Pittsburgh & Halloween

Morry and Evan were in Pittsburgh from Thursday to Monday visiting schools. They had a great time.

I picked them up at the airport yesterday.

Last night, Noah went trick-or-treating with friends.  Evan helped us pass out candy for a little bit and then went trick-or-treating with one of his friends.

We all had a nice night.

Here are a few pictures.

A Different Kind of Halloween

Morry and Evan went on a fishing trip and got back in the afternoon today. 

The kids decided a while ago that they would not dress up or trick or treat for Halloween.

Well, as soon as we started getting the first trick-or-treaters Evan decided to put on his batter's box costume.  

Marilyn stopped by for a little bit and sat in the driveway with us.

Then, Evan and Noah walked over to visit with Grandma and Papa.  On the way home, they picked up some candy from the tables set up outside in people's driveways.

While we were waiting for our pizza delivery from Dominos, the boys decided to do a little bit more trick-or-treating, but only to the driveways.  They did not ring any doorbells. 

We ate our pizza in our driveway while watching trick-or-treaters collect candy off of our table in the driveway.   

We had a bunch of trick-or-treaters and were worried about running out of candy.

When we finished our pizza, Morry, Chewie, Evan, and I walked around while Evan got candy from various driveways and porch bowls. 

Here are some pictures from today.

Halloween 2020

Today Evan had games at 1 and 3.  

I brought Chewie to Evan's first game.  Everyone enjoyed seeing Chewie and he loved all of the attention.

Evan played really well.

Morry picked up food at Chipotle for the kids on his way home.

Josiah came back to the house until his dad could get him.

I picked up Torchy's for Morry and me.

The boys ate as soon as they got home, they got dressed in their costumes and we took them to Reid's house to go trick-or-treating.

Evan was Marty McFly from Back to the Future and Noah was Maverick from Top Gun.

Morry and I took a walk after getting home.  We stopped by to see Mom/Grandma and Dad/Papa, and ate our food once we got back home.

We had a ton of trick-or-treaters from around 6-6:30.  We thought we might run out of candy, but then it slowed down by a lot.  We hardly had anyone come by the rest of the night.

Around 9pm we went to Reid's house to pick up Noah.  We stayed and talked with them for a little bit before we came back home.  Evan is spending the night there.

Evan got 12 pounds of candy and Noah got 9 pounds.

Here are a few pictures from Halloween over the last several years.

Backwards Baseball

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I had a meeting early this morning.  The woman I was meeting with in Boston.  She showed me it was already snowing.  It looked like it was at least 2 inches. 

Fridays are days that Rachel teaches at ATA.  So she left later in the morning to go to school.

We had a handyman come by to patch the wall where the alarm keypad used to be.

Rachel and I went for a walk when she got back from school.

Every year around Halloween, Evan's baseball team has a special Halloween practice.  All the kids wear their costumes and rather than fully practice, they do what they call "Backwards Baseball".  Everyone throws with their opposite hand so of course the glove goes then on their throwing hand.  They have to bat opposite and they have to run around the bases backwards - third, second, first, home.  The kids look forward to this particular practice.  This year, Evan is dressed as Marty McFly.  Rachel and I dropped him off at practice and then went to have dinner at a restaurant where we could sit outside.

The restaurant we chose is called Artemis Mediterranean Restaurant.  We had never been.  It's something we've wanted to try but never had the chance, then the pandemic hit, so this was our first time.  Rachel and I both liked it.  It was nice getting out to eat together without kids.  It's been a long time.

On the way back to the field, we picked up a pizza at Jersey Giant Pizza for Evan and Noah.  Evan ate half of the pizza on the drive back to the house.

Evan and Noah are playing on the Playstation.

Until next time...

Trees Trimmed

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

On Wednesdays, Rachel tutors online early in the morning.  So she is up and ready to tutor by 8am.  In addition to that, on this particular Wednesday, she had to get to school a bit early to help one of her students, so she left immediately after finishing her tutoring.

My morning was busy but I didn't have meetings until the afternoon.

During one of my meetings, the doorbell rang.  Rachel had called a tree service to come trim the trees around the sidewalk.  With Halloween this weekend, we wanted to make sure the sidewalks were clear.  He was able to trim the trees today which was nice.  I thought we'd just get an estimate, but he came prepared.

Rachel got home before the trees were finished so she could approve.  After that, Rachel laid down before more tutoring.

Evan and Rachel left shortly before 6 so Evan could go to bullpens and Rachel could tutor a student near the baseball facility.  Noah and I stayed home and we watched a movie.

For dinner, we had leftover ham.

The boys are upstairs playing on the Playstation.

Until next time...

Halloween 2018

This morning we walked Noah to school.

I was at my school from about 11:30 - 1:30 and then I came home.

I drove with Chewie to pick up Noah from school.

We ate an early dinner (corned beef) around 5:30 and starting trick-or-treating about 6:00.  Noah's friend Grayson joined us.

It was raining for about the first hour, but then it stopped.

We stopped trick-or-treating around 8:45pm.

The kids each got 11.5 pounds of candy!

Now everyone is getting ready for bed.

It was a fun night.

Halloween 2017

Yesterday we did our usual walk to and from school.

I taught and then had a brunch at a friend's house.

We ate a very early dinner at home and started trick-or-treating a little before 6pm.   It had been raining earlier in the day, but luckily, stopped when it was time to go out.  We took Chewie with us and everyone had a good time. 

It started raining as it got later, but the boys wanted to keep going.  Around 8:30 we were about to head home and then it started pouring rain.  We had to run home.  We were a few blocks away from home and got soaked.  Chewie thought that was the best thing ever!

Today, it was back to our normal busy Wednesday schedule. 

Since Noah didn't have dinner with Grandma and Papa last night he went over there tonight.

I tutored.  Evan had baseball practice.

We all got home around 7pm.

We have leftovers for dinner.

Now Evan is watching the World Series and Noah is in bed.

Here are some pictures from Halloween.

Halloween 2016

This morning we walked the boys to school and then went to Camp Gladiator.

Zayde went to both boys' lunches at school.  First, he and Morry went to Noah's lunch.  Then, Zayde came home for a little bit and Grandma picked him up to go to Evan's lunch.

Morry and I walked to pick up the boys from school.

This afternoon we hung out at home.

We had an early dinner of grilled chicken and baked breadcrumb zucchini.

Then, around 6:30pm we started trick-or-treating.  Of course, the boys had a great time.   They got a ton of candy!  Noah's candy bag weighs 5 pounds and Evan's is 8.5 pounds.  Evan did a little more trick-or-treating than Noah.  We were on our way home with Evan and passed by a neighbor's house.  They had just gotten home and wanted to give us some of their candy.  They were trying to get rid of all of it.  They dumped almost the whole basket into Evan's bag!

While we were out, Zayde passed out candy at our house.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Here are some pictures from tonight.

Halloween and the Last Few Days

Thursday, we walked to school and brought Evan's marble machine project.  From there, I walked with Lorena and Morry and Lizzy walked home.

After walking I went to HEB.

We walked to get the boys at school and then went to the Book Fair.

My tutoring got canceled.

Evan and Morry went to baseball practice.

Noah and I walked to the neighborhood farmer's market.

Later, we went to get Zayde at the airport.

Morry and Evan picked up Pho Thai Son for all of us on their way home from practice.

Friday, it rained really hard for most of the day.  We drove the boys and our neighbors Brody and Drew to school.  The 2nd graders' classrooms are in portables and they were not allowed in their portables all day.  They even had a tornado drill. Noah's class got to spend the day in the computer lab.

For lunch, Morry, Jack, and I went to Wholy Bagel.  There was a lot of water on the roads and we had to take a detour at one point to avoid a huge flooded area in the road.

We drove to pick up the kids from school.

For dinner, we went out to dinner with Grandma and Papa and Zayde to Evangeline Cafe.

Today, we took it easy in the morning and made waffles and pancakes for breakfast.

Morry, the boys, and Zayde went to Barnes and Noble while I went for a run.

Later in the afternoon Aaron's family came over and we all went to the block party in our cul-de-sac.  Grandma and Papa, Jack and John, and Mandy's parents joined us as well.  Aaron went to pick up pizza from Via 313.

Morry and I took the kids trick-or-treating with John, Jack, and Audrey.

We got home around 8:30.  It was fun night.

The kids are in bed now.