First Trick or Treat!

Andrew had a fabulous time trick-or-treating tonight with our friends. He really seemed to get into the whole thing, much to my surprise. Here he is on our front steps, getting ready to go.And here's the motley crew right before hitting the neighborhood. Pink princess = Hannah, Snow White = Christy, monkey = our monkey, Yoda = Grant, and pirate = Ella. I chopped off Leah's head. :O(
Here we have a regular pirate/princess/monkey pow wow.
Grant was a great Yoda!After the candy collecting, we were treated to some mummies and spiders. Loved these guys!

Here are some videos of the evening. The first is of us just starting out, as Andrew was following the very enthusiastic Ella quite nicely. Note the sudden sharp turn into the thankfully empty street, and candy being flung everywhere. Glad he was excited!

Here we have him approaching a door to get the goods, a monkey in every sense of the word.

And finally, my personal favorite: sugar-filled creatures causing mayhem in the hallway.

In honor of Halloween, some torture via vintage pics

At the moment, I can't seem to put my hands on pics of any old Halloween costumes of mine (how convenient, right?) but here's one of Jon (on left) and his brother Randy, circa late 70's, I'm guessing:

And while we're at it, here are the little sailors earlier in life, and it's not a costume (Jon's on the right):

Still not done - we like to tease their mom that these were the boys' Star Trek uniforms (she maintains they were actually expensive soccer outfits). Jon's on the left.

Oh, I did find one of myself (and Jon). It's Halloween 2001 and we had just started dating two months prior. We dressed up as each other (that's a Cadets tee I'm wearing). Uncanny resemblances, eh?

Done. Husband torture over. [Hope I'm not served divorce papers after this posting...]

Evolution of a Munch House

Our dishwasher and office chair boxes were screaming to be played with, so Andrew and I have been working on making a play house out of them. Here's where we are so far. It's still a work in progress, which will be painted OUTSIDE, FOLLOWING A NAP from now on (I recently learned that a cranky toddler indoors with a loaded paintbrush should be considered a deadly weapon).

Boo at the Zoo

We took the monkey to Boo at the Zoo tonight! He had fun participating in all the activities and Jon and I enjoyed watching him, of course. It was also great seeing so many other tiny costumed kiddos - cute as can be.

We wanted the little man to be a monkey for his first Halloween (last year). I bought him a monkey suit in August or so (yes, August - remember - it's my favorite holiday) and of course it didn't fit the four-month-old weed by the time October rolled around. Here he is modeling just the hat before I took it back.

Andrew ended up being a puppy. He wore this for about 45 minutes until it got too unbearably hot in the house (and outside). There. First Halloween costume over.We didn't trick-or-treat last year, but instead stayed in to give out candy to all the neighborhood kids and many kids from Mexico whose families drove them up to the US to get the "good stuff" (no lie). Here, he was playing around in Daddy's witch hat.

Back to this year... it was a busy, tiring evening, even for a monkey.

The animated version of Andrew in his costume is pretty funny and I will post a video after trick-or-treat next weekend.

Visiting Aunt Rena

One nice thing I've noticed blogger buddies doing lately has been to post old stuff when you have no new material. I have been meaning to post more WV trip pics anyway, so here goes.

Last month, when Andrew and I drove up to WV, one of our overnight stops was at Aunt Rena's. Rena is one of my dad's two sisters. She and Aunt Phyl both say Andrew is the spitting image of Dad when he was about 1. Her dog, Sam, is about the cutest thing ever. While there, Andrew played a lot with one of her doll babies (Jon is so proud) and, true to form, found every broom in the immediate vicinity.

Here's Munchman with Aunt Rena a year ago when he was just two months.

And now, the big monster who barely fits on a lap.

Peace out. More WV posts to come.

Heeeeere Leezurd, Leezurd

Found this guy on the INSIDE of our screened-in porch this evening.... and we thought that porch was impervious to the LITTLE critters! Hmmmm.... wonder what else lurks out there?!?


Jon definitely took one for the team as I was demanding photos. See the triangular bite-mark?

Think YOU had a bad day?

Mom just told me about this. This horse belongs to old friends of mine from Ritchie County, WV. It made international news! Poor thing (but it's okay). Here's one of the many news stories.

Pumpkin-Carving Playdate

Jon, Andrew, and I had a great time this afternoon at the home of some new friends - Jen & Chris. The adults carved pumpkins and the kids played together (hence the title). I say it was definitely better times than being football-watching couch-potatoes all day, which we are quite prone to doing on Sundays.

And since we're talking Halloween here, check out my blogger friend Elle J's post about her family's recent party - so creative and fun. I am such a sucker for Halloween parties - it's my favorie holiday by far.