Olivia and Jordan
Our second annual Harvest Festival at Washington Elementary School was an exciting one. The weather was crazy. Sunshine, wind, then black clouds, and finally a downpour.
The previous week, I volunteered at the school to help the kids make scarecrows. We have Zach and Olivia's scarecrows on display here.
Sam and Zach playing a few games.
They won vampire teeth at the Harvest Festival....scary.
The Moon Balloon came to the kids school. It is a book that taught the kids to cope with everyday living and changing experiences. A real hot air balloon came to the school. One thing I love about Washington School is that children's book authors visit the school regularly and the kids are exposed to famous authors, some of their favorites.
With Halloween, we have "Boo"ing. The kids are at the perfect age to Boo their friends. It's basically "Ding-dong-ditch" but instead, they leave candy at their friends doors. Dave drove the 'get-away car' and the kids giggled all the way...hiding and rushing to the car to escape before their friends discovered them! We laughed all the way.
What's a hike without your boy finding a stick and turning it into a gun or some other weapon?! As much as they like to complain about our hikes, they love them and all that we do and find along the way. It's good, quality family time, plus we love exploring our new area. Ramapo has so much to offer.
Ahh, waterfalls.
So, one night when Dave was out of town, the kids decided to "make me pretty". They worked on my hair, pig tails ensued with lots and lots of bows. Pretty I am. Yup, yup! If I remember correctly, I even got a mini massage. I think all of this was to delay bedtime, but hey, I was game.
Tis the season....for turkeys that is. This is our second season in NJ and the turkey never fail to show up. Usually I see them on the local roads and have to swerve to miss them. This time, Kobe went berserk because they were in our backyard. I think we counted eight of them. Gobble, gobble.
Time for decorations and luckily for us, our perfect neighbor, Diane, loves to decorate. She even picked up these beauties for us to display! We had dueling blow up decorations....and it was perfect!
One of our favorites of Wyckoff....Sugar Flake Bakery. Olivia and Carson picked out huge pumpkin cookies as their treat. Carson came home with us for a sleepover.
Zach on a hike for Ben Fierro's 8th birthday. It was just the boys, so Dave went with them on their hike and finished up with a fishing excursion in Zabriskie Pond. Chase Sabatini, Ben, Harry Bograd, Zach and John Fierro.
Time for a tractor ride to pick out our pumpkins. Abma's Farm is too good to be true! It's 2 minutes down the road from us, offers fresh meat and vegetables AND pumpkins! We picked a beautiful October day to have a tractor ride and stroll around.
That's my boy!
I think Zach is happy with his choice. It was definitely a different experience with the pumpkin patch at Abma's than the patches from Georgia, but a new experience all the same.
That is a big pumpkin, guys. Are you going to carve it? We had two smaller pumpkins in addition to the big pumpkin and a friends dog decided it was a play toy. Every time she walked him by our house, he had to come for a visit with his 'play toy'.
Fran Amling, Barbara Goss & Jen
Fran's birthday and off we go to NYC...'as you do'. We took her to see The Heiress on Broadway with Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey and Jessica Chastain from The Help. Quite a good play and a fun night with the girls to boot.
Halloween costumes arrive! Here is my vampiress and below my Grim Reaper. Scary. Too bad Hurricane Sandy hit days before Halloween and we were once again foiled for trick or treating....2 years in a row. Grrr freak storms! You'll see these costumes next year since they were never used:-(
On a hunt for a corn maze that we could never locate in Ridgewood, we finally decided to play in the stream in Ho-Ho-Kus. Yet again, it was a perfect day outside and the kids found many things to entertain them. Olivia eventually made a sailboat out of a huge leaf and watched it go down with the current. Lovely afternoon as a family.
We have gorgeous leaves in this area too. These same trees are the ones that hurt the area so much during Super Storm Sandy.
Olivia fashioned this leaf into a boat.
For Jordan's 8th Birthday (she's in Zach's class, but good friends with Olivia....and Zach), she had a Glow Party. The girls had a great time and came home with candy pops, spray painted hair and lots of giggles. Happy Birthday, Jordan!
