Halloween Trick-or-Treating

AB costumed himself as a pirate for Halloween this year. My younger brother, his wife, and my niece all moved back from Sao Paulo, Brasil earlier this week and they drove out to our neighborhood to go trick-or-treating and then supper afterwards.

We made it about three blocks down from my house. One of my neighbors opens up parts of her home as a haunted house and others are kind enough to provide coolers or kegs of beer for parents in addation to candy for the children.

It was well after dark when we arrived home. AB and my neiece both came back with big hauls of candy.

AB with his pirate's bandana

Contented after consuming way too much candy

And exhusted in DW's arms

2008 Uptown Halloween Walk

The local merchants in the business district of our Chicago suburb sponsor a Halloween walk each year the Saturday before Halloween. Basically it consists of a pre-Halloween trick-or-treating at local business store fronts with children getting candy and parents geting brochures and two-for-one coupons and the like. It's a lot of fun. The childen get to wear their costumes and you see people from accross town you won't likely see on Halloween.

AB, DW, and I all enjoyed it and got some good shots.

Riding the Train at Kiddie Land

Those of you who have children in Chicagoland are probably by now familiar with the Kiddie Land amusement park in Melrose Park. It's a small amusement park the specializes in rides for children about seven and under - those too small to ride the rides at the big amusement parks like Six Flags. My grandparents took my mother there when she was a little girl and my parents took me there when I was AB's age.

Well today it was time for us to take AB to Kiddie Land. We all had a great time, except for at the end when DW and I both were ready to puke after one round on the Tilt-A-Whirl. AB can go on that solo next time.

He loved the roller coaster and that ride that goes up and down dropping you with negative "G's" (that weightless feeling of your stomach coming up through your throat) like the Tower of Terror at Disney's MGM Studios in Orlando.

But his favorite was the miniature train that goes around the perimeter of the park. I think we rode it at least ten times. The best part of the AB screaming when the train went through the tunnels....