Monday, October 31, 2016

The Trick or Treaters that Finally Went


So the first few years, Boy Howdy didn't want to have anything to do with costumes or trick or treating. He loved dumping handfuls of candy in other's bags but didn't want to get his own. I made my peace with it. Last year though, he really caught on to the whole idea but with our torrential downpour, there was no trickstering going on around the neighborhood. Finally, four years after birth, the stars aligned and we made it out. 

Boy Howdy has been deciding on a costume for the last three months (at least), thankfully he decided on just about the most low-key option possible. You want to be a ghost? Yes sir, we can make that happen for you!

Cheeks, from day one, wanted to be a minion and enthusiastically informed anyone who asked of her decision.

Thankfully, both children were happy with what I came up for their ensambles. And greatfully the weather was clear and mild, there were no tears walking around the hills of our neighborhood and they were more than happy with their four piece of candy limit before going to bed. Wonderful evening!!

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Pumpkin Carving 2016


Here we go, pumpkin carving 2016. I am loving how this event is evolving every year. This year, the kids were given more responsibility in emptying and decorating their pumpkins.




Cheeks may have been more excited about digging out the innards of her pumpkin than Boy Howdy. Not surprising. But Boy Howdy was definitely more serious about drawing his face on his pumpkin than Cheeks.
Look at that concentration level. His face was legit, but not totally pumpkin-carving appropriate. Still, Matthew did his best at interpreting his son's artistry. 

I LOVE this picture of Boy Howdy mesmerized by his father's carving. What a sweet picture of father and son.

This girl, while she had all sorts of enthusiasm for innards, could not commit to drawing anything other than scribbles on that pumpkin. At one point, she was actually putting pumpkin guts back into her gourd ("making soup" as she called it). 

Her final "face".

 And my interpretation of it. I think I did pretty well.

From left to right: Mine, Matthew's, Boy's and Girl's. I kind of love that the parent's pumpkins are happy and silly and the kids' are way more dark and sinister.

I mean, look at that face all lit up. That is a scary jack-o-lantern!

A few days later, Cheeks picked a bunch of flowers and decided our pumpkins WANTED to be pretty.

Friday, October 28, 2016

Halloween Door Decorating


This Boy Howdy is just not satisfied with my efforts at decorating for holidays. He got it in his head that we should decorate our door, so for the past few days he has been asking to look at Pinterest for ideas. He finally committed to these two. I love that, at first, he wanted to decorate 5 doors, but after decorating our front door and his bedroom door, his enthusiasm waned. Totally great! He let me text his dad a picture of the front door but wanted to keep his "spooky" bedroom door a secret to scare him later.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Lettuce Sandwhiches


Partly out of laziness, partly out of a desire to reduce carb intake, I have neither made bread, nor purchased for my family for at least a couple of weeks. Every few days Cheeks or Boy Howdy mention they want a sandwich for lunch, each time I remind them we have no bread, and each time they recommend making some that day. It almost always sounds like a great idea and yet that poor bread just never gets made. 

Today Boy Howdy went to decide upon his lunch and decided he wanted to slice some cheese and dip it in his "special" sauce of blue cheese dressing. But since there was nothing else to dip, he moved to wanting to make a sandwich out of it all. Sorry boy, still no bread. "Well, I can just use lettuce mom!" I may have just about bursted with pride at both his ingenuity and his willingness to eat lettuce. I think he ate two lettuce sandwiches that day and another the next day. I could not say no to his request for more, even if it meant eating all our cheese. I will gladly buy more for this sweetheart!







Cheeks had to get in on the action.
P.S. Do you see the realness of that background? Sweet!

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Pumpkin Patches


I got to have one more chance of going to a pumpkin patch with this cute boy for his preschool. It rained the whole time (by the time we got to the car I had raindrops dripping off my eyelashes) but we still got to pick a pumpkin, get Boy Howdy's picture taken and get our donuts.



The next week, we got, what this fall has been, a rare gorgeous day. My sister, Melissa, and I decided to take our preschoolers to another local pumpkin patch. This particular pumpkin patch is technically open on weekdays but it is more self serve. Thankfully we were able to hitch a hayride with a headstart group to the patch. It was such a lovely day and such a picturesque setting I wanted pictures with the three cuties. Cheeks, however was too busy picking her pumpkin to pose. A few times she yelled at me while I was attempting to coax her over, "Mom, I'M PICKING A PUMPKIN!!"


This was the only picture I could get of them together (the hayride back) and of course Cousin A is the only one remotely cooperative. That's ok. We still had a great time having all the pumpkin patch's attractions (slides and hay mazes, etc) to ourselves.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The Little Girl Starts Preschool


Now that Cheeks is potty trained she is ready for preschool! Today was her first day and boy was she excited. She wanted to wear and/or hold her backpack all morning. She even let me do something with her hair, an almost unheard of allowance on her part.


Her first day went well. At least they didn't have to call me. It will take her a while to get used to the routine of having to sit still on the floor for circle time. But she's off and away and looking so old.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Halloween Crafts

Boy Howdy LOVES Halloween. It may be tied with Christmas in his love and adoration. His child heart has been yearning for more Halloween decorations and so, in a whim of good mothering, I came up with a couple of crafts for the children to do to help decorate our house.




For the first craft, I had the babes draw monsters on white paper, cut them out and then attached the smaller ones to our paper chain. I couldn't bring myself to throwing the bigger ones away so we taped them, including Cheeks' cheeseburger spider, to the window.


The next day I cut out 8 bats and had the Howdy's paint them with glue so we could pour glitter on them. I was hoping they would let us tape them on the wall next to our paper chain, but they wanted their room to be "spooky" and opted to tape them there instead. Mom fail - I didn't wait long enough for the glitter bats to dry, so glue and glitter dripped off them in big chunks. That's ok, they are still very spooky!

Sunday, October 2, 2016

A New Rocking Chair


Matthew's parents found his childhood rocking chair and found it in their hearts to pass it on to us. It came in the mail yesterday. We love it!! Now everyone has their very own.