Yo Ho!!

Many people have asked me how they celebrate Halloween over here.  Honestly, the celebrations are much like ours at home.  Kids (people) dress up, trick or treat, go to parties, do fall crafts.  At first I was excited because I love dressing Parker up, but because a few of our new friends do not celebrate because of religious reasons, it has made me reconsider how I feel about it (I honestly hadn't really thought about it before).  I do know, however, that I love fall.  I love pumpkins and red leaves, cool weather and football.  I also love costumes and dressing up, so this year, until we can prayerfully consider what is best, we are celebrating fall with costumes...ha, I know I sound ridiculous.

Anyway, we decided to get P a pirate costume because he loves "Jake and the Neverland Pirates."  Ok, by love I mean talks a lot about his "gold de blumes" and says "yo ho," but has really only watched it once or twice.   Here is a video of P trying on his costume for the first time...seriously, he talked about finding his "gold de blumes" for at least 30 minutes after I turned the camera off.

We wanted to find something to do that would be different (and where P could wear his costume).  At first we wanted to go on a history walk of the town, but we were told it might be too frightening for Parker (apparently Norwich has a gory history of hangings and what not...good to know...probably not a good alternative to Halloween).  Instead we found an old steam engine railroad that takes you on a two-hour round-trip ride through the countryside between two nearby towns.  I must say the train was picturesque and Parker LOVED it!!  There were quite a few kids who were wearing their costumes too!

Before we left...getting P to actually look at the camera anymore is very, very difficult!!

Again, I wanted a picture with him beside the steam engine, but he couldn't stop staring.

The steam engine...sepia seemed appropriate...:)

"Hi Mom!"

Again, this is what you get when you try to get a good picture of P with one of us...Parker had just hit Brady with his sword...hahaha, I mean, Parker no no.

Almost a smile!

At dusk...it was only 4:30.  Although the moonlit ride back was pretty neat.  We had a great day!