Halloween and high Fall

 

 

The biggest carrot of the garden! Maybe we kept them in the ground too long, but the carrots this year all tasted too "carroty" and were mostly given away to Wilma the horse.

 

Behind that guy in the orange shirt are Mom, Caroline, and Erin, who ran in the Bowman Fun Run

 

 Tessie decided to join the fun. She'll have to wait 4 more years for her turn.

 

 

Dad finished the 5K run with a new PR of 28+ min. He still hates running.

 

 Start of the crazy hair season

 

 Not quite up to the Topsfield Fair standards, but our big pumpkin this year weighed in at 22.8 lb

 

 Tessie is in a lovey accumulation phase. New to her crib: Elmo and Cookie Monster

 

 Messie Tessie

 

 Caroline is finished with "unhelpful princesses", but Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, was a satisfactory costume. Mom's home-made clown costume fit Erin perfectly.

 

Tessie tolerated the peacock costume

 

 We made a trip to NY to see Aunt Claire's family. Grampa Ed made a roaring fire to warm them up.

 

We made an outing to the John Jay historic homestead

 

Rowan, what are you doing with those leaves?

 

You wouldn't, would you?

 

 Yes, you would

 

 Erin's favorite doctor, Dr. Pickle!

 

 Which of these statements about John Jay is true?

a. Along with Franklin and Adams, he negotiated the Treaty of Paris to end the Revolutionary War.

b. He served as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

c. Along with Madison and Hamilton, he authored the Federalist Papers to support the Constitution.

d. You know he's a Founding Father, but you have no idea what he did.

e. All of the above 

 

 The visitor center had an awesome play area with colonial toys. This is a vintage governess carriage.

 

 Farmer Erin

 

Tessie's gymnastics move

 

More Tessie dancing



Tiny houses and giant pumpkins

 Back to Portsmouth, NH, for the fairy house festival, and this time Erin and Caroline brought friends. Two adults, five girls, and hundreds of fairy houses. 

 These were the non-professional houses made by local schools. Erin & Georgea loved the snakeskin decoration.

 

We thought this one should have won first prize

 

That's a fairy-sized Ping-Pong table



 Here's the blue ribbon winner. It wasn't big, but it had tons of detail on the inside, although no teenage fairy entertainment options.

 

 Caroline & Chloe

 

 The site for the festival, Strawberry Banke, is a restored colonial area reminiscent of Williamsburg

 

 The picture doesn't do it justice, but this was the area to build your own fairy house from leftover ingredients from the professionals, and there were soo many on the huge lawn.

 

That's right, we're hooked on the Pirate's Booty

 

 Dad took Grampa Ed to Fenway to see the Yankees get pummeled by the Sox in Derek Jeter's penultimate game in pinstripes.

 

Even though Fenway is an uncomfortable dump of a ballpark, the weather was spectacular for baseball.

 

You will have to watch a lot of baseball to find a position player with 175 at-bats and a batting average lower than .162.

 

 The following weekend Nana & Grampa Mike & Riley the dog came up to visit. On Friday afternoon we pulled the girls out of school early. Stated reason: Giant Pumpkins

 



 It was the day of the weigh-off and here are the oversized, saggy, and thoroughly gross-looking contestants

 We think that this was the winner: over 1900 pounds - almost a new World Record
 

 We went to the Museum of Science and Erin loved to hold Riley
 

 Wilson Farm was in full fall mode and worth a visit

 

 Show us that million-dollar smile, Belle the Llama

 

 Mmm, cider donuts

 

These oversized cupcakes are endlessly fascinating to the girls, and this year we decided to make one the prize for family competition - more below. 

 Each year they put up this display - wow!

 

 Another beautiful day, and we went to the DeCordova outdoor sculpture gallery

 

 How many girls can you spot?

 

 Gotcha, Erin!

 

 Lounging at the gift shop

 

 Caroline's entry into the napkin-art exhibit

 

Here is the cupcake contest - rather than follow the NFL, we're following English football this winter. Can Mom's team be beat?

 

Tessie is in full speak-and-spell mode now

Although she does have a little baby slamming problem

Proof that we were at Fenway. Jeter struck out in 3 pitches in this at-bat.

 The older girls have loved watching the Avatar cartoon series on Amazon Prime. Above is Momo the flying lemur, which Erin decided to imitate one night