Trick or Treat

We had the most excellent Halloween!

Anthony started off with a pre-breakfast snack of candycorn that he found in his goody-bag from daycare yesterday. (Mommy and Daddy were pretending to sleep and he was keeping himself occupied in our room.)

Lunchtime one of our neighbor's hosted a Halloween party for our block. There are THIRTY kids on our block alone. Twenty boys and ten girls, how's that for balance?? (Not everyone made it to the party but it was quite a crowd.) Anthony had a lot of fun eating the playdough!

After nap Ciaran came over for playtime before trick-or-treat. He stayed for dinner and Robert and his family joined us as well. Then we all went trick-or-treating together. Robert was a fireman (he soundly rejected his lion costume), Claire was an Astronaut and Ciaran was a pumpkin. Anthony, of course, was the scarecrow again. He enjoyed wearing his costume and even wore his hat!

Anthony caught on to trick-or-treat FAST. He walked right up to the door, said "trick treat" and was happy to help himself to candy out of the bowl. He knew EXACTLY what that stuff was. It was a challenge to keep it in the bag the whole night. He was so much fun!

Halloween at Hiller

Tonight we went up to the Hiller Aviation Museum for their annual Halloween party. First up we made a balsa-wood airplane that Anthony had tons of fun flying. We went outside to watch the airplanes come and go for awhile. Then we went back in to enjoy the museum itself. Top picture is Bob giving Anthony a ride in the airplane simulator.

At 6:30 the witch made her grand arrival by helicopter. Bob and Anthony went out early to get a prime spot on the observation platform. The helicopter made a few passes, the witch dropped a pumpkin out on the second one. It went SPLAT!

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but Bob and Anthony were pretty much captivated by the helicopter. When it landed with the witch, everyone else went running to greet her. My boys stayed put to watch the helicopter.

Halloween is coming!

Anthony was SO EXCITED to wear his Halloween costume to daycare today. He pretty much went bonkers when I got him dressed. Pictures don't quite do him justice--he's the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Tomorrow for trick-or-treat he will have straw (raffia) around his waist, too.

Yes, I made his costume myself. Except for the leg patches I'm pretty darn happy with how it came out.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow!

We've been Ghost-ed

The air is cool, the season fall,
Soon Halloween will come to all.
With ghosts and goblins, spooks galore,
Trick-or-treaters at the door.

The spooks are after things t do.
In fact, a spook brought this to you.
The treats that came with this short note
are yours to keep. Enjoy them both.

Excitement grows when friends like you
Will copy it and make it two.
Neighbors will have smilin gfaces;
No one can guess who "Ghost-ed" which places.

A day or two to work you spell,
But keep it secret! Hide it well!
Join in the fun; the season's here.
So spread these "Ghosts" and spread the cheer.

Doorbell rang this evening. No one was there but there was a treat bag, some artwork to hang in our window and this note!

I've got two neighbors in mind to pass this on to!

"I push W..."

Little dude did NOT get a very good report card from daycare yesterday. Basically, he would squeeze W really hard and tight and then push him away. Mama was NOT pleased.

At dinner he talked about his friends. Well, he says their names, he doesn't give detailed reports yet. I believe he said that W cried. I asked him if he cried because he was pushed and Anthony didn't confirm.

Today at dinner he said, "I push W." He said that many times. We talked about not pushing, being kind to our friends, etc. Something tells me it will be awhile before that lesson is learned.

In the past Anthony was usually the victim of the pushing/hitting. I think I preferred it that way!

10-29-09

Edited to add:

Little dude had a good report card from school today. He and W played nicely together.

Caramel Apple Party

Today we got together with a bunch of neighbors for a caramel apple making party. We were inspired by our neighbor's tree that was full off apples! The event started off with a mass apple picking. Each person made between 2 and 3 apples. I bought Mercken's caramel for dipping and we went through 7.5 pounds! As you can see from the bottom picture, Kathryn provided a great variety of toppings.

Anthony wasn't too impressed with the caramel at first. I think he just thought it was sticky. It wasn't too long before he was eating every last bit off his plate!

This was pretty much the weekend of parties. Saturday was Jack's (daycare friend) fifth birthday party. Sunday morning was a playdate to celebrate Robert's birthday and then in the afternoon was the caramel apple making party. Halloween weekend will be similarly packed!

Airplane Crazy

Anthony has turned into a little airplane nut. Our plan for the pumpkin patch visit last Saturday was to fly down there as a semi-caravan with the Donahues (who were leaving from a different airport.) We drove to Reid-Hillview and Anthony was SO EXCITED to help Daddy pre-flight the airplane. He helped with the chains, helped chock (and un-chock) the wheels... He pointed at the different parts of the plane that he knows (wing, tail) and was just a little bundle of fun. (Bob was so excited at Anthony's glee, but that's a different story.) Unfortunately, the clouds were coming IN as we were pre-flighting so we decided to scrub the flight and drive instead.

Poor Anthony was pretty much crushed. We encouraged him to say bye-bye to the various airplanes and the airport as we drove away. He still cried, though. Then when we passed the south county airport the crying started up again. I promised him that he and Daddy would have an airplane excursion together soon.

Dinosaur Counting Starts with One

One tattered teddy bear, just for fun.

I believe that he is starting to understand that we count actual "things", too. Yesterday Anthony counted up all 3 pumpkins.

Pumpking Slingshot

The big boys (with Claire's help) took their hand at the Pumpkin Slingshot. For their first try they used a pumpkin, but Sarah and I conned them into using a watermelon for their second attempt as it smashes better. They hit the target dead-on with the watermelon. (It wasn't actually that far away.) Everyone cheered, though!

Maybe next time they can shoot ears of corn out the cannon.

Pumpkin Pictures

We didn't get a picture of Anthony leaving teeth marks in Robert's pumpkin, however, Elly got this shot!

Pumpkin Patch

Today we took Anthony to the pumpkin patch at Swank Farms. Robert's family instigated the outing and Ciaran and his parents joined us too. It was a lot of fun. Each kid liked something different--Claire liked grinding the corn, Ciaran REALLY liked the "corn box", like a sand box, but different. I'm not sure what Anthony's favorite was, probably the pumpkins themselves. For Robert is was the John Deere riding mower (child sized and child propelled) hands-down. For the big boys (Bob and Paul) it was the pumpkin sling-shot, see a later blog post.

Other activities included a petting zoo, "fishing for goats" with stalks of corn, a corn maze and of course, a bounce house.

2 Year Check-up

On Monday Anthony had his two year check-up. Doctor Babcock was very pleased with how he's doing. Key things: he can scribble in circles in addition to just making marks (we scribbled all over our vaccine paperwork while we were waiting for the doctor), he uses 2-3 word sentences, he uses a fork and knive some....

He weighed in at 27.5 pounds and 34 inches on the big kid scale. I thought he was taller than that so they re-measured him lying down which is more accurate and he came in at 35" which is 60th percentile. (40% for weight). I don't really believe that he really weighs that much--he was fully clothed and was probably having a heavy moment.

He got his flu shot and another Hepatitis A shot. We'll go back for H1N1 when they have that vaccine.

Another random milestone--Anthony can count to TEN!

Pancake Party

Last Sunday was the Warner's annual "Pancakes in the Park". We've gone every year, I believe this is #6. Anthony LOVES pancakes and was very excited about the idea of a pancake party. He ate 3 or 4 of Lee's famous pancakes, rode a tricycle over the bumps in the road and got stung by a bee. The bee sting was not as much fun as the rest of the day. Even worse, it took Mommy and Daddy a long time to understand why he was screaming. Miss Karyn made a special ice pack for Anthony to put on his wrist, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Well, that's not entirely true, he liked waving it around and he LOVED putting it on Mr. Patrick's head.

Double Trouble

Yesterday afternoon we went over to Ciaran's house for a playdate. The boys had so much fun playing together. Whatever one did, the other had to do too. Notice the twin snack-traps and that each boy has an animal. In addition to Anthony teaching Ciaran how to get through the gates to get into the living room, they played peek-a-boo in the curtains and the closet, jumped on the bed and had some art time. It was so much fun watching them giggle together!

Roller Coaster

My latest Craig's list find is the Step2 Roller Coaster. Anthony seemed to enjoy it this evening. Tomorrow his pal Robert is coming over to fight over it, whoops, I meant play!

The pile of plastic to the left is his new playhouse, also from Craig's list. Bob had to really disassemble it to get it home. Hopefully it will be put together next weekend.

When he brought all this home, Bob commented that the Green Peace folks are going to hate us. I disagree--we are re-using it, and when we are done, we'll pass it right on! The plastic cr** lasts forever! Literally.

Party?? Cake??

Those are the words Anthony greeted me with the other day. I don't know if he was talking about friends' parties at daycare or if he knew that his own was coming.

Since Anthony is two, he had two friends over for a little birthday party. His two best pals, Robert and Ciaran came over and played with all our toys and had cupcakes. It was a nice time although I was worried that Anthony wasn't going to wake up from his nap in time to play! Fortunately he woke up in a good mood. All the boys enjoyed the cupcakes. I'm sure their moms are thrilled with the amount of (no-taste) red food-coloring they ingested. I made Elmo cupcakes and Anthony recognized them instantly!