cost her hundreds of dollars); the old mill hosted a caramel apple assembly line for anyone that wanted one. And, of course, seeing all of our friends walking around, and several teachers and other people from school, which is always fun for the kids.

Perhaps related to candy eating (though it had been loose for weeks), Elijah lost his first tooth at school yesterday. He had been eating an apple and suddenly noticed a breeze on his tongue- looked at the apple, looked down at the table, then found his tooth on the floor! Whew. The tooth fairy came last night and gave him a book called, appropriately, Nice Try, Tooth Fairy. He inscribed it with all of the important information in his first grader handwriting, very cute.

Since this is our first post, I'll throw in a few older photos. Here is Elijah during a flag football game. He LOVED football and still wants to practice, even though the season ended the second week of October. They play wearing helmets, more like bike helmets than football helmets.

And the day before Halloween, kids were invited to come carve the hundred or so pumpkins to decorate the mill in town. Ivy and Amelia both carved some (I helped by scooping guts to get the pumpkins ready). Most of the kids there were Girl Scouts.

Finally, the girls and I participated in the Buddy Walk in early October, which is a walk to raise money for Down Syndrome awareness and research. I work with a baby that has Down Syndrome, and the girls helped me with a playgroup this summer and just loved him. He's got twin sisters that are 2, so mom definitely has her hands full. The weather was hot and sunny, somewhere around 90 degrees, so everyone looks hot and a bit worn out. We got around $100 in pledges, and it always feels good to get the kids involved in helping other people. (Wil, the baby in the carrier, is also the baby on Amelia's shirt.)