Halloween 2008

This Halloween I had a great idea for a costume, and it took a considerable amount of work. This year I discovered the awesomeness of Iron Man. And as soon as I read this Instructable on how to make your own Iron Man arc reactor, I just knew this was a project I had to take on. More pictures on that below. First, the kids... (As usual, click any picture to see a larger version.)

David was a headless man this year. He rigged up a very clever skeleton system to hold the shirt up and to simulate shoulders. It was working great for most of the night, but by the end he was complaining that it was hurting him, but toughed it until we were all done.



Rachel and Machika, the Japanese student staying with us this week, dressed up as Mulan and an American Indian. This was Machika's first time going trick-or-treating and she had the best time. I think she liked it more than any of the other kids there.



Adam was a ghost. He wore the costume to school yesterday, but then he wanted to be a vampire today. After we figured out how we were going to put a vampire costume together at the last minute, he changed his mind and decided to go back to being a ghost. Not sure what changed his mind, but we're glad he decided to go with his first choice.



Tammie was a witch and got to stay home to pass out the candy. We don't get too many trick-or-treaters. Our street just seems to be out of the way. And in the past few years we've always had way too much left over. This year though we bought less, and had just a few more trick-or-treaters and we actually gave it all away.



I usually don't even bother to put together a costume. But, as I mentioned above, I got bit by the Iron Man bug. So I had to do this just for the geek factor. And there was no way I could stay home. I had to get out and let my light shine. So I made the rounds with the kids to all the neighborhoods. I even had my own headlight.



Some assembly required.

Labor Day 2008

For Labor Day we took a picnic and a short 2 mile hike in Hoyt Arboretum. It was a beautiful day. No rain and it started out cool.

Here we are in the Giant Sequoia grove. These are very young Sequoias, so they are not quite as big as the ones you can see in much older groves.



This tree was growing on the side of a steep hill. The exposed root structure is quite striking.



Hey Summer. This small group of trees is called the House of Summer.



Hoyt Arboretum is a beautiful place to visit on a nice day. Right next door to the Portland Zoo. It's a place every Portland visitor and resident must see. The park is huge. There's a 4 mile hike that will take you through just about everything there is to see. Or you can take a smaller 3 or even 2 mile hike and see most of it. My favorite part is of course the Sequoias, even if they're "small."

Merry Christmas! (2007)

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas! We had fun opening presents and ate our traditional Eggs Benedict. We even got our first real snowfall of the year.

David was very excited about getting exactly what he wanted.


Rachel got a "Just like me" doll. Although, I doubt the doll will behave just like her. (I mean the doll could never be as sweet...yeah, yeah...that's the ticket.)


And Adam loves games. Here's one that should keep him busy for a while.


Who asked for snow?

Halloween 2007

The kids had a fun Halloween and scored lots of loot. Tammie made the kids' costumes this year.

Adam wanted to be a bat.



Do not call him "Batman." He'll get mad at you.

Rachel was an Indian Princess.



You can't see them in that picture but we made her moccasins too. She got some good use out of the costume this year. She went to (as far as I can recall) 5 costume/trick-or-treat parties!

David was a werewolf.



It's a fur wolf costume with some shredded clothing, hair glued to his face and hands, and fangs. Adam thought it was the coolest costume ever.

I handed out candy at home while everyone else went trick-or-treating. As usual, we only had about 10 kids show up. So we have way too much left-over candy. It's kind of disappointing having so few kids come to the door each year. Our neighbor does some pretty cool decorations, but he's starting to get burned out since not enough people show up to make it all worthwhile. I'm not sure if the low numbers are a symptom of the times or if our neighborhood is just too tucked away and doesn't attract many people.