This week...

...Hurricane Sandy hit the northeast.  It was absolutely devastating in New York City and surrounding areas. Todd's family is safe and thankfully, their homes were not flooded.  Todd's mom and dad have been staying in south Jersey with his sister, Tonia, until their power returns.  Tonia's kids have been out of school, too, and will actually celebrate Trick or Treat on Monday, November 5th.  Here in Atlanta, we were getting strong winds from the storm and the power flickered. It's crazy to think that the same storm was having a (minor) impact down here.  Our hearts really go out to those affected -- especially those that are suffering a great loss of a loved one.  Also, it's hard to imagine your home being completely flattened and all of your possessions (like photos) washed away.  It will take years for the northeast to recover from Sandy's wrath.

Halloween went on here as planned. For Mercer's costume, he resoundingly wanted to be Spider Man. (I was a little bummed that we didn't make something - like last year)  Oh well... little guy knows what he wants now.  I went to his school's Halloween party the morning of, but noticed he was not wearing his costume.  The teacher said he was acting like Spider Man -- running all over the place -- so he had to take it off.  ~ha~

He really only wore his full costume for photos, though.  During the neighborhood Halloween party after school and while actually trick-or-treating he took his mask off.  Here's a shot of him in (partial) costume with a little girl that he must really like a lot.  This little girl, Edith, lives in our neighborhood, goes to our church, and is in his class at school.  They ran around the neighborhood party together, but it always takes him awhile to stop acting shy around her when we see her out of context of school. 

The weekend before Halloween, Todd carved a great Spider Man pumpkin.  Mercer and I made a Mr. Potato head (ish) pirate pumpkin.  He really got into where to stick everything & drawing extra features on the pumpkin too.  He was pretty proud of his "creation."

All-in-all, he had a great time.