This year, like last year, Eric and Alex entered Munching In Marvin, a cooking contest that one of the towns near here holds every year.  Last year, Eric came in 2d place with his chill, and Alex got honorable mention.  This year, Alex came in third, with his peanut butter pie, and Eric got honorable mention for his 3 bean chili.

While I like both dishes, they’ve been working for a couple of months, perfecting the recipes, so I’m kind of tired of them now.  They both had a great time, and Jennifer and her mom had a good time helping them out.  They entered too, and WON their category, which is surprising, because they were against the fire department, who I figured would get the prize just for showing up with 20 people.

Eric went with the cowboy theme with his chili.  It was really good, to the point where I saw people walk away with their sample, and then turn around and come back after they tasted it to tell him how good it was. 

Alex was very nervous about his entry, because he spent a lot of time getting it right.  He was so happy to win 3d place too; there were about 20 contestants.

The website hasn't been updated with this year’s information yet, but it probably will be soon.  I wonder what they’ll make for next year.

Yesterday afternoon Jennifer called me and said that the school called about Eric:  he was sick.  So I went and picked him up, and he DID look a little peaked, so I gave him a Motrin and let him chill out for the afternoon in front of the TV.  He seemed OK last night.

This morning, Jake decided that HE was sick, and he felt a bit warm to me, so I let him stay home.  He was offended though, because I wont let him watch TV until after school.  If he ACTED sicker, I probably would let him, but he seems kind of normal acting to me.  I probably should make him go to school, but it’s kind of nice that he wants to hang out with me; it wont be long until he’s too cool to be seen with his dad.  I kind of dread that phase.

Doesn’t he look sick?

I think halloween is second only to Christmas in my kid’s pantheon of holidays.  I mean, FREE CANDY…you can’t really beat that.  This year, Eric was a whoopie cushion:

Alex was a Zombie (at least I THINK that’s what it is)

Jake was a soldier (or a hunter)

And Izzy was, of course, a princess:

We trick or treated for a long time, and Jake probably made the best haul.  He doesn’t really like candy all that much though, so he was really good about sharing his haul with everyone else (except Alex, with whom he has a love/hate relationship.  Mostly hate)