Dino Day

A park in our county parks department put on a free Dino Day today. Dino Day was a short distance away in a beautiful park we had not yet been to. They offered helium balloons, pencils, erasers, petting of adoption dogs, a bounce house, dinosaur bone digging in their covered sand pit, squirting fountains of water, a little dinosaur bone replica playground, hot dogs and chips and pink lemonade, seedball forming, live entertainment in the form of a karate school and a young singer, and sno cones. I am not sure about the sno cones, because we didn't try to get any, but everything else was legitimately free and convenient. Beautiful park. We loved it. We only stayed an hour and that was the perfect length for an easy family outing.

Xander saw a former classmate there which was a delightful bonus. They played a bit and we ate lunch with her and her mom and grandma.

Speaking of Xander's friends, yesterday afternoon we went to a small Halloween party at a friend's house. Almost all of the local people I know were there, though it was a small party. ;) Almost all the kids from our regular playground group were there, plus one of Xander's best friends from his class last year. They were excited to see each other. The kids played games like Halloween Twister, batty bean bag toss, pumpkin painting, and cupcake decorating. They also had spooky snacks and a craft and lots of running around playing games they made up. I am so glad to have those kinds of opportunities for Xander now that he is homeschooled.

Xander's addition to our decor

Xander taking pictures of Nick taking pictures

same as above

Erik getting the ingredients ready to make a fabulous cake

like pistachios

for making Brown Sugar, Pear & Pistachio Cake with Ginger Buttercream Frosting

this is after we decorated it with the oven crisped pear chips that Erik made

it is a three-layer cake

which had to be cut down to one layer for some of us to be able to eat it!

a cowboy and a knight with their ponies, ready to ride to the Halloween party

at Dino Day