Halloween night, Aidan and Bryce couldn't wait to get started putting on their costumes and get out to do some trick-or-treating!
Aidan went as a member of the Lightning McQueen (from the movie Cars) pit crew..
and Bryce, as expected, went as the ever vigilant crime-fighter, Batman!
Ready to go!
Batman wears Chucks!
The aftermath...Catching up on some pictures..
A few days before Halloween, Aunt Frances and Uncle Wyatt came by and helped us to carve some pretty mean looking Jack-o-Lanterns!
The boys both really got into it... especially once they figured out that the pumpkin guts weren't all that gross...
This is so much like our Sylvie, we laughed out loud when we saw it the first time... and we're still watching it over and over again!
Just wanted to be sure to post this picture of Aidan crossing the finish line at the last X-Country meet of the season.
Grampa pointed out that you can see the clock in the picture-- and it looks like Aidan finished in REALLY nice time! No, no stopwatches next year!
Thanks to Gramma and Grampa for the great picture!
A lemonade stand! Beautiful!
As the days leading up to the yard sale passed, the idea was elaborated a bit to include some baked goods and coffee since, at 7am on a cool Fall Saturday morning, Lemonade might not be the strongest seller.
And a portion of the proceeds, they decided, should go to a very worthy cause, the Nashville Rescue Mission.
In the end, the boys raised $10 for the Mission, meeting their goal while also leaving enough left over to put a little in each of their piggy banks, and buy one small toy on a trip to the store with their Mom.
Turned out to be a good lesson all the way around, I think and SleepyMama did an amazing job of managing the whole enterprise!
Late Summer Watermelon
Originally uploaded by sleepydad
Blaine's mom sent us a few pictures from early September when the kids all sat on her porch to eat some watermelon..
While we're on the topic of dressing up, Bryce and Maddy (from across the street) have been really getting into the spirit the last few weeks!
Experimenting with the Blogger video service a bit here..
this is a short video I took of Aidan making his way (with style) around the dance floor at the wedding reception last weekend.
A few pictures from a really fun wedding reception we attended in Louisville last weekend.
Most everyone went in costume-- Aidan went as a Pirate and Bryce as a knight (courtesy of a great little costume his mom whipped up for him!).
Aidan may have set his sights on being a 4th grade teacher, but he may have a hard time getting there if he keeps thinking like this:
I like 1st Grade. I want to stay in it next year.
Really? You want to stay in 1st grade?
Yeah, I like Ms. Price and I like 1st Grade.
But won't you get bored learning all the same stuff all over again?
What? [This is where Aidan gives me a look like-- "are you crazy? I'll never get tired of adding 4+2 and coloring the clouds with even numbers blue and those with odd numbers orange."]
Well, okay. 1st grade again next year. But you know all your friends will have moved on into 2nd grade by then.
[This makes him think for quite a while.. and then...]
Yeah, okay, Dad. I'll go into 2nd grade next year.
By the way... Aidan would like everyone to know that the Tooth Fairy fulfilled his wish and gave him a half-dollar last week!
A couple of shots from today's cross country meet, the second of the year.
(We'll be missing next week's meet while we're in Louisville for our friend Tanya's wedding.)
Aidan has been on-record for some time now with his ambition to be a father some day. (I have to smile even just typing that.)
But now he's adding to his future resume-- thanks to all the good work he sees his Mama doing:
Hey Aidan.. what do you want to be when you grow up?
I want to be a Dad.. and a 4th Grade Teacher.
A Teacher, huh? Why 4th grade?
Because 4 is my favorite number.
The 1st and 2nd Grade boys ran as a group-- so it was a bit more crowded at the starting line this year. But Aidan had a great run-- despite the heat (in the low-mid 90s at midday today)-- and finished near several of the other good runners in his class.
He was really happy when he finished... so we sat in the shade for a few minutes and had some ice water to drink..
Then while Bryce was asking me if we could go to the nearby playground, Aidan looked up and said "Guess what? My tooth came out!"
Aidan's anxious now for the tooth fairy to come. He's hoping that she'll bring him a half-dollar. Keep your fingers crossed!
It's a red-letter day around here today.
This morning at breakfast, Aidan discovered that he's got a wobbly tooth!
The early results are in from the poll on which costumes the boys want to wear for Halloween this year.
So far, the breakdown looks like this:
Aidan:
For a few more pictures from Louisville-- and some just generally beautiful photography-- click over here to Creighton's Flickr page.. he's got a really amazing eye. And having that incredible (and gigantic!) camera probably doesn't hurt either :)
Just to finish a conversation I had earlier today with my sister..
This is a picture of our friendly neighbor dog, Maisy:
And this is a picture of a Rat Terrier (w/ docked tail and ears), courtesy of the American Kennel Club:
And this is a beagle, (via wikipedia.org):
We went on a short trip last weekend to Louisville-- so my wife could do a little Stamping business while the boys and I visited with some old college friends: Trace, Ben, and Creighton.
Ben and Jan have two boys almost exactly our boys' ages, and Trace and Whitney have a 1-year old little girl, and Creighton-- well, Creighton is nothing if he's not young at heart and a lot of fun for us all to spend time with-- so there were plenty of objects for the boys' interest, attention, and affection.
It was a wonderful visit-- I'd forgotten what a beautiful city Louisville is-- and a good chance, apart from the event-gatherings-- homecomings, weddings, etc-- to catch up and share a little bit about how far we've all come the last few years.
Many thanks to everyone up there for the kind hospitality.
Let's do it again sometime soon-- perhaps in Nashville!
The boys goofing around in the hotel room
Aidan takes a swing at ping-pong in Trace's basement
Aidan discovers Nintendo (uh-oh)...
Trace and Baby Charlotte
Bryce finds the blue cow (with the eerie green eyes) irresistable
Sam and Charlotte (wow, and she really is that tall!)
The Usual Suspects
For all of us here in Tennessee, a note to Aunty Jean and all the family back home in Fitchburg..
We're thinking of you today.
Love,
Kieran
(photo credit: Rick Cinclair, Worcester Telegram & Gazette)
Update: here are links to the Sentinel story, "Honoring the Fallen," on the dedication. Also the Telegram story, along with an audio slideshow from the ceremony.
Still catching up on a small backlog of pictures.
The boys playing with the neighbor kids back on 8/22.
Aidan's starting the third full week of First Grade today, but back on August 16, it was a somewhat daunting prospect going into that new classroom for the first time. He adjusted pretty quickly though-- once he saw Fr. Breen in the hallway and that a few of his buddies from last year are in his new class, he seemed to think everything would be just fine... and after a few minutes, he was clearly more ready for us to head out than we were!
