Video of the Spookiest Front Yard Halloween Display in Naperville 2009

Greetings to ghouls and goblins alike around Naperville and beyond.  It’s hard to believe, but the big celebratory day of spirits and candy is closing in quickly.  We carved the family pumpkin over the past weekend complete with square teeth and sharp teeth to meet the exacting specifications of my pint-size artists.  While most people associate front yard displays with Christmas, here in Naperville Halloween is fast becoming popular for plenty of front yard fright.

While I can’t say it was a scientific expedition, we stumbled across a front yard here in Naperville which I highly doubt can be topped in terms of Halloween decoration density.  I don’t know this family, but I do love their spirit which is equally strong when Christmas rolls around.  In the meantime, I invite you to view the two videos below I took from my iPhone featuring the display during the day and, of course, at night.

DAYTIME

NIGHTTIME

I don’t like to give exact addresses away, but will say this display is located in the Asbury Subdivision off of Conan Doyle Drive.  Happy Halloween Naperville!!!

Fall Friday Photos From Residential Naperville

It’s Friday… it’s Fall… it’s raining, again… so the impulse moved me this afternoon to grab my camera and capture a couple of Fall images as a nice distraction form my work day.  Let’s call it a little bit of a residential Naperville photo essay.

I will warn you in advance that if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might not want to scroll down any farther.

World of Naperville is 70,670 Visits Strong

In 2006, I started this “little blog that could” about a very focused topic… a small town within a larger city of 147,000 people which I am proud to call home.  As of today, the World of Naperville has received 70,670 visitors.

Naperville is the type of place which cannot be defined by one or two brush strokes, which is largely why I wanted to create a place where the Naperville story could be told via my own point-of-view.  The saying holds true that you cannot judge a book by it’s cover and Naperville is no exception.

True community wealth is not measured by the average median income… it is measured by it’s people and their commitment to support and invest themselves within the community and beyond.  By this measure, Naperville stands strong.

iPhone Mobilecasting of Naperville Kid’s Sports Games Shortens Distance with Business Traveling Parents

As the world we live in continues to shrink, there are two inevitable realities regarding family life in Naperville.  Reality #1 is that the Fall months will be full of Saturday soccer and football games.  Reality #2 is try as we might, unwelcome conflicts with business travel schedules will eventually arise in the often heart-wrenching balance between kid’s activities and livelihood.

The good news is mobile technology has vastly improved our ability to shorten the distance between parents and kids when it comes to those occasional conflicts between business travel and kid’s activities.  More specifically, for me, the iPhone has enabled me to exercise a little creativity and ingenuity in what I call “mobilecasting” our kid’s sports Saturdays when my wife is out-of-town on business.

Mobilecasting is a combination of up-to-the-minute texting along with periodic email video clips before, during and after the game to my wife’s phone.  To me the fun part is turning loose my inner-sportscaster to provide plenty of light-hearted commentary to properly capture the priceless moments that can only be produced by a soccer team full of 5 year-olds and a football team “teaming” with 8 year-olds.

In turn, she is also able to text messages back to the boys after the game and, eventually, when she finally musters the courage to use her iPhone camera she can send video messages back.  Does it fully replace the classic memories that can only come from being there?  Is it a travesty that as parents we sometimes find ourselves out-of-town on business over the weekends?… absolutely.  But when business travel is required mobilecasting is almost like being there… almost.

How easy it is for us to beat ourselves up over being away from home and how easy it is for others to judge us for our absence from our families.  However, we must always keep in mind that here in 2009 our children were born into this world as “digital immigrants” with an ever-growing experimental curiosity about how we use technology to stay connected with each other… so live smart parents and cherish these days to their fullest… even if you are 2,000 miles away!