Halloween 2010 and Skating

At the end of October, we headed to the local pumpkin patch in Erie, Colorado, to get our pumpkins for the season. It’s more like a family farm which sits on two acres - - no one was outside when we rummaged through the patch to get our pumpkins. We had to ring the doorbell of the farmhouse to pay for the pumpkins - - the boys also roamed to the back area where the chickens were and Norman, the cat. There, I found a basket of eggplant and she sold us two eggplants for a buck! One was purple and one was white… With our colorful eggplant, Ryan and I made the best eggplant parmesan ever…it was so delicious, I can’t even tell you! That evening, we carved pumpkins and proudly displayed them on our front porch - -
I should say I carved the pumpkins as the pumpkins guts were too gross for the boys. I couldn’t believe that?? We also placed our hairy spiders on the front porch to scare would-be trick or treaters! I’m sure they didn’t scare a soul, but the dogs sure were quizzical about them.

Eban also attended one
of his girlfriend’s birthday parties - - at Skate City. Brea was a rockstar on the inline skates and Eban was unsure the entire time. Ryan tried to take him around the rink but it was hard as Eban wasn’t confident whatsoever. As a good consolation prize, Eban had his best bud, Dylan, there so they hammed it up together.

Jack met a new girl at the party - - her name is Claire and he didn’t stray very far from her the entire time. She didn’t want to skate and neither did he so they made a good pair. Claire goes to Little Village with Eban so now whenever Jack comes into school to pick up Eban, he looks for Claire and they give each other hugs. It’s really too sweet for words. Eban has really thrived with puzzles and coloring lately. Below is one of his creations for Halloween
and it keeps him occupied and busy…he really does enjoy the creating piece of things. In fact, he created a big Lego castle at school one day and when I went in to pick him up, the teachers pulled me aside to show me the castle. As I looked at the monstrosity in front of me, I did notice a mini square wall attached to the normal looking castle. The teachers were laughing and saying that Eban said the castle needed air conditioning thus he created the HVAC area next to the castle. Talk about being impressed - - Eban was very serious that the castle needed this function, so I went along with it and told him how smart he was.For Halloween, Jack was a fireman on some days and Scooby Doo on others. Eban was a pirate. Eban was consistently a pirate while Jack would dress up on some days and not the others. They dressed up for school one day, went to the zoo another day and then trick or treated so they got plenty of use out of their costumes this year.
Like last year, we headed to the zoo for the yearly event, Boo at the Zoo, which the zoo hosts along with community partners. There are trick or treat stations all around the zoo and there’s everything from candy, to organic fruit bars, to coupons for the parents. We went with Dylan, from preschool, and his cousins. They had a blast and all the animals were very active on the beautiful Saturday morning that we were there. I love the picture of Jack kissing the snake through the glass - - the snake was very interested in him to say the least!

Halloween was a blast. Jack made it this year as he said thank you at Scott and Sandy's house after receiving his candy. Last year, he failed to say thank you so he stayed home as he was stubborn and refused to say thank you. We went around the block with Grandpa and eventually met with with Caitlin and Ashley with whom they trick or treated with for the remainder of the evening. I enjoyed this as I also had Sandy with me and she always greets me and then hands me a beer. Nice neighbor, huh?


Jack still isn’t pooping on the potty. He is completely adverse to it. For many weekends in a row, he will hold it until we put a diaper on him at night and then he’ll go. He’s quite crafty and I know we have to resort to different measures to encourage him to use the potty. Is there any advice that you’d like to shell out to me for free?? Let’s see for other news - - Eban’s new favorite song is Dynamite by Teyo Cruz (sp?) and Jack’s favorite song is Teenage Dreams by Katy Perry. Just thought I’d share that little tidbit!

Flarp Happiness

More Flarp Happiness

Deerfield High School's 50th Anniversary

After the fabulous Amtrak vacation to the western slope of Colorado, I headed home to Deerfield, Illinois, to see some friends/family and to speak to the high school’s student body to commemorate its 50th year anniversary. I was on a panel with alumni from all different decades so that was fun to learn about others and talk about our experiences - - I highlighted my involvement with Student Council as being one of the impetuses for my involvement in community service initiatives in Colorado. I also talked about how it was hard to quit basketball in the middle of my junior year and how I asked the team if I could come back to play in the senior year. That was an interesting lesson for me at that time.
After speaking first thing on Friday morning, Sara brought me around me around to see some of the old stomping grounds like Tony Subs - a deli mainstay of the community and my favorite Dear Franks - the best hot dog joint out there.

That evening was the high school football game against long standing rival, Highland Park High School. I was going to skip this when I got a call from my friend, Corey, who I also went to homecoming with during my freshman year. He yelled at me and said if anyone from our class would be at the game it would be me and where was I…I thought about it and he was right so I looked up at my mom and laughed as I asked her to drop me off at school again. She laughed and there I was - - in the DHS circle (talk about déjà vu) closing the door and yelling, “Thanks mom” as I slammed the door shut to trot off to the next high school event. I met up with another classmate, Jorie, too.

It was great to see these folks who I haven’t seen in years and I felt at ease catching up with them even though it’s been almost 20 years. Then I ran into my old volleyball coaches in the concessions stands and we laughed at the memory of Dean Bolek running after the streaker in the high school’s courtyard for my senior year prank. We laughed pretty hard with this…more importantly, I'm finding I don't remember things anymore. I had forgotten about the streaker. I had no recollection of it. Everyone laughed saying it happens nowadays and I can't believe I'm old enough to forget these types of things. Really...I forgot my senior prank?

Then we headed out to one of Deerfield’s pubs with the class ahead of us to have a drink and we were home by 10pm…LATE night! It was fun to see my old next door neighbor and we talked about going back to our neighborhood to jump the bushes at my old house like we used to all the time. We didn’t, but I sure wish we had…

Saturday was a blur of activity - - ran into my old across the street neighbor. Met Sara's stepson, Chris. Ran errands with Tutu. Whirlwind to say the least...and more importantly, games were played so that was a highlight!

I also spent quality time with the Johnstone’s, our co-boat owners. It was SO much fun to spend a day with the entire family and again, you would never have known that it was 20 years since our last get together. I LOVED it…

Let’s see - - below is a picture of Jack with his new dinosaur flashlight which he got for his birthday…cute picture and then I captured the one of Eban poking Jack to egg him on like he was going to steal the flashlight. I love Jack’s fighting pose.

Below is a picture which I see every morning after I drop Eban off at preschool - - Brea and Eban sit at the window and wave their BIG waves to me and make funny faces as I drive off. I love this part of my day as it makes me laugh.
Finally...a cute pic of the boys to end this post...more to come. Halloween fun!