Halloween Festivities: St Charles Main St, Trunk or Treat, & Boo at the Zoo

We are trying out different Halloween festivities here, but so far they don’t really compare with similar ones in Ann Arbor.  Everything is just so crowded here.

We went over to St Charles Main Street on Friday afternoon for trick or treating at the shops.  It was SO crowded.  We waited in a long single file line and walked past like 15 shops, maybe.  By the time we were heading back, most of the shops were out of candy.  I didn’t say anything, because the boys really enjoyed it.  Andrew was thrilled by the (small) amount of candy he got.  Seth loved seeing dogs, firetrucks, horses, and the other kids’ costumes.  I didn’t get any pictures because it was tough wrangling both kids off the street.  Too bad it wasn’t more fun because I think the main street there is just SO cute.

We got home in time to pick up Katsu and head to the ward Trunk or Treat.  I wasn’t sure how it would go, since it was way past bed time, sigh.  But it was fine.  The kids pretended to eat chili, then we had a costume parade.  There was a lot of cars and Andrew got lots of loot – he loved it.  Seth was mostly excited about the cars.  He would run from car to car and point at the tires and say “Truck.  Truck.  Truck.”  He also LOVED the fire truck.  He also loved all the decorations.  (I took Seth around, so I have a better idea of how he went). 

This morning, we woke up and headed off to Boo at the Zoo.  We had so many fond memories of Halloween at the Toledo Zoo.  But this was TOTALLY different.  We got there shortly after 9 when it opened and it was PACKED.  PACKED.  There were three “candy trails”.  On each trail, there was from 5-6 stops where you got a couple of pieces of candy or maybe a coupon or stickers or something.  We ran into our friend Jennie and their son Owen, and so we all waited for the first candy trail.  The whole thing took like an hour.  For a whole ~10 pieces of candy, some stickers, and a bottle of Gatorade.  It was awful!  And we didn’t even see any animals.  Our boys didn’t mind too much, but there was NO way we were going to wait in line for the other 2 candy trails so we went and saw the animals in half the zoo.  But seriously, we come and see the animals about every week.  I don’t think we will be doing boo at the zoo again.  But the boys still had fun and took a good nap on the way home.  They were tired!

I am surprised about how many comments we have gotten on the boys costumes.  In Ann Arbor, lots of the kids had Old Navy costumes, but I have only seen one other one so far and we have probably seen hundreds to thousands of costumes!  We got Andrew’s new dragon costumes for only $10 (on sale and with coupon) and they are very warm.  We are huge fans!

Pumpkinland

A boy in Andrew’s preschool class had a birthday party this week at Pumpkinland at a farm in nearby Maryland Heights.  The day was COLD, much colder than I expected, since most of the week before we’d hit 80’s every day and it was down in the 40s with a high in the 50s and lots of wind.  The kids were all crying about the cold, but they still managed to have some fun.  Andrew was too scared to do some of the big slides, but he went down the zip line all by himself without any encouragement.  Seth just wanted to “ride” the tricycles the whole time.  The favorite part was probably the hayride and Andrew getting to see his favorite food growing, broccoli.  Okay, Andrew would probably say it was the cake, but you know.  The mom was so sweet and had made tie dye pumpkin shirts for all the kids, including Seth, with their names on them!

Halloween Preschool Performance

Tuesday, Andrew’s class had their Halloween “performance”.  We all went to his music class at 9:15 after drop off.  The kids were supposed to sing and do hand movements to the songs and other similar things.  By the end, some of the girls did.  But mostly, it was just the music teacher singing, poor thing.  Andrew did nothing.  At all.  At the end, all the kids were supposed to lay on the floor and then get up when she counted to 3.  The kids were good at waiting, but they never popped up.  Maybe someday we will get to putting the video on.  But for now, some pictures.

Looking cool at drop off:

The performance:

Halloween Food

We tried to have some festive food this week.

Grilled cheese ghosts

Mummy Meatloaf – okay, it was supposed to be white cheese, but we can all pretend.  (the boys didn’t really like meatloaf, I was pretty surprised)

Stuffed pumpkins – this was delicious!  Good thing, because we have been acquiring lots of pumpkins (4 more mini ones), and I can’t bear to waste food.

 

Spider Raviolis – okay, my attempt to make a web (or anything crafty or creative, for that matter, was a total fail), but the kids mostly ate them.

Also, chili, but no pic because I forgot the cheese bat cutouts (the sister missionaries ended up dropping by for dinner, and I pretty much forgot).  And pumpkin pasta tomorrow which is delicious (a pumpkin sauce that tastes pretty similar to a vodka sauce – yum!).

Last Saturday

Last Saturday, Katsu took the boys to an event sponsored by our Parents As Teachers.  It was a boys dream come true – TRUCKS!  And the boys got there early enough to even see the helicopter land.  Since most of what Seth says is trucks, he was in paradise.  He even climbed in one of the trucks all by himself.  Andrew loved it, too.

Seth is 16 months (yesterday)

I can’t believe I forgot to update about Seth this weekend when I actually have time to do so.  I guess I am too busy working on his stocking, and even with all that effort, it probably still won’t get done by Christmas.  Oh, well.

• At Seth’s last dr. appt, his doctor was concerned about his weight.  He has only gained 10 oz in the last 3 months.  I am supposed to be weaning him, and he is nursing less than before, but honestly he has 0 interest in weaning.  I am totally ready.  Oh, well.
• Seth does not like to eat.  I do not understand AT ALL.  And when he does eat, he doesn’t eat very much.  There doesn’t seem to even be any food that he really loves – maybe fruit snacks?  Foods he usually likes – black beans, tofu, oranges, apples (he actually LOVES apples), berries, string cheese, yogurt, chicken nuggets, meat, mac n cheese.  Usually likes, meaning he will eat like 3 or so bites.  When I guesstimate the number of calories he has eaten it is SO small, like 300 maybe.  Half the time, if I give him a cookie, he just holds it and doesn’t eat it.  Weird.
• The last couple days are getting a little better for him drinking milk, but usually if he even sees the milk carton, he KNOWS and refuses to drink.
• His vocab seems to be increasing, mostly transportation words – car, truck, dump truck, fire truck, plane, train, etc.  I think some food words or something would be nice.  Oh, well.  I think at least 50% of the words he say are “truck”.
• Seth loves to roar and growl and does it for most animals and dinosaurs.  So cute.  I hope he does it for Halloween with his dragon costume.
• Seth LOVES trucks and cars and play with them, putting them in lines like Andrew, having them run along books or DVD cases on tables and making car noises.
• Seth also loves to play with dinosaurs and having them roar at us and each other.
• He also entertains himself by making block towers with Duplo blocks.
• He loves us reading him, but unlike Andrew, likes to hear the same books over and over – his new favorites are books about dinosaurs, tractors, and trucks.
• He has a cute sense of humor and fun.  He likes to laugh, especially when Andrew does something funny.  He pretended to be scared and screamed at all the decorated houses we passed by today.  He does that when Andrew dresses up as a ghost, too.  He’s not really scared, though.
• He has a good sense of direction – he gets upset when we are in the stroller and don’t turn the right way to the park.  He also recognizes the zoo and the park and the library from blocks away.
• Seth has a temper, which usually expresses himself with throwing things and sometimes with hitting and pulling hair.  He gets mad frequently.
• Seth is a Mama’s boy and still has a hard time being separated.  One day, I went to visit our date-night sitters, but not to leave Seth there.  Seth cried and was not happy at all about it.  I am hoping that if we start adjusting him now, nursery won’t be too traumatic, but I’m not sure.
• Seth is also shy when Andrew is not around.  When Andrew is around, he is running around and playing and having a blast.  When Andrew is gone, he is much more tenative and stays by my side.

Fun things this month:

• Circus
• Zoo
• Botanical Gardens
• A new car seat (but still rear facing … heck, until he gains a few more ounces, he could still be in the infant one).
• Truck show at the high school field
• Measles rash! and hives! and visit to allergist!
• Apple picking.

Another Fun Weekend

Seth recovered from his measles (of course, the rash started fading the day AFTER we spent a $20 copay, sigh … and double sigh, the allergist said they couldn’t test anything for 6-8 weeks AFTER we paid a $40 copay – why didn’t they tell us that when we were scheduling our appt!?!?!?).

So, we were able to have a great weekend!  I won free tickets to the circus thanks to stlkids.com.  We were front and center just about 10 rows back.  Seth was a little unsure, but I think he enjoyed it in the end.  Andrew loved it!  Before the circus started, a clown was sitting behind us waiting for the show and really freaked Seth out.  He started crying, poor thing.  But he seemd to really like the animals and also the motorcycles.  We thought there was a preshow, but I guess not for the Friday morning show, so we got there really early and the boys wanted to get EVERYTHING they were selling.  I could not believe the prices - $10 for a lemonade!!!  $8 for popcorn!!!  We brought money for some food though, so Andrew enjoyed some cotton candy that came with a hat and we had some hot dogs.  Seth was a little weirded out by the texture of the cotton candy and refused to eat it.  The show was really well done and very interesting and Andrew just sat enthralled the whole time.  By the second half, Seth was done and VERY tired (it was nap time), but we kept him interested enough so I didn’t have to take him out.

Saturday, we took a long drive out to apple orchards and pumpkin picking.  The drive crosses over the Missouri River and then follows the Mississippi River for awhile.  The foliage was pretty … for Saint Louis.  But it doesn’t compare to New England or even to Michigan. 

There is one big company that has several orchards for pretty much any kind of fruit, Eckerts, so we went there.  The boys were so excited when they saw all the pumpkins.  We took a VERY short hay ride out to the orchard, but Seth loved it.  They were picking Fuji and Granny Smith.  The apples left on the tree were mostly bug-infested or didn’t look good, but we found a few good ones, both to take home and eat.  But that was fine, because the prices there are horrendous (1.59/lb for apples and .49/lb for pumpkins!).  Andrew is NOT a big apple eater and wasn’t too interested.  Seth loved eating the apples and has been eating at least one a day.  Then, we had some snacks and did some of the free entertainment – watched the goats, pigs, and camels, played on the little playground, rode the tricycles, listened to the musician, and enjoyed the fall weather.  On the way home, we stopped at another apple orchard to buy some cider (which was actually from yet a third apple orchard) and to buy apples, because the prices were MUCH better.

Then, we stopped by the new playground at our park which had a grand opening earlier that morning.  It is very nice, with three little playgrounds, swings, musical instruments, and even a little splash park.  I am excited it is so close.  The kids played for at least an hour and had SO much fun.

Katsu went to a Rams game this weekend with some friends from Michigan and seemed to enjoy himself.

We also went to a lecture on Sunday sponsored by Andrew’s preschool’s church that basically introduced the idea of Family Home Evening (of course, it’s called Family Time).  I am really glad we went because I think I got a lot of ideas on how to improve Family home evening – basically, by using the “language of children” which is play and object lessons to teach them concepts.  They had so many good ideas.

It was a fun but busy weekend!