Just Hanging Around

Things have been pretty low-key around here. We had a great Halloween weekend. On Thursday night, we went to the park downtown with Karien, Kevin, Allison, and baby Natalie for the Thursday night family concert. It was 70's & 80's music and we really enjoyed it. Natalie, Owen, and Allison wore each other out. I think Allison may end up in the WWF (or whatever it's called these days) - she was really good at body slamming Nat and Owen. Friday afternoon I picked the kids up early to come home and eat and then get costumed up. Our neighbors were having a little party, so we went there first and had a margarita (Nat, Owen, and Henry only got candy!!!), then we dropped Ike off at home to pass out candy and I took the kids trick or treating. We hit about 30 or so houses. There were a couple spooky houses that Nat and Owen were a little leery of - one even had fake smoke/fog, spooky sounds, and the guy was dressed like some kind of skeletal monster in a black robe. Natalie and Owen were terrified! Owen was hiding behind me and he kept saying, "I love you, Mommy," The guy saw they were scared and set the candy container out while he hid inside. I still had to go up to the steps to get the treats for them! Saturday was parent observation day at Natalie's ballet class. She's such a ham. The rest of the weekend we ran errands and did stuff around the house as usual. Owen ended up getting a virus and an ear infection last week, so he was home from school for a few days. Last weekend we had our friends Paul & Anita over to grill out. Their son, Ethan, had a great time playing with Nat and Owen, and their 2-month old twins were precious. On Sunday we started some interior painting projects and we went for Mexican with Karien, Kevin, Allison, and baby Natalie. We sat outside and it was very pleasant until the wind picked up. On the way home we stopped for coffee (Starbucks Christmas drinks - yay!) and hot chocolate for Natalie and Owen. A nice way to end the weekend. We don't have much planned for this weekend. Henry is getting his first haircut - the mullet has to go. We'll probably be around here finishing up our painting. We should be getting our new trees in our front yard soon - we're ready! You can see some of our bare patches in some of the pictures. The trees and landscaping are last bit of post-Ike recovery.