Happy Halloween

Well, another Halloween is in the books in the Kewish home.

The boys went as Captain Hook and Peter Pan and Tori went as Tinkerbell. All Charles wanted to do was stay home and pass out candy and all Joey wanted to do was run to as many houses as possible to "get more candy." After only about 30 minutes of trick-or-treating, Charles was asking to go home and Joey was arguing that they hadn't gotten enough candy yet.

However, when Charles *did* trick-or-treat, he did very well. Last year I was disappointed at the number of suckers they grabbed from bowls full of chocolate, so I told Charles tonight to make sure he looked for peanut M&M's (my favorite). He took me so seriously that when the people would answer the door and grab some candy to put in his bucket, he would hold it back and say, "um, let me pick the candy." Then as he walked down the driveway he would yell, "Dad! I got some more M&M's for you!"

I kept telling the boys "remember, no suckers!" In fact, when one woman tossed a sucker into Charles' bucket before he could stop her, he spun around and urgently yelled to me "Dad!! She put a sucker in my bucket!" I let that one slide, but I did tell the boys that I would probably throw away any suckers they got. Does that make me a bad parent? Maybe. . . but it's worth it.

Here are some pictures:

Our Nation's Capitol

About a month ago, Liz and Tori came with me to Washington DC for the weekend. It's one of our favorite places and, having lived there for two years, we were excited to be back. Tori even got a little 2-on-1 attention that third children rarely get.

We had a great time visiting all of our old spots and introducing Tori to the town. We stayed with the Kewish family down in Woodbridge. It was really fun to see Tori and her cousin Lexie together, since they are only seven days apart in age. They even had a 'cousin baby' sleepover one night when Liz and I stayed downtown.

We hung out, went fishing, celebrated the girls' birthdays and even had an adults only night out, where we had a great dinner at one of DC's top restaurants. We wish we lived closer to them and could watch the girls grow up together.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the trip:

James' nice largemouth bass on Occoquan Reservoir.

I'm not sure who is enabling whom, but it looks like they both know they shouldn't be doing this.

Tori sampling the cake that Natalie made. I must confess, I smeared the frosting on her cheek. . . and she didn't like it.
Liz and Tori in front of the Smithsonian Castle.

Tori on the Mall. This will hang in her office when she is a Senator.
It turns out that the Hirshhorn is good for something after all--a cool photo background (for those of you who don't know, this museum is full of very modern, very disturbing art).

My girls in the Museum of Natural History in the Mammals exhibit (hey, is that Aunt Kristy behind them?).

A quiet corner of the Museum of Natural History.

Tori at the National Zoo.
Cousins on the Potomac, with Memorial Bridge and Rosslyn in the background.

Tori and Dad on the banks of the Potomac.

Pumpkin Patch

Today after work we ran out to Bracken, TX to play around in the pumpkin patch and pick up a few pumpkins.

Here are some pictures:

Super Smoothie

Tonight since the boys ate their dinner so well I told them that I was going to make them a yummy after dinner drink. They were so excited, especially when they saw it involved the blender. When I placed the finished product in front of them they quickly took a huge gulp. I wished I had the camera for their reaction. They both had disgusted looks on their faces, but after I explained to them how it was going to make them strong, they continued to drink it until it was gone. I think they really did like it but were expecting something sweeter at first. As for Joe and I, we are hooked. It is hard to get into the fun of fall baking when it is still 90 degrees outside and you have your air conditioning on. So I thought that this would be the perfect recipe to try. The best thing is, for those that are calorie conscious, it only has 88 calories per serving and gives you 2 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein. Here is the recipe for those who want to try it.

Super Smoothie

1 Cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup milk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Cup ice
whipped cream and cinnamon (optional)

Blend everything but the ice until smooth. Add ice; continue to blend until thick and creamy. Garnish with a dollop of whipped cream and a dash of cinnamon, if desired. Serves 4.

Charles with a Super Smoothie mustache.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat

Last weekend we decided to make the trip up to Austin to check out the bats. For those of you who may not know, Austin happens to have the largest urban bat colony in the world. Renovations of the Congress Street Bridge in the 80's created an ideal habitat for them and their numbers have skyrocketed since then. The colony migrates to South Texas each summer from Mexico and is made up mostly of females that have their pups while they are here. By the end of the summer the colony reaches up to 1.5 million bats and their nightly exit from the bridge is a well-known phenomenon that draws people from all over the world. For more details, click here.

So we pricelined a hotel and took off Friday afternoon for Austin. After a nice dinner at Matt's El Rancho we got to the bridge near sundown to wait for the bats. Tori was a little sick and the boys were restless so it seemed like a long wait, but the bats finally came out just after dark. It really was amazing to see them--a thick column flying quickly out from under the bridge that went on seemingly forever. It was hard to get any good pictures, but I caught a few of them with my flash. Here are some pictures. Click on them to better see the bats (or Tori's snot).

The boys in front of the famous bat statue near the bridge.

A very small part of the colony leaving the bridge.

Here you can see a small column emerging from the side of the bridge and flying out into the night.




After the bats we hit the hotel to crash and prepare for our IKEA shopping in the morning. Tori had fun laying down with the boys in their bed.

Chick Watch Day Four

The chick has completely made it out of the egg, bow tie and all. The best thing about this chick is that we get to throw it away instead of feeding and cleaning up after it.

Chick Watch Day Three

I think that Joey realized that it was not a real chick today after seeing the rubber ducky looking head appear. I had to explain to him that chick eggs really don't need water to hatch but they do need a warm place to grow and develop while they are in the egg, like under their mommies warm feathers or I guess in some cases an incubator like Grandpa Kewish had on his farm.

Chick Watch Day Two With a Bonus

The boys were not let down as they looked at the egg. They were so excited to see that it had cracked open enough to show the yellow chick inside.






Here is a little bonus info. Charles is learning about the 5 senses at school and had to make a list of 5 things that smell good and 5 things that smell bad. This is what he came up with.

Smells Good
1. macaroni and cheese
2. flowers
3. pumpkin
4. apples
5. stuff that just got washed

Smells Bad
1. car gas
2. camels
3. dirt
4. spit
5. skunks

Chick Watch Day One

Joey got an incredible hatching egg as a birthday clown gift for Tori's birthday the other day. For those of you that don't know this Kewish tradition, the birthday clown leaves a little gift for everyone that attends the party. This incredible egg is supposed to hatch over a few days when placed in water. So, I thought I would post the progress. Charles and Joey are very excited to see what happens to the egg and wanted to sit and watch until it hatches. I had to explain to them that it would not happen right away but that they could check it each morning. So, here is a picture of the egg when we first put it in the water.