The Fabulous B@ker Blog

It was an unbelievably warm Halloween tonight! Fourth Avenue was a really happening place with scary houses and ghouls everywhere - we didn't even want to come in. Just about all the neighbors ran out of candy...too bad it wasn't a weekend night. Here's a shot of Cameron's costume - continuing with the economical Halloween costume theme, he's dressed as a pile of leaves. I bet you didn't even see him, he was so well disguised!

Today is Halloween! That most American of holidays when we revert to childhood and dress up in silly or scary costumes for work, school, shopping at Wegmans... I'm not one to spend a lot of money on costumes. Usually we try to use dress up stuff and accessories we've collected over the years, and we may need to buy an accessory or two, but that's about it. As an example, this year, I got Annalisse a dog mask thingy and a tail, and VIOLA!, she's a dog. Cameron is going to put on sweatshirt and some packing tape, roll in the neighbor's leaves, and be a leaf pile (his main motivation is to be camouflaged when little kids go by so he can jump out and scare them). Jasper will wear a Halloween bandanna that Grandma made him. As for me, I'll probably be the stay-at-home-hand-out-candy person, which is probably not the greatest idea since I bought six bags of my favorite treats.

Hurray! We're back in business with a new digital camera (actually, it's Annalisse's camera that she bought with her birthday $$, but she's letting the family use it until we get a new one). I'm sure everyone is just dying to see what our 6-month old 40-pound boy looks like! Today's picture is of a tuckered out wet dog. Since the weather's been so nice we've been able to take him swimming on the weekends. Fetching sticks in the creek and running around with "friends" makes Jasper one tired dog! Today he came home so dirty and smelly he was rewarded with a shower (he's really good...he just sits in there with his eyes closed while Annalisse suds him up). That's about the most exciting news to report!

Earlier in the month we had our picture taken by Olan Mills for our church directory (a very expensive proposition for very few pictures). At the time we were "pleased enough" with them, but when they arrived yesterday it jumped right out at me: my cotton-candy helmet-head hair. When did that happen?! I've been fighting with my hair for a while now as it seems to be gaining more body and curl as time passes. When I went to Florida back in April it was a downright disaster with all the humidity - totally out of control. Anyway, it's nice to have an updated picture of the family, even if one furry member was missing. Maybe we can "photoshop" him in and use it as our Christmas card...

Well, we are on the cusp of Scorpio now, as the sign of Libra moves on until next year. But, the celebrations continue. Since the last two weekends have been so busy, tonight we are having family and friends over for cake and treats for Annalisse's birthday (might as well thrown in Mark and my birthdays while you're at it). Another milestone: today is Jasper's 6-month birthday! I'm sure he'll enjoy the benefits of that with a little ice cream! [I'm hoping to get a new camera this week...we're all going through blog-picture withdrawl here...]

Yesterday we took a ride with our neighbors Morey & Ann to The Windmill, a farm and craft market about an hour way in Penn Yan . The Windmill is an eclectic blend of nice crafts, junky crafts, baked goods, meats and cheeses, speciality foods [jams, dips & spreads], and flea market stuff. As always, the goal of the day was food-based: to buy sticky buns and cheese curds. Those Amish and Mennonites! Man, do they know how to bake (and make cheese)!! It was a really nice day, with Cameron's highlight being able to buy those really tiny donuts (smothered in powdered sugar ~ although he did, once agan, lament the closing of Krispy Kreme) at a Mennonite stand (thank God they can use electricity). When we got home, we took Jasper for a run in the field, then, the kids each had a sleepover. What a day!

How could I have forgotten to tell you this? Our team was the top fundraiser for this year's Barktoberfest (no thanks to Mark and me)! We joined an already established team that my co-worker, Melissa, had a connection with called SOS/Off-N-Running Tours. You can see our team photo here . For being the "winning" team we have also been invited to a wine tasting event and "behind-the-scenes" tour of Lollypop Farm (I can only imagine what that would be...the operating room? the feed storage bins?). Just the same, very cool!