Halloween fun

A while ago Taipan said he wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween. I asked him a few times and the answer was always the same, so we got pumpkin costumes for both of the kids. As Halloween got closer Taipan said he wanted to be a dog. Then a dinosaur. I wasn't sure exactly what he'd want to dress up as today.

Turns out, nothing. I wasn't too surprised about that. He did want to wear a Halloween shirt though.

A friend of ours had a party tonight, and when we got there Taipan was eager to go trick or treating, so we gathered the kids and left the house. Taisim didn't feel like wearing her costume or shoes, so we headed out without costumes on the kids.



Yuta and I were dressed up though:



The first house we went to had a mask from the movie Scream that shot out fog or smoke. And that was the end of trick or treating for us. As soon as the mask let out the smoke Taipan was ready to go to the van. Taisim and Yuta headed to another house, but as soon as Taisim realized that Taipan and I weren't here she wanted to head back inside too.

The kids had a blast playing once the other kids finished trick or treating. At first Taipan was disappointed because our friend's house ran out of candy, so he only had one piece :-( But he soon got past it. Taisim also had one piece of candy, and seemed fine with just the one.



He ended up spending a lot of time playing with a motion-activated witch - here's a picture of him posing with it:



And here's a picture of what they would have been had they wanted to wear their costumes tonight (I took this on Sunday when I was making sure the costumes were clean & fit them ok):

Family Fun Fest @ Patterson Farm

Monday was such a beautiful day, we decided to go to Patterson Fruit Farm to check out their Family Fun Fest. After taking the scenic route there (I missed a turn or two), we arrived to what was a much larger Fun Fest than we had anticipated!

There was a quick tractor ride to the actual festival...



where there was a large pavilion of hay...


a figure-8 track with foot pedal tractors...


pumpkins for painting...



and slides large and small...












It was a fun time! And we got some pumpkins for carvin' to boot!

Treehouses

The weather here over the weekend was beautiful. Sunny, warm, nice breeze. Couldn't ask for better weather in the midwest at the end of October.

We took advantage of it and went to Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens to see their Tremendous Treehouses exhibit. The grounds are absolutely beautiful, and if I were planning a wedding in Cleveland it'd be at the top of my list of places to have it.




They arranged for about ten architects/artists to build treehouses on their grounds, and they're all spread out - we saw five of them I think. The kids liked the pirate ship and musical treehouses the best.

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We also checked out the conservatory, which had three model trains (g gauge) set up - two were working, and that was a nice surprise for Taipan.



All of the walking was really tough on Yuta's knee. He iced it when we got home, and then again last night. Today he's planning to call the doctor back and will most likely get an MRI.

Our camera started losing battery, but we got a few pics at Stan Hywet. It'll probably take us a few months to post them, but keep checking - they'll be here eventually :-)
(Y: And it only took 13 hours this time!)

October 16th - Coloring Baby

Taisim has a baby doll she just loves, and today she went to change it's diaper. Then she decided the baby needed more color. Of course, throughout it all, she still loves her baby.