A good time was had by all

My birthday is on Halloween. My baby brother, Brendan, was born 10 years and one day after me, on November 1. Our family decided to throw us a joint birthday-halloween-costume party last night. It was a blast!

Of course there was a ton of food.

Some of us ate more than others.

There was witches brew and vampire blood.

And, of course, two kinds of chocolate cake!

But the best, of course, were all of our friends.

This is Brendan's girlfriend's family.









We had convicts (who happen to coach my daughter's softball team),









flappers and beer wenches,











princesses, gypsies, teenie boppers, women priests, and men in mullets,









and don't forget Pooh and Little Red Riding Hood.








There were devils and angels,











and the "headless" horseman,









and in the middle there in black is Sarah Palin after the election (she's incognito:).








Here's the Head Witch,









and this is the only known photo of my dad dressed as a priest (he's in the far right corner of the picture.)









For those of you who haven't seen Brendan in a while, he's put on a little weight.












And, as promised, Xenophilius Lovegood broke out the egg-yolk yellow robes for the occasion, seen here with some of the Hogwarts crowd.












And just for fun, the party from the view of a six year old (before he went up to watch Indiana Jones):

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this fantastic party happen, especially my husband, who had the idea, my mom and sister, who were the creative directors, decorators, cooks, and cleanup crew, and my dad and brother-in-law, who did, well, whatever Mom and Ann told them to do. It really was a fun night.

Trick or Treat!

We all dressed up to go trick or treating last night. You don't realize how hilly our neighborhood is until you walk around to every house!

We had a family theme based on Harry Potter. If you haven't read all the books, you might not recognize all of us.



Nicholas is, of course, Harry Potter. Don't you love his Quidditch robes?!?

    Coming in for a landing on his broomstick.

Megan is Luna Lovegood. She shows up in the 5th movie, and is a pretty significant character in the later books.

Notice the radish earrings and the butterbeer cork necklace.










Luna with a one of our dogs, Kisses, dressed as a thestral. David says she is an American thestral, which is significantly smaller than her cousins, the European thestrals, featured in the 5th movie, Order of the Pheonix.














I am Professor Trelawney. I think Megan said she first appeared in the 3rd book and movie, Prisoner of Azkaban.

David will only be recognized by dyed-in-the-wool Potter fans. (A hint is that he is wearing black robes because his golden yellow ones didn't come in the mail until today. Good thing we still have a costume party to go to.) He is Xenophilius Lovegood (Luna's father), who is a very minor character in the last book. I'll post another picture of him in his yellow robes tomorrow.

Our other dogs' costumes will be featured in a followup post, along with some quite amusing photos of some of the guests at the costume party my family threw for my 40th and my brother, Brendan's 30th, birthdays.

Stay tuned! But meanwhile, a little challenge below:

Guess which pumpkin belongs to which person:

Three dog night.

End of our vacation

On Saturday morning we left Chicago and headed south to Batesville, IN to visit our old friend Kelly and her family. We don't get to see them often enough, but it is always fun when we get together.

Here are Kelly and Andy.










And here are Kelly and Andy the way Andy would like you to see them!

After sizing each other up for a few minutes, Megan and Nicholas and Kelly's 3 daughters had a great time playing together. When it was bedtime, they all bedded down on the floor in the basement.

We spent the evening catching up with Kelly and her husband, Andy. It's nice to find out what they've been doing since we visited with them last. After a delicious lasagna dinner, the kids presented me with a yummy black-and-orange (for Halloween) birthday cake. It made me feel really special.









We also met Balto, their sweet dog (she's a girl, by the way.)

And, of course, the eight point buck, just back from his appointment with the taxidermist.



Notice how he watches over the kids as they play!








And what is that on Andy's head?

Last day in Chicago!

Today we went to the Adler Planetarium, which was interesting but not nearly as good as the Field Museum. There were still lots of hands on things to do (read: buttons to push!) for Nicholas, but I think Megan was museumed out.






The Night Sky presentation was very good and the building itself is beautiful.













We also got to see the Gemini capsule which was cool,









and both kids liked the remote moon rover.












After the Planetarium, we walked around Millennium Park. The Cloud Gate was the best part. We also saw the Crown Fountain and walked across the BP bridge.











We kept walking until we came to the Chicago River. They say they dye it green for St. Patrick's Day, but it looks pretty green to me already!

Finally, we made our way up to Wrigley Field. The neighborhood around the stadium was pretty, with row houses and a lot of trees.











Our last dinner in Chicago was at Weber Grill. The cook everything on weber grills and I guess they keep the extras over the doorway.











Tomorrow we head to Batesville, IN to visit our old friend Kelly and her family!