Our heroes - Ironman and Spiderman!

October was a month of fun for Zach and Alex. As I mentioned in the last post, it started out with a couple of visits to the Scarecrow Festival. The end of the month was packed with a trip to the circus, seeing one of their favorite cartoons, Phineas and Ferb from the Disney Channel, in a live show, and their first Cub Scout activities – their first Den meeting and their first Pack meeting where they got to race their own rockets in the Pack’s Space Derby.

And then there was that little kid-favorite holiday, Halloween. The boys decided to go as superheroes this year; Alex was Spiderman and Zach was Ironman. They had a costume parade at school, went trick-or-treating at the local businesses downtown and later hit a few homes near a friends’ house. We even had a special dinner that night, something we were calling Stuffed Jack ‘O Peppers, which were quite tasty!

The boys show their ferocious faces (?) at the zoo

Check out the Sept-Oct 2011 photo album for pics from these events – there are some really good ones in there! You can also check out a visit to the MN Zoo to see the new penguin exhibit after a recent remodel at the zoo in the Nov-Dec 2011 album.

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Tags: Alex, family outing, Halloween, Scouts, Zach, zoo

OK, so I’ve admittedly been terrible about blogging about all the events going on in our lives. I spend lots of time editing and posting new pictures, as you can sometimes see in the Recent Photos widget, but I never seem to get around to writing about it. Honestly, I think the photos tell a better story anyway (not to mention I’m already writing when I do the captions…).

The Vandermarks, Sept 2010

I’ll try to get better about posting simple updates when a new batch of photos have been loaded (like the remainder of our April trip to AZ that uploaded last night), but in the meantime, here’s just a straight list of the albums that have been updated/created since last Sept:

• Sept-Oct 2010 – the Scarecrow Festival, the circus, Halloween
• Visit with Auntie Mary Ann – who came to visit us in Sept
• Infiniti Crash II: The Deer – the results when a deer runs in front of a car doing 65 mph.
• Nov-Dec 2010 – Christmas decorating, Thanksgiving in Chicago, big snow storms
• Christmas 2010 – yep, pictures of presents and family at Christmas
• Jan-Feb 2011 – Cole’s 16th birthday, fun birthday parties, making cookies and craft projects
• Zach and Alex’s 5th birthday – including their 1st “friends” party
• Mar-Apr 2011 – Karen’s birthday, planting a garden
• Spring Break 2011 – a few days of fun in Chicago
• Arizona – April 2011 – a family get-together

Tags: Alex, Belouseks, birthday, booms, cars, Chicago, Christmas, circus, Cole, family outing, friends, GG, Grandma Marilyn, Grandma Pat, Grandpa Dan, Halloween, holiday, Joe, Karen, museum, Papa Bob, party, playtime, Santa, school, Thanksgiving, Tucson, Vandermark family, Zach

Shaggy and Daphne

This Fall has been a busy one for the Vandermarks, but it’s been a lot of fun – trips to the zoo, a couple of football games, the circus (and not just the one at our house!) and a couple of Halloween parties.

Joe and I had a great time at our friend’s Halloween party.  The theme was 80′s TV characters, so we went as Shaggy and Daphne.  There were some really great costumes there – the Love Boat, Who’s The Boss, Falcon Crest, the Jetsons, Baywatch and more – even Clara from the Where’s the Beef commercials and the Trix bunny.   We made some Jello shots to share, including a special chocolate-covered cherry one that we chronicled in the photo album (Yum!!).

Zach and Alex went as Thing 1 and Thing 2 this year.  It’s the perfect “twin” costume, and well, it really fits them. They were particularly excited about their blue hair and really loved it when people commented about it.  They got to wear it two days in a row, going to Joe’s company Halloween party and visiting Grandma’s office one day and then to the HallZOOween party at the MN Zoo the next.  Cole reprised his costume from years past as a Roman soldier (why change when it’s a great costume, right?).  Check out the Sept – Oct 2009 album for pictures from zoo, plus other Fall fun, like pumpkin carving and more.

Tags: Alex, circus, Cole, friends, Halloween, Joe, Karen, pumpkins, Zach, zoo