Halloween, Take Two

The day has finally arrived!  Beatrice was sent home from school early on Tuesday with a fever and spent yesterday at home recovering.  Today she headed to school with a platter of witches' brooms in hand (aka "fringed" fruit rollups wrapped around pretzel sticks) and her Magical Mermaid costume in her bag for their morning parade.  I hope she makes it through the day and that the rains hold off so she can enjoy handing out candy to some trick-or-treaters tonight!

 

Pumpkin carving time

For the first time Beatrice really, really got into pumping carving at the annual Fulco event this year.  She was pulling out the guts, scraping the sides, making "pumpkin pie" with all the "goop,", and drew a pretty good face to boot!

She hasn't done the knife-wielding part yet, but I'm pretty sure she would have if I'd let her.  I cut along the lines she drew as precisely as I could, and here's what we got:

Lit up!

This one's mine:

John's, Anthony's, and mine, lighting up the wall:

And Halloween week continues.....

Morning at the Lao temple

From the sublime:

To the ridiculous:

                                         (vampire teeth courtesy of downtown trick-or-treat last night)

We spent the morning at the Lao temple in Willington with about 25 other folks, doing a meditative walk fundraiser for Buddhist Global Relief.  We were in the presence of five monks and many other compassionate, kind people, 23 of whom did a silent, meditative walk, leaving Beatrice and I to do our own contemplation and walk/talk on our own.  

Our walk was longer, louder, and I think just as significant as we took in the sights of this beautiful setting on a crisp fall morning:

One of the funniest moments of Beatrice's life happened today.  We were on the rural roads leading to the temple and at one point  a chicken leisurely strutted across the street.  I pointed it out to Bea, who didn't miss a beat, and said with a big grin "Mama, mama...we can ask him and finally find out the answer!!! HEY CHICKEN, WHY ARE YOU CROSSING THE ROAD?????" Gave herself and me a big chuckle.

At one point, the "cooking" began. (I guess the idea of Hunger Relief made her think of food) Here she is finding ingredients for a "birthday cake for animal rights:"

The finished cake.  Can't you just smell it's deliciousness?

Good advice:

As a family we raised over $425, and nearly $2000 was collected for the whole event.  We were privileged to meet the Venerable Bihkkhu Bodhi, the founder of the charity, to hear him speak, and to share a meal together after, courtesy of the ladies of the temple.  

Halloween, Take One

Downtown Trick-or-treat was last night, and Beatrice surprised me by saying she wanted to wear her (old and ripped) Snow White costume instead of the new mermaid one I got her.  She said she's saving that for her school party on Thursday, so out little Snow went.  First stop-String Tinkers!

We met up with Ethan and Brandon, aka Iron Man and Batman, so she was very well-protected for the night. This was before the sun set and before a purple coat got added which made her costume unrecognizable, but it really didn't matter amidst the nearly 2000 people filling the street.

Beatrice had a wonderful time, admiring everyone's costume and enjoying her fill of sugar!  More to come of both in the next several days.

Photo Dump

We went to a UConn Women's Soccer game on Sunday, and took a few photos of this nut in the bleachers:

This morning, school picture day, she was eyeing her waffles closely:

She got her camera out and went to town taking photos and video:

I snapped one in horrible indoor light (rainy dark morning) of my two girls:

Dang if only there were more light or I was a better indoor photographer!

Tonight Beatrice set up her camera to record her piano practice.  If her camera included audio, you'd hear a delightful version of "It's Raining, It's Pouring."  This silent version, though surprisingly entertains me:

The Two B's

We headed to the Great Pumpkin Festival downtown this afternoon for a couple hours, and accidentally had perfect timing and ran into Ben and his mom Nicole, my colleague and Bea's piano teacher. The two "flaming oranges" were the cutest on Main Street and it was obvious as always that Ben is the most patient sweet friend one could ever ask for.  Ben and Bea have been friends since Bea's earliest beginnings here. For some reason though, my daughter's social skills spiral seriously downhill in his presence, and he patiently tolerates her ignoring him, putting her fingers in her ears when he talks, burying her head in my legs or, a few minutes later when she's comfortable, she moves up to meowing at him, running away from him,  ignoring his talking to/at her, bossing him around something terrible, and smiling the whole time.  I think they just may be a match made in heaven.

"CHEERS" to you Ben!!! Thanks for hanging in there with my confusing little girl!

Field Trip Time

For the second year in a row, the younger grades at  Bea's school headed to Tougas Farm for their fall field trip.  It was a gorgeous day  to pick apples, go on a hayride to look at pumpkins, and run around on the farm's playground.  Anthony chaperoned and captured some great moments:

This year she talks a lot about Rosie and Samantha, and the three of them were a group for the trip:

Class clowns?

A happy day indeed.  I love being ale to see Bea with her friends and get a glimpse of her "school self."  Hopefully I can chaperone the spring trip to enjoy it firsthand!