The Tragic Tale of Kate's First Halloween!

After the sad Berry-Fairy ordeal I was still optimistic that Kate would enjoy Halloween...

Kate and I flew home from New Hampshire on Friday the 30th.  I wanted us to spend Kate's first Halloween together as a family.  I was moving in slow motion on Saturday morning and well the morning turned into afternoon.  We decided to go grocery shopping in Alliston.  We were going to purchase a pumpkin, go home and carve the pumpkin and decorate for Halloween.  About five minutes before we got to the grocery store, Kate fell asleep.

I had dressed her in her costume because all of the store owners in Alliston hand out candy on Halloween and even though we wouldn't be asking for candy I wanted Kate to be in costume too.  I had orginally tried to dress her in the Berry-Fairy costume - silly me.  The minute I put it on her she started to cry.  I had wanted to do a midday costume change.  I wanted to start with the Berry-Fairy and then switch after we'd carved the pumpkin.  I was worried about goo.  However, Kate has expensive taste it would seem and she refused to wear the cheap Berry-Fairy costume.  So I put the Tinkerbell costume on, so Kate could look cute in the car?! 

This is me waiting...(I was bored, not angry) Ken was in the grocery store for an hour.  Then we drove to Canadian Tire... and still she slept.

Kate woke up when we were pulling out of the Canadian Tire parking lot.  We drove home through Beeton so that we could buy a pumpkin from a stand, as the supermarket was sold out.  We bought a five dollar pumpkin from the first stand that we saw.  They had a locked metal money container attached to a post in the ground with prices beside all of the different sized pumpkins and gourds.  The only money we had was an American $5.00 bill.  So I picked out a $5.00 pumpkin, put the money in the box and hoped they wouldn't mind...  When we got home Kate and I set about cleaning out the pumpkin.

Next Ken took over and carved the pumpkin.  I wanted a simple Jack-o-lantern.  Ken gave it four teeth - because Kate has four teeth and he gave it a cute curl of "hair".  Kate couldn't decide whether or not she liked it.

Ken had purchased the cute pumpkin lights earlier in the week.  I thought they looked great.

We ordered pizza from the local place - for the first time.  It was really good.  Everything was looking great.  The day had come together nicely...

...that is until the trick-o-treaters showed up!  I thought for sure Kate would be tickled to see so many different kids come to the house.  Boy was I wrong.  The first set of kids brought on tears and sobs.  The second set, more tears and sobs.  I took her outside before the third set thinking that perhaps she would like to greet the kids outside, this seemed to work.  For the fourth set we went back inside and there were more tears and sobs.  I decided to put Kate out of her misery and after removing her from her costume, I put her to bed!  And so ends our somewhat tragic tale of Kate's first Halloween.

New Hampshire - Kate + Overview

COLOUR!  The INS officer at the airport didn't ask me a single question.  He did however talk to me about how lovely the colours were in New Hampshire this time of year.  And yes, the colours were gorgeous.  Okay, I'm lying, he did ask me one question, he asked me in Spanish if I spoke Spanish.  He had just practiced his Spanish and was looking for more practice.

These pictures were taken outside of the library.  The leaves were in abundance and the red and yellow and the blue sky, deep breath in and happy sigh - so beautiful!

This was the first of a few attempts at taking a picture of the girls in the brown chair.  The little monkeys would never smile in the same shot.  Either Kate was losing her mind, or Anna was!  I was a little bummed about not getting a single cute shot on the brown chair.  This is perhaps the best one, Anna is practically smiling and if you don't know Kate very well you might think that she's sort of smiling - even though she isn't.

Amidst all of the craziness that is Suzanne's life right now we did manage to have a few outings.  We took Thomas, Anna and Kate to the Boston Children's museum which was fun.  Kate will enjoy it more in a few years of course - or even next year.  There was a small area in one of the rooms for crawlers only.  I thought she'd explore more but she decided to have a shy moment.

We also went into Boston on another day and we went to Harvard - with all the kids!  Matthew is taking a class at Harvard and we went to show the kids where Matthew is going to school.  The boys played a little bit of soccer which I found amusing.  A few passersby kicked the ball back to them.

After we walked around campus and enjoyed our yummy sandwiches we walked to a cupcake store in Harvard Square called Sweet.  Oh my goodness the cupcakes were so good.

As previously mentioned we made a trip to the library.  This is the one and only picture I have of Kate with her Auntie Suzanne.  I must do better next time!

There was also trunk or treat - the Halloween activity at church.  I was pleasently surprised by how into it everyone was - the kids, the youth, the adults - so many awesome costumes.  Kate didn't like her Berry Fairy costume one little bit.  I took a few photos and then called off the torture!  She wore a bear suit, which didn't really look like a costume, oh well.

Mostly we just hung out.  I tried to protect Kate from her cousins - and her cousins from her (she tried to bite Anna, several times!).

Sometimes I protected her better than other times...

She definitely developed a love for her Uncle Matthew this trip.

We played outside in Suzanne's awesome backyard.

We went for a few walks.

And before you knew it, it was time to come home again.  Every time we visit both Suzanne and I lament "we wish we lived closer".  I do wish we lived closer.  But I do feel blessed that we see each other as often as we do - especially this year!

A word about my little flyer...

We had fun playing with the airport toys.  And yes Suzanne - in her Harvard outfit everyone thought she was a boy.  I was able to bring the car seat on the plane with me on both the trip to NH and the trip home - YAY!  Kate is such a good little flyer.  She nursed to sleep and slept pretty much the whole flight there and the return flight as well.  It helps that the flight is only about 90 minutes!

So Bates family, we love you and we miss you.  We're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll be spending Christmas with you!!

New Hampshire - Isaac

I would like to know what happened?!  Isaac, when did you stop being this?

And when exactly did you start being this?

I know it isn't cool to say 'look at how much you've grown'.  I vaguely remember people saying it to me.  What am I supposed to do, not grow up?  Isaac, I'm not asking you to stop growing up, but could you slow down a little?  Isaac, I'm so glad that you love music!

I'm so glad that you love to read.

I'm so glad that you love school.

I'm so glad that you love to be silly!

But mostly I am just so glad (more than glad!) that you are my nephew!

New Hampshire - Joey

It was so fun to visit during Joey's birthday festivities.  Joey had many fun birthday times!  He had his birthday at school - for which Suzanne made yummy cupcakes.

There was his birthday present - a Harry Potter costume.

His birthday party.  What to say.  It was an experience.  It was an interesting learning experience.  Little kids at birthday parties are nuts.  It made me seriously question what I'll do in the future!  In any case here's a cute shot of Joey blowing out his candles.

Watching Joey spend his birthday money was fun.  He was very excited about it.  A special trip to the mall was made and he was properly prepared by Suzanne.  We went to a couple of different stores and he looked at lots of different things.  He made his decisions very wisely getting lots of bang for his buck.  Here he is with his birthday loot!

Now aside from his birthday celebrations there was random Joey fun!  Including crazy rabbits...

...crazy cowboys...

... and crazy ballerinas?

And of course Joey can always be counted on to be a good cousin!

New Hampshire - Thomas

Thomas Henry Bates!

What do you want to be for Halloween?

I want to be a Spy-Zombie-Alien-Claw-Monster!

A what?

A Spy-Zombie-Alien-Claw-Monster!

Thomas, you are so funny and so loveable!!!  (Whatever you are!)

New Hampshire - Anna

Sweet girl playing in the leaves.

I love this shot.  She just wants to do everything that her brothers do.

I think Anna's most favourite place to be is on the kitchen table eating her brother's left overs.  You wouldn't know it to look at her, but this little monkey eats non-stop!

We traveled to the Boston Children's museum while I was visiting.  I can't wait until Kate can enjoy things like this.  I enjoyed watching Anna play with the water.  Suzanne didn't enjoy it so much... I let Anna get all wet and well wet is bad... oops!

She really is a funny little fairy!  I miss her already.

Random October Stuff

Below are a collection of random October moments.  Some are typical every day things, and a few are special occasions.  

I'm not sure why, but it seems that all children enjoy playing with their car seats.  Ken thinks it's Kate's way of saying bully to one of her objects of confinement.

Kate is slowly but surely trying to figure out the stairs.  She has finally figured out how to pull herself up onto a step, but hasn't quite figured out how to get to the next one.  I keep waiting for the day we'll have to buy gates.

On Thanksgiving Day we went for a drive - a lovely drive.  The current family history quest is a side step - trying to find Aunt Addie - my Dad's godmother that had no children of her own.  We drove out to a cemetery in Harriston, Ontario to look for what could have possibly been her grave - but it wasn't.

On the way home we took the northern route and drove through several pretty towns and past the Shelburne wind farms.  I could not adequately capture the wind turbines.  They are huge and every where!

After visiting the cemetery in Harriston it got me thinking about other graves, graves of my family in the city.  I was searching on a Jewish site and found Al and Florence Solman's graves, and Eva - the first wife of Uncle Stanley, mother of Maribeth and Lenny.  I decided that Kate and I would go and find the graves.

Al and Florence's grave is in a beautiful cemetery in North York - very well maintained, very peaceful.  The grass was thick and lush and Kate enjoyed it very much.  Eva's grave was in another cemetery in North York and I think Maribeth captured the feeling very well when she called it "a rather spooky and spiritual graveyard".  I felt a connection to Eva that I can't describe, considering she's a person that I've never met and she isn't a blood relative.

Everyone keeps asking me how I'm enjoying Tottenham.  I am slowly making my peace with the place.  The one thing that I love doing in town is going for walks.  I try to take Kate out everyday, it doesn't always happen but we try!  The weather has been so unpredictable the last little while.  I'm never quite sure how to dress Kate. There's the light weight coat, with blanket and cat hat...

...or the heavier snowsuit.

Of course one thing that Kate does absolutley every day is nap!  I'm trying to introduce a "lovey".  I tried the pig and she seemed to like it very much - she's a girl after my own heart!

And every Sunday we go to church.  Thanks to many hand-me-downs from Suzanne, and other generous gifts Kate has a plethora of dresses.

And last but not least in the randomness - eating.  Trying to find the balance between Kate figuring out how to feed herself, and MESS is an interesting journey.  This particular day Ken and I decided to let Kate enjoy her food in every possible sensory way.  She was in Shepherd's Pie heaven!