bats and ghost crabs, oh my!

As part of the halloween festival at work, Ben and I dressed up and manned stations with crafts and activities for the kiddies.  Ben made one cute ghost crab let me tell ya!  Our costumes were hand-made by a Corolla resident and donated to the center.

My station was to make "bat finger puppets" which turned out to be so cute- families made them in different sizes and rode the haunted hay ride with the bats on their fingers.  Unfortunately, though, neither Ben nor myself won the pumpkin carving contest- there were some really creative carvings out there!  Now we're on to a halloween party tonight- complete with costumes for two people and two dogs.  Stay tuned for pictures!

Pumpkin Carving

Getting into the Halloween spirit, Ben and I carved pumpkins last night!  He made an owl and mine is a humpback whale.  We had a great time talking about the methods we used as kids and laughing about how difficult it actually is to get a sharp knife through a pumpkin!  The one that I carved I actually grew and it turned out to have the thickest skin I've ever seen on a pumpkin (much more difficult to cut through!)- we think it may be a "pie pumpkin" because it didn't have many seeds inside.  Either way, we hope the judges are quite impressed with our creations at the carving contest!

Monarch Tagging

Yep, that's right, today I enjoyed the gorgeous weather by tagging monarch butterflies! I saw loads of butterflies in the native plant garden so I grabbed my insect net and had a glorious time in the sunshine.

As part of the Monarch Watch tagging project, I will be notified when my monarchs are reported, somewhere between here and Mexico!

Delightful Doggies and Delicious Dinner

Two dogs on a bike... I never would have thought this would work, but they are like two little angels on their double leash. They really love to take the multi-use path near our house because they can run (and literally pull me on the bike sometimes!) Afterwards we took them to the beach to have a swim then straight to the tub for a good scrub!

In the meantime, Ben was creating some gourmet fried green tomatoes in the kitchen. I've been composting for over a year now, and this spring some kind of crazy tomato plant volunteered in the compost- and it never ripened. These strange green tomatoes made for a scrumptious supper for sure!

After dinner, we all got cozy on the couch where I tried out my new Snuggie! Its a blanket with arms, and looks really dumb, but its perfect for lounging on the couch and watching a movie. The weather outside is only about 50-degrees, so a nice fleece layered with two clean dogs is essential. I hear that its snowing back in Erie, PA!

Birthday Celebrations- Part II

Ben and I traveled to Delaware for my birthday weekend! I attended the Mid-Atlantic Marine Education Association conference and Ben went birding in Cape May. Sarah was there, too, and surprised me with gifts all day long! We all had a lot of fun at the dinner and auction, and surprise birthday cake time :) Sarah brought in a cake, complete with candles and singing, to get the party started. Before I knew it, I was buying a kayak! We're currently looking at getting another one so Ben and I can paddle together.

On the way back to the Outer Banks, we stopped by Assateague Island National Seashore and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, and of course, Wallops Island, where I used to attend Marine Biology summer camp! It was really fun to be back there, and everything still looks exactly the same. Then we went to the Hawk Observatory at Kiptopeake State Park and saw loads of hawks- peregrine falcons and kestrals, plus several others in flight. They had seen over 1,000 already before we even got there, wow!

Thank you everyone for the birthday cards, gifts, phone calls and text messages (and my happy birthday banner, Aunt Barb!) I'll be leaving up the banner for as long as possible- Thanksgiving, maybe? Ben took me to the Black Pelican for my special birthday dinner and gave me some cozy LL Bean slippers to keep my feetsies warm. My beautiful gyotaku fish print and tortoise street art will be featured in a future blog post, stay tuned. I love being spoiled!

Birthday Celebrations- Part I

Part of being an only child is celebrating your birthday for weeks at a time :) The first part of my celebrations began when Mom arrived! We spent time at the beach, pool, shopping, cooking, and just plain relaxing- what a nice vacation! And Grammy K loved on the pups, too, of course!

We had birthday cake (and cookies, too!) and loads of gifts! I'm becoming domesticated at 29, apparently, because all of my favorite presents were crafty :) From a new book 1000 gardening questions & answers and Miracle-Grow, to my new sewing machine, to my new and snazy red dinner plates, I love them all!!! Watch for updates as I practice my sewing skills- its one of my many winter projects ;)