Zombies are sweeping the nation!

Originally, they were supposed to be simply a gypsy and a pirate. Somewhere along the way they became a zombie gypsy and a zombie pirate.


We had an absolute blast Friday night putting on a haunted house in our basement. Without Grandma and Grandpa's expertise and labor for the setup, it would not have been nearly as good. We had the requisite brains (spaghetti) and eyeballs (peeled grapes) in bowls and a real strobe light! Mark was a headless knife-wielder; Grandma a witch; Grandpa emerged from a dark lump on the floor and made scary faces in a flashlight; Max was a silent hooded figure holding a skull, and I was the freaky pumpkin-faced usher. I think we were successful in our scaring! I did hear a report from one of M4's friends that it was "totally awesome!" And the kids wanted to walk through repeatedly. That is success to me. We're just going to have to do it again!

Pumpkins!

No October would be complete without a visit to our local pumpkin farm. We go despite my irritation that the owner is a right-wing politician who has used questionable campaign tactics in the past. Not to mention the brochure mentions that all they do is for the glory of God. Really? Charging families $7 a head? And extra for the corn cannon?? (I'm having deja vu...did I complain about this last year??!) That's getting steep for a family of four for about an hour's worth of fun.

Well, the kids don't care about that stuff, y'know. And I try to behave in a bi-partisan fashion. I'll keep my mouth shut about the complicating factors until they're older. Especially because there is this really cool gigantic jumpy pillow thingy this year!! And the pumpkin catapult is still cool. I mean, pumpkin trebuchet (thanks for enlightening me, P and P!).


Children of the corn. (I had to make that joke.)
The cool jumpy thing.

Fall 2009 M3's camera, by Monica St. Angelo

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Chicago!

We had a great long weekend in Chicago! We visited the Bean (obviously a favorite...honestly, we could have taken pictures there all day...it just makes everyone happy! What an amazing piece of art!), Shedd Aquarium (where the kids were picked to pet a penguin), and the Field Museum. We had beautiful weather. We ate good food (although I won't wait in line for Eleven City Diner again...back to Dunkin Donuts next time! But Zapatista's...yum!). We got to stay at the Hilton Chicago (where Prez Obama spent election night and where there are two bathrooms in the rooms!). We only got to stay at the swanky Hilton because the official reason for the trip was Mark's Society for Neuroscience meeting. He did get to come to the aquarium and spend a reasonable amount of time with us, though.

As a bonus, we got to see Mark's college chum, Dave, and his awesome family twice; the kids and I spent a whole afternoon and evening with Steph from London; and the kids and I visited my great Aunt Doris on the way home. Even a short vacation is hard to come down from! Chicago rocks!

The Bean...where everyone is happy. I'm not even kidding!

Bean fun.
More Bean fun.
M and M silhouetted against part of the Crown Fountain.

Sue!! And M4's general feeling about the trip, I think.

12 years!

A few pics from our quick anniversary trip to Elkader, Iowa last weekend, which is reportedly the only city (um, town) named after a Muslim in the U.S. It is name after Abd el-Kader, a young Algerian hero who led his people in a resistance against French colonialism between 1830 and 1847. Go figure!! We ate Algerian food at Schera's, which has its own nice story.

The Motor Mill, which is in the process of being restored. The guy who ran the B&B we stayed at is very involved.

A friend we made at our lodgings.

Then bend in the Turkey River where the mill is located.

Lovely Northeast Iowa. The Mississippi is at the blue line on the horizon in this pic.

Hello winter?

We woke up this morning to this!! Can you top that, Mainers?

Swimming...

Earlier this year, M4 announced that he would like swimming lessons. Wha??!! Well, he had been getting much more comfortable in the water this summer and was even going UNDERWATER! So I was very thrilled to jump right on the bandwagon and hire a college girl to give the kids some lessons.

The first lesson went well...he actually did MUCH more than I expected. Except, toward the end, when she was having him "glide" from her to the wall, and he would get to within about a foot of the wall, I could see the look of terror in his eyes.

So guess what? Lesson #2? Hysterics...I mean, hysterical crying! Like, not-in-control-of-his-body sobbing. So we stopped that lesson early. The college girl looked so completely at a loss as to what to do with this behavior. (Ha ha!! Poor girl! Just a preview of your future life!)

Lesson #3 reportedly went OK (Dad took him). No hysterics despite M4's admittance to being nervous about it. In fact, when I was at his school one day, I noticed a worksheet the kids had filled out hanging on the wall. They had to complete this sentence, "I get butterflies in my stomach when...". M4's completion was, "...when I have swimming lessons."

Cut to lesson #4, this past Sunday. Things seemed fine, no hysterics. Afterward, what to my wondering ears should I hear but "I love swimming lessons!" and "This was the best day of my life!" and "Sometimes when you try something you don't really like it, but then you keep on trying and then you like it!" and continued assertions that "This is the most awesomest day of my life!!"

So even though he had negotiated for "only two more lessons," perhaps we can just keep swimming.