Eavesdropping

Overheard this evening...

Henry: "You're broken!"
Toy Screwdriver: "I'm broken!  Ohhhhhh Nooooo!"
Henry as the narrator: "'(evil laughter) Ha, Ha, Ha,' said the man"
Henry: "I'm sorry you are broken, screwdriver.  Here's a semi-circle thing."

Oh, yeah. And trick or treating

A week and a half of Halloween related activities finally culminated in a round of trick or treating in our neighborhood.

We started the evening off with a front yard cookout with neighbors, and, as you can see, the frog suit was out for another appearance.

The smell of Cory's deliciously marinated chicken on the grill and the assortment of toys that made their way from inside to the front yard made for some lingering trick-or-treaters, so by the time we rolled out, it was already dark.  Some of our neighbors take this holiday veeeery seriously, so their decorations (Note the LCD eyes in their windows, and you can't even see the life-size animated grim reaper.) made Henry a little nervous.  It was slow going up this driveway, and we kept telling Henry that he didn't have to go.  Even the homeowner offered to bring the candy to him, but he persisted, citing that "I want to get the candy."

And he did get the candy... lots of it.  And whenever he clarified that he was a triceratops, he got a few extra pieces.  There really is just something terribly adorable about Henry saying, "I'm a triceratops!"

It was a real treat to hang out with my triceratops for the evening, although he did trick me into eating more than the allotted amount of candy before I caught on to his clever game.  He told me that he changed his mind about the selected and allowed two pieces of candy only after they were already half eaten on Halloween night.  I realized I was being tricked after he told me that he changed his mind for the second time, and he reached for a fifth and sixth piece.  Trick me once, Henry...

Define busy.

I admit that I sometimes catch myself giving flat and predictable responses to some of Henry's requests.  Today, it became perfectly clear that I am not catching myself often enough when Henry responded to my instruction to eat six more peas with, "I can't.  I'm busy!"

Adventures in Babysitting

 

We were given the opportunity to hang out with my coworker's nearly one year old girl on Friday night, giving her parents the opportunity to hang out with some of their friends.  Henry was so excited to have S over to play and showered her with spider rings and offerings (thwarted by me) of candy and performed some pretty fancy "tricks" that started and ended with freeze frame poses.  S, though, was a little stoic until we let Penny come bounding out of her box to greet her.  It was only after Penny made her grand entrance that S let loose with giggles, chatter, and tons of huge smiles.  

The quality of this photo is awful, but it's a testament to a new friendship: 

And, S, now that you know we're dog people, we do hope you will come visit again.

Family O'Lanterns

We managed to collect three pumpkins this year, and tonight, those three pumpkins became a reflection of ourselves...

We are family!

Hopefest

Today, Henry jumped in a jump house, went down an inflatable slide over and over, won a cupcake in a cake walk, ate a hotdog, and bought some books all in the name of supporting Hope Academy , the school housed in Advent UMC.

The boy couldn't have been happier to offer his support!

Double Tri

Friday's parade of adorableness included two triceratops from H's class

I love this class picture.  It's classic Henry--watching everyone else and delighting in their actions and responses.  He's my mentalist, an observer and appreciator of human behavior.