Halloween 2014

The kids have been anxiously awaiting halloween since it ended last year.  At some point this summer they decided to all be superheroes and they mostly stuck with it.  James decided a few days before that he wanted to be a ghost so he could shout "BOO" at people and scare them.  The compromise was that he be a superhero ghost... I was very thankful that Noah was a ghost two years ago so we had the costume on hand:) The boys insisted that Audrey wear the unicorn, but we were able to convince them that it would get dirty outside, so they agreed to leave it home after pictures.  The kids had a half a day of school so we had more time to celebrate.  We bobbed for apples and made caramel apple fondue.  It was beautiful weather for trick or treating without coats and we found the perfect neighborhood downtown to loop around.  All of the kids just loved trick or treating, even Audrey.  There were a few houses we tried to get her to skip so we didn't have to walk up to the house too, but she wouldn't have it.

Fall Happenings

The last few weeks of October have been spent watching James play basketball (the top picture is of Audrey eating her supper on the bleachers), a scarecrow festival downtown and more running. Two weekends ago Noah and I ran the 1st annual 5K trail run at Titcomb Mountain (our local ski "mountain").  This was pretty challenging for Noah (and me) because it was running on an unfamiliar hiking/mountain biking trail up one side of the mountain and down the other... plus it was fall and the leaves covering the wet ground made conditions less than ideal.... we both fell more than once:) He finished it though and was pretty proud of himself at the finish line.  Last weekend we ran in a more traditional 5K road race supporting the Fit Girls of Wilton club with a beautiful run along the lake.  This felt like a piece of cake compared to the previous race and Noah easily beat his previous best time by over a minute.  I don't think that it will be too long before he can out run me...

Last Sunday after church we checked the corn maze and pumpkin patch off our list for the fall and had a really fun time with friends trying to navigate the "big maze".  It did start raining, but not until we finished so we were very thankful for that! That night we got our pumpkins carved and are now ready for Halloween. 

Fall Harvest:)

It is a fine balance between digging the carrots up too early, and not having to break through the frozen earth to get them.  I also prefer not to have garden chores while wearing full winter gear... it takes the fun out of it.  We had, yet another, gorgeous fall day today, so after the bus came we headed to the garden.  I am not sure what else to say here besides that carrots are some of the coolest veggies.  We had so much fun digging all the carrots out and seeing what neat shapes or configurations they were in.  We spread the carrots all out in the driveway and I let the kids go wild spraying them down with the hose... they may have sprayed down each other as well... At the end everyone picked which carrot they thought was the "coolest"... Ben is unavailable for a picture here because it was his turn to spray the hose and he was not about to give that up:)

Apple Picking 2014

Just because life wasn't exciting enough we had to try and squeeze in a fall ritual we hadn't yet fulfilled;)  Mercifully, Gabe had the day after our return from California off, so we were able to have a low-key resting day at home.  Our flight back was fairly uneventful. Although, by the time we got everything together and took a cab to get our car, we didn't leave Boston until 11pm which put us home just before 3am.  Lucky for us, Pacific time was on our side.

The next day, although tired, it was so beautiful out, southern California weather to be exact, we just couldn't resist apple picking.  It was a good thing too, because there weren't many apples left on the trees.  Gabe is a tall guy so the kids loved being able to reach the high apples while he lifted them up. They ate their weight in apples and got to play with the chickens, so another year of apple picking success on the books... now for some sleep:)

National AAP Conference 2014

The conference was fantastic for both parents and kids... we will definitely attend this conference again! Gabe and I attended the conference during the day and even got the chance (3 days in a row!) to eat out at an actual restaurant in downtown San Diego without the kids... we are now hooked on mexican food... too bad the Farmington area has a complete lack of that!  During the days the kids were at a "kids camp" aka daycare and boy do they love it there.  By Monday I was starting to feel guilty about leaving them in childcare for 3 straight days so we went to pick them up after lunch and we were met with screaming, crying and pleading to not leave (from all of them)... lesson learned:)

On Saturday evening the "AAP experience" was aboard the USS Midway aircraft carrier.  Lots of great food, music and entertainment.  The boys found planes that looked like all of their favorite characters from the movie "Planes". It was an impressive ship and people were lined up down the street waiting to get in even when we were leaving at 9pm!

Sunday night we were lucky enough to be taken out to dinner by Rich and Nora Tando, cousins of Gabe's who live in San Diego.  We had another gorgeous sunset to admire at the top of a building downtown, then out for more delicious mexican grill!

Monday, afternoon (after everyone calmed down from the daycare removal) we got out to explore Balboa Park.  One of James' favorite parts was walking through the "desert" park with loads of cacti.
Tuesday morning, after packing up our things, we headed back downtown for breakfast outside and one last walk along the Pacific Ocean before heading back to the airport:)

Gabe and I were both really impressed with the conference, the course offerings and what we were able to talk back to practice.  Without going into excruciating detail, we would like to share a few highlights... On Sunday we got to hear Hillary Clinton give a talk about the partnership between the Clinton Foundation and the AAP regarding early childhood literacy and early exposure to reading and language... they are doing great things based on some impressive research about the "language gap" between children who have access to books/parents who talk to them and those who don't.

Probably what has stuck with us both was a talk by Rick Guidotti photographer and founder of "Positive Exposure".  He does some pretty amazing work to destigmatize various genetic conditions (ex. albanism, downs syndrome) and is revolutionizing the way these conditions are presented in medical education (and anywhere really) by incorporating the "human" side of the syndromes.  Check out his website here: http://positiveexposure.org