Birthdays, Business trips, the Big 10, Halloween and heck it's November already!

I can't believe it's November! Where did all the time go? Here is what happened last month.

On the first week of October our good friends Cindy and Mary had their baby Collin James! He is so perfect, with a round head and the sweetest most laid back disposition! I am so happy for them! When Matt, the kids and I went to visit them in the hospital, the nurse addressed Matt as the father! Ha! "He's not the father," we all exclaimed at the same time. Boy was the nurse's face red!

Matt turned 34 in a different time zone! For the second and third week of October Matt was way busy. He was in New York, Chicago, Kansas City, Dallas, and L.A.! At least he got to see a couple movies in between the traveling. He saw Serenity, Capote and A History of Violence All really good movies in his opinion. Poor guy was so jet lagged when he got back. I got a cake from The Buttery ready for Matt when he got home. I took Sam with me to the Bakery and he when we got home he so upset that we weren't having the cake right away. I kept telling him that it was for when his daddy came home. So, when Matt walked in the door from his long trip the first words out of Sam's mouth was "birthday cake! Birthday cake!" He kept saying that everytime his dad walked through the door for at least a week! "Birthday cake! Birthday cake!"

Unfortunately, Matt was in the middle of his trip on our 10 year wedding anniversary too! When he got back we took the kids to a movie and dinner at Applebees. It was nice to just get out for a change. We went to see the latest Wallace and Gromit movie The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It was hilarious! Too cute! The kids were pretty well behaved and Sam even ate more than Henry! Of course, when the dessert (chocolate cake) came out the boys went after it like 2 dogs searching for a bone!

And last week Henry's class visited an Organic Farm in Watsonville and picked pumpkins. The farm is right next to this old rickety house that looked perfect for Halloween, so I took some pictures of it.

I bought Henry a pair of rubber boots just for the occasion. Of course, he managed to fall anyway!. The lady who owned the farm, Jeanne, also has a stand where they sell all that they grow. She had this celery that was the brightest green I have ever seen and it was darn fresh! I had never tasted a piece of celery so fresh. It was almost sweet! She also had some great carrots which Henry tried. There was no way he was trying the celery!

And yesterday the kids at Linscott had a Harvest Festival and were able to come in their costumes to school. There was a parade and then each class had these booths where kids could do activities like paint a pumpkin or do a cake walk. Linscott is a very health concious school so all the treats were healthy and the baked goods were sugar free! Henry did the cake walk and won a chocolate cupcake and he and Sam gobbled the thing up without any hesitation. They didn't even miss the sugar!

As you can see, Henry was Nintendo Mario this year! He'd been asking to be Mario for a while so I did my best to get a costume ready for him. It's not something you find pre-made anywhere. Maybe in the 80's or 90's when Mario was big but, certainly not now! I found most things at Target. The only thing I had a hard time trying to find was the perfect hat. I found one that was green so I tried to dye it. It came out mostly a brownish red as you can see but, I think it turned out o.k. During the parade when Henry walked down the steps the older kids were chanting "Mario! Mario!" so it was a complete success!

For Halloween night, Cindy, Mary, Lilly and lil Collin came over. We also invited Henry's classmate Braelen and his parents Dave and Watonka. Lilly was in this gorgeous Tinkerbell gown and Braelen was a Ring Wraith from Lord of the Rings. I was worried that Lilly would be frightened but, she wasn't at all! And our Sam was (what else) Thomas the Tank Engine! He was swimming in the costume. Mary ingeniously tied a small string belt around him so he wouldn't be stepping on it. Of course the moment we went out the door Sammy was chanting "Take it off! Take it off Mommy!" But, after we got to the first couple of houses and he realized that the costume was getting him candy - he was fine. It was so cute watching them, say "Trick or Treat!" and "Thank you" with a few "I'm Mario" or "I'm Tinkerbell" tossed in. The reception for Henry's costume was funny all around. You could tell who grew up in the 80's because they really got a kick out of his costume.

The neighborhood yielded a bunch o' candy - as expected - though not as much this year as last. I didn't mind that, just that it was kinda annoying that some porch lights were on but, no one was answering the door for candy! I mean if you're not going to give candy, at least leave your porch light off. Anyway, I had bought some take-n-bake pizzas from Papa Murphy's before we went off to Trick or Treat so by the time we got back Matt had baked them all. We had pizza and talked while the kids played. All in all it was a fun night!

Whew! Now we are in November. I can't believe it. Before I forget I must remember to give a "shout out" (why does it sound so uncool when I say that??) to a few people. Our friends Casey and Amy had birthdays last month, so, Happy Birthday ladies!! They're both of Norweigan decent so they still look like teenagers even though (cough cough) they're in their early 30s. In fact, Casey told me she just got carded a few weeks ago!

Then I want to wish Baldo's dad, Baldomero Senior a speedy recovery. He had a clotted artery in his legs and was hospitalized for at least a month. He's home now and Baldo and his sisters are all working together to take care of him. I hope he gets better soon!

Then last, but not least I want to wish a super happy good luck to Bev and Wes and their little pea-in-a-pod girl, who is going to make her appearance in less than two weeks! There has been some rare complications with Bev's pregnancy so she's on bed rest till November 14!! I can't wait! Babies are so wonderful!

Thanksgiving will be here soon, then Christmas. We got a brochure from Toys R Us in the mail this weekend and Henry has already gone through and circled everything he wants to Christmas! And it's pretty much everything! Sam just keeps staring at the train page. It's hilarious. Well, that's it for now. Hopefully, I'll get back to update all sooner rather than later!