Vermont: Halloween & The Final Chapter

Thursday October 30th - the day we celebrated Wes' birthday, which is of course on Halloween itself, but not even an option to try and do that on the same night as trick-or-treating - so....we made a nice roast dinner (Thomas cooked a 7-pound roast) and look at this amazing pumpkin cake Darlene made, decorated by Wayne all by himself:
On Halloween Friday, we went down to the Glover school to check out all the pumpkins in the Carving Contest. What a display. Here's one made to look like a hamburger. Darlene hams it up:
You can see what Vermont boys have on their minds at Halloween: Deer season. But seriously, check out this pumpkin. Painted, with antlers.
The table of the First Grader's pumpkins. There's Cole checking them out. Behind that hairy wig is Wayne's pumpkin.
I just like this one cause it was so tall.

Now, by some oversight, mainly dead batteries, I have no photos from the actual trick-or-treating event on Friday night, but if you go to the link at the top of this page on the left for "Wayne, Cole and Heather", you'll see photos. Thomas dressed as "A French Man" is particularly winning.
Estelle, the Glover Busy Bee, was a bit confused at the first two houses but then she quickly caught on and by house number 4 was running up to the door hollering "Happy Halloween". She was very into the candy.
Before we left to go door-to-door, Wes had a birthday visit from Peter and Jeanne and cousins Katie and Lizzie - here they are:
Saturday Thomas left and I put him on a bus in NH that took him to the airport in Boston. Sunday morning we had another visit from Peter who came to sight his gun (if you don't know what that means, then you ain't from 'round here, as we Yankees say). Here he is speaking French to Estelle, who was feeling blue missing her Papa.
Then Joan and I drove to Cabot (yes, the cheese) to see Aunt Pearl. You've seen her before on the blog. The woman is just short of incredible. She could and should be the next person mentioned in Obama's NEXT victory speech. Cedric, who lives in Cabot, stopped by for the visit also. Here he is giving Estelle a ride on Pearl's walker:

Monday morning I made a sour cream cranberry coffee cake and Aunt Yolande came for a visit. Here are the gals and us:
Monday afternoon was warm and beautiful. We enjoyed the "playground" next to the garden.


Tuesday afternoon another coffee hour with my cousin Michelle. Pictured are Michelle holding Cole, her daughter Olivia and her friend Libby, Wayne, Me, Estelle and Michelle's other daughter Maria. Michelle, Darlene and I had a great chat session while those three teenagers entertained the younger crowd.
Tuesday evening, Wesley says goodbye to Estelle before he leaves for a hockey game in Quebec
Meanwhile, the rest of the country holds its breath until 11 p.m. when history was MADE. Proud to say that I voted absentee ballot as I am still a citizen. What a thrill to be here during this election. Here's hoping better days are ahead for the USA and for their image in the the world at large.
D-Day Wednesday: Cole and Estelle enjoy one last happy moment in the leaves before we hit the road. Do you think those smiles are for the new president? ha ha



Joan drives us mid-way to West Leb NH, where Lisa meets us in a cafe. We goof around in front of the cafe's fireplace

Today, Thursday, in NH. Estelle and I enjoy one last full day in America. Estelle spends a lot of time with Grammie, whom I also escorted to a Senior luncheon. It was supposed to be soup and salad and turned out to be a Thanksgiving-style meal. What a delight! I filled up on stuffing. To boot there were whoopie pies for dessert!
Here's Estelle, who sat quietly in cousin Anna's room, "reading" books to herself for 25 minutes this afternoon. This particular one is Peter Rabbit.

And tomorrow afternoon we're off to Boston to get back on the plane. What a wonderful 3 weeks. So many family seen, not enough friends seen unfortunately, and yet even then there's family I didn't make it to! But we had Halloween, moose season, Antiques Road Show on PBS, chinese take-out, whoopie pies and krullers, Estelle speaking loads of English (yeah!), the Channel 3 News (ah, Marcelis, so great), Rice Krispies Ice Cream treats, Salsa (hallelujah for America's ethnic food), HOT DOGS, rootbeer (there's just nothing in the world like it), deer on the back lawn many mornings and evenings, all my brothers talking so loud at the same time that you can't even hear yourself think, the World Series, Hockey Night in Canada, and the election that got people out to vote in record-breaking numbers. A great trip, and great times had by all.