How Not To Dress A 4 Year Old For Halloween

Glowing Fairy Princess and War Machine

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween. What did the kids dress up as? Rebecca was a fairy princess with battery powered LED lights embedded in her skirt and Gregory was War Machine. That's right, I let my 4 year old dress up as War Machine (for those of you who are not in the know, War Machine is the silver Iron Man type guy from Iron Man 2). I'm not even sure if he's good or bad, although I believe he was played by Mickey Rourke? At any rate, we didn't set out to Target for a War Machine costume. Gregory originally wanted to be a tiger. He wanted to wear his favorite tiger 'costume', an old dress up dress of Rebecca's with black and white leopard spot trim. He's convinced it's a tiger costume and he puts it on and runs around the house attacking people. So you can imagine why I encouraged him to go to Target for a 'real' costume. Well, as soon as he saw the 'silver Iron Man' costume, the tiger idea went out the window. It was love at first sight. At the time I didn't know the difference between the silver and red Iron Man, so I agreed. Before we checked out I had figured out that the costume he had picked was called War Machine, but he was so happy with it I didn't have the heart to make him put it back. I must be getting soft in my old age.

So Gregory's nursery school had a costume parade Friday. They requested no violent superhero costumes so I figured they probably wouldn't appreciate War Machine. Somehow I managed to talk Gregory into wearing last year's Yoda costume. Saturday was pumpkin carving and I was quite proud that Rebecca managed to scoop out and carve her 'challenging' pattern all by herself (and it came out better than the one I did for Gregory!). And of course, trick-or-treating on Sunday night. Greg and I were impressed by the Dad who was trick-or-treating with his kids and simultaneously watching the Patriot's game on his phone. All in all, a successful Halloween. Now I just have to figure out how to stop raiding the kid's candy.

My Morning Jacket and Shellfish

Marshall Point Lighthouse

The family made the trek up to Freeport Maine this past weekend for a wild and fun weekend. Friday night Greg and I, along with Jif, Chris, Kenny, Amy, and friends, all had tickets to see My Morning Jacket open the State Theater in Portland. Mom and Dad generously offered their babysitting services for all 4 grandkids so we could all see the show. Jim James has an awesome voice and stage presence and according to him, MMJ had some revenge to take on the State Theater on account of their bass player who became extremely ill last time they played the venue after eating bad shellfish. Go figure. At any rate, revenge was found in the form of loud music and high energy which made for a great show. Here's their final encore. I'm in the center of the back of the floor in a white tee-shirt. And no, I couldn't find myself.

On Saturday Greg and I took Rebecca, Gregory, and cousin Evan up to Camden with a side trip to the Marshall Point lighthouse in Port Clyde. We experienced some wild, windy weather to the point where the kiddies were somewhat worried about being "blown away" on the walkway to the lighthouse (they later decided the wind was "cool"). We hit up Cappy's Chowder House in Camden for lunch where I ate some extremely good shellfish, before retreating back to Freeport.

Rebecca holds on for dear life

Mom and Dad generously offered to babysit again Saturday night and who are we to squash their dreams of watching all 4 grandchildren at once? So we headed out and hit 2 parties before crashing at Kenny's house at the ungodly hour of 4 AM. I haven't been out that late since college and with good reason - it took me 2 days just to start feeling normal again!

Thanks to Mom and Dad, Jif, Chris, Kenny, and Amy for babysitting, accomodations, and general fun. Love you guys!

Join Rebecca's Girl's Club

Rebecca loves to create things. Her newest invention is her 'Girl's Club', which apparently includes all over her female cousins. Here are some materials she has created (I provide translations below each - her ideas are good but she still needs to work on her spelling. My comments are in italics.):

1. The Rules
   

   

   
   

   Girls Club Rules

   
   
   1. No Boys Allowed
   
   
   2. No Spitting Possibly directed at her little brother
   
   
   3. No Teasing
   
   
   4. Have Fun
   
   


2. Club Book - She made one for each of her cousins. This one is for her cousin Sophia.
   

   



3. Meeting Schedule
   

   

   
   
   1. Meeting
   
   
   2. Recess
   
   
   3. Make a map of your ?
   
   
   4. Secret Handshake
   
   
   5. And last, just in case you forget ... Go back home



4. Girl's Club Promise (slightly pilfered from the Girl Scouts)
   

   

   
   

   I promise to protect girls from boys and to serve god and girls.

So who out there is ready to join up?

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Look out nursery school!

Today was Rebecca's first day of second grade and Gregory's first day of nursery school. Sorry to sound stereotypical, but Greg and I were like the quintessential parents dancing down the Staples' aisle to 'The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year'. By our calculations, we've been home alone in the house together once in the past seven years until today (Greg's on vacation this week). The two of us celebrated with a very nice lunch at the Sole Proprieter.

But enough about us. Both kids got out without a hitch. Gregory declared himself 'excited' for his first day of school, but wanted to know why he couldn't take the school bus. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he got there, but he thought maybe it would include 'playing pirates'.

Mom, you're embarrassing me

Rebecca loves her new teacher who apparently is 'very useful because she knows how to turn on the fan'. I guess that is a useful skill when the first day of school turns out to be ninety-one degrees and high humidity. Rebecca also decided she wants to go to all the schools that I've been to so she can get 'three different colored hats'. Hey, if it motivates her to practice math problems, I'm all for it.

Heifer Highlights

Rebecca capped off a busy summer with her week at Heifer Camp. This day camp is held at Overlook Farm in Rutland and is run by Heifer International, an organization dedicated to fighting hunger and poverty.

Rebecca and Aboo pose together.

Despite a rainy start, this was Rebecca's favorite week of camp. Apparently the highlight of the week was milking a goat. Other strong points: gathering chicken eggs, feeding the llamas, and getting butted in the back by a particularly ornery goat (fortunately not the one she was milking).

The kids also spent time working in the gardens, exploring the international village, and hanging out with Aboo the camel. We are very fortunate to live ten minutes from this remarkable farm (the Heifer Project only has 5 locations in the U.S., including Overlook Farm. If you are in the area, check them out!

Rebecca's Birthday at American Girl

Rebecca and Rebecca

Happy Birthday to my Rebecca who turned 7 on the 24th of July. This year we decided to skip the birthday party and take her somewhere she has been begging to go - the American Girl doll store.

We are lucky enough to live about half an hour from an American Girl store, so the day after Rebecca's birthday we headed to the Natick mall to check it out.

After spending an hour examining every doll in the store, Rebecca decided to go with the suitably named 'Rebecca' doll. Rebecca (the doll) has wavy brown hair and hazel eyes, just like my beautiful little Rebecca (the 7 year old), so we decided it was fate.

Once that was settled, it was time to pick out an outfit for Rebecca (the doll). Again Rebecca (the 7 year old) had to examine every outfit in the store before selecting a horseback riding ensemble for her new doll.

Lunch for 3

All this shopping made us hungry so we headed into the American Girl Bistro, where we had a reservation. They served us a nice three course meal and even put a little booster seat on the table for Rebecca (the doll).

All in all, a nice day. Here's a little equation I worked out. Warning: this is not for the faint of heart:

Priceless

1 American Girl doll + 1 American Girl doll outfit + 1 pair of American Girl doll shoes + 2 lunches at the American Girl Bistro = more $$ than a pool party for an entire kindergarten class.

Canobie Lake Park

It's been a few decades since I went to Canobie Lake Park, but last Friday Mom and I braved the ninety degree weather and took the kiddies to Salem, NH for a day of amusement park fun. The drive was much shorter than I remembered - only about an hour counting a stop in Boxborough to pick up Grandma.

I'd heard it was a great spot for younger kids - less expensive and less crowded than some larger unnamed parks, coughSixFlagscough. While that was true, it was still a bit pricey ($72 for the 4 of us - 1 adult, 1 senior citizen, 1 child under 48 inches, and 1 child age 3 and under (free)). It was definitely less crowded, and there were lots of rides for those of our group who were under four feet.

After a quick spin on the oldest carousel in the country, we hit kiddie land, which is basically lots of rides with various shaped cars that all go around in a circle. But the kids loved it and went on all of them. Then Grandma made everyone go on the Boston Tea Party where we all got soaked.

Okay, actually, it was Gregory who wanted to try the Boston Tea Party, a short raft ride with a drop off at the end that produces a spectacular splash. I figured he would be too small but Grandma encouraged me to check, he wasn't. Although the line appeared long, she also pointed out that it was moving really fast so we gave it a go. Turned out it was both Grandma's and my favorite ride of the day.

Gregory's favorite ride was The Mine of Lost Souls (a boy after my own heart!). He spent most of the ride clinging to me and saying he was scared, but it's the only ride he has talked about since, and he talks a lot. Rebecca loved the kids sized dragon roller coaster, which she insisted on riding alone.

We ended the day at Castaway Island, the humongous water drenched jungle gym with the slowest water slides ever. It was crowded, but Rebecca loved it. Gregory was a little less pleased, he didn't enjoy randomly having buckets of water poured on him, but he found his place on the little kid's water slide, which he rode about twenty-five times.

It turned out to be a great day. The end result was two tired kids, a tired parent, a tired grandparent, and lots of fun.