304/365 - Halloween 2010

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, we decided to make a celebration of it. Stacia, Bill, and Amy joined us for dinner. I felt bad that Mark had to work. When it started to get dark we got ready. We were a little worried that Mason wouldn't like being in his costume (especially the hat). He didn't mind it a bit!



Amy dressed up as an M&M, Marley was an Indian, and Mason was a blue monster.



It was pretty chilly out, but we were dressed for it, except for Marley. She didn’t want anything over (or under) her costume. We always say that she runs warm anyway!





Mason did not like the little ghost we have outside!



We had quite a time keeping him focused on walking from house to house. I would love to know what he thought; all of us out walking in the dark. He would have been perfectly happy walking up the driveways and looking at the cars. “Car” he would say as he walked over to pat it. It’s a good thing my neighborhood is not too big; 26 houses, and we only went to the neighbors that I knew.



Amy collected Mason’s candy for him, and when we got back she and Marley looked over their stash.



We had such a fun time tonight; we sure did laugh a lot!

303/365 - Halloween 1978

I think this was Mark's first Halloween (at least it is the first picture that I have). He was four.

Isn't it funny how both he and Kristen have their hands up to the little opening for the mouth?

302/365 - Little ghosts

Tonight Paul hung the little ghosts on the tree in the front yard in preparation for Halloween. Toby and Marley made them a few years ago and they have survived lots wind and rain.

Mason loved pushing his little “car” up and down the sidewalk and front yard (he still would rather push it than ride it). He would look at the ghosts and say, “oooooow, gho.” I love how he is learning to talk.







Marley and Mason had a good time playing in the front yard even though it was pretty chilly. Marley loves to climb this tree (and also to hang, I guess).

302/365 - Halloween 1975

This is Kristen's first Halloween costume. She was three years old. I think Paul took her part-way around our circle the year before but she was scared and he had to bring her home.

I guess the Halloween costumes didn't change much from the '50's to the '70's (see previous post). Still the plastic masks and the silky costumes.

301/365 - More Halloween '50's style

This picture was taken in 1958. Left to right is my cousin Lynda, my cousin Bobby, and me. I must have liked ducks back then. This is yet another duck costume (see yesterday's post). My aunt Dot took this picture as a slide. It seemed at least once a year when my family was all together we would look at the slides and each time we came to this picture someone would comment on the fact that Bobby's smiling mask face was so different from his pouting face underneath. I'm not sure why he was pouting. Maybe he didn't want to go Trick-or-Treating, or maybe he didn't like his costume. The funny thing to me was that we always made the same comments, each year, about this picture.

300/365 - Halloween 1950's style

I was struck by how different Halloween costumes are today from when I was a child. This is me sometime in the early '50's. The masks were plastic (which got really hot and sweaty after awhile) and the costumes were of some type of silky material. Too funny!

p.s. How different wallpaper is too!

299/365 - Marley's costume at 17 months (2002)

This was Marley's first Halloween costume. It is the same type as Mason's. She was Marie (the kitten) from The Aristocats. Too cute!

298/365 - Mason's monster costume

Janelle brought Mason's Halloween costume over yesterday thinking that maybe we would have some time to take pictures outside. Not so. No nap made someone not such a happy camper and we all knew puting him in this costume would not go well!

297/365 - Pumpkin carving day

Not all of our carvers are in this picture. Kris, Toby and Marley had to leave before Janelle finished her pumpkin, so they didn't make the final picture this year. The pumpkins from left to right were Marley's, Amy's, Janelle's, and Toby's. The people from left to right are Janelle, Mason, Grandma Stacia, and Amy.

This picture is of Marley and Toby mapping out their pumpkin faces.



Pumpkin guts hand...



Marley said her pumpkin was too tall; she didn't really want to stick her arm all the way in. Kristen offered to help clean out the guts. Her face says it all... YUCK!!



The two grandmas had pumpkin seed duty this year



Can you believe his curls?





Mason found Auntie Amy's baseball hat and stuck it on his head backwards. Isn't he just too cute?



Pumpkin carving day was a little crazy this year. Everyone seemed tired to begin with, Mason hadn't taken a nap and was a little cranky, the Patriots took precedence over pumpkin carving for the boys (although Toby helped Marley get started and did one himself), Stacia had cracked ribs, I couldn't seem to get my act together but we had fun anyway and the pumpkins came out cute I think!

296/365 - Pumpkins

Here are some of our pumpkins waiting to be carved tomorrow!

295/365 - Fall trees, again and again....

I promise, this is the last picture of these trees, really! I just couldn't help myself. They were the best yet today!

294/365 - Fall weather

The weather has been so weird this week. Lots of clouds with sun peeking through every once in awhile. Today we had rain for most of the day, strong winds and temperatures only in the 50s. On the way home from work, the sun came out and there was a rainbow made more beautiful by the dark sky and vivid colors of the fall trees.

When I got home, the tree in our front yard looked so pretty. It is almost at its peak.

293/365 - Sailors?

I love this picture! It is of Paul's two uncles (the little blonde boys) and their cousin. It was taken around 1938. I wish my mother-in-law were still alive. I would ask her what her brothers and cousin were doing with their flags and stuffed animals. I always assumed they were playing that they were on a ship sailing off somewhere.

292/365 - Fall ride

Today Paul and I took a "foliage" ride. We headed west because we thought the foliage would be better than going north. Our destination was the Rip Van Winkle Bridge across the Hudson River in New York. The day was not the greatest with more clouds than sun, but I have a new philosophy on weather, "embrace it rather than fight it."

These were pictures taken on the way there. We discovered this stone arch one day a few years ago on a little dirt road on our way to West Lake to kayak. It intrigues me. It has a stone wall around the back of it. I have no idea what it was.





This stream is across the street from the "stone arch thing". Maybe it was a part of some type of mill.



These are pictures of the bridge. We walked about halfway over it. It was really beautiful there (even without the sun!).





We drove home through Granville and stopped to get some apples.





The sun came out while we were going through Granville and it was absolutely gorgeous!

291/365 - Fall trees, again!

Sorry, another picture of these same trees, but they are getting better. The last picture was on October 13th.

P.S. Both pictures were taken through my windshield on my way to work (no, I wasn't driving, LOL) so they are probably not as good as they could be. There are four of these trees planted, two on either side of the house. I'm sure whoever planted these never knew how much pleasure I would get seeing them on my way to work!

290/365 - Family history

This afternoon Marley worked on her homework assignment, Immigration Interview. She had to interview family members to find out about her family history. She had about seven or eight questions, like where did your ancestors come from, what year, etc. I think she got frustrated with us because we had way too much information.

If you didn't know, a few years ago Paul and I were very much into Genealogy and we dug up quite a bit. We even have Family Tree Maker for the computer. She said, "I only have a couple lines and I have to get Daddy's side." She did seem pretty interested in all of it though. Maybe all of my documenting, scrapbooking, blogging, won't be in vain! LOL :)

289/365 - Mike's Corn Maze

What a great day we had today!

Since Marley is here for the weekend, we wanted to do something fun today, something "fallish". We decided to go to Mike's Corn Maze in Sunderland, MA. I had heard of this place but had never been there. I guess this farm has been making mazes out of their corn fields since 2000 and every year they have a different design and a different theme. This year's is an art theme. This is an aerial view of the maze and the map that they give you. It is Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Can picture.





The maze is so big that they have devised a way to make sure everyone is out of the maze at the end of the day. Every group has numbered "flag" to carry and a metal washer that you hang on a big numbered "peg" board when you enter the maze. When you come out of the maze, you place your flag in a big can and take your washer off the board. At the end of the day, they look to see if there are any washers left on the board. It's a pretty good safety measure. Of course, while you are in the maze, if you lose your group members, it could take you forever to find them. That was a little scary to me as Paul just keeps on walking without bothering to make sure Marley and I are behind him (a trait of his that goes way back).



They had ink stamping stations scattered throughout the maze that you used to stamp out famous art pictures. There were sixteen stamping station - four pictures and four colors for each picture.



This is what they came out like.



The maze takes at least an hour to get through. It's a good thing Paul is good at reading maps. We would have been in there a lot longer if it were up to me to find the stamps and then get us out.





Marley liked collecting dried corn off the ground and popping the kernels off.





They have pumpkins for sale, coffee, hot chocolate, warm home-made donuts (they were a big hit) and also winter vegetables for sale.











I think this might have to become a yearly tradition.