For a little post-Thanksgiving excitement, the girls traveled up to the land of SUVs and grocery stores that don’t smell as though cats roam freely through them at night, to visit their Uncle Mike, Aunt Emily and Cousins Ted and Bette - at Chez Unkich in Westchester.
There’s something about a nice produce section and a bakery that offers items untouched by 1,000 different hands that just didn’t seem quite right to the girls. Fortunately, Uncle Mike and Cousin Ted were more than willing to act as food tasters for Grace and Lucy:
Cousin Bette, in her una-baby chic look, decided to stay away from whatever was purchased at the bakery:
The rest of the day was spent doing the usual family things: determining if Ted and Uncle Mike have the same foot smell; playing peek-a-boo longer than anyone could ever think is reasonable; and of course vaccuuming (perhaps the highlight of the afternoon for the kids).
We have no idea what photos we’re going to get as a result of picture day (hopefully more than a few will be ones we can use to embarrass the girls someday), but here’s a shot of them in their special outfits, prior to whatever chaos ensued in front of the photographer:
Considering Halloween used to be the favorite holiday of both of Grace and Lucy’s parents, it may be a little surprising that it took this long to do our Halloween posting - or maybe it’s not so surprising. After all, a quick walk to see the Village Halloween parade easily leads one to think that everyone must’ve dressed up as NYPD this year - oh, wait, they were actual police officers. Or maybe neither Jim nor Lara were convincing enough in a Barack Obama costume (a popular one this year) - or maybe Grace and Lucy’s Dad is just upset that his make-shift spiderman costume created fin 1998 from different swatches of sweatpant material fits a bit more like spandex these days.
But at least Grace and Lucy looked good - Grace was a Bee; and poor Lucy couldn’t get away from hand-me-downs even for Halloween and went as…a duck.
Earlier in the day, Grace had a chance to get in character at school. Grace quickly determined that the “worms” were really just spaghetti and proceeded to eat some of it.
Grace likes face painting (and apartment wall painting, and coffee table painting, and hardwood floor painting, and table painting…)
Having developed an intense interest in pumpkins, Grace asked, quite frequently, to be photographed next to them:
And since Grace and Lucy’s Dad gains all his weight in his head, here’s Grace posing with her Dad’s pumpkin-like head:
Sure we could spend $100 + on the pedal-less Skuut bike (which becomes worthless once you actually learn how to ride) or get the girls hooked on a specific brand so that they develop that all important consumer instinct that our economy seems to depend on OR, as we learned, we could just let them play with a cardboard box or push them around in a chair and have 10 times more fun:
Lucy loves cardboard boxes, hates Melanin:
As long as the “chair” isn’t “Mom’s lap” they seem to be able to enjoy themselves:
Lucy was in such a great mood after playing with such primitive toys that she actually held a pose for the 5 minutes required for her dad to find, then turn-on, then focus, and then re-focus the camera:
Not to be outdone, Grace agreed to give us what she calls her “poopface” (or is that Blue Steel? Magnum?):
Can’t do a Web posting without including at least one of the parents. Here’s Luce and Lara:
