Picture Day, the Epilogue

Wow, to think that last November I was posting every day. I'm such a slacker.

I was perusing my photobucket account to see if I'd uploaded any images and forgotten to blog about them, and lo and behold, I had!

You may remember a month or so back that I reported about Nora's defiant unwillingness to get her picture taken on picture day. Well, they tried again two days later, and last week, we got to see the results. (And, since our scanner isn't working, these are slightly blurry and dark photos of the actual photos.) This, by the way, is the nice not-happy-with-this face. There were a few outtakes where she looked downright ticked off.


Letting her wear her Brewers hat at least elicited a goofy smile. Though with her hair jutting out that way, she reminds me of Derrick Turnbow.


We also got Owen's new school pictures back. And, other than the fact that they're inexplicably not sharp (seriously, what's up with the soft focus?), he did a great job. He's at the age where the direction, "smile!" often results in a strained, overly enthusiastic smile that causes the tendons in his neck to pop out. Not cute. But, wow, when did he get so grown-up looking? Check out last year's picture (which I know I reacted to with the same sentiment; and I'll surely repeat this sentiment every year for the next 12 years of picture days.)

Halloween 2009

A bit late, but here are some highlights from the costume and trick-or-treating travails of the redheads on 51st Street.

First, the costumes.
Owen decided months ago that he wanted to be a caterpillar, so after I scored his costume for $5 on eBay (woo-hoo), I tried to convince Nora to be a butterfly. 'Cuz wouldn't that be cute and all. But she wanted nothing to do with that idea. No, my adorable 2-year-old daughter wanted to be a shark. So, back to eBay and she got her wish.

Our trick-or-treating was almost a whole week early, but at least it was at night. I borrowed a double stroller, recruited the help of a couple friends as extra eyes and hands, filled a thermal mug with wine and headed out :)

Hey kids, this is supposed to be fun!


Owen knew just what to do--walk as fast as possible to hit as many houses as possible.


They block off a 6-block or so area for the trick or treating, and most of the houses that hand out candy go all out on the decorations. Had to take a picture of this one. I guess John McCain really IS scary in our Democratic-leaning neighborhood.


Nora wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing at first, but once she realized she was collecting a bag of candy, her mood perked up. She'd happily walk up to a couple of houses, then take a break in the stroller and feast on her bounty. After I took this picture, it reminded me of another picture taken after Owen's first trick-or-treat a couple of years ago. Hmmm, eating two suckers at once must be some sort of right of passage or something...

Got My Sticker

Election Day. Woke up this morning EXCITED. Felt a little like that mix of nervous energy and anticipation of a kid on Christmas morning. I love voting. I love Election Day. I don't even mind waiting in line. There's just something about standing there with your fellow neighbors waiting your turn to help decide WHO.

Due to a mix of events that's affecting my schedule today, I was going to try to hit the polls early and be done soon after 7. Since our polling place is only a block away, I peeked at the building at 6:00 and 6:15 and saw little commotion, so I waited to head over there until 6:30. By then, there was a line, and by 6:55, it had really grown. But by 7:15, I had colored in my little arrows, submitted my ballot and collected my "I Voted" sticker.

And now we wait.