Happy Halloween!

Here's Superman, Wonder Woman and Super Shelley the Otter as we were getting ready to go Trick or Treating last night. The weather was great and we had a good turnout in the neighborhood. Best costume of the cul-de-sac went to Hannah who went as a Knight Who Says Ni.

Jake gets his hair done

Yesterday, the doorbell rang and three of the neighborhood girls were giggling as they all stood in front of Jake. As they stepped aside, we saw what they'd all been up to for the past hour. We told the girls the little hair clips were ok, but please, no lipstick.

The mini NASCAR circuit

Jake had another fun day riding his Lightning McQueen car around. Today, he perfected the spin-slide-break move on our driveway (see video below). We also set up a few courses and he did really well handling the turns and being careful not to run over the cones. He didn't quite get the slalom course, but I wonder how well Jeff Gordon was driving on his 3rd birthday.



Sadie, by the way, is also fascinated by Lightning McQueen. She hovers patiently waiting until Jake parks it, and then she pounces. I've seen her run to it, and literally dive into the driver's seat. She was happy to just sit there gripping the wheel, until she figured out that she could reach the gas pedal. I'm not sure who was more surprised by that - me or her.

Jake's 3rd Birthday Party

We had a great time yesterday at Jake's birthday party. Thanks to everyone who came out to have fun with us. The slip-n-slide was a big hit, even though the automatic shark jaw contraption didn't work (thanks, Cole, for manually operating that). Some slipped and slid, and others crouched and crawled, but it looked like everyone had fun (even Sadie).


Here's Jake blowing out his three candles on the beautiful cupcakes that Ali put together way past her bedtime last night:


The big present of the day, from Mimi and Grandpa, was this Lightning McQueen racecar, which Sadie is modeling here:

When Jake first saw it, he had a huge grin on his face and kind of walking around it, saying "It's Lightning McQueen!" I asked him if he wanted to get in but he was still wearing his bathing suit and was worried he was too wet. But when he saw Sadie making a bee-line for the driver's seat, he jumped right in and quickly got the hang of it. Of course, all the other kids wanted a turn, and I was proud of Jake for sharing with everyone. His favorite thing to do is to park it in our garage - over and over and over. He also likes to lean out over the side to make sure he doesn't have a flat tire (like in the movie).

Fun times! More pictures here.

Jeanne St. Gang

This is about one-half of the Jeanne Street Gang. Or, "my kids" as Jake refers to them. They look like a tough bunch, but they're really all good kids.

One of Jake's Heroes

This is Danny, Jake's Cul-de-sac hero, livin' large in the hood.
This next picture just cracks me up. After doing a wheely or two, Danny casually pulled up to the curb and laid his bike down so he could go check on the progress of the house across the street. Jake proceeds to ride his trike over to the same spot, but instead of just parking it next to Danny's bike, he heaved it up onto just two wheels so it would "lean" against the curb just like Danny's.

"Where's the house?"

Here's the excavator that was delivered earlier this week to tear down the house across the street from us:
Here's Jake learning about the difference between "small" and "big":
Here's what the excavator did to the house:

Here's what the cul-de-sac looked like at 7:15 am as we watched the house go down:

A new house will go up soon, which will be just as exciting for Jake. In the meantime, the owners - Jamie and Craig - are renting a house in Arlington. They have a three week old baby boy. Simultaneously moving into a temporary house, building a new house, and having their first baby: we wish them well.