2008 Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Did you know that they don't have corn mazes or pumpkins in Finland?? The WBs all went to the pumpkin patch on the weekend for a traditional fall celebration. We had a blast.

Here's Monkey sitting and eating (what else) an apple.
Posing for pictures in the pumpkins. It was so cute, he kept saying "grenouille" which is French for frog rather than "citrouille". The French for pumpkin.
PUMPKIN!!!
PUMPKIN!!!
They loved looking in the gross pumpkin.
Checking out all of the good ones...
going through the corn maze...
swinging big c...
gorgeous!
Almost Halloween!

First annual WB family Halloween Bash

What??
The WBs decided to host a kids Halloween party. We had a total of 11 kids. 4 in Big C's age category and 7 in Monkey's. We had a BLAST!! Thanks to all who came and played. It was fantastic.

We decorated cupcakes:
Big C put the candies on then quickly realized that it would be faster to just put them in his mouth.
These two boys polished off an entire bowl of candy while the parents we looking elsewhere.
We played parachute games...
Dave did science magic tricks...

There was lots of parental supervision...
Much joy and laughter..a little boy who IS NOT A PILOT...(but rather a little boy who wants to fly planes, who is this pilot person you speak of Daddy??)
making spiders out of raisins, Ritz crackers and peanut butter (we checked with the parents in advance, no allergies in this group).
yummm...
The after party. I mean really, after having that much fun, who wants to cook supper?

MIng Ming Costume-toot toot

Toot toot? You ask. That would be me tooting my own horn!! I am so not a crafty or creative type of mom. I am really good at buying stuff with instructions and following them. I suggested to Monkey a week ago that he might want to consider being Ming Ming from the Wonder Pets for Halloween.

For those of you who don't know who Ming Ming is he is a duck on a kids show. Monkey likes the show and we really don't mind it. He is actually Ming Ming within his group of friend's at school. Here's Ming Ming.So Monkey jumped at the idea to dress up as Ming Ming. I failed to recognize when I made the suggestion that to be Ming Ming one needs to be a duck with a pilot hat on and also have a green cape WITH the Wonder Pets logo. Groan. So I looked up ready made costumes:
or:
and found myself quite underwhelmed. I figured that if that cost $30 plus shipping from the US, I could do better on my own. So I set out to make it piece by piece. First thing I did was find a woman locally who could make a cape (like I said, I am not crafty or anysuch). I got two reversible Wonder Pets logoed capes for $15 each.
Then we tracked down some yellow clothing. That wasn't hard.

The last step was to tackle that head piece. Both a duck and a pilot?? Not easy. I'll spare you the nitty gritty and the false starts. What we ended up with was a duck head from Value Village that we found on the floor separated from it's costume. They couldn't find the costume which actually worked well for me since the costume was an infant or toddler costume that would not have fit Monkey. They agreed to give it to us for $4. Awesome.

Next step was supposed to be a trip to the craft store to pick up felt to make the pilot hat. I got a brain wave to pick up something at Value Village that would work as fabric. I found a brown golf bag towel. It was $0.99 I intended to cut it to be the helmet and the hanging straps. Almost out of the store I think to take a look at the belts to see if I could do the pilot hat straps from a belt. Found one, perfect for the job. Another $0.99. Awesome. Now to find a glue gun. I don't own one but it is now on my Christmas list.

We get home and try out the clothes and bare hat to make sure that Monkey is happy with the result. Despite the expression on his face, he actually is quite pleased with it.
So I set to work. Thanks Brigitte for the glue gun. It was awesome!!!
First step take the golf towel and fold it over so that the pleated part is against the top of the duck head (essentially it is inside out). I started by centering it at the top and gluing there. Then I fastened my pilot straps.
Next step, the goggles. I found this container that came with a pair of ear plugs a couple of years ago. You can see my little device on the counter with the Ming Ming image on it for reference.
Add a piece of ribbon for the goggle straps and we have a Wonderpets Ming Ming costume for a 5 year old. He loves it!! I have to admit that I am really excited about it too!!!
Now to go and turn our wagon into the fly boat...

Halloween 2007

We got started right at 5:30. Every year at 5:30 it is dark. Not this year, not with daylight savings being messed up. So we were the first ones out. A bunch of houses were not ready, but many of them were. We even managed to arrive as one good sport was just pulling in to his driveway. Big C spent a great deal of time in the wagon just hanging out. Not really getting in to the whole thing. Normally taking a ride in the wagon is the whole point of the outing, the free candy was lost on him.Monkey and his friend BigE had been prepped in school and were more than ready. BigE was happy to show Big C the ropes and he was able to do about one house for every two that the older ones got done.

There were many happy choruses of "we're the candy guys" from Monkey in place of the traditional "trick or treat". There was also a lot of "umm, can I have some Smarties too please, they are my favorite". Grandma should be proud. Or maybe he just remembers the Smarties getting stolen by Grandma in years past and he knew that he needed extra. He actually did a remarkable amount of negotiating right on the door steps. Some guy gave him playdoh, but not blue playdoh. Oh Monkey spoke up, you can bet on it. They were trading between BigE, the neighbour and Monkey. It went on for at least 3 solid minutes.

He figured out that if he told people that he was also collecting for his brother, they would give him twice as much. At one point BigE was even trying to send Monkey in his place since Monkey was so good at it. At one point Big C took a rest at some random person's picnic table. Hey, it was sitting on the front lawn and he is always told that he has to sit in order to eat. Putting two and two together, he was hoping to get some candy in!

They had a great night and we packed it in by about 7.