All the Beautiful Children...

And all of them are attached to me! Love it!

Halloween 2010

From the left: Cedric Rory as "Max" from Where The Wild Things Are ; Madeline Eilonvy as "Haurio", an Asian Anime' character; Pierre Genieve as "Repunzel"; and William Stewart as "Neo" from The Matrix.

For reference, this is the character Maddie was portraying:

This is a photo of Sophia Brynn and Juliet Rose as "Rosetta" and "Silvermist" from the new animataed Tinkerbell movies

And last but certainly not least: Benjamin Michael as a Roman warrior; Kerry Elizabeth as a Grecian Goddess; Kerry Ryann as a shorter and younger Grecian Goddess; and Amy Catherine as a Warrior Princess.

'And finally, I have to add the following excerpt from an email from my daughter-in-law Beth. I think its hilarious and will always be a great family story.

We had an interesting time trick-or-treating this year. Or rather it was pretty typical except for one house that handed out a very unusual treat. We went down our own street first. There aren't very many houses there because of the high school that takes up over half the length of the street. So kids often skip our street altogether. A few doors down we were greeted by an Asian man. As occasionally happens, he was unprepared for Trick-or-treaters, but instead of simply telling us he had no candy, he asked us to wait for a minute. He left the door open. If he had closed it, we would have just moved on after a minute. Instead we stood there awkwardly (holding Ceddy back so he would stop sticking his head in the house) while an extensive conversation played out in Mandarin. I assume it went something like this:

"Honey, there are some kids at the door. They want candy."


(footsteps coming near) "We don't have any candy"


"Why not? It's Halloween, isn't it?"


(exasperated sigh) "We never get trick-or-treaters; why would I buy candy when nobody ever comes?"


"Well, do we have something else to give them? They're waiting out there."(His voice is getting quicker and a little panicky now.)


"I don't think so" (rummaging around in drawers) .."Wait, what about these? They came in the gift basket from your cousin last New Year's."


"Lemme see... Is is okay to give these to kids? They probably won't even like them"


"It's fine. Just give it to them and get them out of here."


The man returns and plops a small object into Pierre and Cedric's buckets. He kind of shrugs at Maddie and Wills because there isn't anything else. We move on.

Maddie gets a little suspicious (and possibly a little jealous) so she rummages in Ceddy's bucket to see what she is missing out on. She stops in her tracks. "Um, mom, That guy gave them whiskey."


"What?" I ask, "Did you say whiskey?"


By this time Maddie has also confiscated Pierre's "treat" and hands them over to me. "It says whiskey."


In my hand are two little bottle shaped objects labeled Jack Daniels brand old no. 7 Tennessee Whiskey. I blink. I flash back to when Steve and I were in Paris and I bought a chocolate cherry cordial confection at Michel Cluizel. It was a wonderful little chocolate filled with a Kirsch-soaked cherry. Very good, but definitely STRONG. Not a flavor profile for kids. Later that night I cut one chocolate open and out oozed a syrup and the potent reek of alcohol. It was less than two teaspoons; not enough to affect anyone but it might have put them off candy for a while. Hmm...maybe that's not such a bad thing after all. Jack Daniels, anyone?"