Halloween Party

 So far it's been a busy fall for us.  John and I wanted to make it even more busier!  We threw a costume party last week.  Each of the kids invited 3 friends.  I've decided that John needs to go into the Event business after this party.  He worked on this for at least a week planning.  The day of, we were both relieved to have 75 degree weather.  That allowed us to ship the kids outside to play while we prepared.  We worked up until the deadline with John finally jumping into the shower at 4:38pm and guests arriving at 5pm.... yikes!  The menu included 3 different poisons for drinks, a vegetable skeleton, mummy meatballs, candy corn cheese quesadillas, sugar cookie bones, jack-o-lantern fruit cups and a dia de los Muertos cake.

 The dynamic duo ready for action! - Batman and Robin

 They won't be able to catch us though! - Harley Quinn, Catwoman & Poison Ivy

Izzy's friend, Michael, and his family dressed up as Dorothy & the wizard of Oz.

 Given the beautiful weather outside, one activity we set up was a relay race.  Two adults were needed to complete teams.  Teammates were to balance a candy corn on a spoon handing it off to the next player.  Obstacles included running around cones, balancing on a beam and catching the candy thrown to them.  The final team member had to run all the way back to the start.  The adults even played once after the kids were done.

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 The relay was then followed by a surprise appearance from Dr. Morgue.  He invited everyone to feel what he brought up from the morgue.

 Body parts included intestines (spaghetti), a heart (skinless tomato), eye balls (skinless grapes) and a brain (brain molded jello).

Lightning kept watch over the body parts during the party.

 Victoria and her girl friends enjoyed playing in her room most of the night.

 Micah and his friends did what boys do... epic sword fights.

 Izzy and her friends stayed outside on the balcony or running up and down in the basement.

 Bobbing for apples.

 The party goers.

 John and Bill won the adult costume contest.  Many of the adults decided not to dress up.  They need to work on channeling their inner child!

Columbus Day Weekend

 With a 3 day weekend thanks to Columbus Day, we headed out to western Massachusetts.  We visited the basketball hall of fame.  Not knowing what we were heading into, we were all surprised by what we found.  Not only did we learn about the history of basketball, we were greeted by many interactive experiences.  The hall of fame includes more than players.  It includes coaches, refs and sports media.  Our favorite was making our own broadcasts of basketball games.

 Izzy took her try at dunking a basketball.

I enjoyed this visual display of how the hoop has changed throughout time.

 Another stop was the Dr. Seuss museum.  Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, MA; a claim to fame for this town.  

 Becoming our very own Lorax's.

We topped off this weekend by playing laser tag.  At the end of the game, a print out is given of your stats and ranking.  Micah ranked 28 out of 28.  Mommy... 3 out of 28.  We played again this time knowing what we were getting into.  John & Victoria sat out due to a bad experience.  Izzy, Micah and I made a team covering each other.  It was funny to watch the punky teenagers go after the little guy (Micah), only to find themselves being hit by his mommy.  Micah moved up in the rankings.  Mommy ended up in 2nd place.  John's now wishing I go hunting with him...ha!



Fall Fun

With a day of no school (Rosh Hashanah), we returned to Connors Farm for fall fun.  This year we invited two of Izzy's friends; Shiri & Bonnie.  This really is meant to be for apple picking.  But there are so many other activities we forgot about the apples.  We didn't miss out on the apple cider donuts though!

 Micah really enjoyed these rubber duck races.

 While the majority of us were over racing our rubber ducks, Victoria enjoyed the tricycles.  John couldn't help himself from building.

 We all took a turn trying to ring the bell.  None of us were able to do so except for John.  He received many oohhs and aahhhs from people on a train ride nearby.

The pedal carts are always one of our favorites.  We couldn't get Shiri off of these things which created a back log of people waiting in line.

We again attempted the corn maze.  Armed with 10 questions of which the answers will guide you on tricky turns, we successfully made it out in 45 minutes.  Along the way we picked up another group who was lost, tagging along to get out.  I have no idea how long they were in the maze for!

Zip lines were new this year.  Too bad they didn't have ones that could carry the weight of adults.

Another favorite is the jumping pillow.  The idea is ingenious.  The boy in blue wanted to join our group.  We must have looked like we having the time of our life!