Ghoul Girl, Grim Reaper and Harry Potter

"Trick or Treat!"

Mimosa Street Gang before school

Ready for a Halloween party!

Meow!

Happy Halloween!

From Catwoman and Superman

Texas Renaissance Festival

Yesterday, Baba accompanied us to the Texas Renaissance Festival. This was the first time we had gone in a couple of years and we all had a blast. The name is a bit of a misnomer; while there are plenty of Renaissance-related things to see and do, it's not purely Renaissance themed. Rather, anything that looks or seems quasi-European from the 1200s-1600s is fair game there (as you'll see from some of the photos below). For many it's just a good excuse to let their freak flag fly.

Nearly half the people there were in costume: knights, fairies, gypsies, kings, elfs, ogre... you name it. John and Mary dressed up as well.

Maiden Mary and Sir John with one of the locals.

Mary and Baba on a giant swing (all the rides were man-powered -- no engines or electricity)

John and Meg on the spinner (also man-powered)

John, Chris and Mary on the Dragon Egg ride

Meg enjoying the scene

John getting his face painted

The results

Mary with her painted face

All 3 painted faces

Mary enjoying the rain

Fall

If you haven't seen it, here's Mary's first blog entry. She wrote this for the Texas Children's Hospital blog and it was published last week. It's about the time she had the flu a few years ago.

http://www.texaschildrensblog.org/2011/09/when-i-had-the-flu-i-felt-terrible/

I've asked her to write a follow-up after she gets the FluMist next week.

And here's a great picture Meg snapped of John playing soccer today. He played another great game - it's such a joy to watch him play every week.

John focusing on the ball