Getting Ready for Halloween

Some books for you and your child --

picture books

The Littlest Pumpkin

Wee Witches Halloween

Ten Timid Ghosts

Scary, Scary Halloween 

In the Haunted House

The 13 Nights of Halloween

BIG Pumpkin

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

Rattlebone Rock

The Halo-Weiner

On Halloween Night

The Perfectly Horrible Halloween

The Teeny Tiny Ghost

There was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat

I'm Not Afraid of This Haunted House

The Pumpkin Fair

Two Little Witches

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

One Witch

Miss Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pie

for beginner or early readers --- 

The Ghoul Brothers

Ready Freddy

Horrible Harry

Nate The Great

The Best/Worst Halloween Ever

The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches

Creepy Crawly Critters

Fluffy 

City to Hold Family Fall Festival 10/15

FROM THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA: 

The City of Alexandria’s Annual Family Fall Festival is scheduled for Saturday, October 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Armistead L. Boothe Park, located at 520 Cameron Station Blvd.  The event will be held rain or shine. In the case of inclement weather, the Festival will move indoors to the Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School located at 435 Ferdinand Day Dr. Admission to the event is free.

Entertainment features Beale Street Puppet Theatre and the sounds of “Boy’s Night Out,” an acoustic band performing traditional and contemporary folk, bluegrass, and “old timey” music.

Free activities include entertainment, exhibits, activities by the Jerome “Buddie” Ford Nature Center, face painting, pumpkin painting, hayrides and more. Tickets will be sold for $5 each or four for $15 for pony rides, moon bounce, bouncy boxing and scarecrow building. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. 

Armistead L. Boothe Park is located near the intersection of Edsall Rd. and Pickett St. adjacent to Samuel L. Tucker Elementary School. Limited parking is available at Armistead L. Boothe Park. The public is encouraged to bike, walk or take public transit to the event. For DASH schedule information, call 703.370.DASH or visit www.dashbus.com. For Metrobus schedule information, call 202.637.7000 or visit www.wmata.com.

Bicyclists may visit www.alexandriava.gov/localmotion for the City’s Bikeways Map, which features the City's best on street and off-road bikeways, as well as locations of grouped bicycle parking.

Rules for Real Life

Rules for Real life – what they don’t teach you in school


Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

City of Alexandria Launches National Safe Place

FROM THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA: 

City of Alexandria Launches National Safe Place

The Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities is pleased to announce the launch of National Safe Place on Friday, September 30.   Safe Place is a national youth outreach program that provides 24-hour access to immediate help and supportive resources for all young people in crisis through a network of sites maintained by qualified agencies, businesses, trained staff and volunteers. The program educates thousands of young people every year across the nation about the dangers of running away or trying to resolve difficult, threatening situations on their own.

Youth in crisis may access Safe Place services by entering any location displaying a Safe Place sign and verbally or non-verbally seeking help.  The youth will be provided with a quiet, comfortable area to wait while the Safe Place Manager or Alexandria Safe Place office is contacted.  A trained responder will assess the youth’s needs and connect them with the appropriate service agency, counseling, shelter and/or transportation.

In all, the City of Alexandria has identified 24 locations: 11 recreation centers, 9 fire stations, 2 local shelters, 1 nonprofit and 1 youth service agency to join the network of thousands of businesses and public locations across the country in extend the doors of local youth serving agencies and displaying Safe Place's recognizable yellow and black diamond-shaped logo. 
 
Kick off events are scheduled at all City of Alexandria recreation centers  and community lodgings on Friday, September 30 between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., and the fire stations on Saturday, October 15. 

For additional information, visit www.alexandriava.gov/recreation, call the Alexandria Safe Place Office at 703.746.5400, or contact Alexandria’s Safe Place Coordinator, Ann Ann Redfearn, at ann.redfearn@alexandriava.gov or 703.746.5410.
 

A Show of Hands is Collecting New Winter Coats for children

From A Show of Hands: 

A child arrived at preschool last year wearing his father's jacket. All winter, the dad walked his child to school in shirtsleeves, and then used the jacket for going to work. Other children arrived day after day with only hoodies for protection from the cold.

A Show of Hands, the Del Ray Business Association and the Del Ray Citizens Association are collecting coats for these kids, and almost 200 others, served by the Child and Family Network Center, Which serves children living in poverty in Arlington and Alexandria.

If you can help, stop by the shop or email us at ashowofhands.alexandria@gmail.com and we'll give you a specific child's name, gender, and size. You can drop off the coat, clearly labeled, at A Show of Hands any time we're open.

For more information about the Child and Family Network, go to www.cfnc-online.org.

UPDATE: Alexandria Police Seek Public’s Help in Identifying Vehicle in Surveillance Photos

FROM THE ALEXANDRIA POLICE DEPARTMENT: 

Alexandria Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a vehicle that was caught on surveillance cameras during an attempted use of Lenwood “Lenny” Harris’ credit card around 12:00 A.M. Thursday, September 22 in Prince Georges County, Maryland.  The vehicle appears to be a white Dodge Caravan with no front tag and more than one person inside.

Police are continuing to ask for help in identifying a man that used Harris’ credit card on King Street shortly after 1:00 A.M. the same morning as the attempt in Maryland.  The person of interest appears to be a black male wearing a t-shirt and baseball hat.  He has a moustache and a small goatee.  He has a muscular build and tattoos on his right and left forearm.  The tattoo on the inside of his forearm appears to have numbers with a word written below. 

The police department is asking for anyone recognizing the vehicle or the person of interest in the surveillance photos to please call the Criminal Investigations Section of the Alexandria Police Department at 703.746.4711 or the non-emergency number at 703.838.4444. 

Police would also like to talk with anyone who spoke with Lenny Harris on Tuesday, September 21.

A “Lenny Harris Reward Fund” has been established by private donors at Virginia Commerce Bank.  Anyone wishing to contribute to the fund can go to any bank branch and make a donation.  St. Elmo’s Coffee Shop, located at 2300 Mount Vernon Avenue is also accepting donations for the fund.

City of Alexandria in Search of 2011 Holiday Tree

FROM THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA: 

During the holidays, Market Square glistens with the sparkling majesty of a Holiday Tree, made possible only through a generous donation each year. The City of Alexandria is once again in search of a Colorado Blue Spruce, Leyland Cypress or other well-formed evergreen tree, approximately 25 to 35 feet tall, to serve as the City’s official 2011 Holiday Tree. The City will remove the tree from the donor’s property in mid-November and grind the stump at no cost. The tree will be decorated and displayed at Market Square, 301 King St., throughout the holiday season.

The lighting of the Holiday Tree officially opens the holiday season in Alexandria. The City’s Holiday Tree will be lighted during the Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 25, at Market Square, 301 King St. The ceremony will feature a special visit by Santa Claus, along with entertainment and caroling.

Persons in the Washington metropolitan area who are interested in donating a tree should call John Noelle, City Arborist, at 703.746.5499 or e-mail john.noelle@alexandriava.gov.

Sales Tax Holiday

October Sales Tax Holiday: Energy Star and WaterSense Qualified Products

Friday, October 7, 2011 – Monday, October 10, 2011

During this period, purchases of certain Energy Star and WaterSense qualified products purchased for non-commercial use and costing $2,500 or less will be exempt from sales tax. The exempt Energy Star items include dishwashers, clothes washers, refrigerators, air conditioners, ceiling fans, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and programmable thermostats that carry the Energy Star designation. The exempt WaterSense items include bathroom sink faucets, faucet accessories, and toilets. Retailers may also choose to absorb the tax on other items during the holiday period, but they are responsible for paying the tax on those items to the Department of Taxation.

Click on the items below for more information.
 

Guidelines

Frequently Asked Questions

List of Exempt Products

Information About Energy Star Appliance Rebates

Sales Tax Holiday Information Center

Fall is coming, right?

It's About Time!

The Oakwood School Parent Association

Presents

Kim Smith Kidd & Laurie Chester,

Senior Certified AD/HD Coaches,

speaking on

"It's About Time!" Organization and Time-Management Skills

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

at

Oakwood School

7210 Braddock Road, Annandale, VA

Event is free to Oakwood parents, $15 for "non-Oakwood" families

Please call (703) 941-5788 or e mail parents@oakwoodschool.com

to register and reserve your seat.

Laurie Chester and Kim Smith Kidd are Senior Certified AD/HD Coaches and specialize in helping students and adults with learning challenges.  They help parents guide their children toward improved organization, time management, and study skills, facilitating positive change through self-discovery and skill development.  They work with parents, teachers, and students to improve academic achievement and balance in life.  This presentation will be especially helpful if your child seems to constantly struggle with getting his or her homework done; puts homework off to the very last minute or races through it, making careless mistakes.

UPDATE: Police Seek Help in Missing Person Case

UPDATE:  Alexandria Police Seek Public’s Help in Identifying Person of Interest in Missing Person Case

Alexandria Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a person of interest in the missing person case of Lenwood “Lenny” Harris.  The person of interest used the victim’s credit card on King Street shortly after 1:00 A.M on September 22. 

The person of interest appears to be a black male.  He has a moustache and a small goatee.  He has a muscular build and tattoos on his right and left forearm.

Anyone with information about the person of interest is asked to call the Criminal Investigations Section of the Alexandria Police Department at 703.746.4711 or the non-emergency number at 703.838.4444. 

Results of the weekends Police Roaming DWI

FROM THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA: 

Alexandria Police Roaming DWI Enforcement Results

Alexandria police conducted a roaming DWI enforcement effort to deter and apprehend intoxicated drivers from 8:30 P.M. on Friday, September 23, to 6:30 A.M. on Saturday, September 24.  Vehicles observed committing traffic infractions were stopped and drivers were checked to assure that their abilities to drive had not been impaired by alcohol or drugs.

During the roaming enforcement effort, 43 vehicles were stopped and three arrests were made for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI).  In addition, 30 summonses were issued for miscellaneous traffic offenses.

Seven Alexandria police officers, one Alexandria Sheriff’s deputy and one Emergency Communications Technician participated in the mobile enforcement effort.

For further details, please call the Media Services Unit at 703.838.4636.

Where's the Sun?

I miss the sun!
Hope this will keep you in a sunny mood....