Halloween 2016 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Our first Halloween in the United States was epic. We made jack-o-lanterns together. Bean wanted a happy one; PJ wanted a scary one. Papa delivered on both.

Bean & PJ decided that we would go trick-or-treating as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We were all assigned a personality:

PJ was the blue turtle, Leo, who is the sensitive leader of the pack who appears to deal with (and create) a lot of nonsense. That fits. 

Bean was the red turtle, Raph, who is shown as strong, a bit rough-and-tumble, and doesn't hesitate to enter into battles. That fits too (don't let the blonde hair and cute smile fool you). 

The Mr. was the purple turtle, Donnie, who is suppose to be the book-smart one that likes science and research. That doesn't quite fit. 

I was the orange turtle, Mikey, who is a free-spirited jokester. Worst casting ever. 

We joined up with some new friends (awesome family!) and went trick-or-treating. The two boys adored it, confidently running from house to house, yelling out "trick or treat!". Bean enjoyed the candy and was most interested in the decorations. She tended to move slower.

At one point we were on a wonderfully wickedly decorated porch when suddenly a life-size witch took a step in my direction. I got spooked and screamed like a teenager in a horror movie; Bean waved and called out "Hi Witch!"

The next group of parents walking with their own trick-or-treaters laughed so hard, one guy had to bend over to catch his breath.

So, I guess the casting wasn't THAT bad...

XO

Trapped in NYC

This year I traveled to NYC for work. While there some exciting events took place. For example, I got to see the Knicks live from Masison Square Gardens. They won.

My personal highlight was the private bathroom and unlimited bottles of room temperature water. That was darn fabulous.

See, I was there! My second highlight was taking an absurd number of selfies of me at Madison Square Gardens and sending them to my sports-crazy brother. That was far too enjoyable for me.

 

Secondly, I got stuck in the snowstorm of the century. Thankfully a dear colleague had great pity on me and put me up with her lovely husband and adore daughter for the weekend. Boy did it snow!

 

 

I was still super sad that I had to wait another day to see my kiddos.

When I found out that I could finally fly out, I was amazed to see that the snowdrifts were almost as high as the moving containers!
 

I ended up spending almost 10 hours in the airport. At first, I was one of the few people there because my flight was one of the first scheduled to take off. I ate like a Mexican queen.
 

Then my flight got delayed by two hours. Then 45 minutes. Then another 45 minutes. Then I got a Guiness.
 

And started to make friends with other stranded travelers. Then - as food ran really low - I got some Reese's peanut butter cups.

The people I ended up spending a number of hours with, and laughing hard with along the way, were from Blackpool England. A father-son couple traveling that also got to enjoy the snow storm were excellent guys with some outrageous stories. 

We bonded. 

  Like, really. 

Then I finally made it home to my dearest dearest dearest babies. 

And, of course, my Mr. 

Colorado here we come (in another two months)! 

XO