Late October Happenings

Welcome to the second half of October! Have you ever seen a turkey in a tree?  Well I did!

I didn't think they could fly this high!  But look up in that tree in the center of the picture!

Tom Brady also had his 600th career pass touchdown in the second half of October! Can't beat that!  (Literally!)

Our realtor Craig, who lives here in Ashland has a big Halloween display in his front yard and it was EPIC.  

Grant was ready to head into the Morrison house Halloween maze!

It was delightfully creepy!

Feed me Seymour!

Grant had better watch out - he's about to get taken out by the Grim Reaper!

Nothing delights Todd more than creepy baby dolls.

I liked this jumbo sized skeleton that stood watch over the prisoner AND the guy sitting in the electric chair.  The best part was that there was a button you could click and actually electrocute the poor guy.

Clowns are a SOLID NO for me.

The best part of visiting Craig's haunted front yard was that when we went through the corn maze, we saw a shadowy figure lurking behind the corn.  Lo and behold! It was Craig, dressed up like the Grim Reaper!  After he scared the crap out of me, he chatted with us for a bit before going off to scare some more people.  Then he came back and tried to stalk our car!

The last two days of October are always an adventure in our house, especially when they fall on a Saturday and Sunday.  The last Saturday of the month was Grant's 12th birthday and he wanted to go to Urban Air and jump on all the trampolines with the crew.  Here we have AB, Kelsie, Grant, Aidan and Natalie trying out the obstacle course.  Total last minute decision to go here.

Who's that handsome guy up there near the parent's lounge? (No. He did not slide down the corkscrew slide!)

Grant enjoyed jumping into this big pillow. AB had been doing flips into it!

Grant and Aidan did some free style jumping.

AB took everyone on in the fighting foam pit - only Natalie was able to knock him over!

He leveled Grant!

Natalie seems to have passed out from having too much fun while Kelsie looks on, and AB is still standing after beating Grant who fell into the foam pit!

Each kid took a turn flying around the facility - first up, the birthday boy!

Natalie had a turn, too!

Kelsie was our best acrobat - she really knows how to kip!

The crew hanging out at Urban Air for Grant's birthday.

Grant is getting some height here!

The kids had to take a slushie and snack break after all of that fun.

Of course, we also had cake and ice cream!  Every year, Grant asks for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, partially because his sister doesn't like chocolate anything.

Grantie got cards and money from friends and family!

Kelsie gave him Robux and he wanted very badly to make this face when I took this picture.

Hey guys, I got Microsoft Flight Simulator Deluxe Edition!

And a joystick to go with it!

WHAT a goofball! (You know he makes these faces on purpose, right?)

But the big gift was a new super powered telescope!

On Halloween, we spent most of the day cleaning up the yard.  Let me just enjoy this for a hot minute until the rest of the leaves fall down.

Alas, it was time to get ready and go over to the Tally house for pizza before going trick or treating!

The Tally kids are the cutest!  (No, Bob the Minion isn't a part of the family.)

Brendan was left to clean up the pizza, which the kids destroyed.

Happy Halloween from all of the neighborhood kids! (And Erin too, photobombing in the doorway!)  The costumes were amazing this year!

Of course, this was totally random and NO WHERE ELSE except Metrowest, and ONLY during the most important hour of the day (6-7 pm).  The kids got soaked, but didn't care and kept on trick or treating.

Of course, we had grand plans to set up the screen and play the second half of the Pats game, but the rain had other ideas.  Once the rain moved through, the game was over, so we played Halloween songs and videos (such as "It's Halloween" by Yo Gabba Gabba, a major Bailey throwback.)

And we're on to November!

Early October Happenings

 I feel like we are kind of, sort of getting back to a bit of normalcy lately.  We are going out and doing a few more things than we did even over the summer.

But first, the month of October started out with a big rivalry game between the Patriots and the Bucs, with Brady returning to Foxboro for the first time since he left the Pats! (Spoiler alert: Brady won, although it was close!)

Grant had also gone (in late September) with the Tally family to Honey Pot orchards and got me a bag of apples, which I then had Todd slice up to make my very first every homemade apple pie.

But I can't have just ANY apple pie... no sir, it must be a caramel apple pie!  There's lots of gooey goodness in there!  And my kids really liked it!

The first week of October was a bit of a let down since we made several attempts to get BTS tickets with Ayala and Ellis, and it just didn't happen.  You can see the stress level was really high here.  We were frustrated because we all HAD tickets to the Map of the Soul 7 tour - and we had GOOD tickets.  When BTS finally cancelled the tour, they said that those who had tickets to the MOTS tour would get first dibs on tickets to four shows they are doing in Los Angeles.  But nope.  We did not get tickets.

We did, however, get to experience the Boston Marathon in the month of October, which was a little weird but fun nonetheless.  They had it on Indigenous Peoples Day rather than on Patriots Day this year, so at least we had the day off! You can see the route in Ashland wasn't too crowded.  We parked at the high school and walked here (in front of the new soon-to-be Public Safety building).

The wheelchair racers always fascinate me.  And they can race in a variety of ways, which is even more impressive.

So... this guy passed by us and he was the first guy running all by himself.  We weren't sure why because we had never seen that before.  His name is CJ Albertson, and he led for most of the race. He is exceptionally good at running downhill races, which despite this picture, the Boston marathon is mostly downhill. He lost his lead on Heartbreak Hill, but he wound up coming in 10th.  His first mile in the marathon was a 4:30.  A 4:30!!!!!!!!

A few minutes later, the rest of the men's pack showed up.

And of course, the women!!!

And then our favorite part of the marathon - the general public! We sat near the water station and had fun yelling at all of the runners. My favorite part was when I yelled, "Keep it up!  Keep it up!" and some guy yelled back at me, "That's what she said!" 

We were very near to the water station so we had a lot of cups on the ground near where we were sitting.  Plus, this guy ran past us, so that was a real treat.

And of course, in early October they raised the banner down in Tampa!  Go Bolts!

Natalie was also finally able to star in the Prana production of Annie!  Unfortunately, she got a cold a week before the show and she struggled with some of the songs because she was so congested. 

But she was still amazing, and did such a good job!

The cast was huge and the stage was small, but they managed.  There was even a write up in the Holliston Reporter that said, " Natalie Bailey as Annie exudes innocence and charm. Even though she is spunky and not above self-promotion, Natalie convincingly shows us that Annie is truly a child in need of the love of parents and still living in the hope she will find hers."

If Annie had a brother, I'm sure she would not want to choke him like this though.

I went to the dress rehearsal on Thursday evening, and then we all went to the Friday night show.  Here, Annie is writing a letter back to the orphans at the orphanage.

Her Irish heritage makes her look like a natural red head!

I also went to both Saturday shows, in which Grammi, Bean and KK were able to join us for the first performance of the day.  Here she is taking her bow between Miss Hannigan and Mr. Warbucks.

Grammi's mother was a vaudevillian, so Natalie certainly gets her talents from the Sears side of the family!

Natalie with Todd and Bean, showing off some lovely flowers for the star of the show.

KK is no stranger to the stage as Madison (a real redhead) was involved in theater for years.

Grammi, Bean and Natalie after the 1 pm performance of Annie.

After the show, the rest of the family went back to our house for snacks and drinks. I stuck around for the 2:30 showing in which our neighbors Jen and Kelsie, and our other neighbors Erin, AB and Ava came to watch the show!  After that show, we went home for some pizza and things started getting a little crazy.

The Bailey's are proudly displaying Grant's eastern European hat collection.

Natalie won the "Super Trooper" Paper Plate award for plowing through her cold - the show must go on!

Meanwhile, Grant also had another cross country meet at Hopkinton.  Todd caught this cute picture of him in the warm up. 

The meet started and ended on a track, but it was largely run back in the woods behind the field.

This goofball!  He finished the race pretending he was flying. 

We also went to the Ashland High Homecoming football game!  

It's mid October and definitely hoodie weather, but my kid is hanging with her friends in a crop top.

In the end, Ashland beat Norwood 29-20!  Go Clockers!

Our neighborhood also had a fall festival!  We actually have two neighborhoods that are all a part of the Great Bend Farm Trust, so the block party was held in the open space area between the two neighborhoods.  To get all the way back to our house, we commuted on Grant's bike.

Natalie had gone to her friend Liia's house to get ready for the Homecoming dance, so Grant went with us and did some painting with Kelsie and Aidan.

When Ava finally arrived, she tackled her brother AB who was doing a three legged race with Aidan and Grant.

Meanwhile, these pretty ladies were getting ready for Homecoming!  How is my daughter already old enough to go to Homecoming?????

Good grief. Such pretty girls!

Good thing her Pop Pop isn't around to see this!!!!!!

Next up... the second half of October!