Halloween is here and you know what that means, right? Yep, Uncle Ben
gets his turn at the cake and spankings for his birthday. And there is
this little tradition where little one dresses up and then loots the
neighborhood with abandon.
It took Nicholas a bit to get into the swing of how this Halloween
thing works...though his idea of trick-or-treat seems to be giving a
shy smile to his intended donors...otherwise known as marks.
But he figured it out quickly enough at the second house we visited
(we were only visiting a few of Grammy's neighbors that we knew), he
was definitely into this gimme thing.
He was good enough at it that at one house, he had started working a
steady stream of Reese's cups into his plastic pumpkin, much to
Daddy's delight. Unfortunately, that gravy train came to a screeching
halt after the second one hit the bottom of his bucket...and Daddy is
still in tears about that. Well, not really. But Reese's cups
do rock... :)
By this time, we were pulling into PumpkinLand in front of
Mr. Fitzpatrick's house. Grammy and her neighbors tend to put on a heck
of a show for various holidays and Mr. Fitzpatrick seems to be the king
of them. There isn't much of his front yard that didn't have ghouls and
ghosts and Daddy's favorite, Witchypoo whose landing techniques needs a
bit of work.
But the best treats of all are at Grammy's house and Nicholas was pleased
to get a nice battery operated car rather than the usual candy handouts
(Grammy's house is the house to hit...multiple times if you can get away
with it!). :)
So the question is now, what will Nicholas dress as next year? Only the
shadow knows... ;)P
Ah, Halloween is fast approaching and today's fun was to carve the
pumpkin that would stand guard on Grammy's doorstep. It's also Aunt
Meghann's birthday so big shout out for a happy birthday to you!
Anyway...this is the sort of task that you just have to take lots of
pictures because the words just don't do the event justice. Mommy
drew the face on the pumpkin (because until we know what Nicholas'
drawing talents turn out to be, she's pretty much the only one who can
draw worth a darn...and if you thought her freehand Pooh mural was cool,
just wait until you see what is planned for the bedrooms this time round!).
One cap surgically removed later and our boy was armed with
Mighty Scooping Spoon...otherwise known as Excalibur, granted
him by the Lady of the Leaves to strike terror in pumpkin seeds
and innocent bystanders everywhere!
With a mighty wave of his spoon, he started scooping with abandon.
Some ended up in the catching bowl, most of it ended up on him. And a
happier person you would never see. Excalibur was soon discarded for
the fun of grabbing pumpking guts directly. But attention spans being
what they are, it was time to pass the scoop to Daddy to finish the
guts of the pumpkin and Mommy did a bang-up job on the carving as you
can see.
I think we've got a real winner there!
Want to play a little game? Try imagining the worst day you can...bad
news in the morning, nothing seeming to go right in the afternoon, and
finally giving way to utter frustration by the evening. It's one of
those days that you're hard-pressed to remember why in the world you
bothered listening to that annoying alarm clock that woke you up
WAAAAAAAAAY too early for a 55-mile drive to work where you find
many projects waiting for you and plenty of people to ensure you don't
get much of anything done.
You know...it's one of those days that you just wished you'd heeded your
better instincts, rolled over, pulled the covers back over your head,
and went back to sleep.
OK, got the picture in your mind's eye?
Now imagine walking through the door after a long drive back after dealing
with a day like that and seeing one of the prettiest smiles you'll ever
see. Then you hear that very distinctive laugh when you tickle him..and
if you're lucky, you're going to get one of the best hugs you can imagine.
It's hard to remember at that point just how sucky a day it was.
To be honest, whether it was a good day or a lousy one, I've found that
I really look forward to that moment where he first sees either Mommy or
I come through the door. There's just a sparkle that hits those beautiful
eyes that he just can't hide if he wanted to. There is something really
magical about that moment and anticipating it for the last few miles on
the road is a delicious feeling indeed.
But the best thing is that no matter how lousy a day you've had, you're
coming home to someone who loves you unconditionally. That's the sort
of thing that would be worth crawling over miles of broken glass just
to see that smile and feel that love again.
Thank you Nicholas...you truly are a wonderful son.
What an amazing difference a year can make. Last year, we rather wheeled
Nicholas about in his stroller and he still fit in the drop-in baby
carrier. This year, we still had the stroller but we also had a much
bigger boy to cart round the place.
As is our custom, we went on the day where you can donate a few cans and
get free admission. Food Lion has taken the sponsorship of that away
from Winn-Dixie and from what we could see, they were doing quite well
filling those 53' trailers full of cans for our less-fortunate friends.
I rather agree with Harry Chapin that hunger in a country as abundant
as ours should have been a thing of the past. So our donations duly
made (with some extras for people without cans), it was time to visit
the fair on a very overcast day.
The clouds may have been out in force but that sure didn't dampen our
spirits. The fair means rides, pigging out on fair food (which ranges
from fair to bonzer), and just generally having a good time
away from work and the concerns of the world.
Nicholas got to ride for the first time...he went on the spinning bears
ride, the carousel (where he held on for dear life as the operator was
running the thing at Mach 1.5!), the flying helicopters, and the spinning
tea cups. But where I think he had the most fun was the pony ride and
the petting zoo.
Yep, the same petting zoo where people were diagnosed with E.coli
because they couldn't obey the signs printed in 72 point type telling
them to wash their hands at the Purell stations just outside of the
exhibit. Not that I would wish E.coli on anyone, but gee...read
the signs, will ya? None of that fazed Nicholas in the slightest...he
waded in amongst the animals with utter abandon. I couldn't help but
laugh when this rather prissy pre-teen was complaining about being scared
of the goats and here is Nicholas (much younger!) chasing them and if
challenged, challenging them right back. The boy just doesn't have any
fear. He chased goats, stared camels in the eye, and made friends with
the llamas. If he could have stayed in there for two or three hours, he
probably would have.
At that point, the rains started and we managed to duck into the
Butcher Boys shack for dinner. With the obligatory funnel cake
dessert, it was time to make the long trek to the tram that would take
us to the Escape on the other side of Carter-Finley for the drive back
to Zebulon. And I assure you, we were tired and utterly stuffed...if
you can imagine Templeton the Rat (from Charlotte's Web) after
his forays into the buffet that was the county fair, then you know just
how we were feeling. We don't remember much more than that other than
having pleasant dreams of our time at the Fairgrounds.