week ending nov 2, 2008:

Week ending Nov 2, 2008: This week was Halloween, a nature walk in Patapsco Valley State park, the twins’ first gymnastics class of the season, and a bowling birthday party. The twins had a Halloween party at school and I volunteered to help run a game for the kids to play, but when I showed up, there were so many volunteers there wasn’t anything left for me to do so I just got to enjoy the party and take tons of pictures. When we first arrived in the classroom Alex brought his friend Matthew over to meet me and after the introductions Alex was holding Matthew’s hand and Matthew reached over and grabbed my hand and wiggled it. At first I was confused and then I realized Matthew was shaking my hand! How grown-up these kids are introducing their friends to their parents (without prompting!) and shaking hands.
On Halloween night we went to Natalie’s house and did our trick-or-treating in her neighborhood. We told the kids that they could only go the houses that had the porch lights on. After a few houses they caught on and they’d run down the sidewalk yelling “Light! Light! Light!” each time they saw the next house with the porch light on. Alex’s costume was the Transformer character called Optimus Prime, and Chloe’s costume was an angel. The package said “Darling Angel”, so Chloe told everyone who asked about her costume that she was “Darling Angel”. http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/Halloween2008#
On our nature walk we walked 3 miles in 3 hours with 3 preschoolers (Cousin Natalie went to that also). The twins didn’t have any trouble with the distance and they had a great time reveling in the joys of nature (as evidenced by the pictures). http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/PatapsacoStatePark2008#
Since Chloe picked ballet over the summer, and Alex picked soccer in the early fall, it was Chloe’s turn to pick what activity the twins were signed up for next. She picked gymnastics. They gym they used to go to had closed, but a different local gym seems to have a very similar program. When I asked Alex if he wanted to do gymnastics he said “no”. I guessed that he’d change his mind if he got to watch a class so I drove over one evening when a class of kids their age was in session. I was right! Alex hadn’t been in the building but a few minutes before he was asking when he’d get to “do that”. They had their next class the next day and Alex loved it so much that he sulked when it was over. The bowling birthday party was for their friend Moni who is in their preschool class and also lives in our neighborhood. I hadn’t considered bowling as an option for 5 year olds, but the kids loved it. The bumpers were set up in the gutters so all the kids had to do was get the ball moving just a little bit down the lane and they’d knock over at least a few pins. I couldn’t believe how slowly a ball could roll down the lane and still manage to knock over 3 or 4 pins. The kids would get really excited when it was their turn to roll the ball, but sometimes they lost interest before the ball actually reached the pins. http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/BowlingBirthday#