Happy Halloween!

With Halloween falling the Monday after Tate's birthday, things have been a bit on the crazy side this year. Last year, when I was home full time on maternity leave, I was able to get the kids all costumed up for their school's "Boogie Bash," get plenty of photos and head off for a fun time. Then, on the day Halloween came, we gathered at a neighbors for pizza before trick-or-treating. Again, plenty of time to get ready.

But things have been a bit more hectic this year.

First, on the afternoon of Boogie Bash, a small client emergency arose at work, which necessitated me working late into the day. Late enough that the family had just planned to go to Boogie Bash without me. Luckily, I was able to make it. But Marcie did not want to wear her pea-hen feathers (smartly), and Casey was worried his tail and feet would get ruined. So we sort of half-way dressed for Boogie Bash. Except Tate-- he was all in as Elmo.

Then, Saturday afternoon, we headed off to another costume party. Again, the kids were meh about the costumes. And we accidentally left Marcie's feathers at home. But Jason and I went all out. We each had two costumes-- our real costumes, and then we also dressed up like one of the couples at the party (Tate joined in the fun, too!).

I had planned to leave work early for Halloween, but again, it just was not going to happen. I hate feeling rushed at work when I have something else at home- so I figured I would just catch up with the family trick or treating. But then I got locked out of the house. And I did catch up. Just in my not-as-comfortable work clothes and shoes. And the kids were wildly uncooperative with photos. So, this was the best I could get:



Agent P (Perry the Platypus) from Phineas and Ferb.
A peahen is a female peacock (we learned that at the zoo in October). Marcie refused to wear her beautiful mask, which had more feathers to compliment the outfit. But that's okay. It was a homemade original, and she thought of it and put it together (except for the feathers, which Jason did) all herself.

Tate was super pleased to be dressed as Elmo. He insisted we keep the head up the whole time. he loved Halloween-- he wanted to stop and touch all the "scary" decorations and everything. A total trooper.

On the way down the street. Tate refused to stand still for any photos with a flash-- the light made him go wiggly. I think this is par for the course with three kids. . .

By the way, we let each child pick a piece of candy to eat on Halloween night, then 5 pieces of candy, one for each of the next five days. The rest gets donated to my office. Some people think we're mean. But how much candy does a kid need? When they were younger, I offered to trade books for candy-- to no avail. Then one year, I offered to buy the candy off of them. No dice. Finally, when I just said they could only keep five pieces, no one gave me a hard time-- so that's been our tradition ever since. They can pick any five pieces they want (except for Casey, for whom we recently cut out certain color dyes and so he was a little more limited). And they love the choosing. Plus putting out tons of leftover candy at work has been a good way to introduce myself to people at the new job. It's really a win-win.

What do you do for Halloween candy?

Lucky Seven

Friday we celebrated Casey's 7th birthday.

I'm not sure why sevens are considered lucky-- but I can count at least two reasons I'm one lucky mom: Casey and Marcie. This year, for the first time, Casey expressed intent interest in the "day he was born." We told him how we'd been at Disneyworld with a friend of his from school's parents. We told him about the airplane, meeting his birthmom and the snowstorm. We told him how he cried at first, but we held him while we fed him. We told him how lucky we felt then-- and how lucky we still feel that his birthmom picked us. Casey thinks we're lucky, too. And he is not quick to let us forget it. I'm okay with that.

This weekend I continued my organization spree by cleaning out the "junk closet," which is what our closet in the computer room/ study had become. I came across the certificate of flight Casey got when we flew home from Ohio shortly after he was born. I came across a lot of photos from his first year of life. I found some school work he'd completed in preschool. And I found the letter we'd sent to Casey's birthmom to introduce ourselves. Our featured picture was me with short, blond hair. On the back were several photos of us with our nephew Sal (who was an infant at the time), and pictures of our then-pets, only one of whom still lives. We all looked (and were) much younger.

Casey asked me to read him the letter, and I did. And I must say, I was pretty impressed by what we'd written. Not because we're super cool and great writers (though we are- ha ha). But because I think we've really held true to the goals we articulated, the promises we made. We wrote about how much we longed for a child. We vowed to be involved in his life by volunteering at school, attending sporting events, and reading together. We explained that we believe in hard work and the Golden Rule, and we wrote about how we would preach tolerance of all races and religions and creeds while at the same time emphasizing our own beliefs. But above all, we promised we would fill our home with unconditional love. I think we've done these things. So far.

Of course, Casey is only seven. He has a (hopefully) very, very long future ahead of him. But so far, I'm impressed. And I don't really think I can take the credit. Casey is just a great kid. He is genuinely sweet. When I asked him to pick just a few kids to invite to his birthday, he refused. He wanted to include the whole class. Not because he wanted a lot of gifts, but because he couldn't possibly choose just a few friends-- he likes everyone. When a boy in another first grade class got hurt on the playground on Friday morning before school, Casey ran back to the playground to find the boy's backpack while I walked the kid to the office. Then Casey offered to stay with the boy in the nurse's office until school started. This wasn't someone Casey hangs out with regularly. But Casey was undeniably concerned.

When I see Casey, he still gives me bear hugs and big grins. He asks me to crawl in bed with him to cuddle on cold mornings. He curls up next to me on the couch. When he's being mean, he knows it and he apologizes for, literally, "acting like a jerk." When it comes to Emotional IQ (or "EQ" as it's called), Casey is kind of a genius. He is truly amazing. And, in the end, that's what we want for our kids-- that they are comfortable in their own skin, capable of getting along in the world, and genuinely happy. Maybe some of this is parenting. But in Casey's case, I can't help but feel like I really hit the jackpot.

Here are some photos of how he celebrated his big day:


The night before his birthday, I baked mini chocolate muffins -- his favorite (the chocolate part, not the mini part)-- to share with his class. He later told me that they all sang him "Happy Birthday," and he even got to, literally, take a bow.
Before school, we let Casey open presents from his Godmother, his cousins, and from his grandparents. The globe, which he's been asking for now for a few months, was a big hit. (Yes, the other presents are wrapped in Christmas paper-- but paper is paper, and it all gets torn up anyway. This gift, if you must know, was wrapped in Hanukkah paper.)

After school, we met up with Casey's San Diego cousins (and their parents) and his Aunty Tiffy at Red Robin for dinner (Casey's favorite). This is before dinner. From left to right: Calliope, Jason, Casey, Joey and Uncle Bryan. Ethan and Casey's aunts must've been behind me.

Ok. So this isn't Casey. It's Ethan, his 2 1/2 year old cousin. But I couldn't resist putting it in here because Ethan is just so darn cute, and I knew how much my mom would love the photo. . .

Happy New Year!

I had planned to write a really meaningful post to celebrate the new year. A review of 2009. The highlights, at least. But now I'm tired from uploading all the Christmas stuff. So, instead, here is how we celebrated (once again, east-coast style).


We started out our evening with a 5:00 p.m. dinner at a nearby restaurant (actually one of the nicest ones in Poway, the Brigantine) with some friends of ours with whom we've spent the last 3 or 4 New Year's Eves. The photo is of Grace and Matt with their son Lucas. Their daughter, Lila, celebrating her first New Year's Eve in the U.S., was at the other end of the table.


The kids were all pretty good at dinner. We ordered their food right away, which I'm sure helped. That and the strategic use of i-phone games.

After dinner, we came back to our house, where we mostly played wii games. Lucas brought his Mario Olympic Sports game to share, and since I have the Wii Fit, we were able to use the balance board for some fun ski-jumping.

Lila turns two January 2nd, and in honor of her birthday, the kids picked out some presents for her. This is Marcie "helping" her play with one of her new gifts. I'm glad we got to help Lila celebrate something because she sure wasn't going to make it to 9:00 p.m. to help us ring in the new year. . .

But just before 9:00 p.m. the kids donned their pajamas, we laid out some bubble wrap on the floor for stomping, pulled out our homemade noise makers (from water bottles and beans), found the CNN count-down in New York, and rung in the New Year loudly. Without even waking up Lila.

The kids toasted with Sparkling Cider in special (plastic) flutes Casey and Marcie had picked out. This was the first year they were really aware of what it means to "toast," and all three kids had plenty to share (so long as it meant they could clink their glasses and sip their sparkling cider).

After the "midnight" festivities (which also included us calling my mom's cell phone to leave a very loud "Happy New Year" shouting message), the kids brushed their teeth and cuddled on the couch watching Monsters vs. Aliens while the grown-ups played a very quick game of Quelf.

The B family left around 10:30, and Jason and I crawled into bed, where I fell asleep watching The Hangover with him.

I'm a big believer in spending New Year's Eve with the people you look forward to spending the New Year with. So I'm glad we do something with our kids-- and our friends.

Merry Christmas!

When you have eighteen people, five "families" and eight kids under one roof on Christmas Eve, some coordination is definitely necessary. Fortunately, we are all reasonable adults and it was no problem.

Here's our Christmas Eve and morning, in photos:

This is the 12-foot Christmas tree my parents had ready when we arrived. You can't see, but presents cover the floor the width of the room. We do a gift exchange, so each adult gets one present from another adult and each kid gets one present from another cousin. (Technically it could be more than one package because it's based on a money limit.) But then you have to add in the individual families' presents to each other, and it gets a little crazy. . .

Before bed, the kids got all nestled in their pajamas. My (apparently more organized) siblings purchased matching jammies for their kids. Mind are wearing random pajamas they brought. Not sure I could've gotten Marcie into something different anyway-- she's very picky. Anyway, my brother read T'was the Night Before Christmas to the whole gang. And they did a pretty darn good job of listening to the story-- all of them, from age 2 1/2 on up!

I know it took them a little while to settle down, but I snuck back in later on to snap a photo of five them crashed out. We'd explained that they could not wake us up until it was morning, which meant the sun had to show. I told them that if it was dark, they had to stay in their room. As it turned out, they woke us up when they saw the very first ray of orange in the morning light. But it was still dark in the house. This actually played completely to our advantage because the Santa presents, laid so carefully by the fireplace, were visible from the balcony upstairs where we all gathered. But because it was dark, the kids couldn't see anything until we turn on lights once they got downstairs.

Speaking of the balcony, here is the scene from above. what you see is 18 filled stockings (hung with 3M product) by the chimney with care, as well as 8 presents from Santa, each with a label directing the child to his or her gift. (In case you're wondering, here is what each received from left to right: Ethan got a pirate ship; Vince's wrapped present was legos; Calliope got a Cabbage Patch baby doll; Casey got a dinosaur hot wheels track; Sal's wrapped present was a lego set; Joey got a jungle set; Leo got a hot wheels track; and Marcie got a baby crib/pack n play, a baby pillow and blanket, and a baby panda Hello Kitty.)

Casey surrounded by some of the contents of his stockings, which we all emptied before breakfast.

Marcie helping my mom prepare our traditional fried dough Christmas breakfast (though Casey, Jason and I also had some delicious banana bread packed and sent by Jason's dad-- this is what we usually have when we're at home).

After breakfast, the kids opened their gifts. We helped them pull stuff our, prepped the turkey and got it in the oven, and then the adults opened presents. We had snack foods throughout the day and sat down to Christmas dinner around 4pm, after which my sister and I took a nap together. Then we all played Quelf, a new game Jason picked out to play this year. It's a lot of fun.

The Fam

Well, I've already written more in the month of January than in some months in 2009! I was reading back on some posts from earlier, wondering what the heck I could possibly have had to say, and laughing at some of the stories I'd documented, so glad I'd done so. So while I'm not calling it a resolution, I'm hopeful I'll remember to continue documenting the kids' lives for posterity. I digress.

This post is about family. In some respect, family is what you make it. And by that I mean family is who you make it. Family does not have to be your blood relatives. Which I guess is pretty obvious. I mean your spouse isn't a blood relative but is probably the most important person in your life. And in my case, the same holds true for my kids.

So we can choose who to surround ourselves with, and in that sense, we can choose our family. But I am really lucky because not only do I have some amazing, supportive friends, who I really do consider to be family, but I also have a wonderful family. I have four really caring, really interesting, really accomplished sisters in law. I have three really caring, really interesting, really accomplished brothers in law. I have nieces and nephews who know me and who I know and love. My point is that were I choosing who to spend my time with, these are exactly the people I'd want to be with. Which makes the holidays all the more fun.

For kicks, and in case you care, here are the members of my side of our family:

These are my parents with Marcie.

My big brother Bob and his wife Karin. He's an accomplished attorney; she's a doctor focusing on psychiatry. They have three boys: Sal, Vince and Leo-- all of whom are pretty much fluent in French (even though their parents are not-- what a great gift!).

I did manage to get one photo of my younger brother and his wife together, but they didn't know I was taking it. So out of respect for them, I'm not posting it. This is Tram (pronounced Chum). Their middle child is in the background with a "cheese" face. Here, she's helping the kids make sugar cookies. Tram is a high school teacher (which is how we met). She and my brother Bryan have three kids: Joey, Ethan and Calliope. I think one reason I don't have any photos of them together is because a 2 1/2 year old and 7-month-old keep you on your toes.

This is Bryan and Megan (my younger sister). I always thought of Megan as the family baker (she is very talented), but it turns out my brother is quite a cook, too. These two moved away from California to Pennsylvania when he was a sophomore and she was in 5th grade. We used to joke that they were the Pennsylvania family because many of the people they grew up around never even met me or Bob. I think they have a special bond because of their time together in the H family of four.

And last but not least are Timour (pronounced Tee-more) and Megan. They are the newlyweds of the group, and they live in San Francisco right downstairs from my older brother, so they are very close to Sal, Vince and Leo. Coincidentally, Timour, like my nephews, is fluent in French.

Missing from these photos, I suppose, is one of me and Jason. I don't have any of just the two of us from the holidays. But if you look to the right, you'll notice that we did snap a new family photo, which I've added to the blog. Boy, we're starting to look our age . . .

Cousins

Growing up, though I had many, many cousins, I didn't really know them very well. This was in part because they all lived in the Boston area (except the two in Cincinnati and the two in New Hampshire), and it was in part because our age range was relatively vast. I fell somewhere in the middle. But I didn't have any cousins with whom I easily "fell in" because of our age.

One thing I think is cool for our kids is that the age spread of my nephews and niece makes get-togethers all the more fun. The oldest, Sal, is 17 months older than Casey. Vince is 6 months younger. Then Joey is a year younger than Vince. Leo is 6 months younger than Joey. Marcie is a year younger than Leo, and Ethan is 18 months younger than Marcie, followed by Calliope who is 22 months younger than Ethan. In fact, two of the cousins are in first grade this year and two are in kindergarten. What it means in practical terms is that the oldest is 8 1/2 years old and the youngest is 7 months old and most of the kids are close in age.

Anyway, I hope they grow up to be great friends and a large support system for one another. I know all their parents and love them. Here are some photos of "the cousins" in various forms from our week in North Carolina:

At breakfast together the morning the San Diego cousins arrived.

Leo, Marcie, Sal, Ethan, Vince, Casey, Joey (Calliope wasn't at the table).

Joey, Casey, Vince, Ethan, Leo, Sal-- enjoying some television (which was not on very often).

At the LEGO store, where they had a LEGO party.

In the back: Marcie, Grandma H., Vince, Casey

In the front: Ethan, Leo, Joey, Sal.
(Yes, Calliope is absent from this photo- she was being "worn" on her mom at the time.)

At Ray's Splash Planet (an indoor water park).

Leo, Marcie, Casey, Sal and Vince.

Ethan and Joey were also there in the water with us.

Calliope hung out with Tram (her mom), enjoy the sauna-like air.

And it was my mom's desire to get a good photograph of all eight of her grandchildren. I don't know that either of these qualify as "good," but when you're talking about kids from 7 months to 8 years, I think this is about as good as it gets. Here are what I thought were the two best:

I hope the kids one day look back at these photos and see how happy they were-- how much fun they had, and appreciate these relationships. We're lucky to have such a close-knit family.

The Flight to NC

The kids and I traveled on in advance of Jason, who couldn't leave until the red eye on the 23rd because he started a new job this year and didn't have the vacation time. The flight was a non-stop. We scuttled through security without a hitch, and then each kiddo got a Starbucks hot chocolate to sip while we waited. And they cherished those drinks. First, they unloaded their winter coats and backpacks into my arms, already full with my jacket and my purse. And then they more or less skipped their way down the corridor to our gate, while I shuffled on behind them like a pack mule.

We did encounter two interesting China-related comments on our way to North Carolina. The first came from someone watching me in Starbucks, who inquired directly whether Marcie is adopted from China. I said she was, a little surprised by the question-- which is rarely asked of me. The woman explained that she has a younger sister, also adopted from China. The second question was from a flight attendant on our trip, who asked if my husband is Chinese. "Indeed he is," I responded. She actually wasn't trying to be nosey so much as she was trying to figure out if I was a coworker's wife (apparently the co-worker is Chinese).

In any event, the kids were well-occupied by their Nintendo DS, Leapster and DVD player, not to mention the Oreos and Twizzlers we purchased en route. And they were in good spirits when we landed and were greeted by their grandparents. We zoomed off to their home, where we had some dinner and watched Prep and Landing, our favorite Christmas special of the season. (Casey keeps calling it Crap and Landing, which makes me laugh.) Their cousins from San Francisco arrived an hour or so after we did, so they all went to bed in the "bunk room" together that night. Their San Diego cousins arrived early the next morning, and then the ruckus began.

Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

Every three years, for at least the last nine, my siblings (and our families) and I have all met up in North Carolina, at our parents' house, to celebrate the Christmas holiday. We decided to do this three-year rotation because it allowed us (theoretically) to do one Christmas just with our nuclear families, one with our spouses' families, and then one all together. We go to North Carolina so that our parents can host. And because my dad has trouble getting time off around the holidays (he's a pilot). This will probably be the last year we do it. As our families have grown, the travel has become more complicated. But having done it for 2009, I feel so fortunately that we've all made this committment to spend time together for a week or so at least every three years. And we're especially lucky because, while we pay our air fare, my parents live in a house large enough to hold all eighteen of us. Not without a lot of work on their part. But it's so much fun, and I feel so grateful we can do it.

Before we headed off to North Carolina this year, though, we celebrated the Christmas holiday with the part of Jason's family living here in San Diego. Here are a couple photos of the night before our departure:

As you can see, there was no shortage of gifts -- or smiles-- hanging out with the S family.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I love this picture, even though the youngest of the kids is missing from the photo, because I think it shows their personalities so well! We had our annual holiday party with our good friends early this year because one family is quite popular and was all booked for the month of December, except for the first weekend. It ended up working out well because the weather was perfect to go to Candy Cane Court to see all the amazing lights they do each year. I won't bore you with photos of the lights-- just that picture above of the kids, at the start of our walk.

This weekend, in contrast, it was cold and rainy. I don't mind it so much for the winter. Yesterday, we mostly stayed indoors. I whipped up some salt dough, and Casey and Marcie used cookie cutters to make some new ornaments for our Christmas tree.

That's not all we did on our "lazy" Saturday. Marcie had swim lessons (it's an indoor pool, thankfully), and after swimming, we stopped by our favorite nail place. The ladies in there are always so good to Marcie, who loves getting her nails done. And they were slow. They only charged $3 for her nails-- and look at their amazing work (it's a little blurry, but that's a snow flake and a snowman on her thumbs). Yes, yes. I tipped ridiculously well.

We'd hoped to make it to our local Winter festival, where they light the big tree, offer train rides for the kids, and have a variety of live music entertainment, but the rain just didn't want to let up in the evening hours. Instead, we drove to Del Mar's Holiday of Lights. It was a conglomeration of lights all over the internal portion of the race track (we drove the outside). The kids oohed and ahed and drank hot chocolate from Starbucks while we drove slowly along the path.

Then this morning the kids got all gussied up for our special event-- How the Grinch Stole Christmas at the Old Globe. Casey was a little anxious about seeing the Grinch. We'd read the story (he actually read it to me) a couple times this weekend, and we watched the cartoon TV special (purchased at Target, if you're looking), too, since that's the true story and the version the play follows. It was really a great show. The actor who played the Grinch was fantastic. And a kind family even agreed to do some "photo swaps" with us, so we managed to get a picture of the whole family together. (See below)

Then this afternoon, we headed out to watch Casey play indoor soccer. For the first time this team season, his team lost a game (to the other undefeated team), which caused Casey to cry. And it was against the team that has the player Casey used to play with every season, before we started him in a recreational league. Poor guy. But he played like a champ-- we were all especially impressed when he took a ball directly to his left eye, which definitely fazed him for a moment. But he was tough and he kept on playing. We iced it and gave him some Tylenol, and I don't think it'll bruise. But we'll know for sure in the morning.

We ended the day by building a fire in our fire place.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .

Marcie's Holiday Show

Well, we had a repeat performance of last year. Except she didn't stand there and cry the whole time. Instead, she chewed on her new mitten. And that was with Casey sitting next to her the whole time. Later, she said she would've sung if Casey had sung with her class. Which is, of course, ridiculous.

Here's a sample:

I admit, I didn't photo or video much-- how much can you tape of your child standing around doing nothing while everyone else is performing? . . .

A Glorious, Wondrous, Long Weekend

I haven't taken a lot of days off this year. I started to once in June. But it didn't work out. So having 4 days off in a row this week has been, well, pretty glorious.

We spent Thanksgiving with family. Eating, watching football (well, they watched football), playing mah jong and other games, and generally enjoying each other's company. We let Casey do the toast this year. He began by clearing his throat several times, followed by an "um" or two or five (sure couldn't tell his mom was a speech & debate coach from the slow start). And then, he began: "Um, my birthmom died? In a car . . ."

I cut him off at that point and reminded him that we were toasting something he's thankful for. He restarted, and this was his toast: "I'm thankful for food!" Who couldn't raise their glass to that?

And on Thanksgiving, we were risky-- we let the kids stay up until (gasp!) 10pm, knowing that it typically backfires on us and causes an even earlier wake-up than the usual 6:30 a.m. weekend wake-up calls we get. But this year it didn't. And we slept in (again, gloriously) until 7:00 a.m. the next day.

Last year we spent Black Friday at a nearby mall. We didn't get to the mall this year, but we did hit the movies. No crowds. We saw Fantastic Mr. Fox. We brought along two of Casey's best friends, and they played Indiana Jones Wii for a while afterward, while Marcie and I picked out pictures for her birthday card thank you notes.

On Saturday we woke up to rain. Again, glorious. It hadn't rained in something like 160 days days. That's insane. Even for Southern California. We headed out in the rain to a nearby bowling alley (doing recon for Casey's birthday party in January), and we played some ball. Our lane glitched, and it kept clearing the pins after the first bowl. And even with the bumpers, a 9 or 10 pound ball didn't always make it all the way down the alley without some help. But the kids still had fun:

Then today we braved the mall. And we were pleasantly surprised. We hadn't planned to go to the mall, but we had some returns and the kids practically begged. So there we were. We went to the mall last weekend, too. And caught up with Santa early this year. Marcie said hello to him but refused to take any pictures. Casey was a bit braver:

And we put up the Christmas tree early this year, too. I suppose it's not that early. I mean, Christmas is only a month away-- not even a month away.

This year flew right by me. Must faster than any year before. Jason says it's because the older we get, the smaller the percentage of our lives each year is. Maybe that's it. But it does feel, sometimes, like it's going too fast. And I need to remember to stop and enjoy it-- to tell people how grateful I am to know them, to make sure I take pictures (at least mentally), to enjoy and experience what the world has to offer. And remembering all this on Thanksgiving weekend is perfect.

Good-bye October

October was a relatively quiet month. It started with a birthday celebration for my brother. Let's not talk about how old he is now. I'll just say he's my younger brother, and I'd prefer not to think about his age, mainly because I consider myself frozen at that age. In any event, we were treated to the Pope room at Buca di Beppo. And I caught this great shot of Casey and his cousin Joey:

We also headed off to a local pumpkin patch relatively early in the month this year because of soccer and church commitments. We've traditionally used our family photo at the pumpkin patch on our Christmas card, but Marcie got brave (and got her face painted), so we probably won't this year. Still, it's not a bad photo of us:

We were invited to a fantastic bicycle birthday party in October. The kids made name plates and rode in a bike parade. One of the crazy things about October in Southern California is that you just never know if it will be freezing or we'll get a heat wave. Last week, it was in the mid-60s one day and then it hit almost 80 degrees the next. We got lucky most weekends, and that birthday party weekend was one of them. This is me and Casey getting goofy at the party (and it's not lost on me that I'm pretty lucky that Casey isn't embarrassed by me already, let alone that he will still act silly with me in public):

Casey picked out his Halloween costume weeks (and maybe months) ago. Marcie was less settled. At first she wanted to be a zebra. Eventually, though, she settled on a panda. She was adamant, though, that she did not want to be Kung Fu Panda because she wanted to be a girl panda. Finding a regular panda costume proved to be difficult. And taught me not to trust the pictures on the ads. Because the picture was of a regular panda costume. But what we got was a Kung Fu Panda costume. Which we modified by giving the panda a skirt to cover up the shorts and make it truly girly. I must admit, I was especially proud of Marcie when I arrived at her school's annual Halloween parade to discover that she was the only girl in her class who did not dress as a princess of some kind or as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Don't get me wrong- if Marcie had wanted to be a princess, I would not have fought her. It's her costume after all. But I felt a little bit proud that Marcie was more creative than that (and I'm sure it doesn't hurt that she's got a big brother for a role model around).

Here's me with Marcie at her class Halloween parade:

And here is Indiana Casey . . . I mean Indiana Jones and Marcie as a panda the weekend before Halloween, when we took them to a Parents' Night Out costume party (while we went to dinner and go-kart racing):

When the big day finally came (and it was a big deal- Casey counted down the days all week), Marcie decided she didn't want to wear her hood. Which was fine, because it turned out it was a pretty warm night. So we painted her face like a panda to match the costume instead. Jason and his dad took the kids trick-or-treating, and they had a blast. Here they are, just a little before the sun set:

Today, of course, marks All Saints' Day. Both kids dressed up as St. Patrick for church. I dressed as St. Clare, sporting my mother superior nun costume, which I used for a work costume contest (and won with!). And now these costumes reside in our costume box, where I hope they get plenty of wear and tear over the next 12 months.

As a side note, Casey is getting quite creative. Today, he stood at the front window and narrated what he saw across the street (a gentlemen visiting the girls who live there). The funny thing was that he used voices for the guy and what he anticipated the girls would say. And the window was open, so not only did Jason and I get a good chuckle, but I'm pretty sure the guy could hear the whole thing-- and laugh along with us, too.