I’m kinda sad that the holiday I remember as Halloween seems to be going by the wayside. Like most people my age I fondly recall tromping un-chapperoned as a child through the neighborhood on my annual candy quest. Apparently the world is different now and we had a grand total of 3 visitors on Halloween night at our house. However, we did join a whole grip of costumed kiddos earlier at the Greenwood Businesses “Safe Trick or Treat“. Joel had a great time playing the carnival games and by the end of the afternoon was confidently (if uncharacteristically) galloping up to the candy distributors along the route announcing, “It’s me! I’m Eeyore!”

We did have a few people comment about his little “sister” dressed up as Piglet.

Posted from benaar’s posterous

I love October!

I love the crisp air and the fact that there’s still an acceptable amount of daylight. You get those brisk sunny days where the shadows are all slanty because the sun is scooting along the horizon instead of straight overhead and there are great picture opportunities. This is precisely why God invented the pumpkin patch! Let’s face it, it’s not really about pumpkins (since those can be had much less expensively at the Fred Meyer on the corner) but it’s about the urban novelty of tramping through a muddy field and snapping vibrant colorful pictures of your kids.

It’s as close to hunting and gathering as we city-folk get.

More pictures here.

Posted from benaar’s posterous

Holy buckets! Well that entire month just kinda got away from me. Sorry ’bout that.

Here’s the thing about January. It’s more or less a holiday month in my opinion. In fact, in the Bendickson household, the holiday season starts the week of Christmas and doesn’t let up until after Sarah’s birthday on January 24th. In those four weeks we have Christmas, Second Christmas (usually with whichever set of parents we didn’t see on Christmas), my birthday, New Year’s, Macworld Expo (yes it’s an official holiday), MLK day, and Sarah’s birthday. That typically leaves us with just enough time to come out of our starch/sugar coma and catch our breath before Valentine’s Day.

In other non holiday related news, we’re in the final few weeks of single-kid-dom here. Joel’s baby brother is gestating right on schedule and should be joining the rest of us out here in “red-pill” land ’round about the end of March. Joel seems excited about the prospect of being a big brother. As you can see here he’s already scheming away with his unborn sibling, plotting against us.

“Dude, there’s only two of them! We can take ‘em!”

Joel, Mommy & Baby