This Was Halloween

Halloween night in front of our house.

It was another fabulous Arizona Halloween season this year. While I do miss a good Northern California fall -- the vibrant leaves, the morning and evening chills that gradually creep in, the rainstorms, and weather to wear jeans and sweatshirts -- October in Phoenix has its own merits.

Warm days and evenings outside, taking the kids trick-or-treating in flip-flops, and adults sitting out in their driveways to pass out candy -- you can't beat that.

The Halloween season typically begins around the beginning of October, but somehow the 7-year-olds convinced Brett to put out the decorations about a week early this year. Many of the houses on our street have fun blow-ups, orange lights, ghosts and other scary creatures swirling about. This was our fifth Halloween in Arizona and somehow each year we end up with more outdoor crap decorations. But it's always so fun watching Zach and Allie get so excited for the Halloween season.

Zach Sparrow trick-or-treating.

And in early October, the mailbox swells with catalogs from party and costume warehouses, competing for the attention of my two youngest. Pages get tattered and dog-eared, reviewed, marked up, and studied intently until the final decision is made.

This year, drumroll, please ... Allie chose a cute little leopard/cat costume. And my own personal victory was with Zach, who initially wanted one of the gruesome, bloody costumes. Instead he happily chose Jack Sparrow. And it doesn't matter that this was his third time being a pirate (second as Jack Sparrow). He just looks so cute. 

Nick found a mask of some kind, threw it on, grabbed his friend and was out the door before I could even get a picture.

And Blake ordered a gorilla costume which he plans on extending after Halloween: snowboarding, cheering on friends at sporting events, hanging out at Wendy's. Ahh, to be 14 again.

Brett, Allie and Blake in his gorilla costume,

A couple days before Halloween, we spread out some plastic on the driveway, invited our neighbors over and had a big carving party. Nicky attempted an intricate werewolf, but it didn't quite turn out so he ended up carving a full moon.

 

Allie carved a cute cat, Zach a more old-school face, and Brett, as usual, went for the elaborate with a pirate ship.

Nick at work on a pumpkin.

Allie works on her cat jack-o-lantern.

"Backward, turn backward,
O Time, in your flight
make me a child again
just for to-night!"

~Elizabeth Akers Allen

Weird Science

Silhouettes

A couple weeks ago while Brett and Blake were at an Arizona Cardinals game, Nick, Zach, Allie, and I headed to the Arizona Science Center. We had never been there before and Zach was excited because a new Pirates exhibit had just opened (but no cameras allowed in the exhibit).

Zach LOVED the pirate exhibit, marveling over the swords, coins, artifacts, and the cool pirate ship and quarters that made a pirate's life within firm grasp.

The kids all loved the rest of the museum. Favorites included an interactive display of the digestive system which included a slide. As you slid down the slide (through the intestines), a lovely fart noise sounded, sending the kids into hysterics. Every. Single. Time.

They also liked this cool telescope, which shot a picture of their giant eye on a screen up above.

Zach looks through the telescope.

Zach's huge eye.

They also loved the image distorting machine, always good for a few laughs.

Alien Nick

And afterward on the walk back to the car, Zach is unable to muster up a cute smile for the camera.

A little cheese with that?

But Allie does.

Sweet Allie

Nick Turns 11

Nick gives his cake the once-over.

September has come and gone, but I couldn't write another blog post until I put up a few pictures of Nick's birthday. Hard to believe our little Nicky is 11 already.

On the big day Nick invited three friends to go paintballing. A couple were a little on the hesitant side, but Brett, Nick and one friend engaged in all-out paint warfare, coming home with their battle wounds of red marks on their legs and bellies and jeans and shoes obliterated by pale green paint.

Nick picked out his own cake: a round, yellow number with a smiley face and its tongue sticking out. That's Nick.

Allie gets into it as she sings Happy Birthday as Nick's friend looks on.

Brett lights the candles.

Making a wish and blowing out the candles.

Blake's Ready For Some Football!

No. 33

So it's been almost two months, but it's still just sinking in that Blake decided to put soccer on the back burner (or off the stovetop altogether; time will tell) and instead take a stab at freshman football.

Although he's never played  any football beyond the annual Dawson Thanksgiving game and perhaps the schoolyard recess game, he quickly committed himself to the end-of-the-summer football camps and daily practices once school started.

(Note: If you don't easily digest a lot of parental bragging and boasting, then just skip this paragraph.) Blake's played in three games now. In the first game he had something like six tackles (despite an ultimate loss) and was named one of the four captains for the following week's game. In Game Two, he got a taste of playing offense at halfback and racked up two touchdowns, contributing to the team's first victory. And Game Three was a blowout -- 50-12.

And although he comes home with a bag of ice most nights after practice for an ice bath, he's always eager to get out there the next day and do it all over again.

Blake, No. 33, on the kick-off special team.

Blake on offense.