Tortoise

Sam, Pete, and cousin Shayna had fun playing with a very old and large tortoise at Pumpkinville.  Unfortunately, soon after these pictures were taken, the tortoise stepped on Pete's foot.

Here are this years pictures of Pete and Sam:

And here are pictures of Pete and Sam Dad painted on his mini-pumpkin from the Fall Festival:

Halloween 2008

Pictured above are Pete, Christopher, and Sam before they headed out for trick-or-treating.  Pete and Christopher are Dementors.

And below is the street Halloween "party" getting set up.  This seems to expand every year.  This year we had a fire, tables, and chairs.  The kids coming down the street just come to the middle and grab candy out of the bowls. 

After returning home, everyone headed into the neighbors' garage for some candy-swapping.

Sam's Soccer Trophy and Medal

Sam likes his trophy and medal that he got for playing soccer.  The trophy has a little soccer ball that spins around.  Although at times Sam did not want to play major portions of his games, he did have a better showing in the last game.  He played almost all of the last game ("tournament" game), even though it was pretty cold and they had a limited number of subs who showed up for the late afternoon game.  The picture was taken at Pete's basketball practice.  It was a long day, with a total of 4 soccer tournament games and then a basketball practice.

Husky Club

The Husky Club is the list of kids in Pete's school who are able to do 6 or more pull-ups.  The names are posted  on the wall in the gym.  Last year Pete did 5 pull-ups, and he had to wait a year for another chance.  This year he made it into the Husky Club.

Family Visit

Pete and Sam had an exciting weekend before Halloween, when Grandma and Grandpa came to visit, as well as Aunt Robin and cousins Shayna and Skyler.

Above is a picture from Pumpkinville on Sunday.  The weather was great, after a rainy day on Saturday.

If you like to play Where's Waldo, you can also look for Mom in the picture.

Halloween Woods

Pete and Sam went this year to the new Halloween Woods attraction at Algonkian Park in Sterling.  They were joined by Mom, Dad, Aunt Robin, Shayna, and Skyler.  The event features a walk through the woods at night, with various scary things along the way.  Scary things include guys jumping out with chain saws, guys jumping out with bloody appendages, guys jumping out wearing Redskins apparel, howling noises, etc.

We quickly discovered that Sam was not particularly enthralled with this concept.  Also, Pete and Shayna  were not much happier about it.  Skyler, on the other hand, was completely unaffected.  Before the group even made it completely through the entrance, Sam was not coping well.  Sam notified Dad that he would have to carry Sam through the entire trail.

Prior to the walk, the guide told the children that if they got too scared at any point, they could call out the code word ("Snoopy") and the scary creatures would back away.  Not long into the hike, they were constantly calling out "Snoopy" as they walked down the path.  Overall, this worked about 1/2 the time.  One glaring example of when this did NOT work was when a guy with an axe jumped out, the group yelled "SNOOPY", and the guy whispered "Snoopy's dead, I killed him."

Fortunately, a samaritan warned us not to take Sam into the tunnel at the end of the hike.  Shayna joined Sam on the detour.  This was a good decision, as the narrow tunnel ended with some chain saws and screaming.

Overall, it was a fun event but Pete and Sam will probably NOT be going back next year.

Village Fest 2008

Everyone had a good time this year at Village Fest.  This is the local festival held in September at the Ashburn Pavillion.

We decided that Sam was tall enough to ride the Paratrooper with Pete.  This was fun for Sam, not as much fun for Mom and Dad to watch as he slid around.  The most fun was at the end when it started raining harder and harder, until they finally had to close down the few rides that remained open.  But not before everyone did the swings together one last time.

Other rides included the carousel, rock wall, ferris wheel, Madhouse, elephants, and something that spun Pete around upside down.

Pete went back again the next day with Coby.