Halloween

Tessie snuck into the last of the fall tomatoes and stuffed her face

 

Caroline's got skillz on the monkey bars

Sarah visited from London

The Hayden rec center had a halloween open house and this bouncy game

Caroline and Mom did the Bowman Fun Run and Dad did the 5K

Our white pumpkins made it all the way to Halloween. Success!

 At mom's work Halloween party Erin won a balloon prize

Tessie was our happiest Halloween monkey yet

Watch out Max for the monkey attack

 The girls had stamina to rake in a good haul from the neighborhood

That's right Erin - what is this thing? It's a giant tomato hornworm that crawled out of the garden.

There are 37 candles missing from that cupcake

With winter comes the staticky hair

Erin's artwork is getting more representational

With the older girls to chase, Tessie will be walking soon

Erin's many birthday cards

Fair play

 

We went back to the Topsfield Fair to see the giant pumpkins

prize winning livestock

and baby chicks. They had a couple hundred eggs incubating at the same time, which guaranteed that you could see one emerge from its shell

 Erin's first carny ride

Caroline went for the mini roller coaster

There was a dog jumping competition

The winner was this black lab that cleared over 20 feet

Mmm, turkey leg

Waiting for the Wilson Farm spooky hayride

Tessie's first time!

Lincoln logs are non-toxic, right?

We splurged on a weekend in New Hampshire to visit Storyland, New England's answer to Disneyland. (Erin kept telling her teachers that we drove to Disneyland)

Even Tessie had a grand time

Cinderella's castle

Three billy goats Gruff

Humpty-Dumpty

 

You get the idea

On the way home we drove the auto road up to the top of Mount Washington. Poor Erin had the outside view of the sheer drop-off and was not a happy camper.

Our hotel had an indoor 3-story water slide that Caroline absolutely loved.

We have had a great time reading the Hobbit together. Here is Caroline's opposite-world version.