Christmas Decorations!

Richard celebrates actually getting the tree in the stand.

We have the biggest tree ever! We went to the boy scout tree lot and let Mary pick out the tree. It was dark and the tree really didn't look that big and wasn't that expensive, so we were surprised when we got it home to find that we had purchased a huge tree. We could barely get it in the door. We actually had room for all of our ornaments. Having Joseph around meant that we actually had a ornaments and lights on the top of the tree :-)

Richard, Mary and Me.

Joseph and Mary...They are so cute!

Mary and her hat

The Retro Series Rocks!

Our local theatre has been sponsoring a retro series of movies. It's a great deal and the movies are old favorites. I've actually gotten Richard to go to two of them so far. We saw Jaws last week and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of The Lost Ark last night. With a $5 ticket and $1 popcorn and drinks, it's a great deal too :-)

www.t20retroseries.com

Scenes from Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween season this year. We got an early start this year and put some things up a few weeks in advance, adding the finishing touches the last few days before Halloween night. We had lots of drive by traffic looking at the lights and, of course, the neighbors yard.

I was glad to have Richard around because he was very helpful in putting things together and taking things down quickly before it rained. He was also instrumental in the making of THE BAT! I told him that this at least gave him the chance to put his engineering degree to work on something other than kit furniture. :-)

We had a new record for trick or treaters with 232. The costumes ranged anywhere from zombies to princesses and everywhere in between. We had a lot of Toy Story 3 characters, Elmos and Pooh bears. My favorite costume all night was a little guy in a fuzzy duck costume. He was adorable!

We gave out a ton of candy and had a great night. The kids liked the decorations. Contrary to some fears that they might be frightened, several of the smaller ones wanted to pet the giant spider and one little guy wanted to take it with him. Strange children.

Here are some photos:

Richard works on the bat. We cut the design out of a heavy piece of vinyl. Richard made a custom PVC frame and we rivetted straps to hold the bat to the frame. We also took apart a cat toy and used the green LEDs for the bat's eerie glowing eyes.

This was the baby bat. He's adorable :-)

These we took Halloween night...the quality isn't great due to the dark conditions, but it will help give you an idea of how things looked SPOOKY!

Spooky cemetery with an open grave

The witch greets visitors.

Procrastination, Thy name is Robin

Kyla and Mary are recognized by the royal court.

I have a folder titled "photos to blog" that I have barely touched in months. When I do get a few minutes to post, I always feel like I'm a season or two behind. But I figure, better late than never! So here's a collection of some of the thing's we've been up to over the last few months. We went to the Renaissance Festival this summer and had a great time as usual. The highlight for me was seeing a group of people dressed like a landing party from the Starship Enterprise comingling with the knights and ladies. They each got a big kick out of posing for pictures with one another. I did not get a photo of that because Alivia and Mary had wandered off in search of funnel cakes with my camera. We watched the jousting, did some medieval shopping and just generally had a really good day.

Cooking with cast iron

Eva and Doyle gave me a cast iron skillet for Christmas last year and I have really enjoyed it. This photo is from Mary's forays into making cornbread. I've gotten a lot of use from it as I try to learn to make decent fried chicken.

Richard at the walking park.

On days when it's not been 110 degrees in the shade here, we've been hitting the walking park for a leisurely stroll. Lately, it's been a leisurely stroll through gnats, but the day this photo was taken was very pleasant.

Mary and Boo

We've also been chronicling sleeping cats, a delightful pasttime that we have ample opportunity in which to engage. We also chronicle sleeping college students. To be honest, there's not much difference.

Richard, Mary and the cupcakes of DOOM!

More recently we had a midterm week party for Mary's friends. It featured homemade cupcakes and barbecue and some really good punch that Mary made. She also made the cupcakes, mixing the colors herself and decorating them with little spider webs. The evening featured scary movies and smores around the fire pit. It was a lot of fun :-)

I will be posting Halloween decoration photos soon...so stay tuned!