It's The Great Pumpkin!

Happy Halloween everyone! We've just had a great time celebrating the holiday....for the last month! Dylan absolutely loves skeletons and other "spooky things" so we've been in Halloween mode around here for some time. Dylan helped me decorate the house with all kinds of cool stuff and we've been looking at catalogues of costumes and decorations as they came in the mail. 

Some time ago, Dylan decided he wanted to be Scooby Doo. That lasted a few weeks and then he switched over to wanting to be Snoopy and stuck with that every since. I really have no clue where he came up with Snoopy since we don't really have Snoopy stuff, but once he caught Snoopy fever, It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown has been played on our tv often and Dylan has been waiting for us to order his costume and then get it in the mail. Since it's arrival, it's been worn to the Boo at the Zoo event (a couple of weekends ago) and around the house multiple times. Oh, and Dylan also decide what Cade should dress up on Halloween....Charlie Brown!

Dylan's costume was obviously done once it arrived to us. Cade's costume took a little more work from me then getting out the old credit card. It consisted of an old shirt of Dylan's with a little felt I sewed on and just a bit of eyeliner on the head for Charlie Brown's trademark swirl! Oh, and Mike and I dressed up to. We were Charlie Brown's parents....

Our balloon's say "Wah woh wah wah"
Get it?

Tonight, we joined up with our neighbor friends to do some trick or treating. It was a bit of a deja vous from last year. Just a few weeks after we moved into our new house last year, there was a snow storm on October 30th that knocked out power to most of the area. It limited our trick or treating options. Well, thanks to Sandy blowing through a few days ago, we had the same issue this year. With a 3 year old's limited attention span, it actually wasn't really a problem. Dylan got his fill of trick or treating and was ready to go home.

Snoopy and Spider Girl

Trick or Treat!

Even though we've been practicing what to do on Halloween night for weeks, it took team work to get it all done. Dylan like to ring the bell, Chloe would say Trick or Treat an we would all say thank you. We could only get Dylan to say trick or treat twice but he at least always did say thank you.

We offered candy en trick or treat route to Dylan a few times but he wanted to wait until we got home. So, once home, we all enjoyed some candy (even Cade and I) and then it was time for bed (and some makeup remover for Cade's head).

Tomorrow Dylan will get another wear out of his costume when his preschool has a make up Halloween parade. It was supposed to be on Tuesday but school was cancelled because of the storm. Since half the fun of tonight for Dylan was seeing other kids in costume, I think he'll enjoy seeing all of his classmates dressed up tomorrow. 

Happy Halloween everyone and don't eat to much candy! To end this post, I'd like to borrow a quote from the wise Linus that runs through my mind very often when I'm reading facebook posts in this political season, "There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin." Too true. Too true.

Dumb Dog, Why Are You Followin' Me?

While watching Annie (the movie) this weekend, I mentioned to Dylan that there was a storm coming the same name as Annie's cute little dog..Sandy. Apparently, that was a little confusing to Dylan. I think he was expecting a person and\or animal to arrive at some point so was likely a little disappointed with some wind and rain.

Sandy has come and gone and left a lot of mess in her wake. We actually fared pretty well. Our electrician got our generator up and running just after the electricity went out at the house so we got a really good live test of it. It worked! Our fridge, basement freezer, heat, a few lights and a tv had power so we stayed pretty comfortable. Probably the biggest inconvenience was figuring out what to make for dinner that could be fixed only by stove top or the fact that we didn't have wi-fi. Our electricity came back on in the middle of the night.

Clean up at our house consisted of putting the generator away and removing a big limb from the bottom of the driveway. So basically, we lucked out.

My company closed at noon on Monday which is pretty remarkable. We rarely close due to weather. 13 years at the company and this might be the 2nd (possibly 3rd?) time that's happened. Considering we can have some serious snowfall from time to time, my company does not take closing lightly. My commute to work this morning was long and interesting because of lots of detours due to downed trees and power lines. Clean up is going to take some time.

Here are a few things I learned from the storm:
1) Generators are loud. Really loud. That sucker was outside the garage, the garage door was closed, the house door to the garage was closed and we were sitting on the furthest side of the house. We could hear that sucker churning away very clearly.
2) Being stuck with 3 cute boys isn't so bad. The boys were both complete joys to be with. And even though I love them deeply and dearly, I can't always say they're enjoyable to be around. They were awesome fun and drama free for the duration of the storm.
3) Trees look very menacing when they're threatening to blow over on your car. I tried to drive very strategically on the way home from work yesterday to avoid as many trees as possible.
4) It's really, really dark in the burbs with no lights on. Our neighbor escaped to a relative's house for the night and asked us to keep an eye on their place. Pretty impossible to do once nightfall hit since I couldn't see a darned thing outside.
5) My electric company is not as completely incompetent as I assumed them to be. I did assume our electricity would go out at some point but was very surprised that it came back on as quickly as it did. Of course, those still without power probably aren't as happy with them as I am.
6) A dishwasher makes a great drying rack. One of our dishwashers was full of dirty dishes and the other empty because it hasn't been working (and we haven't had a chance to look at why too thoroughly). The empty one held our cleaned dinner dishes nicely while they drip dried.
7) Dylan says "storm" really cute!
8) Our newer house no drafts. As much as I love the charm of an old house, it was really refreshing to see and hear the wind whipping around outside but saw not the slightest movement from our curtains. This new build stuff certainly is a lot more air tight than the century old houses I've been used to.

So it's life as usual for us. The storm was just another bump in the road to make life a little more interesting.

Texas Day 3, Part 1 - Fort Worth Water Gardens

With the fatigue of our full fair day under our belts, it was time for some rest...NOT! Come on, this is me we're talking about. Got to pack it all in! Over the years, Mike has mentioned a couple of times that he would like to see Ft. Worth. Even though Dallas and Ft. Worth are close neighbors, there is not usually any reason to cross over the dividing line which is known as Arlington (which is where Six Flags, the Ballpark and Cowboys stadium are). Since we were in Dallas for a decent amount of time and there were a couple of things there that I thought Dylan would enjoy, we decided to spend a day of our trip there.

First stop was a place that I LOVED as a kid. I just thought it was super cool and it's always held a special place in my hear. Luckily, it's not changed much and it's still super cool....the Fort Worth Water Gardens!

The water gardens are basically huge fountain installations that you can walk through and enjoy. They (as in the 3 or 4 of them) from a zen peaceful one to a rushing rapids one. The ones on either end of the spectrum are the ones we most enjoyed.

Cade Enjoying the Water Wall

Dylan Liked It Too

Heading Into The Rushing Water

It Was Really Loud In It
(Though that didn't stop my Dad from picking up a phone call down there.)

If you look closely, you can see my white knuckles.
I was holding onto Dylan for dear life!

My mom chose to enjoy the view from the top.

Dylan jumped from block to block!

Mike took a turn with Dylan too.

After the gardens, we had our set side on another attraction. Following GPS instructions, we ended up near my Mom's apartment that she lived in just after college. That was a new sight for me to see. Unfortunately, this many years after the fact, the building wasn't too impressive! It didn't age nearly as gracefully as my Mom! And what attraction would our family go to when traveling? If you've been paying attention to the Hines family travels, you know. Next up......

Taste of the Texas Fair (Fried Stuff)

I realize that the fried food phenomenon is of great interest to all fair goers these days. I'm not all that excited about it because 1) I don't really eat fried foods nor get excited about eating lots of crap or 2) it is not something that existed in my fond memories of the fair so I don't consider it a core part of my fair experience. Now cotton candy....that's a different story.

In any case, Mike wanted to document some of the crazy things we saw advertised as being available in fried form. While I was open to eating a bite of the fried cheesecake my parents got an am very interested in what exactly a fried margarita is, most of these things are not at all tempting in my opinion. Creative, yes. Edible sound, not so much. To each his own I suppose.

Without further ado, here is the Texas State Fair tour of fried stuff.....

Okay. Now this is classic fair food.

I think my stomach thanks me for not being interested in trying these fried dishes. What do you think? Any of it tempting to you?

Texas Day 2 - The Great State Fair of Texas!!

My plan was to write 1 blog entry a day last week. Didn't so much happen. The delay was meant to be as  I also have sad news to add. It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that Big Tex burned down on Friday. If you don't know who he is, you're obviously not a Texan. If you know who he is, then you must have revered him as a child, kept a special place in your heart for him and be as saddened by his loss as I am. My last viewing of him is captured in film below. RIP Big Tex.

Now on to more cheery stuff. This is why we left my favorite time of year in New England....to visit the Great State Fair of Texas! It was a yearly big event for our family and I haven't been back since high school. Every year I've thought about going back to Dallas during this time of year but it just didn't happen for one reason or another. Now, though, it was time to introduce my boys to a true fair experience...and Big Tex.

Our First (and Final) Picture With The Original Big Tex

Considering Dylan wouldn't last all day without a nap, we got to the fair as early as we could to get in as much fun as possible before we pooped the kiddos out. We drove to a DART rail station and rode the train right to the front gate of the fair grounds. It was actually my first time on the trains in Dallas. Kind of weird since public transportation was not something widely embraced when I lived in Dallas and I didn't get used to using it regularly until moving to Boston.

Upon entry to the fair grounds, we saw Borden Milk's Elsie
getting filmed for a news cast. She was beautiful!

First up, we headed to the petting zoo. I didn't see Dylan much of the time because he was racing around, trailed by Mimaw and Pipaw seeing as many animals as he could as quickly as possible. Mike, Cade and I hung back to take our time petting and feeding them. Cade enjoyed it, I think.

This camel really wanted to get to Cade.
Cade was really not sure about him.

My favorite animal of the petting zoo were the baby zebras.

While I went off to find a place to feed Cade, Mike and my parents took Dylan through the farm life exhibit. Dylan seemed not into it on their first go round but apparently decided he really liked it because that's all he wanted to go back and do most of the day. We were able to fit in another trip before leaving the fair grounds and this time I got to join him. There were several sections and in each one you had to do some "work" and then add something to your basket. For example, Dylan was given a bag of feed (corn) and gave some to the cows (statues of course) and then grabbed a carton of milk. At the end, he sold his goods to the store, was given a fake dollar and then could go to the store himself and buy a snack. It was pretty cute.

Tractor Trike

After playing farm and seeing a lot of fake animals, it was time to head over to the see the real animals. As a kid, my brothers and I didn't have a lot of interest in the barns but Dylan wanted to go. So we did. Once there, he was only mildly interested in the cows. He was somewhat interested in the hatching chicks. He was extremely interested in the toys that were there. You can take the kid out of the play room but not the love of toys out of the kid.

We quickly meandered through the creative arts building where my Mom and I have had entries in years gone past. Other than the lego installations, Dylan was not into and so we moved on. I got to pick our next activity and I chose the car building. I've been toying with the idea of getting a new car so thought I could do a little shopping. Unfortunately, the cars I've been thinking about were not represented there. It wasn't a waste of time in the least though because the boys had a great time playing in the showroom.

My parents had grabbed some corny dogs for their lunch while we were playing in the cars and then wanted to take Dylan to the bird show which they though he would enjoy. So, they went there while Mike and I found something to feed ourselves and Cade. We met up with them at the show where Dylan was less than impressed and I was baking in the direct hot sun. So, we moved on.

On the way to the bird show, my parents let Dylan play in a fountain.
When his arms came out, they had turned green! Yuck!

I stopped to nurse Cade, Mike wandered off to the Midway and my parents played with Dylan. When Cade was done, we realized we were close to one of the things I wanted Dylan to see so we took off and texted Mike where we were heading...to see the TreeMan at the Greenhouse. He was pretty cool and I was glad we caught the act. The Greenhouse was also filled with trains going around tracks everywhere and the boys were very entertained by that.

And what was Mike up to when he separated from us? He was off playing games and won Dylan a HUGE minion. He seems to have a habit of winning huge stuffed animals and are far from home. In Disney, we paid an arm and a leg to have a ginormous blue bear shipped home. It looked like history was repeating itself!

At this point, it had been a pretty long day and the boys were really tired. It was time to head back. But, of course, Dylan had it in him to do one more round of the farm set up. This time, Cade got to play too.

When I was a kid, we would stay at the fair all day long. We wouldn't leave until after the parade and fireworks show was over. I really wanted to see the night time show and show the arts and crafts tents but the kids were pooped. Just as a "maybe later" precaution, we got stamped so we could come back if we wanted and hopped the train back to the cars.

Dylan Holding Hands With His Minion

That night, my Mom and I decided to run back up to the fair to do some shopping. But not before putting this cute little guy to bed for the night.

The fair grounds are about a 10 minute drive from my parents' house so my Dad dropped us off at the front gate. The night time fire\water\laser show was going on just inside and my Mom and I got to see the last few minutes of it while we walked to the arts and crafts tents. We shopped 2 tents on 2 sides of the park, both had exciting purchases and then called my Dad to come pick us up. When we were exiting the park, we saw him pull up. Great timing! So, I got to do everything at the fair I wanted to do. Yay! I even sampled a bite of the fried food fare (fried cheesecake) that is so big now. I'll have another post featuring deep fried everything (hopefully) tomorrow. Oh, and as for the minion, I was somehow able to shove him in our large suitcase so we didn't have to ship him after all!