October 13, 2008:  Now that I have a school aged child (Kindergarten), I can honestly say I have relished this day.  It is rare that the stars align perfectly where work is under control and only needed slight monitoring, which allowed me to spend a great day with my son. 

We began the day in New York City.  After our drive home, we relaxed a few minutes preparing breakfast and started on our day.  As the President of the Harbor Lawn Estates Association and my son, the mayor of the Children’s Association, it was time to pass out the flyer’s for our annual Halloween party.  This year, the same as last, it is at our house.  Pizza, pinatas, chips, costumes followed by trick-or-treating – Halloween Evening.  Nothing is better than that!  Gabriel’s excitement was stronger than I thought it would be “yay I love Halloween,” followed by a kiss on my hip (which is the height of his lips as he leans in). 

At the first house he managed to pick up his friend Katie who joined us throughout the neighborhood delivering flyer’s.  The brother/sister act started immediately as the competition to see who gets what house to deliver the flyer’s began.  Toward the end, Gabriel simply wanted to be in charge by folding the flyers and telling Katie where to go.  This was rather typical of him. 

We did make it home, with Katie in tow, and that’s when the day really began.  We attempted to make homemade caramel apples.  Though it was from a powder mix, my candy making technique lacks significantly and I’m afraid is was way too liquidy to have any carmelized affect.  The kids enjoyed the process nonetheless and ultimately liked the thin layer of sweetness the barely covered the apples.

Since the caramel apple episode, as fun as it was, turned out to be less than expected, we moved on to Pumpkins.  Pumpkin carving two large (though not the extra large) pumpkins picked this past weekend at Lyman Orchards.  Gabriel simply wanted a smiley face while Katie decided to go for the elaborate design from the pumpkin carving booklet that came with the tools.  Of course the cleaning of the pumpkins was tremendous fun – for Katie and I.  We both agreed that the feel of the pumpkin insides, while squeezing the seeds free, was great.  Katie likened squeezing out the seeds from the pumpkin insides, to milking a cow – personally I have never had that experience but it was poetic nonetheless.  When she described the feeling, Gabriel was slightly intrigued to at least try cleaning out the insides with his hands.  But quickly decided it was too gross for him and the fact he doesn’t like to get dirty like that didn’t help matters.

I had Gabriel design the face.  It was adorable!  Two round eyes, a triangle nose and a curved line for the mouth.  It was about 1/5th the size it needed to be, hovering on the lower part of the pumpkin as cute as Gabriel himself.  Unfortunately, as we all know, jack-o-laterns need to have large features.  So I gently asked for permission to copy his face, but larger. I did take some creative liberties and gave ‘Jack’ eyeballs, eye brows, 3 teeth and dimples.  While carving the pumpkin, Gabriel enjoyed his television shows and the pumpkin came out great.  By the time I was done, Katie was still tracing her design.  I checked on her progress and completed the rest for her. 

Unfortunately the design for Katie’s pumpkin was a bit too complicated for the 7 year old attempting to carve it out (and the 36+ yr old who thought she could save the day!).  So the pumpkin didn’t come out so well.  But alas, we got distracted.  Katie’s brothers knocked on the door and told us they were going to the dock/beach down the street.  Katie soon thereafter asked to join them.

Gabriel wanted to join Katie so we all went to the docks.  By the time we got there, Katie was swimming in the water, her brother Mark was too and two of the boys were in kayaks splashing about.   Gabriel was fascinated by this, since we don’t let him swim in the harbor since we feel the water is dirty.  After about 15 minutes, Katie decided she had enough and went home with her mom for a bath.  But Gabe and I stayed.

After helping the others put the Kayaks away, Gabriel decided he wanted to play hide-and-seek.  So he began to count; ’1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 ready or not here I come!’  The first few times he was patient and found me.  Then Katie came back and joined in the game.  We all took turns seeking and each time I changed my hiding spot while Katie was counting Gabriel would look at me and say ‘that’s a good one Mom!’

Then bored with hide-and-seek, Gabriel suggested freeze tag.  We all ran around and when we forgot to add a ‘home base’ Gabriel insisted we not play that way.  He just enjoyed running around chasing every one.  But soon enough he got thirsty and offered to take everyone home for a drink.

On the way, we took a slight detour.  The small hump on our neighbors lawn called to Katie to do a cart wheel.  And while she was flipping, Gabriel got the call to go ‘rolling down the hill.’  So the two rolled and played until Katie decided to run amok on the entire lawn, which I immediately had to put a stop to.  The confinement on the small hump on the lawn now seemed stifling – and oh, they were thirsty.

Back at the house, drinks served to all, Gabriel quickly went his way and Katie hers.  Gabriel to watch TV and Katie back to her pumpkin.  I have to give her credit for even attempting it again.  But, alas, it could not be saved – it actually got worse!  Feeling her disappointment she asked me what we could play.   I asked if she wanted to play a game with Gabriel and then she said, no you.   So I recruited Gabriel to join us to a game of Curious George.  Katie ultimately won the game.

Then the kids decided to play outside.  First in the yard on our cruddy old swing set (which I was happily surprised to see that Gabriel observed how to pump when on a swing).  Then they decided to go on scooters.  So they scootered around, with their helmuts, down the hill into piles of leaves.  This lasted a while including rakes to add leaves to the piles and reposition them for more effective playing.  So, while rolling around in the leaves, I decided to lay on the neighbors lawn.  Then they came home.

‘Hi, we’re just relaxing and playing,’ I say.  She responds, laughing ‘my dogs use that pile of leaves to pee.’  So Gabriel immediately got discouraged to play in the pile and we came in for our bath. 

Now the ruined Jack-O-Latern that Katie attempted to carve has been effectively chopped to bits and is now boiling.  Perhaps tomorrow will be pumpkin pies, candied apples and park play?  Unfortuantely that’s going to have to be a another time, since tomorrow is back to school day.

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