Halloween 2016

We started Halloween weekend with a trip to Cape Cod. After my dissatisfying time at the Akron Marathon, I signed up for the Cape Cod Half Marathon for redemption. I put in a few solid weeks of training post-marathon, didn't bother with much of a taper (since it didn't seem to do me any favors for Akron), and went out and hammered the half in 1:22:39. I planned to run between 6:15-6:20 pace and did exactly that with 6:18s. It was good enough for third place, so I get $300 (if it ever comes in the mail!). After the race, Bruce and Phoebe wanted to go biking on a nearby trail so I put in a few more miles to cool down.

 Driving back from the Cape, we stopped at a cranberry bog. We have lived in Massachusetts for more than a decade and somehow still hadn't been to a bog. So we changed that: we stopped at this awesome little family-owned bog and took a brief tour, learned about the cranberry vines and how they grow, then checked out the cool equipment they sort it on. The kids got to try it out (above, sorting berries on a conveyor belt). We took some cranberries home and put them in an apple pie. Those little berries are tart, but they sure go well with sweet stuff. Yum.

After our cranberry bog experience, we went home and went to the church Halloween party. Phoebe was a skeleton, Oliver was Mr. Incredible, and Bruce was an obscure Jedi from Star Wars. Nobody had strong opinions about what they wanted to be for Halloween, so they raided the dress-up box and this is what they came up with.

 Phoebe found some vampire teeth at the trunk-or-treat to complete the look.

 On the real Halloween (Monday), we packed in a bunch of activities after school. We visited the fire station to get glow sticks and candy.

Then we went to Phoebe's school Halloween party at the park. The weather was fantastic so we stayed for a long time and played games, got more candy, and painted pumpkins.

After the school party, we came home and grabbed some dinner before heading out for trick-or-treating. We went to a nearby neighborhood and stopped by a senior center where a few elderly residents lined up their wheelchairs in the lobby and handed out candy in a sort-of buffet line. The place was decked out with decorations and the kids agreed it was their favorite stop of the night. By the end of the night, the kids got their weight in candy. Bruce ate a bit, then gave me the rest to donate to a food pantry. Phoebe ate a bunch of hers and is still eating it bit by bit. Oliver ate all the KitKats out of his pile and now just likes to count it and sort it, but not eat it.