Halloween

Halloween has been a big deal at our house this year. Little J is obsessed with Halloween. He checks Halloween books out of the library year round - a real pain since they can only be checked out for 7 days! He LOVES it. Everywhere we go, I have to limit him to just one Halloween decoration (we've gotten a whole new bin to fit our stash this year!) per stop. He loves all the haunted houses (people who have decorated), he adores going to the pumpkin patch and even has his own pumpkin in his room! He loves it all: ghosts, bats, skeletons, witches... And so it was so sad that our little ninja has been sick and missed out on the Halloween party this weekend AND on trick or treating! It' s going to be so hard for him to wait a whole year for Halloween to come again. Though personally I can't wait to start putting away all the gaudy decor.

Miss J took his little bag around with her to several of the houses to get candy for her sick little brother, but after a few people called her a fibber and didn't believe such a "tall" smurf... she gave up! He was happy with his loot though and paid her nicely. Here's what our kids donned this year... still have to capture the littlest ninja.

Frankenscience

We had a great weekend! A full weekend. I love living in a university town for all that there is to offer (at low cost or free!) Friday evening we all went to the symphony, Saturday we went ice skating and to a fun Halloween party, and Sunday we enjoyed "Frankenscience" hosted by the chemistry department. IT.WAS.PHENOMENAL. All my kids want to be chemistry majors now, and Mr. T - our scientist - has already set up various labs in his bedroom and has been doing science experiments all afternoon! The students were all dressed up, had great hands-on science for the kids to do, told fabulous scary stories and also explained how their "magic" and science happened in an understandable fashion. We will definitely be doing this again each year - I have a feeling it won't be Halloween without it! The kids have brought home slime they made, and ice cream made out of liquid nitrogen is always delish! We had a dinner outing tonight and now to get some rest before Monday.

Fireplace

The fireplace in our house seems like it was an afterthought for the builders. They literally just slammed up a few pieces of tile from our bathroom. It was almost a reason to NOT buy our house. I love a fireplace, but I hated ours. And it was the focal point of our family room! Mr. Man knew he could change it, but it took time to save and figure out exactly what we wanted... and it was worth the wait. Now that the weather is cooling down, we sit around the fireplace with a fire going often, and I couldn't be happier with how this improves the room and the whole feel of our home. Here's the change in pictures:

Outtakes

I got a tripod for my birthday and I finally got to use it as we attempted to take our own family portrait. Several turned out great, but I wanted to share some of the outtakes!

Here Little J ruins the photo:

In this one Miss J has a hair down her face, Little E is making a monkey face or something, and Little J is shooting a pretend bow and arrow... oh, and I just noticed that Mr. Man's eyes are closed! Priceless.
A little windy. (We knocked on this crabby old farmer's door to see if we could take pictures in front of his awesome old barn. He told us we had 5 minutes!)
Mostly it was fun taking pictures with this crazy bunch... and hopefully we can find one we all love and hang it on the wall!

A qUoTe & A pIcTuRe

"Children have little or no say in the way we set up their lives for them, and in the pace we set for them, and in the way these things effect how we react to them. What children really want, I think, is a calm, settled, predictable home life. A mother who is not frazzled, angry, stressed, or impatient. A mother who in in tune to their needs. Parents who aren't arguing because they both are occupied and don't have time to communicate properly."

I'm always inspired by Sarah, at Clover Lane's thoughts.

For her whole"A CONSCIOUS PACE" post, click HERE

Walking by our library books yesterday, I glanced something out of the corner of my eye:
These types of things make me smile. I left him there. Ironically placed right next to the "I SPY" book!

After School

I love my boys!

How I Know

Yesterday, after something unmentionable happened and I had to take a picture of it, Miss J turned to me and demanded: "Don't you dare put this on your blog, Mom!"This is how I know I have a pre-teen. (You will also note that I am respecting her wishes... even though it's hard for me because it was SOOOOOOOOO funny!)

Adventure

Yesterday was busy.

The regular morning rush, followed by a non-stop hectic day.

I got to go in and read to kindergartners - we've been practicing our read-aloud skills for almost a month in one of my classes, and I finally felt ready (dripping with sarcasm). The teacher said I was a natural. Um, well, I read children's books daily.

That meant that Little J got to go play with a friend for a half hour.

Then I had my class for the day... which meant he went to a sitter for two more hours.

Apparently he was telling my friend, who was watching him, all about the adventures his mom and dad take him on. He's SOOOOO into adventures.

After we ate lunch, he asked what our adventure for the day would be.

Knowing that after 3pm we would have non-stop piano lessons, taekwondo, lab, cub scouts and dinner in there somewhere, I was feeling like some down time may be a good idea. Down time meaning maybe actually doing some laundry or cleaning my kitchen! Instead, we called up our good friends up the street and planned to car-pool to the pumpkin patch for our very own "adventure."

It was so worth it. There's something about being in the great outdoors, rainy or not, and having room to run, tire swings to swing from, trees and haystacks to climb on and pigs and chickens to feed. I asked Little J if he was having a good adventure at one point... and he answered, "Can we stay here for always?"

Of course we couldn't. 3pm was calling us and all of our obligations. Today the kitchen got cleaned, the laundry is in progress... but we had our adventure.

A Whole New World

It was raining yesterday, and also very windy.

I will have to capture the moment in words, because I didn't have my camera.

Little J and I were running, literally, into a store to grab a handful of items. He had brought his beloved umbrella (green froggy one) and was berating me for not bringing mine so that then we could walk and not run.

The wind was trying to blow him umbrella away, or inside out, and so I held it with him to help secure it. He was having fun, pretending his umbrella was actually a kite, while I got drenched.

J: "What if my umbrella flies me to a new world?"

Me: "Are there new worlds?"

J: "There are lots of other worlds, and I might fly there. Where should I go first, Mom?"

Me: "I don't know. What are the names of some of these other worlds?"

J: "There are lots. Like Idaho."

Idaho?! So I was laughing in the rain.

Missing Grandma

This morning my kids woke up and, for some reason, were missing their Grandma. Miss J was making breakfast and wished Grandma were here to make it with her. Mr. T was missing her gifts - big chocolate bunnies at Easter and how she "really knows what Christmas is about - lots and lots of presents!" Little E misses her ducky shirt and thought she would have driven them to school instead of making them ride their bikes. Little J kept adding "YEAH" to each comment. And then the stories. Mom, you may get a call to clarify if it was a stove or an open fire that burned off all of your eyebrows when you were a little girl. (There was quite the argument over that little fact!)

Then my sitter cancelled... sickness at their home again... and I wished my Mom could come rescue me. She would love too, I know.

And while I don't truly believe that distance makes the heart grow fonder, I do think it just makes the hearts a lot farther. Thought you should know you were missed Grandma.

Fun Run