Festivities

Happy Halloween! We've been enjoying the dramatic fall weather. The crisp air has turned all the leaves to brilliant colors. A strong cold storm blew in yesterday and gave us some snow. It also took most of the leaves off the trees. Winter is fast approaching.

Here is a little bit of what we've been up to. 

Reuben showing off his glow in the dark spider shirt that he got from Oma.

Reuben and Miriam making ghost houses (like ginger bread houses but with dark chocolate icing) with supplies from Grammy.

 Miriam diligently picking off all the sprinkles and eating them.

 We went to boo at the zoo at the Baltimore Zoo with some friends. I got lost in Baltimore. That city is crazy. I had a couple times when I looked around and thought wow, this looks just like The Wire (the tv show) then I thought oh no! this looks just like The Wire! (If you haven't watched The Wire it's a TV show that takes place in Baltimore that can be a little scary) Thanks a lot to my gps directions for taking me on the scenic route through the city. While seeing crumbling and burned out row houses was kind of disturbing, I did like passing my MICA, the art college.

Anyway, back to Boo at the Zoo.
 This is classic Miri. If there are two ways to get to a place, a smooth evenly paved sidewalk vs a treacherous ditch of rocks, Miri will always Always choose the treacherous rocks. Then fall down two minutes into it. Then scream at you til you pick her up. Then yell at you for putting her on the smooth sidewalk. Then walk back into the rocks. Then fall down. Then repeat.

The child has nothing if not will power.

After a little trick or treating at the zoo we saw the animals. Here's a donkey angling for Miri's lollipop.

 Miriam didn't give in, despite the donkey's best attempts to win her over.

 Reuben had fun climbing on the saddles.

 Here's Reuben petting a goat with his friends who are triplets.

 Boo at the zoo was Friday. Saturday we went to the Smithsonian. My kids love the discovery room at the natural history museum. Miri had fun with a shell necklace she found and kept on for about 30 minutes. There were some serious tears when I made her leave it behind.

 Here's Reuben contentedly examining a box of beetles with a magnifying glass.

 Miriam makes me laugh. She wanted to draw and talk on the phone while she drew.

And here's the finale. We went to our church's family Halloween carnival and Reuben WON the cake walk. When we told him he won there was a look of pure triumph on his face. It was awesome. I wish I'd gotten a picture.

He picked out his cake himself. And since it was his cake I let him do what he wanted with it which was this:

 and this.

I was happy he shared with his sister.

 Funny story: The lady who made the cake stopped me while Reuben carried the cake ahead. She warned me that there were gobstoppers on top of the cake and they might be choking hazards for my little kids. I thanked her and went to confiscate the dangerous candy off the cake. But when I got to where Reuben and Miriam were huddled over their prize, there were no gobstoppers to be found and everyone was still breathing. Happy Day.

For the party, Reuben went as "NOTHING! I am Reuben." and Miriam went as the known universe. Her dress is navy blue with silver stars and she had a silver star necklace. Aaron was anti-matter (he couldn't get off work and wasn't there) aka The Invisible Man.