Halloween Wrap Up

Wow I am not very good at keeping up with this.  I was planning on writing a few Halloween blogs, but instead I will summarize.

The month of October was super busy for us.  We had a Halloween related activity planned for every weekend.  I have to say Halloween has become one of our favorite holidays to celebrate with Eli, and this year we were able to do so along with great friends.

PUMPKIN PICKING @ ALSTEDE FARMS: 

As usual we took our annual pumpkin picking trip, and ventured out to a new pumpkin patch.  This time we visited Alstede Farms in New Jersey.  I'm not sure if this is a very popular farm but I have to say it was PACKED! They do have lot's of activities for the children and a great petting farm, but it was way too crowded in some areas.  Aside from that it was a great trip that Eli got to enjoy with his buddy Steven. Here are some of our favorite pics:

For this trip we had Delilah, Steven, and "Nina" Keyla join us.   

 Enjoying all of the hay

 The funniest thing was the boys laughing with the sheep... I don't know what was so funny but they laughed so hard! 

Picking pumpkins

I'll add more pictures on Facebook from this trip.  

HALLOWEEN ARTS AND CRAFTS:

Along with all of the activities we also took some time out to do some arts and crafts with Eli.  Most of it had to do with painting pumpkins and letting daddy do some pumpkin carving.  

The first pumpkin Rigo has ever carved. Eli picked the design.  Other than this our very crafty friend Delilah did an awesome Cookie Monster pumpkin with Steven, and I just had to steal her idea.  I have to say this is one of the best pumpkin ideas, i've seen yet.  

Rigo made the mouth, and carved it.  

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Eli painting the pumpkin. 

The eyes are made out of styrofoam balls, and I used a glue gun to glue the black candy melts for the eyeballs.  Also we used bamboo skewers that we cut, to stick the eyeballs on.  And like Delilah said to me "Don't forget the cookies" lol 

Please pardon Eli's dirty socks in this picture! I swear my house is swept lol 

GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER FALL FESTIVAL:

The weekend before Halloween we got to go to a fall festival that was held at the Greenburgh Nature Center, with some of Eli's best friends.  They had a blast doing lot's of activities.  Here are some of our favorite pictures from that trip: 

 The boys about to take their stroller for a ride lol 

 Trading dads (Sometimes people think Eli & Aaron are twins lol)

Eli & Steven

 Tired after a long day (we went through a lot trying to get this pic)

Under the parachute with Steven. 

HALLOWEEN: 

Halloween was def. tricky this year, given that Hurricane Sandy had just left New York.  Thank God that Gymboree had a Halloween party for the children on that day, and we were able to put Eli's costume on.  We also did very little trick or treating to the homes that had people standing outside welcoming trick or treaters.  Eli was really into it this year, and he was super happy to have his "nina" Keyla join us.  This year Eli was Max from Where the Wild Things Are. 

As you can see he played the role of Max very well! 

Last but not least Eli was invited to Aaron's Halloween party.  For this occasion he went as none other than Ignacio from Nacho Libre. 

There will be more pictures of the party uploaded to Facebook.

So there you have it! This has been an extremely loooong blog but I'm glad I got through it. Hope you all enjoyed catching up.  For now I am all Halloweened out, till next year! 

XoXo 

Mommy & Eli 

The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze/Eli's 1st Election Day

It's Eli's first Election Day!  I decided to take Eli to the voting booth with us today.  One of the volunteers asked Eli if he was going to vote, and Eli's response was "yeah I gonna vote Obama".  He is just too smart! We are team Obama and proud! 

Shortly after voting 

I'm still in the process of catching up on our blogs, so here is how we kicked off our Halloween Celebration in early October.  We decided to take a trip to see "The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze" in the Hudson Valley which is really famous.  We had heard that tickets sell out fast and they were right.  We are very lucky to have went in early October.  If you have never heard of the Jack O'Lantern Blaze it's actually thousands of pumpkins that have been carved with very complex designs and lit up at night.  Words can't describe the beauty of this experience and pictures only do it half justice.

For this trip we had our favorite neighbors, Maria & Diego join us, and my mother also tagged along for the ride.  

Entrance to the Jack O'Lantern Blaze

Grave site made out of pumpkins

In front of the 3 Witches 

Fascinated by the lights 

One of Eli's favorite parts of the blaze were the animals that were put together.  Among the animals there were all kinds of fish, bears, elephants, spiders, cats, and even dinosaurs! 

And last but not least here is a picture of Eli and one of his favorite people Diego.  

We really enjoyed ourselves, and we can't wait to visit again next year! 

Luv

Eli & Mommy 

Visit to the Bronx Zoo

Hi Everyone,  what a crazy week it's been for the east coast.  We hope everyone is okay, and our hearts and prayers go out to the people who were impacted by this terrible storm.

We were able to make it through the storm safe and sound.  We did not lose any power, and we have heat and water. We are very fortunate.  In addition I think that being a parent has made me so much more responsible, because I made sure to fill up my gas tank before the storm and therefor the "gas crisis" has not affected us.

I'm still in the process of catching up on this blog.  With so many events in October it's been difficult to find the right time to sit and upload pictures.  When I opened up this page I realized I had started work on this blog but never finished.  So here is a blog that was intended for a few weeks ago.  It's a visit that we took to the Bronx Zoo in Early September.  Hope you enjoy!

As some of you may know the Bronx Zoo can get extremely crowded during the summer.  We figured in order to get the most out of it, we should visit on a Monday when people are working and the rest of the children are busy with school.  It was the perfect time for a visit.  It was practically empty, and we had the whole place to ourselves.  We want to thank Chag for the VIP treatment, it was greatly appreciated ;)

The first thing we did was go to the Children's section inside of the Zoo. There Eli fed a few of the goats which became his biggest fans.  They would follow Eli everywhere and even posed for this hilarious picture.  

For some reason when we got to the Zoo all Eli kept asking for was the Bear.  So we made it a point to spend a few minutes watching this Bear sit and relax.  Eli loved it. 

After we were done with the bear we got to check out the Dora 3D adventure.  This was one of Eli's favorite parts.  I didn't think he would be able to focus, but he paid attention through out the whole movie and even reached out to catch the "robot butterfly".  Needless to say he was talking about his 3D experience for days. 

We also got to check out the Butterfly exhibit, The monorail exhibit, and Eli got close and personal with a gorilla. I wish we would have gotten a better shot of that, but everything happened so quickly :( 

 intently looking at the "horses" (I forgot the correct name for this species)

Overall we had an amazing time at the Bronx Zoo, and it will be one that we will never forget.  We want to thank Chag for the amazing tour! 

Again our hearts and prayers go out to everyone impacted by Sandy, and to our fellow New Yorkers, we have faith that we will be back on our feet in no time!

Luv 

Eli & Mommy