Boo at the Zoo 2013!

We're jumping around a bit, but the final piece in the Halloween celebration puzzle this year is Boo at the Zoo! You get to go to the Zoo at nighttime, dress in your costume, and walk around the zoo! You see the animals at night when no one really ever gets to see them, and there are lots of places to go trick or treating to get candy, chips, and other great snacks!

One of the best things about it was that I got to go with Mom Dad AND JustRichy, who was still in town! He was terrified of my skeeeelllleeetttoooon costume!

 
Mom also got in on the fear action while we were walking around!

Some of the stands had tasks to complete (One stand had you digging through birdseed or something to find little spiders, which you then traded in for candy) whereas other stands just needed a solid "Trick or Treat" to get something great!

I got to walk around the zoo, and lead our ragtag group from place to place...we got to see lots of animals, too!

Inside the bird house, there was a learning center devoted to the owl...you could pick up a nut cracker and use it to crack nuts, to get a feel for how strong an owl's beak was!

On the way to the bird house, we got to see one of the numerous displays at the zoo. This one featured skeletons as pirates! Two of my favorite things mashed together!

These skeletons were in a hair salon and one was giving the other a haircut which was HILARIOUS....I mean, even skeletons need haircuts, right?

Or maybe the display was just sponsored by Hair Cuttery. :-)

We met up with my friend Max and his family (Max is the blue power ranger, and his little brother is the red one!) and we got to run around trick or treating and seeing the zoo together.

We got to see the elephants in their gorgeous. brand new indoor home (I've posted pics of the outdoor section of their home before...click HERE if you want to see those....)

We got to play "Find the animals" in a lot of their cages, which was fun!

We made our way to the carousel, and I got to ride with Max, his brother, his Dad, and My Dad....at first, I was really worried about riding on the animals that go up and down, since I've always been afraid of them...I would always rather sit in the little ornately decorated benches...I don't know what it was this time, whether I was trying to be brave since my friend was there, or the adrenaline of the evening, but I got on my first "up and down" animal on a carousel (It was an armadillo) and was THRILLED. I even surprised myself by yelling "Dad! I'm doing it! I'm riding a carousel for the first time!!!" It was amazing....Dad was so proud of me. And Mom was shocked when she saw us riding around (She skipped the ride, but was thrilled to see me doing it!)

Look at this display! THAT skeleton is in the tub and THAT one is on the potty...THAT is GREAT!

Max and I heartily debated whether or not that bat-shaped light was a Batman bat symbol or not...we agreed to disagree.

On the way out we saw these spooky ghost ladies dancing to the spooky music...it was a nice capper to a very fun, yet very exhausting evening...I hope we get to go again next year!!

Fall Festival and Pumpkin Carving 2013 With JustRichy!

This Halloween, we got a visitor from up North: JustRichy came down to spend the weekend before Halloween with us! That meant he got to join us on some Fall activities!

We went out to Greenstreet Farms to do their Fall Festival...I was a little grumpy for part of the day, but managed to rally and have a good time!

First we got to go on a hay ride through a spooky trail!

Above you can see some of the bats flying overhead. Spooooky, right!?

There were lots of cool decorations alongside the trail....ghosts, skeletons, ghouls...it was spooky, but I made it through.

Next we entered a real life hardcore corn maze that one could easily spend several hours lost in....Dad was being kind of a big baby (His actual words: "I've never done this before, and I am terrified")

Richy got to hold the flag (for if we got lost and had to be rescued) and I led the way! I was fearless, running down different paths and telling everyone to follow me!

We finally escaped the corn maze (after thinking that we'd be late for Boo at the Zoo later in the day)

There were a few other things to see at the Festival....a giant inflatable bounce mat (which I skipped) and huge tractor to pretend to drive...

An enormous sandbox that was filled with corn kernels instead of sand (it really brought out the "digging dog" in us all...)

A giant tire farm where you could climb on tires and play around the playground...

And an enormous slide that took you underground. I was very brave, and went through it after patiently waiting in line (the slide was a ribbed pipe so when I went down I went unh-uhn-uhn-uhn-uhn...it was hilarious.

Finally we got to the important part, which was to pick out a few more pumpkins for the holiday to add to the one I got back in Connecticut.

When we got back home, Richy taught me some sweet sword moves....he would assign a number to the move, and then call them out, so when he called out the number, I would make the corresponding move....for example, in the image below, he called out the number where I would swipe down and knock the sword out of his hand...FLAWLESS VICTORY!

From sword fighting, we moved inevitably to pumpkin carving...Mom drew a face on the small one I got in Connecticut, and she based it on the scary angry face I made...it was really cool.

I explained how it would best look, and she did a great job of following my directions...

All of us worked on pumpkins (Richy carved his and took it home with him) while Mom did the small Connecticut Pumpkin, Dad did his pumpkin, and my pumpkin was the fancy painted one behind me.

I was the one who drew the face on Dad's, and after he cleaned it out, I just didn't feel like carving out the face would do it justice, so I asked him to leave it....this is how it looked!

We had a pretty good time carving pumpkins and going to the Fall Festival!!! Next year we hope to spend more time there....but this year we had to make it to our first....BOO AT THE ZOO!!!!!!!

Halloween 2013!

Happy belated Halloween everyone!

Sorry for not getting this up sooner,  but I was so wrapped up in a ton of great Halloween celebrations!

Obviously the day of Halloween itself was a big one! It was busy, and fun, and full of great times (and great candy!)

First we had the big Halloween parade at school! We all got dressed up and walked around the office building that our preschool is located in! I looked AWESOME in my skeleton costume! It was just like I described it to Mom and Dad when I told them I wanted it!

We also got to go upstairs and visit a conference room they had set up for some trick or treating! Everyone sat around in a circle and had bowls of candy. We said 'trick or treat', got some candy, and LOVED IT! At one point, a group was running late, and bumped into us as we were leaving, which meant we got EVEN MORE CANDY ON THE WAY OUT!! Score!!

At night, we headed out, and even Dad got dressed up this year as a GHOSTBUSTER! Luckily we had him, so we didn't have to be afraid of no ghost. Well, now THAT'S stuck in my head! I have to drink some water to get rid of the song!!

We met up with some friends, and walked around the neighborhood to visit lots of houses, get lots of candy, and have lots of fun!

We went up to the doors, ran around the yards, and got to have a blast together. Even when it started raining a little bit, it couldn't dampen (HA!) our spirits at all! We kept moving, and the rain finally stopped.

 

So many houses were REALLY decked out for Halloween, and even though some of it was scary, I still had SUCH a great time out there!!!)

I mean LOOK at this haul! That bucket was awfully heavy those last few houses (Thank you Mom and Dad for holding the pumpkin bucket for me, and for bringing it to me when I went to the house, rang the doorbell, then turned around to yell "MOM! DAD! BUCKET!" Totally appropriate.

Fall 2013 Trip to Lyman Orchards!

Fall is in the air!

A couple weeks ago, Mom and I met up with Gramma Mindy, Uncle Mat, and Aunt Mallory at Lyman Orchards in Connecticut, to apple and pumpkin picking!

We got to go right up to the trees, and just pluck the apples off of them! We put them in our bags, and got to take them home! It's not like getting them in a store! This is as fresh as they come!

They looked so good there on the tree, that it was hard to not grab them all! It was like a story book! Very cool!

We all had a really great time, and got to take a bag of apples each!

There was a lot of walking around, but I was up to the task! Knowing that there was fresh apples at the end of our long walk made it a lot easier!

I even managed to find a bit of time to be silly. We all know how important being silly is during apple picking...

I don't think they'll let me use my head as an official scale to see how much we have to pay, but I at least had to TRY.

We went out to look at pumpkins, too. There were lots of choices, and Aunt Mallory did a great job helping me find the best one!

This one I ended up with was both the perfect size to carry around, and also the perfect size to carve a jack-o-lantern face!

I was pretty proud of the decision I made, and couldn't wait to get home and show my Dad!

Speaking of Dad, I also found a really great pumpkin for him, but since he really likes going to pumpkin patches, too...I left this one here, and figured we'd wait until we went to get one for him when we got back home to Maryland. I made sure to take a pic though, to let him know I was thinking about him!

What better way to end things in the Fall after visiting an orchard than to get some AMAZING doghnuts and cider at the farm stand. We managed to bring home one of the doughnuts to Dad, but JUST BARELY....they were DELICIOUS!

Connecticut Visit for Godmother Amber's Baby Shower 2013!

You can kind of tell that this is a late post since Mom has already  been to Connecticut to visit the baby that this event was thrown for...man, I get so behind sometimes...but anyhoo, that doesn't make it any less fun, right? I am mildly embarrassed that this so late, but then again, I am fairly shameless....so that makes it OK.

The event was a lot of fun! The party was thankfully very monkey friendly, so Monkey got to tag along with me. We had a blast hanging out with everyone!

My godmother seemed to have a great time as well! She got to wear a little crown, and had lots of great food and fun times with her friends and family.

And there were OBVIOUSLY lots of really pretty presents!

I got to spend a lot of time with Mom's side of the family. Gramma Mindy, JustRichy, and Aunt Mallory were in attendance. They enjoyed the time at the party, too!

One of the things Mallory enjoyed doing was taking fun pictures of Monkey and and showing them to me...luckily, one of my favorite past times was having pictures taken of me and then shared with me.

After the party, I brought out the superheroes that I had brought specifically for Aunt Mallory and I to play with. I knew even before I went up there that the Incredible Hulk was all Mallory's (She does an awesome "Hulk Smash") and I was going to be Batman (I do an awesome emotionless gravelly voice that lends itself well to parody)

While Mallory and I were playing, JustRichy worked on building a new castle that Gramma Mindy had gotten me. It had lots of pieces, and easily the worst set of instructions on the face of the Earth. Seriously, it's like someone who didn't know how to put the castle together wrote out the instructions, and then gave it to someone and said "Hey...this makes too much sense. Can you photocopy it on an old 1992 Konica Black and White copier that is at the end of its useful life? YEAH...that looks PERFECT! THAT is what we're putting in the box...."

So good on Richie, he got it mostly put together, and I got to travel back in time with my knight figures (Which, even when the castle isn't assembled, are pretty awesome toys on their own)

There was a drawbridge so I could keep out the bad guys....

And there were lots of turrets for me to post guards at....it was a really cool toy.

Luckily, Mom had time to get over to Gramma Debbie's house during this trip, and I got to spend some time playing with her and Nicholas...to drive home how long ago this visit was, Nicholas moved into his own house (with his Mom and Dad, of course) already, and doesn't even live there anymore.

Oh...and Nicholas has a lightsaber. An ACTUAL lightsaber, people!

**Disclaimer. This lightsaber is only a toy, and cannot actually be used a laser sword.