Fall Festival at Mulberry Elementary

This is Julian's costume for this year. We used cardboard from a box that I begged the people at Sears to give me. We had to cut out the shape and tape it all together. I was surprised that it held as well as it did. You can really do a lot of cool things with cardboard! Then we painted it and put the detail on. Jaime did a great job on the eyes and all of us took turns drawing the scales on. I am not sure if you can see that detail but let me tell you...it is there!!! The wings were made out of a cheap umbrella that I bought at the Dollar store and demolished. Like his raptor costume the head is not very comfortable and we are working to make it more comfortable. We re-used the feet from his costume last year which we repainted to match the red of his dragon costume.

Frirday nigeht we went to the annual Fall Festival at Mulberry Elementary School (Julian's school). Julian was expecting it to be a party like the ones we had at Oualie Beach in Nevis but it was not at all like that. As we were walking in, there was a huge line of people waiting to get in. We had paid our admission in advance so we didn't have to wait in line; we just sailed right through. Inside, each classroom had a game for the kids to play and win play money. Julian played a few games but got tired of waiting in long lines so we went over to the silent auction. They had two rooms full of baskets to bid on. They had some great ideas for gift baskets. We each bid on one...Jaime on a few...and then headed out to see what else there was to do. In the cafeteria they had a display set up for pictures. We got Julian's picture taken and then headed home. Julian was one of the few kids who dressed up in costume for the event. I think he felt a little out of place but we assured him he was way more fun than any of the other kids. He saw a few kids he knew but for the most part it was not exciting for him and actually a bit of a disappointment from what he was expecting. We left and went back later just before the closing of the bids at the silent auction just to be sure we didn't win them all! We may have won one auction...I'll keep you posted on that.

We were supposed to go to another party on Saturday night at the Rec Center for a costume contest but we had a problem with our car and could not go. Hopefully we will make it to the contest at the library on Thursday. He has to go to the teen contest because they have one for kids pre-k thdrough 3rd grade and one for teens...nothing for in between. Crazy I know...but I asked which one he could be involved in and they said the teen contest so we will go to that. Trick-or-treat is on Halloween night on Friday.

We went to visit our friend Mark down the street last night and we all took a ride past a house in our neighborhood who has their house decorated for Halloween. It is really cool. They have these figures out front that are made out of that tubing stuff that has lights in it. They have pumpkins and ghosts (that look like pac-men) that are lit up. If you tune your radio to a specific station they are synchronized to light up with the music. One pumpkin is the lead singer and the other two are the backup singers. The "ghosts" just kind of add to the show. It is very clever and according to Mark there is a guy down the street from him who does a similar thing for Christmas. I will try to get a video of the Halloween one and upload it. It is really very cool.