Towne Family Blog

We went to two pre-Halloween parties...one at Calhoun Square and one at the high school where I teach at.


This one is of Liam at the Southwest Community Education Halloween Party. There was a puppet show, and Liam walked to the very front of the room and just stood quietly and watched. Very unlike Liam...he usually hangs around in the back. He looked so funny up there all by himself while the other 30 or so people sat in desks and on the floor to watch.


Helena got her face painted there.

On Halloween night, right after dinner, Helena designed how she wanted her pumpkin on a piece of paper, and then dad carved it. Helena is quite proud, as you can see. We only could paint them earlier, because the squirrels get to them very quickly, as we found out last year with Libby and Dori's classic pumpkin. You can see Helena's paint job on the pumpkin.

Dad was proud of his as well.


After getting in trouble for biting Liam, dad took Liam out trick or treating by himself for a bit. I came back to get Helena after she served her time. She went from miserable to very happy pretty quickly.

Ready to go.
Running on someone's yard to go to the next house:

Taking a break.
Success!

Here are some pictures Helena took. Unfortunate timing for the one of the dog.






Here are some of mine:

Friday night a friend came over to get some help with his new laptop. The next morning, Helena see's empty bottles of Guinness on the counter and says "Beard", which really means "beer", but she's never really been able to say it.

Liam then looks at the bottles and says "Daddy".

Today Helena went to her first birthday party. Her friend from Grandma's House (her daycare), Mary Grace turned four. Mary Grace only goes to Grandma's House on Mondays now, but Helena still loves when she is there.

When Helena came back from the party, I asked her what she did there. Eventually I asked her is she had cake and ice cream. She said that she had some cake. I then asked her what it said on the cake, and she said, "It said 'I love you Mary Grace and you are my best friend. My favorite days are when you are at Grandma's House'". I'm sure that isn't quite what the cake said, but it sure was nice to hear.

Tonight while getting ready to go to bed, I was telling her the story of the Little Mermaid. When I said "Why couldn't the mermaid tell the prince that she loved him?" Helena said, "Because the witch stole her voice. But dad, she still has her heart."

Dalen and I both wanted to take the kids to pick some apples. Dalen wanted to make sure that the kids had things to do like hay rides and the like, which I knew would be trouble. Anyhow, here is our story:

First, we drive out to the country:


We didn't stay at their "cabins", nor did we eat at their restaurant. And we didn't shop at their "country store"

Lots of scarecrows. Unfortunately, they didn't scare the people away.

There was lots to do if you weren't into picking apples. Both Liam and Helena liked the pumpkin patch.
Then after a bathroom break, we went to the petting zoo.
And we got to ride some horses:
Once all the playing was done, we decided to go pick some apples and hopefully get away from the crowd.
Well, the store sold them, of course!

Helena's synopsis of the afternoon.

My synopsis of the afternoon.

Liam has a toy truck that carries logs...they are about an inch and a half in diameter, and a foot long. He never puts them on the truck, and hardly ever plays with them. Today he is hitting Dalen with it.

Dalen tells him to "go do it to daddy" because he is faster (at keeping the log from actually hitting me, I presume). So Liam comes over and just hands me the log and walks away.

Dalen says to Liam "Sure, you hit me with it, but you just hand it to daddy."

Helena is in the other room and says, "That's smart".

A cat and ????. Plus her name on the bottom.


A house.


A cat.