Hendersons in West Hartford: December 2008

HALLOWEEN

We love it when Halloween falls on a Friday night! This year Callie decided to be Peter Pan (although that changed to Robin Hood depending on her mood), Luke was Captain Hook (or Captain Hookus), and Vivian was Tinker Bell. The week of festivities started with Luke's preschool party. He loves going to school. He has made some great friend (they are "really cool dudes") and even has a girl friend. Interestingly, his girlfriend's name is Callie. Luke calls her either "my little sister Callie", "the nice Callie", or "my best Callie" so we always know which Callie he is talking about.

We also attended the church party. It was a pot luck where everyone was supposed to bring their favorite soup. Jason refused to eat since he didn't know who brought which soup and was sure everyone was going to get sick. He was pretty proud of himself the next morning when everyone in the family was sick except for him.

We had a great time carving pumpkins as a family. Luke made the smiley face pumpkin, Callie made the cyclops, and Ruth made the others. They all ended up looking really nice. Unfortunately, the squirrels ended up eating most of them before Halloween night.

Trick-or-Treating was awesome! Callie had a friend over and they came back with huge bags of candy. Luke made it most of the night before he came home to help his dad hand out candy. We gave out full sized candy bars for the first time this year. It was a big hit but became a problem later in the evening when the teenagers figured out which houses were giving out the good candy (a couple of our neighbors were doing the same thing). We didn't mind it until the adults (like 45 year olds with no costumes) started showing up and holding out their purses asking for candy. After the second adult we decided it was time to shut off our light for the night.

This is Luke and Callie. Luke really likes The Little Mermaid A LOT so her costume couldn't have been any more perfect.

Captain Hook and Peter Pan

Tinkerbell

BIRTHDAY

Jason turned 34 on November 2nd. We celebrated his birthday by going to church (over his objection) and having his favorite cake from Michael's Bakery. It was a fun day.

Jason learned how to take fake pictures of blowing out candles from his mother as she usually missed the actual act of blowing out the candles. It appears that that is a hereditary trait that not only Jason but Callie also picked up.

SWIM TEAM

Callie is on the JCC Sharks swim team. She had her first swim meet last week. It was a blast. She placed first in the 50yard freest lye and second in the medley relay. She has one meet every week from now until March.

Callie is in the far lane. You can see she is far ahead of the other two girls in the picture as she approaches the finish.

A BOY AND HIS DOG

Luke and Vivian are best friends. She always has to be with him. Unfortunately she also thinks that they are equals and that if Luke has something she is equally entitled to it. As you can imagine this has led to a few problems but, regardless, they are still best friends. Here they are last week. Luke is enjoying a show from the comfort of his box while Vivian sneaks the corner of his snugly for a soft place to chew her bone.

FIRST SNOW

The following pictures do a great job a capturing Callie and Luke playing together. Truthfully they usually play very well together. Callie is a great big sister and is always helping Luke learn something new. The first snow, however, provided a great opportunity for Luke to do a little picking on Callie. I love how the pictures capture her reaction which changes quickly from being sad and looking for help from her mom to taking matters into her own hands with a snowball. Luke, as usual, was not phased by Callie's fury.

BASEMENT PROJECT

We have been remodelling our basement for the past couple of months. We finally hit our stride and made some significant progress on the project. These are mid-way pictures and we have done a lot since. We framed new walls, installed all new electrical, hung sheet rock, replumbed the laundry room. It has been a really fun project. We will update the pictures in the next couple of weeks as we near completion of the major projects.