burfeind.net

Because burfeind.com was already taken…

By

Halloween 2008

We didn’t expect to have two kids to celebrate Halloween with this year, but there you go.  I went to Target earlier this week, and found the last costume they had in the 0-6 month size — a chili pepper.  It’s pretty awesome, as costumes go.

The festivities began with Sammy’s kindergarten parade.   Apparently, there is a longstanding tradition at the Manning Elementary School of letting the kindergarten students bring in their costumes for a parade through the halls, trick-or-treating at each of the other classrooms.  Since Jennifer and I were both home with Josh, we decided to check it out.  I’m not sure what my favorite part was — the teachers dressed as the Supremes, or the kids themselves.

When we got home, we discovered Paul Chevrette, across the street, setting up the most elaborate Halloween decorations we’ve ever seen.  We’d been warned that Paul enjoyed Halloween like none other, but we hadn’t really been prepared for the full extent of it. Screaming fog machines, a cemetery, limbs peeking out from the bushes, giant blow-ups of ghouls and a Santa’s sleigh…it was something to behold.

The actual trick-or-treating was great.  Sammy was once again an astronaut, this time in a white costume complete with a talking helmet.  Josh made an appearance as the aforementioned chili pepper, but stayed home to help Jennifer distribute candy while I took Sammy around the block.

After the great Easter Egg Hunt and this, we can’t wait to see how this neighborhood celebrates Christmas.

By

Halloween Past

We took a look at photos from the past couple of Halloweens and realized that we never posted photos from that time of year in 2005, which means we also missed Doug and Lena’s wedding (and Sammy’s first trip to New York). So, without further ado, here they are. Sammy was a giraffe in 2004, and a darn cute one, if you ask me.

There’s also a picture from Sammy’s birthday, which strictly speaking was not in October, but who’s keeping track?

By

Halloween

Scary SammyWe just knew that last year would be the last time Sammy would want to be some sort of animal for Halloween. So, we were pretty impressed when Sammy’s choice this year was to be an astronaut. We got him a great orange jumpsuit, with plenty of flight commander patches, and a space shuttle backpack, with flames coming out of the bottom. It was pretty cool. He was the only astronaut on the block, and got plenty of compliments on it.

It was a little dicey that we’d even get to go out last night…Sammy was running a temperature in the afternoon, and we had to go pick him up early. Still, he rallied, probably at the thought of all that candy. We didn’t get a lot of kids visiting this year, and had lots of leftover candy. Happily, we had tried to buy only stuff that we don’t like, so I took the rest of it to work, and it was gone before I knew it. I’m amazed the people I work with aren’t 300 pounds.

We also made a couple of jack-o-lanterns over the weekend to get into the Halloween spirit. Sammy helped, directing Jennifer on how to draw the faces. We, of course, did all the work…and it’s harder work than we remembered carving through a thick pumpkin, then scooping out all the gunk inside. This is not the first time that the realities of parenthood have conflicted with my memories of childhood, and I suspect it won’t be the last.

EDIT: Michelle took some pictures of Sammy when she and Kevin got home on Halloween, and sent us the link to the Kodak Gallery. Enjoy!