Happy 2015! To celebrate the new year, we’re posting our very last retro–photo update from 2010. This collection covers Halloween and Thanksgiving, plus a bit extra in the form of a few snapshots from Julia’s first grade Christmas party. There are still some videos to work on, but this should be it for pictures, I hope.

That halloween, we took the kids to Uesugi Farms in Morgan Hill to pick out a pumpkin, which was miles beyond the level of effort we normally put in. There were hayrides, ponies, carousels, multiple trains, and thousands and thousands of pumpkins. It’s a little hard to tell from the photos, but there had been a tremendous amount of rain in the days leading up to our visit, so much of the farm, including the parking lot, was basically mud. This made it a little challenging to get everyone back into the van without wrecking the upholstery, but we managed to make it without completely overwhelming my compulsive tendencies (there may have been sulking involved, however).

The kids were both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that year. For reasons I don’t recall, they developed a brief fascination with them around that time without ever having seen any of the films or television shows or having read the original source material. They did have a picture book or two that featured the characters, but that’s just about the extent of their exposure, apart from the influence of friends. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, this probably near the beginning of the end of our ability to exert complete control over what both of them were exposed to.

Gallery: Halloween & Thanksgiving 2010.