One of our neighbors put up a spectacularly creepy set of homemade Halloween decorations while one party was out of town. Upon return, drama ensued and the decorations have been taken down. Interesting window into the lives of others. The boys are getting excited about Halloween, but I only have a full costume commitment from Porter who wants to be Spider-Man. My mom made him an over the top cape, and he is into it! Harlan still says Hulk is his choice, but I’m not sure if that will stick. It might, but I really want to talk him into something different. We’ll see. I just looked up homemade Hulk ideas, and that might work out fine.
Gilbert told me to google, “Average costume for 9 year old boy” so that tells you a little about his creativity this year. What? Anyway, I haven’t googled that, but it might be interesting. Hang on: I just looked. Apparently, it’s a football player or a Fortnite character. Hmm. I will be vetoing both. He also thought he might just wear his baseball uniform, or that he’d dress in our Canadian Mounted Police costume and carry his trumpet as if he were in the marching band. He can sort of play Mary Had a Little Lamb, so that might work. Seamus has presented me with zero ideas. I’m not sure how into Halloween he is this year, but I think the idea of trick or treating will get him going.
In the meantime, the boys are very excited about the Nats making it to the World Series, so we’ve been letting them watch a little bit at night, and then the highlights reel in the morning.
I tried to play the radio along with this, but they said the radio was ahead of the computer, so they didn’t like it.
In other news, they both had games over the weekend. Saturday ended up being beautiful–Seamus had a rock climbing birthday party to go to, Gilbert had fun with friends, we had dinner with neighbors, and Porter and Harlan were along for the ride. Homecoming at Marymount was this weekend, but it wasn’t on my radar to go. They boys would have loved it, so we were sorry to miss it. But, you can’t do everything. The younger boys get their playdates in at the older boys sports events. For instance, they love this little boy at Gilbert’s games, and they love playing with two of the younger sisters of kids on Seamus’s soccer team.
And on Sunday, it rained, so I turned on Pandora’s 90s Indie station and transported myself back to the Pacific Northwest in the late 1990s. It was a nice way to pass a rainy day. We had friends over for dinner and the kids were occupied with the imaginative games of the older crew. Porter had a birthday party to go to, Seamus had Science Olympiad practice on Paper Airplane making. Gilbert was restless, so we put him to peeling carrots, which he did well, and then he went further to matchstick them with precision.
Monday was lovely again, so Harlan and I went to a pumpkin patch with friends.
It was relaxed and fun. He and his buddy ate cucumbers for snacks, and he chatted all about his cucumber plant he was growing with grandaddy. It was a good way to spend a Monday morning, and future field trips will be the Postal Museum, Natural History, and maybe Glen Echo park…
Monday evening was too busy to discuss. I survived.
Academic Leigh Speaking 