What's up with all the chainsaw people?

Saturday morning, Joshua told me that trick or treating last year was the best day of his life. Well, I think now, it is the second best day of his life...I think this years trick or treating is now on top.

Like last year, we went to our friends neighborhood. The neighborhood is rather large, hilly, and can be a bit of a hike from one group of houses to another. Yes, I said hilly and houses far apart...even in this part of North Carolina!. Last year, we had 9 people crammed into a little SUV. This year, our friend's neighbor had a trailer filled with hay for us to ride on. At the height of the trick or treating, I counted 15 kids and about as many parents.

And the neighborhood we went to really knows how to do Halloween right. They decorate for Halloween like many decorate for Christmas. Yard decorations, house decorations, spooky sounds, so much more than the typical jack-o-lantern.

We did a little riding and a little walking and a lot of trick or treating. One house we went to had a Haunted Trail to walk through behind their house, complete with fog machine, dead prom queens, bride with a shotgun, mad scientist and lastly, a man with a chain saw.

After more riding, more walking and more trick or treating, we came to a house with a Haunted Tunnel. These people put a lot of time and effort into the tunnel, it was much like the Haunted Houses that you pay to go through. There were zombies, arms grabbing at my feet, someone reaching down from the top of the tunnel trying to grab Joshua, strobe lights, fog machines, squirting water, people jumping out trying to grab you and lastly, a man with a chain saw.

Finally, the last house we went to, Joshua walked up and guess what! Yep, a man with a chain saw jumped out and started chasing everyone! When he got back to the wagon, he said "What's up with all the chainsaw people?" I had to explain he wasn't old enough to watch those movies yet.

Joshua dressed up as The Wolf Man. He loves the old The Wolf Man movie with Lon Chaney, Jr. It was hot so he had on shorts and wouldn't wear his mask (Scott wore it for a little while). I'm sure no one knew what he was supposed to be but no one seemed to care...his candy bag weighed 4.6 lbs on Sunday morning. I think we have enough candy to get us by until next year. For now, he wants to be FreddY Kruger...he doesn't know who Freddy Kruger is but thinks he looks cool. Gonna try to hit Party City this week to see if they have any left overs on sale.

I love Halloween!

I think I've been busy or lazy or a little bit of both

October has been a bit of a busy month it seems.

I've been busy with work, which is good job security so no complaints there.

October is the month of the State Fair, we rode a lot, ate a lot, had a lot of fun, spent a lot of money. But hey, that's what fairs are all about! We went early on the first Saturday morning. He said his favorite thing was the fun house of mirrors. He went through it 3 times, once with Scott, once with me, once alone. My favorite part is normally the London Broil sandwiches, the hot apple cider and the flowers. We didn't make it to any of those, we only left the kid area to see some animals. Next year, we may have to start on the other end.

October is also Memaw and Papaws annual beach vacation. This year, Scott had to work and Joshua was in school so Joshua and I only made it down for the weekend. The weather was beautiful and we were able to get shin deep in the water to play in the waves. It wasn't a good weekend for sharks teeth though, we only found 7. We did enjoy the indoor pool for a while but Joshua said it just wasn't fun without Daddy being there (pool rule - Mommy doesn't get splashed or Mommy gets out). On the way home, we stopped at the Tote-Em-In Zoo and fed some animals. It was fun.

Joshua had his first field trip in October. The Kindergarten classes went to Mr B's Pumpkin Patch. We picked pumpkins, took a hay ride, made a scarecrow, petted some farm animals, went on a picnic. Luckily I was able to go on the field trip. It was fun.

Today, I think we will get our pumpkins, carve our jack-o-lanters and get ready for Halloween.

It's the little details that count

Joshua has recently taken an interest in drawing and coloring. He never cared for it much before. I don't know if it's because he has art once a week in school or if it is just an age or a stage or a phase...He started out drawing a lot of creatures with made up names but now, he is drawing more "real" things.

His current favorite thing to draw is an apple tree and a person with a basket who has been picking apples. His pictures started out pretty basic but are getting much more detailed...his apples now have stems, his trees now have branches, he added clouds and flowers, today he added an owl hole in the tree.

One day, he tore a sheet of paper into a triangle and said it looked like a piece of pizza. He colored the crust on the back and the edge crust on the front. He colored the cheese. He put green lines for green peppers and red circles for pepperoni. Then, he put brown lines where the cheese turned brown in the oven and red lines where you could see the sauce through holes in the cheese....very detailed.

In art class, he drew a picture of James Bond fighting a robot and also included Jaws with his big silver teeth. I thought it was very cute and a little funny. Most kinddergarteners probably draw people, trees, houses, puppies and kitties, Joshua draws James Bond and Jaws.

He may not be the most talented artist but he does put a lot of thought and details in his drawings.