Eli was a frog for Halloween. He was particularly infatuated with his froggy hands. We never did figure out why, but he liked to show them to everyone who would look at them. We got good use out of the costume, with a visit to the preschool fall festival, a Wednesday night supper at church, a trip to a Halloween-themed Music Class where we danced to the "Monster Mash", and even a short round of trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. AND, next weekend the costume will come out again for the Christmas pageant. Bet you didn't know there were frogs at the manger, did you?

At his school's fall festival, there is always a train ride, usually around the playground. It was raining buckets that day (drought, what drought?), so the train was relegated to the parking deck. It didn't dampen Eli's enthusiasm for the train at all. They gave every kid a train whistle to blow as we drove in circles. Eli still keeps it in his carseat and takes it out from time to time to serenade me on our morning commute. I am a lucky woman.