Garden, election, Wellfleet

The first weekend in November, Madeline made a card for a friend whose birthday party we attended later that day.  It featured a narwhal, icebergs, and seabirds!

And we put most of our garden plot to bed for the winter ...

... taking away a fair haul at the same time.

We had fried green tomatoes and biscuits with tomato gravy for dinner.  Yum.

That Tuesday morning ...

... we took the kiddos to vote.

Then we were thankful to have Friday off; we drove out to Cape Cod to clear our heads at the Wellfleet Audubon Sanctuary.  Here, the kiddos are checking out old whale bones:

We also went for a nice hike around the property ...

... and Madeline carried out her plan of "rescuing animals" by picking up litter that could have harmed sea creatures.

The sanctuary is a lovely place ...

... and a happy one too.

After Wellfleet, we finally drove all the way out to Provincetown and the Cape Cod National Seashore, which looks like it will merit its own trip.

Halloween & Hike

Then it was Halloween!

Madeline dressed as a kittycorn -- half kitty, half unicorn -- in case you couldn't tell.

The kiddos enjoyed trick-or-treating ...

... and traipsing through the neighborhood even on the streets where the windows were dark.

After a good run around the neighborhood, we made it home ...

... and the kiddos got to begin sampling their hauls.

We kicked off the first weekend in November with another Audubon hike, this time at Fisherville Brook.

We took a side path to the brook ...

... and Madeline was excited to identify a beaver dam!

For his part, Oliver appreciated this fuzzy moss (or lichen?).

The day was gorgeous.

And the kiddos had fun, even after Oliver tripped over a root and bashed his face on the ground.

At one point Madeline asked to take a picture of us!

Toward the end of the hike, I turned over some old logs and we found salamanders.

The kiddos -- Madeline, especially -- liked letting them slither around on their hands and slip through their fingers.

Ah, fall in New England.

Late October (Lots of Parties)

Later in October, we paid our first visit to Frenchtown Park.

The kiddos enjoyed a Halloween-themed box from Grandma Mandy.

The next weekend, while Oliver napped, I tried to teach Madeline chess.  She thought so hard about every move that she was exhausted and ready to move on to another activity about 45 minutes into our first game.

On Sunday we visited Carpenter's Farm.  First we attempted the corn maze ...

... and had fun ...

... but also had to bust out after getting genuinely lost.  Then we took a hay ride to the farm's waterfront pumpkin patch and picked out our pumpkins.

During their free time, as they often do, the kiddos followed artistic pursuits.

Then came the Saturday of Four Parties.  First: Benji's birthday party at Adams Farm in Cumberland.

Second: Vijay's birthday party.

Third: a Halloween party thrown by the family of Oliver's friend Soren.

Fourth: a pumpkin-carving party at the home of Oliver's friend Maya and family.

This was perhaps the only day of my entire life that was devoted to parties from breakfast to bedtime.

The next day was devoted to low-key fun like doing a trial run of the makeup portion of Madeline's Halloween costume ...

... and reading.