Happy Halloween

Top 10 things my kids love about Halloween:

1. Wearing their costumes (all day some years.)
2. Going trick or treating.
3. Carving pumpkins.
4. Making Halloween decorations for our house and front door.
5. Decorating Halloween shaped cookies.
6. Parties
7. Picking out their own pumpkins at the store.
8. Corn mazes (short ones), pumpkin patches, barnyard boo, and other such activities.
9. Scooby-doo and Casper movies.
10. Eating candy and cookies.

Kitchen Table, Refinished

In May, I picked up this kitchen table for free because it looked like this with a variety of other dents and dings:

It was suppose to look like this:

So I took it apart, sanded it down, stained, and varnished it to look like this:

The Nightmare Express

We went on a train ride the other night. The Nightmare Express to be exact, but this particular train ride was geared to all ages and so the whole family was able to go and enjoy the ride. There were all of the usual ghosts and goblins but it was a much less scary experience than the typical haunted house.

We road a train around a small compound, through a series of tunnels with spooks and haunts, and back to the station. While we were waiting in line we saw 5 monsters making faces on a TV screen, 22 glowing carved pumpkins, 2 talking skeletons, 1 life-like owl, Disney's headless horseman show, 2 gargoyles, and a quick presentation about what to expect while riding the train. Additionally, we found approximately 38 "Jacks" between waiting in line and riding the train.

One of the many "Jack"s we found.

Benjamin thought the whole thing was hilarious! Bekah was very brave and held on to me tight the whole ride. I don't know who was more startled by the actors jumping out, her or me, and at the end she exclaimed, "That was soooo scary! I never want to do that again!" Though she did have to tell me about how brave she was until bedtime that night and all the next day. I didn't realize the impact my whispering in her ear about how she was being so brave even though some of the spooks were scary had on her until I heard her tell me about it over and over again. Our older two kids are so different when it comes to experiencing life even when they enjoy a lot of the same things. I am starting to like one of my least favorite times of the year, Halloween, thanks to our precious children.

Neighorhood Trunk or Treat

We had a lot of fun at the trunk or treat, but the best part was when we started checking out candy at home. I was holding a box of Junior Mints in my hand and Ryan crawled up and stole them. Michael tried to retrieve them by offering a box of Nerds in exchange. Ryan, however, had a different idea. He held the Nerds in one hand and the Junior Mints in the other and proceeded to shake them. He shook them at the same time and realized they each made a different sound. Then he alternated shaking one and then the other until we finally distracted him with bedtime. I love watching his little mind work. As Michael said, "That was almost worth the whole trunk or treat activity tonight."

Playgroup Halloween Party

Me, You, and the Zoo

One of the days of fall break we went to the zoo with some of our good friends. The zoo was crazy busy, but even with 8 kids and 2 moms when kept track of everyone and had a blast!

Siamese Crocodile

Checking out the small animals and reptiles.

The baby Siamese crocodile playing ball.

We were so busy looking at the lynx up on the ledge we missed the one leaning against the fence right by our feet (two dividing fences between us.)

Most of our group.

Snack Time

Having an "egg"-citing time at the playground.



Flashback Friday - Bekah

Our brand new baby girl was born in the early evening, unlike her older brother who was born in the very early morning hours.

The Return of the Laundry Room

We are in the process of finishing our basement, as I have probably mentioned several times this year, and having my laundry room down there has made doing laundry a little challenging. My appliances have been disconnected quite a few times and often sit at odd angles. Tools and materials are often taking up a lot of space. That, and doing 6 loads a week and sorting clean clothes into 5 baskets takes up plenty of room too. Now, the walls are sheet rocked, mudded, sanded, primed, and painted my appliances have been reconnected and tucked in their corner until we get around to the floor I can actually use my laundry room for all of the laundry and no longer need to use other rooms in the house for various parts of the process. Hooray!

Making Progress

We've been making progress on things around here....

• The basement walls are textured and primed, and I even painted the ceilings today.
• Benjamin has made it two consecutive weeks without a hitting or misbehavior incident at school or on the bus.
• Ryan had his one year check up and is growing nicely (he weighs 18 lbs 5 oz and is 29 inches tall).
• Bekah is making excellent progress on learning to write and recognize her letters.
• Our meals are more vegetable or fruit filled than they used to be.
• I finished refinishing the kitchen table.

....and our house at least one thing (room, chore, etc.) in our house gets cleaned every day even though our house never seems to look clean.

Barnyard Boo