Step Two: Put on your gloves.
Step Three: Holds hands
Step Four: Pose for pictures.
Step Five: Grab a pumpkin.
Step Six: Ring some doorbells.
Step Seven: Enjoy the spoils of your efforts
Athena's school, instead of celebrating Halloween, had an "International Day." Each child was suppose to arrive at school dressed representing their culture or heritage.
At first we were a little baffled, how do you dress Canadian? Can Californian be considered a heritage? We considered reprising Grandma L's "Irish" stew, but then settled on Greek. We had a Greek shirt already and everyone thinks Athena is Greek anyway...
Here she is proudly celebrating her Greek "heritage" with a flag she made herself in the Children's Parade of Nationalities, right next to a pretty cute Viking:
The whole day was absolutely adorable. Each class sang a song. When Athena's turn came up she froze a bit and just stood there as if she didn't know the words. But it was cute anyway.
We went pumpkin picking today, which basically consisted of driving many miles to find a specific "farm" (aka a couple of acres with pumpkins lying about) that specializes in picking your own.
We passed by several roadside vegetable stands, Farmer's markets and even a Pumpkin Festival, all overflowing with pumpkins, in search of this photo op...
Athena was fascinated, at first, especially by the laying out of the tools and plastic, picking the image, preparing the pumpkin and carving out the top.
She refused to be involved with the cleaning of the insides however ("No Mommy, I get all dirty"). When the carving itself took longer than five minutes. She totally lost interest.
A black marker and smaller pumpkin kept her busy and she proceeded to color every reachable inch of the pumpkin's surface. She's very thorough with her art.
Zoe woke up from her nap and looked on with amazement as she ate her apples.
The final results! Cool pumpkins and happy toddler.
My oh my, it is beautiful today. So beautiful, that we had to hurry through lunch, get the baby dressed, freshly diapered and wiped down, change Athena out of her school clothes, put on our shoes and kitty boots, grab our hoodies, get beverages, unearth the jogging stroller from the growing debris in the garage and get outside. But it was worth it.
My photos don't do justice. Just imagine warm sun, a strong cool breeze and the rustle of leaves on changing trees and floating in the air above your head.
We also found some puddles.
Two
and
Jump!
Splash!
...and repeat.
When I was growing up, I always drew pictures of Mimi, mostly to annoy her. Interestingly, Athena has chosen Mimi as one of her artistic subjects too (second only to Daddys and possibly, kitties). I just left her laying down for a nap with her magic erase board thingy, telling me "Firss I draw picture Mimi, THEN I go nap." Maybe it's the red hair...
A full day of family, good friends, happy children, party hats, cake, great food, no naps, tons of presents, meltdowns, balloons, missing Mimi, tree climbing, sidewalk chalk, digging for worms, pumpkins and webcam technical difficulties.
Sarah, Jonathan and family were there, Uncle Stu was an amazing baby entertainer, Poppop and YiaYia, Gina and Christina, Bonnie and Carlos, and my wonderful family from Quebec who cooked, cleaned and entertained.
Zoe had no interest in her cake, other than touching in with a couple of fingers and smearing it in her hair. She did not eat a bite, so the classic picture of baby covered in cake was not possible. She was soooo tired, and feel deeply asleep after cake and presents. During her nap, the frosting in her hair solidified so tht she woke up looking like an 80's rocker.
