Happy Halloween!

Hamslice is very revved up for Halloween this year, especially since we've spent the last two days holed up in the house because of Hurricane Sandy. (The house et al. is fine, BTW)

Yesterday all the businesses were closed but the storm had moved out so we went to the movie "Hotel Transylvania" which is laugh out loud funny. After that we went to the mall, where Hamslice was able to sneak into this unmanned photo booth and we got this pic. You can tell he's in there because I told him to do it. Note the stale smile...

And this morning was his costume parade for school, so he wore his Skylander costume. Neither Hambone nor I know what a Skylander is. We suspect Hamslice doesn't either, but he liked the skeleton look and thinks the mask is pretty awesome. So there you have it. Happy Halloween Hamslice!

Fun pics from Aunt & Uncle

Hamslice got some fun mail from his aunt & uncle -- photos of their great day together this September!

Art Prize Grand Rapids

So a recap of ArtPrize is in order... The boys and I made the trek to Grand Rapids Michigan last weekend to see what all the fuss is about, and we had a really great time.

ArtPrize is a funky mix of "midwest fab" art with some highbrow classically trained art interspersed. I think the contrast and regionalism is what made it special for us. We really felt the event was true the Midwest (and we dearly love the Midwest), and that there is great art (by anyone's standard) taking place all over.

Here are some shots from ArtPrize, so you all can get the flavor...

This exhibit is of a moose with seven or so Wolves attacking it. I consider this "Taxidermy art" and I can't help but say that the taxidermy work was amazing. They all looked pretty alive to me.

Hamslice is standing here next to a tiger made of scrap wood and metal. These were very well done.

Here is an elephant made by the same artist. We really liked this exhbit

And a Rhino made of spare metal objects

This is a dragon .. a little bit of fantasy art here...

Hamslice wasn't scared of the dragon.

Here's Hamslice getting into the Chinese Lantern lighting. See the lanterns behind his head?

Here's Hambone becoming one with the art. We liked this TV frame.

What's not to love about a humungous chopper? See the person in the red jacket standing next to the seat? That's how big it was.

This installation of horses made of driftwood was cool no matter where you're from.

My favorite pieces were the ones where the audience was allowed to write stuff as part of the display. This one says "I told you they all leave, Tristan. Do you believe me now?"  How awesome is that. One of the other slips of paper in this piece said "I love boobies" and had a quick sketch of boobies on it.

Ah. Another huge chopper, this one is being driven by a skeleton

Skeleton chopper from a different angle

This is a huge black bird. Not a Raven, though.

This is a giant statue of President Ford's Head. You will only see this in Michigan, I believe.

Here's a nice robot family made out of spare Harley Davidson motorcycle parts.

This is a calliope made of junkyard stuff. It played a song and everything.

This is a seal sitting on a rock, but the whole thing is made out of one piece of wood. The craftsmanship here was unbelievable. I really thought this should win the $500,000 prize.

Aaaand then here's some tattoo art. Why not.

Pumpkin Carving!

This is the first year Hamslice has been old enough to get interested in actually carving his pumpkin. In earlier years we let him color his pumpkin with markers, but this time he definitely wanted it carved.

We gave him a Sharpie marker and he drew the outline of what he wanted cut out, and then Mom did the honors.

He's so happy with his pumpkin!