An early winter snow storm dumped over 10 inches of wet snow.   The heavy snow blanketed the trees and weighed down the leaf-covered branches, causing all sorts of trouble.  Every couple of hours during the storm, one of us would go outside and shake the snow off the branches of our little trees.  This was the only way to keep the branches from snapping.  While we stood outside you could hear tree branches breaking all around the neighborhood.  This storm  even  brought down a few large trees.  The power went out Saturday afternoon and was not restored until Monday evening.  Losing power is a recurring theme here in New York.  We have had many opportunities to use our generator.  Many of our neighbors left their homes for the weekend because they didn’t have heat or water.

I was glad I had made Sarah’s birthday cake the day before.  I toasted coconut for the top of her cake in a pot on the wood burning stove.  This is not the most comfortable place to stand for long periods of a time so dad pulled out the camp stove to cook dinner.  On Sunday morning we brought in our pumpkins off the porch, only to discover they were frozen solid.  It took most of the day to thaw them out enough to carve them.   On Halloween,  Sarah and Mason spent the evening with friends.  Junior stayed home to pass out candy  to the few die hard trick-or-treaters.  Alexandra and her friend trick-or-treated around the block, but only found a couple houses passing out candy.  I didn’t want to hike all around our neighborhood with the little girls, so Dad and I decided to take the three youngest girls trick-or-treating to a friend’s neighborhood in Washingtonville.  This was one of the strangest  Halloweens I have ever experienced.  A few neighborhoods in Cornwall even postponed trick-or-treating until Wednesday.  This is the first time I had ever heard of postponing Halloween.  I, for one, was happy no one came trick-or-treating to our house on Wednesday.  I was ready to have it over with and move on.

Just before school started Grandma & Grandpa Hendricks took us to Walt Disney world in Florida.  We had a blast going to all the parks.   We stayed in the Fort Wilderness Cabins and housekeeping even made it fun by propping the toys into different positions while we were gone.  The first night we came back they had Jessie from Toy Story sitting with the remote and the TV on.  Another night she was put in the window in a cute pose.  We had breakfast in Cinderella’s Castle for Kate’s Birthday.  Allie and Kate spent a couple of hours in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique getting their hair done and dressed up as princesses.  Claire was too little for the makeover, but she got a Tinkerbell dress for consolation.

Dad, Chris, Jr., Mason, and Sarah got to go snorkeling at Epcot in the 5.7 million gallon fish tank at the Nemo pavilion.  We were very busy from morning to night.  We even spent one day at Universal Studios so Mason could go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  It was pretty cool, and the butter beer was tasty.  It went way too fast.  We had a great time and hope we can go back in the future.

Kate turned 5 and started kindergarten this year.  I was worried that she would be too young to handle school.  Boy was I wrong.  She loves riding the bus and if she could she would go stay at school all day.  She was so excited to celebrate her birthday at Cinderella’s dinning table in her castle at Dinsey World.  It is all she talked about all summer.She had a blast meeting her favorite princess Belle and getting her hair done at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

Claire loves birthdays. Being the youngest she has had the privilege of helping the other kids blow out their candles and unwrap their gifts. Earlier in the day she found her gifts behind the couch and started unwrapping them. We had a hard time keeping them out of her reach. After a round of happy birthday, she attempted to spit on her candle instead of blowing it out. (On the other kids birthdays she would blow out the candles before we were even done singing.) We were grateful that she is not good at spitting and finally blew out the candle. Claire was thrilled when we let her open her gifts. Unlike last year when she didn’t want to get sticky she dug right into her cake.

I can’t believe my baby boy is 15. He is already asking about driving. They grow up way too fast.

Happy Birthday!!! Boy time flies, I can’t believe that my baby girl is 10. I still imagine her as my little blue eyed Boo with piggy tails.

This is a little late but Mason turned 14! They are growing up so fast. I am having a hard time believing he will be in high school next year. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I still see him as my sweet 3 year old boy. (unfortunately he doesn’t smell the same). We love Mason. He will always be my little boy even though before long he will be taller then me.

I am once again way behind. I have given up on catching up. Last month we did hit a milestone. We now have a 16 year old.  This also means that Chris was able to get his learners permit. AHHHHHH!!! They do things a little different here as far as drivers licenses. You can’t get your permit until you are 16 then you have to drive with an adult and take a driving course before you can get your license at 17. There are so many kids here that don’t even get their license until they are 18. It is not the right of passage for some as it was where I grew up. I got my license right when I turned 16 and I was out on the roads. (Sounds scary now that I have my own 16 year old.) I am also learning why parents shouldn’t teach their kids to drive. I let Chris drive home last night. (My hands still hurt from gripping the handle on the dash) Alex thought she was going to die. We are looking in to driving schools. I told him that I will let him drive more after he takes a driving course. I don’t think I was prepared for this stage of life and it only goes down hill from here. Mason just had to inform me that it will be his turn in 2 years. All I can say is AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Stephanie is making me write this. She is also making me write that I have only one more year until I am over the hill. Yay.

Now that the formalities are out of the way, we had some Halloween fun outside of making fun of my age. We only carved 8 pumpkins this year, they seemed to be hard to come by, and expensive (thanks, Adam Smith). We did get one free thanks to Sarah’s fine performance in the 5th grade pumpkin run (she got 2nd place). But the kids had fun nonetheless. Everyone but Chris and Claire went out trick-or-treating.

Chris sat motionless on the front porch with a bucket of candy in his lap and waited for unsuspecting suckers. They would come up in groups and he’d let a couple of them get candy, then scare them. They would all debate if he was real or a dummy (we have our own opinion some days), and some even poked him. In the end, he was the winner and scared everyone. One lady wouldn’t even come back up on the porch to get candy for her kid. She made her husband go up.  (Click the photo to embiggen)

Kate had a blast. She walked the whole way, and everyone loves to give more candy to a cute little witch. So it worked out good for me. And she is Daddy’s girl, so she likes Reese’s as much as I do. They all came home with tons of candy, and Mason had a fit when we had everyone put their candy into the community bucket. Now he can explain socialism to his social studies class.

I treated everyone to a birthday prime rib that I grilled, along with some twice-baked potatoes and Gulliver’s creamed corn. Stephanie even made me my favorite 12-layer cookie cake. I scared the kids with my hillbilly costume. Mainly with the teeth. Kate wouldn’t let me kiss her with them in. We had a fun Halloween.

Click here for the whole set of Halloween and birthday pictures up on our Flickr site.

Sarah turned 11 (almost a teen) and had a happy birthday. She got the vest she has been asking for since last year, a hoodie, and a set of Legos, since the boys are not very sharing with theirs. She also got a watch and some games (both board and electronic) so she was thrilled.

Click here to see a set of her birthday photos on our Flickr page.