Halloween 2009

It was another great Halloween in the Adirondacks!


My 6th grade class dressed up very nicely (the 6th grade teaching team all went as cowboys this year)

Two of my students hard at work after the contestsdown in the gym...the creepy clown (is that a tautology?) won the prize for scariest costume among the 6th graders



Ketchup and Nerd were pumped up for the rest of the day, and in general we made it through the day without many meltdowns


After school, I rushed over to Saranac Lake to meet Gail and Ben for Trick or Treating in town, a super convention that allows kids to see their friends, local businesses to get children sugared up, and parents to avoid infinite driving in and around the middle of nowhere to hit 5 houses in an hour or 2


We met up with Ayla and Rebecca Buerkett, who joined us for a fun cruise around the town...we also ran into Autumn, who was circulating with some of her friends


One of the cool things about Ben attending school in Saranac Lake is that he knows more of the kids that we see while Trick or Treating, like Zach, a classmate in his 2nd grade class


Ben loves wandering around the town, talking with both friends and strangers (in a polite and non-creepy way) and gathering junk-food unto himself


On our rounds, we met this perfect puppy, Daisy, who loves me, and gave me lots of treats and no tricks


Ben and Ayla both love this local bookstore, and were having a great time, even as they were starting to get tired

I snuck in and took this family portrait even though I don't know the family...I loved Cruella's costume and use of an actual dalmation (whose name, BTW, is Smoky)



After getting home and eating some supper and candy, We all settled into comfy spots while Gail read the last few chapters in the final book of the "Lightning Thief" series...it was lots of fun, and Ben loved being able to relate to the characters and plotlines in Ray Harryhausen's "Jason and the Argonauts", which we watched this afternoon


This morning, we got a call from Ben's friend Joseph, and went to go play with him and his brother, "Little Ben" at the Lake Clear playground...everyone had a great time running around, including Penny, who slept most of the afternoon


The boys had a great time swinging and launching themselves off of the swings...in this pic you can see Joseph just landing after launching himself from the nearest swing

It's rainy and yucky outside now, but Ben is Skype-ing with LaLa, sharing and comparing costumes and play between New York and Maine via video conferencing over their computers

We're planning on seeing "Where the Wild Things Are" tomorrow, along with a visit to the betta Rose (tentatively re-named Thorn, now that we know about the unfortunate sex mis-identification which resulted in Skippy's abusive behavior towards him), who is now living in my classroom at LP...he's likely hungry and lonely in the quiet building