I had been looking for it this week. So it was with great interest that I watched this year's edition of Jimmy Kimmel annual stunt, “I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy.”
This year's video actually features a lot of sweet kids who take the news in stride -- which may restore your faith in the idea that not all of this generation's children are bratty snobs who stomp their feet or throw squealing tantrums when something doesn't go their way. If only are nation's leaders would take that cue.
Conscious discipline works.
Enjoy the video.
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
11.03.2018
10.31.2017
Happy Halloween!
Oh, man, we have a Game 7.
The sweetest and most anticipated game of a baseball season. It would be wrong to have it any other way after this season, this postseason and this series.
And after this night.
We did the whole trick-or-treating thing tonight -- for the second consecutive night. The 'Ville has a unique trick-or-treating culture in that the community and the university step up big time to provide kids and their families with safe and fun environments to do the traditional dress-up and candy collecting stuff -- which renders the traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating almost pointless.
We spent Saturday at a farm outside of town that opens each fall as a Halloween-season wonderland with a large pumpkin patch, corn maze and a load of kid-friendly activities that include rubber duck races, a huge slide, pumpkin bowling and mini train rides. This year there was an air gun that the girls especially enjoyed, shooting tennis balls at targets posted at various distances across the field. ... We spent so much time there Saturday afternoon and had so much fun that we skipped our annual trip to the trick-or-treating and haunted campground tour at the city's recreation area.
Last night was the annual downtown trick-or-treat. Kates packed the girls' costumes in their backpacks when we left the house yesterday morning for school. They changed into the costumes after the school day, we rushed from our respective places and met in the church parking lot at 5 p.m. to join the downtown crowd. For the downtown trick-or-treat, the city's square is sprawling with activity as all of the businesses open their front doors and invite children to step inside for candy and treats. A police and fire departments park their vehicles along the streets and hand out goodies. Mascot greet children and pose for pictures at the corners. Last night temperatures in the 40s made it easily the coldest one we've done, but the girls were troopers and would have visited several more businesses had Kates and I not forced them to cut some corners and stay on one side of the road at times.
And that brings me to tonight -- trick-or-treating in the university residence halls. It's another fun Halloween event that we took forward to each fall when the students on campus open their doors and hand out candy to the visiting children. Some of them even dress up, and it's fun to see them "awww" at the kids' costumes as they walk the halls and visit each room for candy. But after an hour or so of trick-or-treating -- and their classroom parties during the school day, not to mention the trick-or-treating Monday night -- the girls were done. The feet were getting heavier. The tears were starting to flow. And I was frustrated that they wouldn't pose for me to take a photo of them in their classrooms.
They were mermaids this year. Kates' mom crocheted mermaid tails for each of the them that were open at the feet but designed the fins so they covered their shoes. They had matching bikinis tops and crocheted flowers to place in their hair as well. Kates got matching pink shirts for both girls to wear. And they were adorable. But no picture.
Suffice to say, I could hardly wait to get them to bed so I could hide away to watch Game 6 and hope for a Dodgers win.
And they came through. Say all you want about Justin Verlander -- I agree, he's one of the greatest pitchers of his era and I enjoy watching him -- but the Dodgers got to him in Game 2, and I was confident going in the Dodgers could get to him tonight.
Then Chase Utley -- one of my favorite players of this generation, I'm really disappointed he hasn't seen more playing time this series -- was hit by a pitch, and Chris Taylor -- who has seemed to come up with so many key hits in this series -- Taylor hit the game-tying double. Corey Seager hit a huge sacrifice fly to score Utley. The Dodgers -- with some fine glove work by Cody Bellinger -- went on to win 3-1 and all was swell.
Good reads ...
The sweetest and most anticipated game of a baseball season. It would be wrong to have it any other way after this season, this postseason and this series.
And after this night.
We did the whole trick-or-treating thing tonight -- for the second consecutive night. The 'Ville has a unique trick-or-treating culture in that the community and the university step up big time to provide kids and their families with safe and fun environments to do the traditional dress-up and candy collecting stuff -- which renders the traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating almost pointless.
We spent Saturday at a farm outside of town that opens each fall as a Halloween-season wonderland with a large pumpkin patch, corn maze and a load of kid-friendly activities that include rubber duck races, a huge slide, pumpkin bowling and mini train rides. This year there was an air gun that the girls especially enjoyed, shooting tennis balls at targets posted at various distances across the field. ... We spent so much time there Saturday afternoon and had so much fun that we skipped our annual trip to the trick-or-treating and haunted campground tour at the city's recreation area.
Last night was the annual downtown trick-or-treat. Kates packed the girls' costumes in their backpacks when we left the house yesterday morning for school. They changed into the costumes after the school day, we rushed from our respective places and met in the church parking lot at 5 p.m. to join the downtown crowd. For the downtown trick-or-treat, the city's square is sprawling with activity as all of the businesses open their front doors and invite children to step inside for candy and treats. A police and fire departments park their vehicles along the streets and hand out goodies. Mascot greet children and pose for pictures at the corners. Last night temperatures in the 40s made it easily the coldest one we've done, but the girls were troopers and would have visited several more businesses had Kates and I not forced them to cut some corners and stay on one side of the road at times.
And that brings me to tonight -- trick-or-treating in the university residence halls. It's another fun Halloween event that we took forward to each fall when the students on campus open their doors and hand out candy to the visiting children. Some of them even dress up, and it's fun to see them "awww" at the kids' costumes as they walk the halls and visit each room for candy. But after an hour or so of trick-or-treating -- and their classroom parties during the school day, not to mention the trick-or-treating Monday night -- the girls were done. The feet were getting heavier. The tears were starting to flow. And I was frustrated that they wouldn't pose for me to take a photo of them in their classrooms.
They were mermaids this year. Kates' mom crocheted mermaid tails for each of the them that were open at the feet but designed the fins so they covered their shoes. They had matching bikinis tops and crocheted flowers to place in their hair as well. Kates got matching pink shirts for both girls to wear. And they were adorable. But no picture.
Suffice to say, I could hardly wait to get them to bed so I could hide away to watch Game 6 and hope for a Dodgers win.
And they came through. Say all you want about Justin Verlander -- I agree, he's one of the greatest pitchers of his era and I enjoy watching him -- but the Dodgers got to him in Game 2, and I was confident going in the Dodgers could get to him tonight.
For five innings, Verlander was awful hard on the Dodgers. Yasiel Puig's single in the second gave them their only baserunner in that span, and George Springer's solo shot in the third seemed as if it might stand as the only run the Astros would need.
But then came Austin Barnes' at-bat to start the sixth. When he worked the count to 2-0, it was just the fifth time all night that a Dodgers hitter had been in an advantageous count. And Barnes took advantage by anticipating that run and ride, staying on top of the 94-mph four-seamer that came his way and smacking it to left for a leadoff single.
Then Chase Utley -- one of my favorite players of this generation, I'm really disappointed he hasn't seen more playing time this series -- was hit by a pitch, and Chris Taylor -- who has seemed to come up with so many key hits in this series -- Taylor hit the game-tying double. Corey Seager hit a huge sacrifice fly to score Utley. The Dodgers -- with some fine glove work by Cody Bellinger -- went on to win 3-1 and all was swell.
Good reads ...
- The Dodgers Overcame Justin Verlander's "Unicorn" Fastball to Force World Series Game 7
- 7 Can't Wait: A Hollywood Ending
10.29.2015
World Series off night trick-or-treating
We spent our off night of the World Series trick-or-treating tonight. Although, we almost didn’t get out the door.
Tonight was the night we’ve looked forward to for the last few Octobers. On the Thursday night before Halloween, The ‘Ville’s downtown businesses host a downtown trick-or-treat and the campus residence halls open their doors to let children knock on students’ hall doors for candy.
I arrived home from work ahead of 5 p.m., ready to meet the girls and head downtown. But they didn’t walk through the door until after 5:30 p.m. And saying they were a little crabby is an understatement.
Phoebe was in the most foul mood of all and wanted no part of putting on the fairy costume her Grandma S made for her. Many tears and kicking ensued, stoking memories of the infamous Homecoming Day meltdown years ago.
I tried to negotiate, pitching the idea of going to the Student Union for dinner. But Phoebe still refused to wear her costume.
Phoebe and I went for another round while Kates and Faye boarded the car in the garage. Finally I got her to go if I allowed her take one of her teddy bears. And I swiped her costume from the kitchen table on our way to the door, telling Phoebe I was bringing it in case she changed her mind.
So we skipped the downtown trick-or-treating and finally arrived at the Student Union to eat around 6:20. There, the girls continued to bicker and whine – which further frustrated Kates and I who barely ate anything. And we had gone to the all-you-care-to-eat dining area, so we hardly got our money’s worth.
And then, as we walked to the car, Phoebe had a change of heart. The clouds parted, a rainbow broke through, and suddenly she wanted to put on her costume to go trick-or-treating.
We got the picture of the girls together in their Fairy dresses. They filled their Halloween baskets with candy. Erase the hour or so between the time they arrived home from school and the time we exited the Student Union and we had a really great time.
In the meantime, us Royals fans are still feeling pretty good about our 2-0 lead and anxiously awaiting tomorrow night’s Game 3. We’re a fanbase caught between the impossible and entirely possible.
The Kansas City Star’s Sam Mellinger notes that in six of the Royals' nine playoff wins, Kansas City has trailed in the fifth inning or later. “It's more than heart.”
And The Star’s Rustin Dodd writes about how the Royals’ frenzied hitting attack sank Mets ace Jacob deGrom last night.
Tonight was the night we’ve looked forward to for the last few Octobers. On the Thursday night before Halloween, The ‘Ville’s downtown businesses host a downtown trick-or-treat and the campus residence halls open their doors to let children knock on students’ hall doors for candy.
I arrived home from work ahead of 5 p.m., ready to meet the girls and head downtown. But they didn’t walk through the door until after 5:30 p.m. And saying they were a little crabby is an understatement.
Phoebe was in the most foul mood of all and wanted no part of putting on the fairy costume her Grandma S made for her. Many tears and kicking ensued, stoking memories of the infamous Homecoming Day meltdown years ago.
I tried to negotiate, pitching the idea of going to the Student Union for dinner. But Phoebe still refused to wear her costume.
Phoebe and I went for another round while Kates and Faye boarded the car in the garage. Finally I got her to go if I allowed her take one of her teddy bears. And I swiped her costume from the kitchen table on our way to the door, telling Phoebe I was bringing it in case she changed her mind.
So we skipped the downtown trick-or-treating and finally arrived at the Student Union to eat around 6:20. There, the girls continued to bicker and whine – which further frustrated Kates and I who barely ate anything. And we had gone to the all-you-care-to-eat dining area, so we hardly got our money’s worth.
And then, as we walked to the car, Phoebe had a change of heart. The clouds parted, a rainbow broke through, and suddenly she wanted to put on her costume to go trick-or-treating.
We got the picture of the girls together in their Fairy dresses. They filled their Halloween baskets with candy. Erase the hour or so between the time they arrived home from school and the time we exited the Student Union and we had a really great time.
* * *
When the World Series comes to town, everyone talks about baseball. Everyone wears baseball on their shirts, baseball in their eyes. They sit next to you, waiting for you to bring up baseball, unless they snap and bring baseball up first. On the flight into the city, there are announcements about baseball. Driving into the city, there are baseball billboards, baseball banners, electronic traffic signs that end with messages about baseball. The walls of the city are festooned with baseball. The people are mad about baseball. Everything is baseball.
It's a living, delightfully suffocating experience. The deeper you dig, the more you realize there's nothing like it. It shows up unexpectedly where you live. It's about you. It's about the people around you. It's about where you live, happening right there. It's unambiguously good. It's all anyone can talk about, unless they're talking about the plans they're making around it.
There's nothing like it. When an entire section of the country can't stop talking about the same thing, it's always a tragedy or awful story. The happy, fun things are shared on social media until the next happy, fun things come along, but they're mostly disposable. There isn't a wellspring of this this this for everyone to enjoy at the same time, all around you, completely unavoidable.
When the World Series comes to town, everyone is sure thinking about the World Series.
The Kansas City Star’s Sam Mellinger notes that in six of the Royals' nine playoff wins, Kansas City has trailed in the fifth inning or later. “It's more than heart.”
This is not a fluke as much as it is the amplification of a season-long trend. The Royals had 41 comeback wins in the regular season. No American League team had more.
Comebacks are stacking on top of comebacks, enough that Royals manager Ned Yost comes up blank when asked his most memorable comeback before last year’s Wild Card Game.
And The Star’s Rustin Dodd writes about how the Royals’ frenzied hitting attack sank Mets ace Jacob deGrom last night.
As Kauffman Stadium pulsates and the cool breeze blows through this old stadium, the Royals’ offense can feel a little like a technically sound prize fighter, quietly dismantling an opponent. There is the consistent jab, the precise touch, the perfectly crafted right hook. Inside the Royals’ clubhouse, they call this display “frenzy hitting,” a never-ending line of hard contact and rattling bats and balls in play. …Meanwhile the national analysts are going crazy, overthinking the Royals. I find it funny and annoying. … Baseball is a game with millions of variables. The Royals are winning the game right now. Get over it.
If this World Series was supposed to be a referendum on the Mets’ power arms versus the Royals’ hum-drum attack, the early verdict suggests a precision knockout for Kansas City. In two games, the Royals have stared down deGrom and right-hander Matt Harvey, the Mets’ two front-line horses. In two games, the Royals have struck out just four times against Harvey and deGrom while nicking the starters for seven earned runs in 11 innings.
The Kansas City Royals are the sort of team you find yourself trying to come up with excuses for why they just beat you, because you can't make sense of it otherwise. Everybody always thinks they're better than the Royals. Last year, the A's were more versatile, the Angels had more star power and front-line starting pitching, the Orioles had more home run thunder. Same thing this year: The Astros were younger and more new school (and came closer than anyone to beating Kansas City), the Blue Jays were too strong and too cool and too ready and the Mets, man, those Mets pitchers were just gonna blow them away.Game on.
The Royals' postseason record against those teams, after their 7-1 World Series Game 2 win on Wednesday night? 17-4. 17-4!
10.31.2014
Happy Halloween!
No trick-or-treating for us tonight, though. See, one of the unique things of living in The ‘Ville is that the community does such a great job of offering family-friendly trick-or-treating activities that doing the traditional door-to-door candy begging on Halloween is an afterthought and almost unnecessary in these parts. ... Our doorbell rang just twice tonight, and we live on a fairly prominent residential street.
On the Saturday evening before Halloween, families flock to the lake and campground outside of town to trick-or-treat, collecting candy from all the RV campers – some of which turn their campsites into elaborate haunts. This was the first year since making the move here that Kates and I were unable to take our girls because of another commitment.
But we made up for it last night. First, there was the downtown trick-or-treating, which invites families to visit businesses on the town square for candy and other goodies. The churches participate by offering free games and prizes, and the Elks Club hands out free hot dogs fresh off the grill.
From the square, we headed to campus for the annual Trick-or-Treat in the Halls. Students in the university’s residence halls sign up to participate and then open their doors to hand out candy to any little ones who visit between the hours of 6 and 8.
It was a gorgeous evening to be out and we had great fun – perhaps the most fun of all our Halloweens with the girls so far.
And this year, Phoebe went as Elsa from “Frozen,” and Faye went as her trusty companion, Olaf.
Phoebe, of course, decided months ago that she would dress as Elsa, and Grandma S. awesomely replicated the famous dress for her.
Faye’s fate as Olaf was sealed only a few weeks ago when Kates was doing some shopping and spotted the Olaf costume. When we shared it with Faye, she was all in and wore it adorably.
We were showered with “Awwwww” around every corner we turned with the girls last night, especially by all the college girls in university residence halls.
Of course – as this is the year of “Frozen” – we passed dozens of other little ones dressing up as “Frozen” characters, especially girls in Elsa dresses. It was no wonder that once I posted a picture of the girls in their costumes on Facebook that a friend of ours posted a reply of “And drink,” implying that she was playing a drinking game based on the number of pictures posted of children in “Frozen” costumes.
But I must say, of all the “Frozen” costumes we saw, Phoebe and Faye wore them best, by far .Jimmy Kimmel offered this reaction to all of this year’s “Frozen” costumes.
This morning, we all went out once more, joining Faye and her daycare group for trick-or-treating at the hospital. Phoebe and Kates didn't have school, and I took a couple hours away from my work, so all of us could share in the fun. ... What fun it was, and Faye filled her little plastic bag so full it was almost too heavy for her to carry.
(Updated 11.04.2014)
It wouldn’t be a post-Halloween without Jimmy Kimmel also showing parents pretending they stole they ate all of their kids’ candy.
On the Saturday evening before Halloween, families flock to the lake and campground outside of town to trick-or-treat, collecting candy from all the RV campers – some of which turn their campsites into elaborate haunts. This was the first year since making the move here that Kates and I were unable to take our girls because of another commitment.
But we made up for it last night. First, there was the downtown trick-or-treating, which invites families to visit businesses on the town square for candy and other goodies. The churches participate by offering free games and prizes, and the Elks Club hands out free hot dogs fresh off the grill.
From the square, we headed to campus for the annual Trick-or-Treat in the Halls. Students in the university’s residence halls sign up to participate and then open their doors to hand out candy to any little ones who visit between the hours of 6 and 8.
It was a gorgeous evening to be out and we had great fun – perhaps the most fun of all our Halloweens with the girls so far.
And this year, Phoebe went as Elsa from “Frozen,” and Faye went as her trusty companion, Olaf.Phoebe, of course, decided months ago that she would dress as Elsa, and Grandma S. awesomely replicated the famous dress for her.
Faye’s fate as Olaf was sealed only a few weeks ago when Kates was doing some shopping and spotted the Olaf costume. When we shared it with Faye, she was all in and wore it adorably.
We were showered with “Awwwww” around every corner we turned with the girls last night, especially by all the college girls in university residence halls.
Of course – as this is the year of “Frozen” – we passed dozens of other little ones dressing up as “Frozen” characters, especially girls in Elsa dresses. It was no wonder that once I posted a picture of the girls in their costumes on Facebook that a friend of ours posted a reply of “And drink,” implying that she was playing a drinking game based on the number of pictures posted of children in “Frozen” costumes.
But I must say, of all the “Frozen” costumes we saw, Phoebe and Faye wore them best, by far .Jimmy Kimmel offered this reaction to all of this year’s “Frozen” costumes.
This morning, we all went out once more, joining Faye and her daycare group for trick-or-treating at the hospital. Phoebe and Kates didn't have school, and I took a couple hours away from my work, so all of us could share in the fun. ... What fun it was, and Faye filled her little plastic bag so full it was almost too heavy for her to carry.
(Updated 11.04.2014)
It wouldn’t be a post-Halloween without Jimmy Kimmel also showing parents pretending they stole they ate all of their kids’ candy.
11.05.2011
Halloween fun
This was floating around the interwebs today. A ha-larious must-watch ... Especially if you have small children.
10.16.2011
Saturday and so on
I'm catching up on my newspaper reading this morning. The iPod is cranked.
No church for us this morning. Kates hasn't been feeling well this weekend. ... Which means I'm doing the laundry. I've done some of the house cleaning. I've taken care of all the meals. I've done the dishes and cleaned the kitchen twice.
Phoebe was upstairs "teaching her class." That's her new thing. Yesterday, she told me she wanted to have class in her bedroom, so I lined up all of her stuffed animals in front of her. She proceeded to pull books from her book shelf and read to them. This morning her class had "sharing time," her preschool class's version of show-and-tell. ... Now in the last few moments, she's come down by me, and she's whirling around to the music on the ipod.
A contrast from some of the last several weekends, this one has been a good, relaxing, productive, refreshing and quiet one.
Yesteday, we slept until almost 9 a.m. Oh, so good.
Phoebe was supposed to be at a dance rehearsal at 10:30 a.m. yesterday. But she erupted in a mega tantrum at about 10:05, and didn't calm down until about 10:45. There was no dance class for Phoebe yesterday.
We decided earlier in the week to skip out on the 'Cats football game. It marked the first time since my first game in 1997 that I missed a 'Cats home football game -- regular season or post season -- for a reason other than living two states away. ... The game was a fairly meaningless one in the grand scheme of our season. I listened to it on the radio as I worked around the house, and the 'Cats won 65-20.
Last night was the first night of The 'Ville's annual Halloween overload -- the annual trick-or-treat night at the lake and campground on the outskirts of town. Seriously, kids in this town could find a trick-or-treating event every other night past Halloween if they looked hard enough.
This is the first year we can say Phoebe is truly grasping the concept; she asked repeatedly from the time she awoke yesterday if it was time to go trick-or-treating. This year, Phoebe wanted to be a dancer. She put on her leotard and tutu -- at noon. Then Kates dolled up Phoebe with a little makeup, and Pheebs and I joined a co-worker's family to head to the lake.
It was the only trick-or-treating event in which we participated last year, and it is a unique one. For campers, they say it's one of the campground's most popular weekend. Some of the campers go all out with elaborate decorations and mini haunted houses set up in dining flies.
Phoebe took it all in stride and was hardly daunted by any of it. She cruised from camp site to camp site, intent on filling her bucket ... I'd say she did pretty good -- except for the fact that she kept bypassing the 3 Musketeers, M&Ms, Reese's and Whoppers for the more acidic stuff like the suckers, taffy and Starburst. Mommy and Daddy want the chocolate, Pheebs!
So the Texas Rangers won the American League Championship last night.
And that makes the World Series half as interesting as it would have been had I been granted my ultimate matchup. Now it's Brewers all the way or bust.
It was fun while it lasted, Tigers.
Some good reads from the last few days of the postseason ...
a Stoic Tigers Can Only Watch the Scene
a Late, Sudden, Unsurprising, the Emergence of Nelson Cruz ... To think what might have been had the Brewers kept him.
a Verlander cements elite status with postseason game for the ages
a Brewers’ Hairston Haunts La Russa, His Father’s Favorite Manager
a Fielder and Weeks: Friends for Ages, Brewers for Now
No church for us this morning. Kates hasn't been feeling well this weekend. ... Which means I'm doing the laundry. I've done some of the house cleaning. I've taken care of all the meals. I've done the dishes and cleaned the kitchen twice.
Phoebe was upstairs "teaching her class." That's her new thing. Yesterday, she told me she wanted to have class in her bedroom, so I lined up all of her stuffed animals in front of her. She proceeded to pull books from her book shelf and read to them. This morning her class had "sharing time," her preschool class's version of show-and-tell. ... Now in the last few moments, she's come down by me, and she's whirling around to the music on the ipod.
* * *
A contrast from some of the last several weekends, this one has been a good, relaxing, productive, refreshing and quiet one.
* * *
Yesteday, we slept until almost 9 a.m. Oh, so good.
* * *
Phoebe was supposed to be at a dance rehearsal at 10:30 a.m. yesterday. But she erupted in a mega tantrum at about 10:05, and didn't calm down until about 10:45. There was no dance class for Phoebe yesterday.
* * *
We decided earlier in the week to skip out on the 'Cats football game. It marked the first time since my first game in 1997 that I missed a 'Cats home football game -- regular season or post season -- for a reason other than living two states away. ... The game was a fairly meaningless one in the grand scheme of our season. I listened to it on the radio as I worked around the house, and the 'Cats won 65-20.
* * *
Last night was the first night of The 'Ville's annual Halloween overload -- the annual trick-or-treat night at the lake and campground on the outskirts of town. Seriously, kids in this town could find a trick-or-treating event every other night past Halloween if they looked hard enough.
It was the only trick-or-treating event in which we participated last year, and it is a unique one. For campers, they say it's one of the campground's most popular weekend. Some of the campers go all out with elaborate decorations and mini haunted houses set up in dining flies.
Phoebe took it all in stride and was hardly daunted by any of it. She cruised from camp site to camp site, intent on filling her bucket ... I'd say she did pretty good -- except for the fact that she kept bypassing the 3 Musketeers, M&Ms, Reese's and Whoppers for the more acidic stuff like the suckers, taffy and Starburst. Mommy and Daddy want the chocolate, Pheebs!
* * *
So the Texas Rangers won the American League Championship last night.
And that makes the World Series half as interesting as it would have been had I been granted my ultimate matchup. Now it's Brewers all the way or bust.
It was fun while it lasted, Tigers.
Some good reads from the last few days of the postseason ...
a Stoic Tigers Can Only Watch the Scene
a Late, Sudden, Unsurprising, the Emergence of Nelson Cruz ... To think what might have been had the Brewers kept him.
a Verlander cements elite status with postseason game for the ages
a Brewers’ Hairston Haunts La Russa, His Father’s Favorite Manager
a Fielder and Weeks: Friends for Ages, Brewers for Now
10.10.2010
Festival fun
So we decided on a whim Friday night that we wanted to purchase our Halloween pumpkins this weekend.
Kates launched an internet search for some pumpkin places and came up with Pumpkin Fest in St. Joseph. The website promoted it as a family-friendly event, and it sounded like it might be fun ...
So yesterday afternoon we loaded up the car and set out for St. Joseph in hopes of finding the perfect pumkin for Phoebe ... But there were no pumpkins for sale at Pumpkin Fest. Go figure.
There was, however, a good ol' fashioned downtown festival full of craft tables for the kids, food vendors, carnival rides and tents with wares of all kinds. Phoebe got her face painted and she rode the carousel ...
Two things made her day, though. Bouncing and a purple monkey.
We wore her out. And she slept all the way home.
Kates launched an internet search for some pumpkin places and came up with Pumpkin Fest in St. Joseph. The website promoted it as a family-friendly event, and it sounded like it might be fun ...
So yesterday afternoon we loaded up the car and set out for St. Joseph in hopes of finding the perfect pumkin for Phoebe ... But there were no pumpkins for sale at Pumpkin Fest. Go figure.
There was, however, a good ol' fashioned downtown festival full of craft tables for the kids, food vendors, carnival rides and tents with wares of all kinds. Phoebe got her face painted and she rode the carousel ...
Two things made her day, though. Bouncing and a purple monkey.
We wore her out. And she slept all the way home.
10.31.2009
Happy Halloween
... Kates finished Phoebe's costume with only a couple hours to spare (Never mind I found Phoebe's little bone, painted it and had it finished weeks ago). There were tears shed. But we made it ...
We took Phoebe on her first trick-or-treat outing this afternoon ... and oh, what fun it was ...
Phoebe went as Pebbles Flintstone ... Kates and I went as Phoebe's parents.
We only went to a few of the neighbors' houses, but Phoebe got enough KitKats, Twix bars, Hershey bars and gummy candies for Kates and I to snack on tonight ...
Here's a few images from the day ...
(A sweatshirt she got from her daycare ... )
(Kates doing Phoebe's, er, Pebbles' hair ... )
(At first, she wasn't so sure what was happening and why people were walking around the neighborhood dressed as colorful superheroes and Muppets ...)
(But she soon got the hang of it ... Back at home, the first thing she did was sit on the kitchen floor and check out her stash ... )
We took Phoebe on her first trick-or-treat outing this afternoon ... and oh, what fun it was ...
Phoebe went as Pebbles Flintstone ... Kates and I went as Phoebe's parents.
We only went to a few of the neighbors' houses, but Phoebe got enough KitKats, Twix bars, Hershey bars and gummy candies for Kates and I to snack on tonight ...
Here's a few images from the day ...
(A sweatshirt she got from her daycare ... )
(Kates doing Phoebe's, er, Pebbles' hair ... )
(At first, she wasn't so sure what was happening and why people were walking around the neighborhood dressed as colorful superheroes and Muppets ...)
(But she soon got the hang of it ... Back at home, the first thing she did was sit on the kitchen floor and check out her stash ... )
11.01.2008
Halloween highlights
… We didn’t exactly go all out for Phoebe’s first Halloween this week …
Partly to blame is our sickly household, which is still trying to get over these colds. Going on two weeks now. Terrible. Seriously, where is all this snot coming from!? …At least Pheebs -- somehow, some way -- has remained mostly immune to it.
We did get to dress Phoebe in her Pea Pod costume a couple weeks ago to attend our friend Raechel’s Halloween party … We had hoped to dress her again last weekend for the city’s Trick-or-Treating, but the sickness was in full swing then and Kates and I decided to not participate this year and save the little candy we’d bought for ourselves.
On Thursday, we strapped on her “First Halloween” bib as she went off to daycare …
And on Friday, she came home with a paper pumpkin she’s made there -- with a little help from a friend -- and promptly chewed off the stalk.
Here’s the highlights in pictures …
Partly to blame is our sickly household, which is still trying to get over these colds. Going on two weeks now. Terrible. Seriously, where is all this snot coming from!? …At least Pheebs -- somehow, some way -- has remained mostly immune to it.
We did get to dress Phoebe in her Pea Pod costume a couple weeks ago to attend our friend Raechel’s Halloween party … We had hoped to dress her again last weekend for the city’s Trick-or-Treating, but the sickness was in full swing then and Kates and I decided to not participate this year and save the little candy we’d bought for ourselves.
On Thursday, we strapped on her “First Halloween” bib as she went off to daycare …
And on Friday, she came home with a paper pumpkin she’s made there -- with a little help from a friend -- and promptly chewed off the stalk.
Here’s the highlights in pictures …
10.31.2008
10.31.2005
Happy Halloween!
I got this from my buddy T-money (who, by the way, is having a birthday today!) and thought it was too good not to post ...
10.30.2005
From my Sunday morning newspaper
I’ve only been paying moderate attention to the Harriet Miers saga, but by all accounts I’ve heard or read: from beginning to end it was an utter disaster. So I laughed when I heard the news on the radio Thursday morning of her conceding the Supreme Court nomination …… and then the indictment and resignation on Friday of Cheney’s chief of staff amid the ongoing investigation of the infamous CIA leak …
…And some people wonder why this era and administration is repeatedly being compared to Vietnam?? Watergate?? Nixon??
[I digress ... Speaking of Watergate, I, like just about anyone involved in the media, was fascinated when Mark Felt came out last spring as the infamous 'Deep Throat.' It's too bad The Washington Post didn't get the story, but they sure followed it up with some great stuff ...]
… All this of course made it more fun than usual to watch ‘SNL’ last night. Perhaps the best episode of the season thus far (not bad for only finding out on Saturday morning that Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow were hosting …), Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch as the Indigo Girls was HA-larious. And it only got better when Dratch impersonated Harriet Miers on Weekend Update and called out just about everyone on Bush’s staff aside from the cook and his dog!!
* * *
More of my favorite cartoons from Cagle this week …
10.06.2005
(Frigid) Fright Fest
On a hot summer day -- I don’t care whether it’s free -- you won’t get me near Six Flags. I’m scared of roller coasters. … all of that changed tonight. Why? The roller coasters are closed for the season and Six Flags was having a free Fright Fest preview for media baby!
I’d never been to Six Flags and I hadn’t been to a haunted house since my senior year of high school, so there were plenty of surprises. … That and they should think about changing the name to Frigid Fest. It was freezin’!
For almost four hours myself and two of my cohorts roamed the park, mingling with the creatures and steering through the assortment of haunted houses and thrills. … We started with arguably my favorite thrill ride of the night, Superstition (formerly Stargate SG3000). If you’ve ever been on the ‘Back to the Future’ Ride at Universal Studios in Florida, you know what this ride entails -- a seat that rocks and rolls in sync with images on a movie screen … the Six Flags Fright Fest version puts you in what looks like mine shaft and a rail car, and it follows a rail car holding the infamous Elvira. There are plenty of deep drops and sudden turns to get your stomach churning, and then, just when the rail car slows enough to make you think it’s finally over, Elvira turns around and says, ‘You think it’s over, but it’s noooooooot.” … and the ride starts all over again.
From there, we barely made it in time to catch the showing of the Haunted Castle 3D Imax … it was worth it if you’re into 3D imagery -- it was probably the best and most complex 3D film I’ve ever seen. But if you’re looking for a good thought-provoking story, it’s 45 minutes you might want to think about spending elsewhere.
Next, we skipped out on the Scooby-Doo Mystery Train (darn!) to check out the ‘Curse of Sleepy Hollow 3D Haunted House.’ Again, lots of bright, pretty colors and cool 3D imagery. Buuuuut as for scariness? Not so much.
Between haunting, we took a stroll though ‘Necropolis: Haunted City of the Dead’ where Six Flags staff lurk dressed as zombies and scary creatures. What was more fun though was going up to all of the characters and saying, ’Hey, congratulations on your graduation’ (because the PR rep told us when the night started that the media night was kind of the characters’ graduation from ’fright school’). I actually got a couple of them to break a smile …
Then there was the Mausoleum of Terror Haunted House -- the only other thrill ride to really keep my attention during the night. This was a classic haunted house filled with dark, sharp turns, mirrors and a bridge across a swirling tunnel that makes you so dizzy, you end up stumbling down the stairs that follow … and to top it off, we were met at the exit door with a chainsaw-wielding zombie who chased us through a dark alleyway.
Finally (I’m getting really tired here and must go to bed …) the fallen giant. Basically -- it’s a gargantuan inflated man that people can walk through. … But’s it not that fun. Actually, I found it more stressful than it needed to be. The place is almost TOO dark, and we constantly found ourselves being misled to the emergency exits rather than the directions we were meant to go in …
Overall, on a Fright scale of 1 to 10, I give it 7 ½ scary points.
I’d never been to Six Flags and I hadn’t been to a haunted house since my senior year of high school, so there were plenty of surprises. … That and they should think about changing the name to Frigid Fest. It was freezin’!
For almost four hours myself and two of my cohorts roamed the park, mingling with the creatures and steering through the assortment of haunted houses and thrills. … We started with arguably my favorite thrill ride of the night, Superstition (formerly Stargate SG3000). If you’ve ever been on the ‘Back to the Future’ Ride at Universal Studios in Florida, you know what this ride entails -- a seat that rocks and rolls in sync with images on a movie screen … the Six Flags Fright Fest version puts you in what looks like mine shaft and a rail car, and it follows a rail car holding the infamous Elvira. There are plenty of deep drops and sudden turns to get your stomach churning, and then, just when the rail car slows enough to make you think it’s finally over, Elvira turns around and says, ‘You think it’s over, but it’s noooooooot.” … and the ride starts all over again.
From there, we barely made it in time to catch the showing of the Haunted Castle 3D Imax … it was worth it if you’re into 3D imagery -- it was probably the best and most complex 3D film I’ve ever seen. But if you’re looking for a good thought-provoking story, it’s 45 minutes you might want to think about spending elsewhere.
Next, we skipped out on the Scooby-Doo Mystery Train (darn!) to check out the ‘Curse of Sleepy Hollow 3D Haunted House.’ Again, lots of bright, pretty colors and cool 3D imagery. Buuuuut as for scariness? Not so much.
Between haunting, we took a stroll though ‘Necropolis: Haunted City of the Dead’ where Six Flags staff lurk dressed as zombies and scary creatures. What was more fun though was going up to all of the characters and saying, ’Hey, congratulations on your graduation’ (because the PR rep told us when the night started that the media night was kind of the characters’ graduation from ’fright school’). I actually got a couple of them to break a smile …
Then there was the Mausoleum of Terror Haunted House -- the only other thrill ride to really keep my attention during the night. This was a classic haunted house filled with dark, sharp turns, mirrors and a bridge across a swirling tunnel that makes you so dizzy, you end up stumbling down the stairs that follow … and to top it off, we were met at the exit door with a chainsaw-wielding zombie who chased us through a dark alleyway.
Finally (I’m getting really tired here and must go to bed …) the fallen giant. Basically -- it’s a gargantuan inflated man that people can walk through. … But’s it not that fun. Actually, I found it more stressful than it needed to be. The place is almost TOO dark, and we constantly found ourselves being misled to the emergency exits rather than the directions we were meant to go in …
Overall, on a Fright scale of 1 to 10, I give it 7 ½ scary points.
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