Waiting

We are still waiting for our power to come back. This afternoon on our walk,we noticed that three more obstructed streets were cleared of their blocking trees, so at least there's progress!

Our very own Silver Spring road is having some power line issues though.

Preparations

We've got our water, easy prep food for a week, candy (plenty), batteries, flashlights, lanterns, electronics charged, cars filled, laundry done, dishes washed,

and kids cleaned before the power goes out.

The generator is all hooked up and ready to run when the time comes.

School is canceled already for Monday and Tuesday.

We're making bets on how long the power will be out.  I'm guessing 10 days, but I'm hoping for 0.

Here we go Sandy!

Our Halloween

Our Halloween celebrations came early this year, which turned out to be a good thing since the hurricane is going to ruin the real Halloween this year.

First, we watched McKinley at her field hockey game.  Greenwich invited us back for another game since they appreciated the sportsmanship of Wilton.  It was a good skill match up, but Wilton came out on top with a 2-1 victory!  And some of those houses in Greenwich...yowsers!  Nice!



After the game everyone got dressed in the car as we drove to the Wilton town center for their annual "pumpkin parade".  It was really a business to business trick-or-treating.  We lasted for about a half hour before the complaining of tired feet and thirsty throats directed us back to our car.

Scads of kids in town.
Last year there were 1000 kids!

Race car driver



I made the group stop before the car ride home for one more Halloween picture together.



After the town trick-or-treating, Sawyer went to his flag football game (they won!), while I took the other three to the ward Trunk-or-Treat.  McKinley decorated the back of the trunk and won 3rd place for all her hard work.  She had a good time and was very meticulous (must get that from her dad) with how all the candy had to be placed out. 

Sawyer was sad to miss out on the candy, but McKinley gave him some of her 6 pounds of candy.

We are all done with Halloween here.

Next up...hurricane Sandy.

Work Trick-or-Treat

Right after school I took the kids over to Kent's work for their annual trick-or-treat maze.

This year's costumes were:

Hayden---Pokemon trainer

McKinley---Greek Goddess Aphrodite

Josh---race car driver

Sawyer---Pokemon trainer



Josh was not in the mood for a picture.



Cheeser

This is Josh's "picture" face.

He loves to get his picture taken, and already pulls the biggest fake squnchy faces. 

Gas Prices

I will NOT miss the gas prices here.  Ridiculous!!

New England architecture

Another thing I am going to miss about New England is the variety of architecture in homes.  The neighborhoods are not cookie cutter homes.  From cottages to mansions, every house is different.

One of my favorite homes (it's for sale right now) with a wrap around porch and a beautiful blue door.

I love to walk by this adorable blue house with the bright red door.  Doors out here are painted all sorts of different colors and I love it.

A beautiful yellow Americana farmhouse from the 1700's

Across the street from my favorite house with the blue door is a sweet little white house that reminds me of an English cottage.  Here is the converted garage.

and the little gate leading to the front door.  When the hydrangeas are in bloom it is a charming English garden.

This is the Dutch Colonial across the street.  That old nasty house that got torn down used to be blocking it's view.

Then there are massive, classic, homes.  It's guest house has nicer finishes than we do!  Which isn't too hard since you'd only need to have baseboards to really outdo us :)

I love New England houses.

Fall pictures

We had our stake conference today in Ossining, NY.  On our drive back we tried out a few places to take pictures.  I got a good enough picture for our Christmas card, and now they are ordered and checked off my list.  Yay!



This isn't the Christmas card picture, but they still look pretty darn cute!



Pumpkin Patch

This was the third year we visited the Castle Hill pumpkin patch in Newtown, CT.  I love it!

When we were leaving I made everyone say goodbye forever to it....then I was sad.

Stats

Josh had his doctor's appointment on Tuesday.  Here's how big our little man is now:

Height: 31 3/4 "   98th percentile

Weight: 25.4 lbs   95th percentile

He got three shots and one finger poke.  He's a little anemic, so we are starting iron supplements.

Hayden's snippets

Hayden has been loving kindergarten and openly admits it!  It's a miracle!

He brought home the grass he grew in kindergarten and promptly gave it a "haircut".

The other day he came to visit it in the kitchen and said "I wonder if my grass had a good day."

One year old!

Wow, it's been a year already?!  Joshua Crew is officially one year old.  He turned one on Saturday.  He started the day off right by sleeping in until 10:00.  Then he drank his bottle and opened presents.  He got clothes from all of us and the grandparents.  McKinley gave him a sucker, and Hayden wrapped 2 of his Pokemon cards for him.  After presents he went for a little exercise in his stroller, followed by a whirlwind day of siblings sports events and running around.  We finished the night off with some Outback and off to bed.  On Sunday McKinley made his birthday cupcakes which he enjoyed thoroughly and messily as any one year old should.

Here's what our one year old does:

Has really picked up on his walking.  He's almost a toddling expert!

Has 8 teeth

Goes to bed at 7 pm and wakes at 8-8:30 am

Transitioning to once a day naps

Claps his hands

Baby dances to music

Has a sweet little curl to his blonde hair

Enjoys just about every food you put in front of him

Says a little baby "hi"

Still wants to be held whenever he can

Wants to play with the kids

Loves to go outside

Likes to slap things (including faces)

Likes to play with cars

Loves to climb up stairs

May be the most loved baby in the world!

Field Hockey

McKinley has been doing field hockey this fall.  It has been mostly a clinic format to teach all the girls, but on Saturday they got to have a "Jamboree" with Rye and Greenwich who also have 4th grade teams.

We have come a long way from those early soccer days when McKinley was skipping down the field holding hands or turning cartwheels!

She really gets in there and hacks it out.  It was fun to watch her.  She even scored two goals in her second game.  We wish there was a field hockey forum in Utah because she's had a blast!

And lest we forget, it was Joshua's birthday!  Happy 1st birthday! 

He'll get his own post on the big day later.

Our house

There's our new house.  No, not the one on the right.  The big empty lot in between that neighbor and the light post.  We are still waiting on the permits.  Hurry up SJ city!

Eden Farms Playgroup

Today I took Josh to playgroup at Eden Farms in Stamford.  Most of the things would be more fun for an older child.  There was a little haunted shack, halloween cutouts for pictures, and a little hay maze.  We did the hayride which was fun and got a little pumpkin for Josh.  He liked eating it...and the dirt...and the rocks.  He's a hungry boy.

Shoulder update

Last Friday Kent hit his shoulder and went to urgent care.  After a long weekend in pain, today he had his appointment with the orthopedist.  The orthopedist confirmed that it was indeed fractured.  I highlighted in yellow where the doctor said the bone had fractured off.  The good news, no surgery.  The not so good news...6-8 weeks for the bone to mend, a couple more months after that for the muscle to heal, and a full year before he will stop hurting.  He has to ice, medicate, and live carefully but not immobilized.  He can't lift kids, mow lawns, snow blow driveways, or really any manual labor with that arm.  It is going to be a long year for both of us.

Vermont

On Friday night I decided I wanted to go to Vermont.  So Saturday after football and field hockey I packed the car and drove (Kent's arm still kills) the 5 hours.  We stayed overnight in Littleton, NH because it was one of the only vacancies in the whole region!  The next morning we drove through the White Mountains and over to Stowe, VT.  We took a beautiful scenic drive in the Green Mountains.  The colors were astonishing!  The pictures don't show up as vibrant on the blog as they really were.

For the kids, we stopped at the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory tour.

We visited the flavor graveyard.

And we got a free sample at the end of the tour...Maple Me Happy, which was a maple flavored ice cream with dark chocolate shavings.  It was scrumptious!

Up the road we stopped at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill.  It is a huge specialty store with a working cider mill.  We sampled some freshly pressed cider.  Then I got my authentic Vermont Maple syrup and some Apple Cider syrup.

Then I drove the 4 hours back home.

And now Vermont is checked off my list!

Indian Summer day

Today the temperature was in the mid 70's.  So when the kids all got home from school I packed them up in the car and headed out to Compo Beach in Westport for a little beach time.

Sawyer brought his football along.  I had to hold Josh a lot, so we only had a little makeshift football throwing.

McKinley finally got tough enough to go into the cold water.  She played in the sand for most of the time.

Hayden was back and forth between water and sand.

The three of them enjoying the ocean.

This little guy hung mostly on the blanket and grabbed fists full of sand and rocks to eat.

We stayed until the sun had almost set.

When it was time to go Hayden kept chasing the seagulls and had to be dragged (literally) back to the car.  We are going to miss the ocean very much.

Kent stayed home and nursed his shoulder, which the doctor said has a little fracture and perhaps some muscle separating from the bone.  He sees an orthopedist next week to determine the best course of recovery.