Birthdays

 We celebrated Penny and Paul's birthdays together, as scheduled on November 3. The guest list had changed a bit - we advised Dad not to drive out because of the gas rationing and various logistical challenges of heading into the mess that was New Jersey at the time. Our block was pretty ok, but there were still impassible streets in places, no power to stoplights (which snared traffic), other things we just couldn't predict. Everyone who came (except Dan's brother from New Jersey) had their power restored by party time. Our original caterer, a local pizzeria, was still closed because they didn't have power, so we had to go with a different place. The ice cream cake we purchased showed some evidence of melting and refreezing, though the store swore they'd only been without power for a couple of hours. I had tried the big grocery store nearby for a salad, but they were running on generator power, so their produce section was darkened and blockaded, which just reeked "Eat at your own risk." Thankfully, our teeny grocery was powered and doing brisk business in perishables, so we were able to get fresh greens and dairy there. The guy who delivers the grocery circulars in the neighborhood had even been by immediately after the storm, so we were able to plan our shopping and take advantage of sales where possible to restock the fridge and freezer for the party. It was weird what came back online first after the storm!

So we enjoyed some good company - Penny had been looking forward to her cousins coming to visit for WEEKS! Penny had the pink cake with pink icing, a butterfly, flower and ladybug, as requested. The request was odd because she doesn't eat cake, only icing. She far prefers ice cream. So...she consumed a fair amount of Paul's ice cream cake, while leaving close to half of her cake to me to finish. Rather than unleash the Paul eating machine on a giant cake or plate of ice cream, I made him a corn muffin and decorated it like a lion. He really enjoys roaring at a lion statue that we pass on the way to Penny's school, so it seemed an appropriate cake theme. I even made two so he could enjoy another one on his actual birthday (depicted here). Unlike Penny, he made sure some of his cupcake ended up in his mouth. I think he got a fair amount of icing into him and he seemed to relish corn muffin as well. Ultimately, though, the majority of the muffin found its way to the floor. Alas, perhaps just what happens at one year old. Where does the time go?!

Halloween

I know it's a little late, but Halloween was lots of fun. We had carved our pumpkin the week before Halloween so we'd have some nice outdoor decoration. Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, it had completely collapsed by the time Sandy hit. Our littler and much more pretty looking carved pumpkin blew/rolled away after I stowed it in the backyard. I'm not sure how it scaled the six foot fence, but it had escaped by Monday evening before the winds really kicked in. So by Halloween itself we only had a scary beer-scented pile of mush on the porch. Dan removed the pumpkin with a shovel before the kids' birthday party and it is currently developing into quality compost for next year's garden.

Mayor Bloomberg had encouraged people to hold Beggar's Night on Halloween, though lots of neighborhoods were still a shambles. The kids and I did a little preview walk of our neighborhood in the early afternoon to scope out a relatively safe route. Everyone had cleared their smallish branches and someone appeared to have gone through the neighborhood tying downed wires to the nearest respective telephone pole. We found a good route of about four to six blocks round trip with no obvious hazards and lots of people with power. By 4pm or so Paul and I started having trick or treaters stop by. Despite our porchlight, we didn't get much traffic. After talking with other moms the following week when school resumed, they didn't feel safe sending kids out. Plus they didn't want to knock on doors where people might have lost everything. Dan ventured out with Penny after dinner, using the valuable intelligence we'd gathered earlier. She was quite successful at the houses they hit. She's been having a piece of candy after lunch and dinner ever since.


School resumed the first full week of November, so Penny was finally able to celebrate her birthday at school by that Wednesday. The teacher didn't have all her usual birthday celebrating gear (somehow Sandy related), but Penny still had tons of fun. We had baked her birthday cookies on Sunday night before Sandy hit just to ensure we'd have cookies for the birthday party whether or not we had power for the oven. On Friday, November 9, the kids had their long-awaited Halloween costume parade. Penny was more than happy to whip out her costume and get some more treats. I was excited because it was the second year and third time she'd worn her costume. It's the most I'd paid for a costume so far, so I was glad to get such solid use out of it. The weirdest thing about the costume parade was the impressive number of Marios and Luigis (and even a Princess Peach) that seemed to be present. I swear, there were definitely more than a dozen of each and her school only goes up to fifth grade. There was even a female teacher who was Mario. I know our neighborhood has a predominantly Italian makeup, but could that really have been the reason for so many? Weird.

I nearly forgot about Nor'easter Athena. She managed to be not too bad for us at least. We got maybe four inches of snow overnight. Dan was considerate enough to shovel the walk and everything before he left for work at 5am. Of course, by the time we headed out to school at noon, most of the snow had melted anyhow. Penny was supremely disappointed because there really was just no way for us to take the time to build a snowman - what exactly would Paul be doing during that time? So despite the perfect snowman consistency, she only got to throw a few snowballs at me (throughout the whole 30 minute walk to school, 30 minutes from school). There was also this brief romp through the backyard on Halloween Parade day. In no time it seemed, all evidence of Athena had melted away.