All Hallows Eve

Sir Larsalot, after having been recruited by evil pirates on the high seas

Pirate Larsalot, Coppelia, and Baby Ballerina (aka Miss I-Hate-Costumes)

Getting ready to hit the streets in search of treasure (in the form of high-fructose corn syrup) - pals Ellie the Cheerleader, Robot Jonah, and Snow PrincessEleanor join the search party.
Oh, and Sir Dave.

"Give us caaaaaaaaaaaandyyyyyyyyyy!"

We left friends on our porch to greet the neighbors whilst we hit the streets: Vampire, Grumpy Pumpkin, Princess Pumpkin, and Surprised Baby Ghost.

Halloween cut outs

Halloween

The house was ready for Halloween (it is just this blog that is a wee bit late;)

The "official" Halloween pictures you can see here, what follows are a handful of happy snaps...


Buzz ready to spring in to action...

...and following on the tarty theme - here is the fanciest Martha Washington you'll ever see - all dolled up

One happy Mama Daisy and her youngling

Daisy Jr, the concert pianist

A good day to develop a sweet tooth
Stopping by the Steins

Jonah stopping by Farmor's...

...and a final stop at the Hoffmans, next door

A happy halloween was had by all. (Scary pumpkin designed by Martha Washington, happy pumpkin requested by Buzz)

Halloween preparations

The Friday before Halloween we were invited to our neighbors, the Steffens, for some Halloween preparation and their famous spaghetti chili - we normally only get treated to this on Snow days...

Judging from this picture it would appear that we live way out in the country, not in the thicket of the Baltimore suburbs, our house is directly out of frame on the left here - I promise...

Stuffing scarecrows is not for the fashionista, she sat there watching, singing and telling tall tales

This one is suffering from a teeny tiny attention deficit...

...but the boys finished it off
Finished product - let me assure you, there are NO crows left on our street

Mea Culpa on Halloween-a

The Latin scholars in the crowd may take issue with the usage in this context, but as far as I'm aware it's a fancy way to say 'Sorry Guys, we suck.' (and around here, we are always looking for the fancy way to do things.)


We have borne the weight of unmet expectations for too long, and went ahead & "bought each other" our Christmas present: a new digital camera. It will be a long road, back into the good graces of our readers who have waited - and waited - for some news, any news of the Nilsens. Some photos, any photos?!?


So Halloween. The Snow Princess and her Court Jester lead us back into the world of the communicating. Lollipops were the ultimate booty, the sugar rush was intense, and Lars thought that every open door meant an invitation inside to play. Cousin Jack was here too, with his mom and dad. Jack was a fierce (but polite!) lion: at every house he would say "Trick or Treat, Rowwr!"

There is even a small photo of the Yellow House, which is quite cute but not so much improved since our last posting. Life is pretty good all in all, and we look forward to sharing news from Catonsville a little more often.

Again, everyone, sorry for the long absence!!

Mary and her little lamb

Holiday season is seriously upon us, and yesterday we were passing time in xmas preparation with the fun and games of Halloween -- well, it was more like Hallowday, as it all started with Mary taking her Lamb to school (although he ran amok and had scampered off for this particular picture...)

Even with a full sugar load from her Halloween party at school, Cecilie went down for her nap motivated by the prospect of Trick or Treating alone...

As if by some miracle (after all it is the season) Lars decided to play the "please the parents" game too, and had a nice long (late) nap before waking up in a stellar mood to go racing on Cecilie's push bike before hitting the neighborhood streets with our wagon & goody bags.

The parents let the assumption that she was Bo Peep pass most of the time, and after a while we gave up correcting that Lars was NOT a bunny (or we laughed off that we were breeding a new type of sheep -- for its acute hearing abilities!) Cecilie was less polite about it: When our good neighbor Darnell complemented: "Oh, what a pretty Little Bo Peep!"
Cecilie corrected: "Actually, Darnell, this is a Mary costume, and here is my lamb..."

When candy was given for Lars she would be very polite though, and say: "Thanks for the candy for my lamb. He can't eat this, but he can suck!"

A lot of fun was had by all, but that Halloween is clearly not the pinnacle of the season should be clear from this exchange at our other good neighbor Al's house:
Al: Do you like Halloween?
C: Actually, my best holiday is Thanksgiving...
Al: What do you like about thanksgiving?
C: Um, the peas...

So there you have it: Happy Halloween and Peas on Earth!