October 2018 Miscellanea

We went out to a nice dinner for my brother-in-law Adam's birthday. I'm so glad we can do things like this now that we live in Massachusetts.

Get a load of our spooky glowing white eyes!

This was in the police report in the town paper and I thought it was so funny:

 Those must have been some killer black flies! 😂

When de-cluttering is on your to-do list: 

Here's John following in my footsteps and wearing Hopkinton Hillers gear. I still couldn't believe we had moved to my hometown!

A rogue rainbow

Tummy rub time for Boo Boo!

Sam and his neighbor friend were excited for a few days about the prospect of setting up a table on the sidewalk and selling their origami. It didn't happen but it was a cute idea.

Some pictures of our still new to us home: 

The way the sun was shining in that morning was so pretty and peaceful.

A countertop perspective:

 

🍁🍂🍁🍂

Halloweeeeeen Twenty Eighteeeeeen

Our first Halloween as a family (of three, since Peter wasn't there) in Massachusetts (and my first Halloween in MA since my senior year in high school, 20 years ago!) was fun!

 {I apologize for that disjointed, parenthetically-superfluous, poorly written sentence. But to be honest I actually kind of like it! 😄}

The candy bowl was well-stocked, and most of it was given out that evening. We live in a good neighborhood for trick-or-treating!

John was a zombie football player (again).

And Sam was a taco again. 

They both wanted to re-use their old costumes and I had no problem with that!

Here's Mr. Taco headed out the door to a pre-trick-or-treating neighborhood parade and potluck dinner with his neighbor friend. (This really is a good Halloween neighborhood!)

Check out my nice and simple front porch Halloween decorations.

Four pumpkins, a potted artificial fall foliage tree, and a Halloween wreath. Done!

Carving jack o' lanterns is right up there with apple-picking as one of my most-disliked fall traditions. Sam draws or paints on the pumpkins instead--much easier, neater, and safer. And just as fun, I might add. Although not as sensory. I do like the feel of pumpkin goop and the taste of roasted pumpkin seeds. But not usually enough to make jack o' lanterns. 

It may have been John's last year going trick-or-treating now that he's a big bad high-schooler this year. He went with his neighbor friend, who had one of those funny dinosaur costumes that have become so popular.

Sam's candy haul. I took all of the Snickers (he doesn't like them but I do!).

It was a fun Halloween!

Fall Foliage in Our New Yard

Last fall was our first New England fall in nine years. I wish I could say that I went out and got lots of pictures around the area of the famous fall foliage, but I can't say that because I didn't do it. I did, however, photograph the foliage around our new yard, and it didn't disappoint.

This was at the beginning of October when the leaves were starting to turn. There was a weird storm cloud/sun-fighting-through kind of a thing going on and it cast a dramatic, moody light on everything.

I took these pictures one morning because I liked how the rising sun illuminated the leaves of the (still green) tree from below.

A little further into October... 

I think some of the colors were a little more muted last fall (but still lovely).

The following pictures are from the side yard on the garage side of the house. These colors certainly weren't muted! We'd recently had rain and then it cleared up and the colors were brilliant! (Reason #142 to love rain!)

This is a pretty area of the side and back yard that isn't fenced in. It reminds me of a little forest glen.

 

I was very happy with the fall foliage in our new yard. I'm looking forward to experiencing it again in the not-too-distant future!

Ninja Warrior October 2018

John did a couple of Ninja Warrior competitions last October that were fun (and a little nerve-wracking!) for him.

I liked this motto that was up on the wall at one of the gyms. This is a good way to live life!

Sam had fun playing on a warped wall.

John had less fun trying to do this much bigger warped wall!

The pictures below are from a National Ninja League (NNL) competition that was held at T.A. Fitness, which is Dave Cavanaugh's gym. For those not in the know, Dave Cavanaugh is one of the stars of NBC's American Ninja Warrior because of how well he's done when he competes on the show. And one of the coaches at his gym, Lucas Reale, is also very good and is on the show too. In fact, tonight is the final episode of this season of ANW and Lucas has made it to one of the final stages. And I just ran into him the other weekend at the boys' gym! It's neat to see these people from TV in real life. You see that they're real people just like everyone else, they've just done some impressive things that have gotten them on national TV. Anyway, I digress! Back to the competition...

Listening to the rules before the competition began. John looks so young and vulnerable here. He's really grown a lot in the last year.

 

We had good seats up above that allowed us to look down at the competition course with a birds'-eye view. 

There's John right before he went. He was nervous! 

I took a few pictures during his run. Check out my awesome live-action photography skills. 😄

 This could quite possibly happen someday!