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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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

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.

Our Handy Mannys

Cole the Roman Soldier

This year for Halloween, Zach and Alex dressed up as their favorite character, Handy Manny, complete with their own tools. They were so excited! To celebrate, we went down to Joe’s office to join their Halloween party and then stopped by Grandma Pat’s office to say hello before we picked up Cole on our way home.  After dinner, we went to visit Dar and Gary, Debbie’s parents and two people that Z & A love to visit, for some Halloween treats.  Then Joe and Cole, who wore his Roman soldier costume from a couple years ago, took them out trick-or-treating for the first time; they didn’t go to a lot of houses, but they had a lot of fun!

Check out all the great pics from when Z & A got their new toolboxes and from Halloween itself starting on page 4 of the Sept-Oct 2008 album.

In addition to those pictures, a ton of others from the past few months have been added, pictures that Debbie took with her own camera.  In the July-Aug 2008 album, you’ll find a few trips that Debbie, Cole, Zach and Alex took to the pool, a trip they took to the Children’s Museum, and a visit to a fire station with one of Debbie’s sisters and nephews, as well as some just general playing-around pics.  In the Sept-Oct 2008 album, there are a couple trips to some parks, including a set that Debbie took as a photo shoot to make special Autumn/Halloween present for the boys’ grandparents.  Those pictures are just adorable (OK, so I’m a little biased on the subject matter).

Some new pics in the Sept-Oct 2007 album include another example of the mess the boys made when they should have been napping, a special breakfast made by Debbie and Cole, and dressing up as Pooh (Zach) and Eeyore (Alex, of course!) for Halloween.

Their 9-month checkup went well. Alex is 19 lb 4.8 oz and 28 in long. Zach is 17 lb 14.6 oz and 27.5 in long, although the length measurement isn’t real exact.

The boys looked awfully cute in their Halloween costumes, little sweatsuits that Grandma Pat bought for them. Zach was a cow, complete with ears on his hood and a tail on his butt, and Alex was a smiling pumpkin with a stem on his head. Joe, with Debbie’s help, brought them to his office and to Karen’s office. They, of course, charmed everyone they met.

Lots of new pictures have been added to both the Sept-Oct album and the new Nov-Dec album. Also, Cole’s baseball portraits finally got scanned and added to the May-June album (better late then never, right?).