Mack's first Halloween

Another major first holiday come and gone. Here's the story of Mack's first Halloween:

You would think with our new house out in the country that we would have a really cool pumpkin-acquiring story. Perhaps we'd visit a historic pumpkin patch, or maybe a neighbor would grow a pumpkin and give us one, or maybe we would even grow our own! Not quite. We found ourselves on Thursday night at the Weaver Street Market grocery store hoping they'd have some pumpkins. They did...and they were on sale! Mack was super-thrilled, as you can tell:

He did eventually warm up to the pumpkin once we got it home:

Then the big night! Since we don't really know anyone in Efland/Hillsborough yet except our neighbors, we crashed our neighbor's friend's house for the evening (...I told my neighbor that we were hanging out with them and that I hoped they didn't mind, not giving the choice to say no). Their friends live in a real neighborhood, so there would be trick-or-treating going on (there is no trick-or-treating in Efland...unless you want to walk a really long way only to likely be met by the end of a shotgun at someone's doorway). We had some delicious food with our gracious hosts and then it was time to transform Mack into...Sad Monkey Boy!

He was a little happier once we got out on the street. He was so cute! (Forgive the bad photo quality, we couldn't find the camera battery charger and were stuck taking cell-phone pictures!)

But Mack was super happy once he was back inside and out of the monkey costume. This is Mack helping Vince hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters...what a helpful boy.

Then we came home, Mackey went night-night and I got to work, finally carving that beautiful pumpkin that Mack picked out for us. I am planning to dress Mack up again tomorrow and take a picture of him with the jack-o-latern. Poor baby! It was a really fun night and Mack was a real trooper, not to mention the absolute cutest little fella in the whole neighborhood. For more Halloween pics: http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2372479008/a=76796422_76796422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

Child Prodigy

Saturday Parade

Hillsborough is a really cute little town (we live right outside of Hillsborough in Efland of course, and Hillsborough is our connection to civilization). On Saturday, we decided to go to the "Creatures of the Eno" parade in downtown Hillsborough (the Eno is the river that runs through these parts). We didn't really know what to expect and ended up being blown away by a really wonderful afternoon.

Mack LOVED the parade. He was so interested in everything he saw going by - he was so much fun to watch. The parade was completely home-grown, with townspeople having made their costumes and puppets that they paraded down Main Street.

After the parade we followed the group up the road to the Burwell School yard where they had a New Orleans-style jazz band, a drum circle, grills cooking and a bake sale.

That afternoon was one of those rare, unexpected and fantastic surprises.

Next year, we will so be IN the parade!

For more pictures of the grand parade:

http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2281391008/a=76796422_76796422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

This evening's cuteness

Tonight was an extra cute one. We began our evening having a quick dinner at Weaver Street in Hillsborough. We made Mackey a hat out of the bag my bread came in:

Then we lounged around on the couch together (this is a great shot of his THREE upper teeth - you can't really see the third one yet, but it just broke through today):

Next came Tubby Time! Mack loves the tub and being in the buff:

And now it's 9:40 and Mack is ASLEEP, time for mommy & daddy to...GO TO SLEEP, TOO! Woo hoo & night night!

Mack has four teeth now, he waves and claps, feeds himself Cheerios and is basically the most adorable little guy ever. His funniest new thing is screeching/shrieking at the top of his lungs when he gets excited about something...and Mack gets VERY excited about cabinet doors. This is Mack "helping" me shelf-paper the cabinets in our kitchen yesterday:

In other fun news, Richard and I went to our 10 year high school reunion last weekend. That was fun...interesting...and fun. Richard also surprised me with a stay overnight in downtown Charlotte after the reunion. This was the first night that we'd spent away from Mack together, it was very very nice...to sleep through the night! This is us on our way to the big event:

And this is us goofing of during the reunion when we took a break from socializing (my introverted self can only take so much...) to tour the museum exhibits where we found a dress-up area with fun hats:

And lastly, Richard & I have been marveling at how gigantic our little man has become. He's now in a big car seat and we have him facing forward (please don't tell the AAP). This is him in his car seat on the ride home from the hospital vs. now: