We took a lot of photos of London and Maddie as the Butter Bites, as well as the competing Scariest, Prettiest, and other costumes…. as I sort through them, I’ll share the best ones with you.

On the left, we’ll start out with London and Maddie as the Butter Bites and Rex and Roxy as the Pirate Parents.

And, for those of us who forgot to pack the right video camera when we headed down to our beach house, here’s a link to the Ocean Star official video of Bay Head Halloween Parade highlights.

For the past few years, it feels like the annual Bay Head Halloween Parade has involved a grim weather forecast of hell and high water.  Yesterday we drove down to our beach house in the pouring rain, which flooded Lake Avenue and didn’t let up as we made our way to the Crab Shack to pick up 100 clams for dinner.

All week long, our little Weather Girl, Maddie, has been watching Weather.com, where just like last year, they forecast rain, rain, rain on Saturday, but sunny and 60 degrees on Sunday for the Bay Head Halloween Parade. Witches, goblins, ghosts and Disney princesses will start gathering on Mount Street in Bay Head, New Jersey, shortly after 11am for the 11:45am parade start.

This year, London and Maddie are hoping to win another trophy as the Butter Bites, their all girl band — coming out of the basement to march along the parade route from Mount Street to the Bay Head Firehouse.  We’ve decked out their sport utility wagon (usually for hauling all of our towels, beach blankets, shovels and buckets to the beach) with their big bass drum and an amplifier for their music, which will feature the Butter Bites singing along with Taylor Swift faves like “Our Song,” “Fifteen,” “You Belong,” and “Teardrops On My Guitar,” as well as Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana’s “The Climb.”

Rex and I are going as the Pirate Parents… a naughty pair of swashbuckling pirates the likes of which Bay Head has never seen before!  Wish us luck… the competition is always tough… we’re not the only family in Bay Head that takes Halloween seriously!

In a few minutes, London and Maddie’s babysitter will arrive, and Rex and I will head out to Kitchens by the Sea, an amazing day of peeking into our neighbors’ kitchens and enjoying delicious food samples provided by local Jersey Shore restaurants and caterers.  This year’s participating restaurants include:

• Rock’n'Joe’s
• Scone Shoppe
• Miletto’s
• Bay Head Chocolate Shoppe
• Labrador Lounge
• Martell’s
• Theresa’s South
• Shore Fresh Seafood
• Brandl; and
• Joe Leone

Each of the homes, spread out through Bay Head and Mantoloking, will feature an excellent local restauranteur or caterer serving samples of their cuisine. In addition, the dining areas of the homes will showcase table settings and floral arrangements provided by local designers.

All proceeds benefit the Bay Head School Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Please call 732-714-1902 for more information.

Tickets are $50 (with limited availability, as this is a very popular event) “at the door” today, the day of the kitchen tour, at Bay Head School, 145 Grove Street in Bay Head, where your information packet and tour map will be distributed.

As you head out on the tour, be sure to stop in to visit the local Bay Head merchants…many of the shops, including the Anchor & Palette Gallery on Mount Street, are offering special discounts to kitchen tour participants.

Rex and I just received an invitation to Save Barnegat Bay’s Annual Silent Art and Gift Auction. This year’s event will be held on Thursday, September 24, 2009, at Woodlake Country Club in Lakewood, New Jersey. Donations are $55 per person (or reserve a table of 10 for $500), with a cash bar. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at 6:00pm, dinner at 7:00pm. The dinner choices include herb crusted salmon with lemon dill butter sauce, chicken francaise, and roast sliced sirloin with country gravy.

For additional information, please call (732) 830-3600 or visit www.savebarnegatbay.org.

Every other year, the Bay Head School Foundation puts on Kitchens by the Sea, an amazing day of peeking into our neighbors’ kitchens and enjoying delicious food samples provided by local Jersey Shore restaurants and caterers.

Each of the homes, spread out through Bay Head and Mantoloking, will feature an excellent local restauranteur or caterer serving samples of their cuisine.  In addition, the dining areas of the homes will showcase table settings and floral arrangements provided by local designers.

All proceeds benefit the Bay Head School Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.  Please call 732-714-1902 for more information.

Tickets are $45 in advance and $50 (with limited availability, as this is a very popular event) on the day of the kitchen tour.  Tickets can be purchased by mail (Bay Head School Foundation, P.O. Box 85, Bay Head, NJ  08742) and picked up on the day of the event at Bay Head School, 145 Grove Street in Bay Head.  The tour map will be distributed at that time.

Tickets may also be purchased at Applegate’s Hardware, 524 Lake Avenue in Bay Head, or the Jolly Tar, 56 Bridge Avenue in Bay Head.

Since my two girls are Jedi clam eaters, it may surprise you to know that we’ve never participated in the Annual Clam Bake to benefit the Bay Head Fire Company #1.

Today’s the day for the 14th annual clam bake from noon to 5pm, rain or shine (and we’re lookin’ at lots of shine) at the fire house, 81 Bridge Avenue in Bay Head, New Jersey. The food will include clam chowder, steamers, cherry stones, hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, hot roast beef and sausage sandwiches, beer and soda. 

As or more importantly, there will be live music from the Sherman Brothers Band.  Until we saw them perform at the Bay Head Rubber Duck Derby a few weeks ago, we never knew our plumbers could rock!

One of my younger daughter Maddie’s favorite bedtime activities is to take our family through “Color My Dog Yellow,” written and illustrated by Jersey artist Tine Kirkland Graham. Maddie will read a little poem about each dog and tell us where he lives… Bay Head, Cape Cod, or Morristown, to name a few.  Tine has been one of our favorite local artists for a long time… Rex and I have one of her paintings in our dining room and she painted our Bay Head beach house (image on the left) years and years ago, maybe even before London and Maddie were born.

This weekend, Maddie and London and all of their beach friends will have the opportunity to paint the day with Tine in a FREE event at the Anchor & Palette Gallery on Mount Street in Bay Head, New Jersey.  Trader is spending the week here with Rex’s grandkids, so we’ll have a house full of creativity at the beach.

Join Maddie, London and our gang for a Children’s Painting Workshop with Tine Kirkland Graham on Saturday, August 15th.  The Anchor & Palette Gallery is hosting two free sessions:

10am to 12 noon or 1pm to 3pm

Paints and materials provided, bring your creativity!

Anchor & Palette Gallery, 45 Mount Street, Bay Head, NJ 08742
(732) 892-7776