The story of Halloween 2010

It's the eve of Halloween

And the children are a fright

In their spooky black shirts

And lots of candy in their sight.

Fright = Sydney and her pen colored knees

For Trick-or-Treating we went back to the old neighborhood and cooked out with friends. This guy, Darth Vader, showed up. A.K.A, Scott Maier so he says!

This is where I know I'll get it later in life from my daughter. I forgot her costume so she borrowed another little girl's "princess" skirt. I give you the mis-matched princess! I'll tell her it was an original idea.

She was really supposed to look like this. Thankfully when we went to Zoo Boo I managed to get her in full outfit for one photo.

Funny...the kids were up there for awhile and finally I went up to ask if they rang the doorbell (Scott's job since he's the tallest). He said there was no doorbell so they were just waiting...

He was fast this year!! Running from house to house. Unfortunately the other kids were 2 and under so not quite as into it as him. Sydney did keep up with him for the most part and shared in his enthusiasm.

Back at home we had a melt down. Nothing some milk can't fix!

Candy!

Scott placed it all in our plastic pumpkin and carried it to the cupboard where he said "Let's find a spot for this. We can put it in here. Good night candy. You stay in here just in case we need some more candy."

Happy Halloween!!

Progress Launch

Posted the pictures in the last post but thought I would write a bit about the launch. I was pretty amazing and certainly an unforgetable experiance. Flying into Kazakhstan we landed on an airstrip and then walked off the plane onto the runway and to the "terminal" (it was closer to a shed than a terminal). The landscape couldn't be more different from Moscow. Its desert-like and the town is the only thing thing for miles. Its a small little town, Baikanour, and essentially is there to support the Cosmodrome (launch site).

I got to explore the city a bit on some tours but the highlight for sure was the Cosmodrome. The Progress (Russian resupply vehicle) launch is a multiday event. On Monday morning the doors of the processing facility open at exactly 7am and starts it's train ride to the launch pad. As it rolls by you are just a few feet from it so its pretty interesting. It takes a few hours to slowly march to the pad, but once there people spring into action. Once it gets there it only takes about 30 minutes to lift it up and get it settled on the launch pad. The second day is reserved for last minute items and then Wednesday starts the launch sequence. They hold a commission to approve the Go for launch and then 9pm that night the launch starts.

Baikanour is an area of wide open landscape and horizon, so when its pitch black and the rocket lights its quite a sceen. Night becomes day in alsmost an instant and the rocket slowly lifts off the pad. In just a minute or two its hard to pick it out from the other thousands of stars you can see on a Kazakhstan night, but you can still hear it as it climbs into space.

Beyond the launch the historical portion was incredible too. The lauch pad used for Progress is the same one Yuri Gaugarin lifted off from and became the first human in space. Also out my window I kept seeing this little shack and until the day before I left I didn't know thats the cottage that he slept in before he launched. There were a ton of other stories from the experiance but I thought I would share a few. The pictures are posted on the link below from the other post. Enjoy!

Photos

Since I have been taking alot of pictures and can only upload a couple at a time in the blog I thought I would just send out a link to them all. I'll try and go through and mark locations and explain what they are on the site, but at least they are out there now.

Moscow

Baikanour

Enjoy!

Art Easel

We went to IKEA the other day. Sydney took quite awhile playing in the children's section so I had awhile to mull over the battle I have with myself each trip...get the cheap easel or don't get the easel. Well I bought it and finally bought a plastic table cloth to protect the carpet today so the kids couldn't wait to get started!!

Thankfully they were happy with painting together.

Gotta love the double paintbrush!

Sticking your tongue out helps with all things.

The finished masterpiece!

They were off to new things... Stamping

Sydney couldn't stay away too long.

Unfortunately her fun ended when she decided to continuously squeeze the paintbrush.

Home after 1 week...

I took these pictures tonight while the kids were eating their juice pops outside. After looking at this picture I think it's ridiculous that it's an evening at the end of October yet the kids are sweating in shorts and a sun dress while eating popsicles. Really??!! Where's the "fall" weather?

After one week (and A LOT of help) I'm starting to feel at home. Eric's parent's came back down this weekend and there was a lot of unpacking, organizing, and heavy lifting.

Some friends came back over this afternoon and put the swing set back together. Yes, that's right. There is a pool in our backyard at the end of October.

The garage got a huge makeover this weekend. It's all ready for Eric to set up his work bench :o)

The game room is messy but you can see that there are places to put the toys.

The guest bedroom is ready for visitors! No need to look in the closet...

I might take pictures of the rest of the house later once I've cleaned but don't hold your breath on both of those things occurring at the same time.

Third Soccer Game

The third soccer game was about the same as the others! Except he did get to kick the ball to start off the second half so... kick count = 1!

He was suppose to sit out with another player during the last quarter but he refused to leave the field. I know he didn't understand what was going on. The coach told him to sit with me and I was yelling for him to come over but he just shook his head and pointed to the field. I guess he loves playing! Thankfully another kid wanted to sit out so he just stayed in and ran and ran and ran...

Funny Faces

No words needed. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

I walked in on...

I walked in on Sydney watching Mary Poppins in Jack's bed. Now Jack hasn't used this bed, to the best of my knowledge, for years. It's good to know that I've kept it around for good reason.

zoo boo!

Today we left the unpacking and headed to the zoo for zoo boo. The kids wore their costumes (or at least some of it), did some trick-or-treating, picked out and decorated a pumpkin along with seeing some of their favorite animals! If you can't tell from the pictures, Scott is going to be Darth Vader and Sydney was going to be a butterfly but I think she thinks she's a princess with a fluffy skirt.

They just watched two kids take their picture in this spot, holding their pumpkins the same way.

Relaxing...

Last Lunch

Today we had to pop on over to the old house to take care of a couple of things. While I was busy doing that the kids had a McDonald's picnic--one last lunch before we said good-bye!

Moving Day

Sunday was the big moving day. A lot of moving was done Saturday. Many loads were taken over to the new house in cars and trucks. The movers started at 9:15am Sunday morning and finished around 4pm. They never took a break and kept things moving. We have a lot of stuff!

Sunday morning started very early...

It's beginning to look pretty empty.

What a fine chair a cooler makes.

Ok, maybe mom is taking too many pictures too early in the morning.

Farewell to 6153 Galloway...

Proof that Eric and I were there from the beginning...

It was first an office, then a baby's room and finally a little boy's room.

If my memory serves me correctly it was first a game room, then an office, then a baby's room and finally a little, little girl's room.

The new house

Sydney's new room.

game room

Kid's bathroom

Scott's room