Project 365: October 31

Trick Or Treat!

Here's the gang just before heading out to torment the neighborhood. The green-hooded one stayed home to hand out candy and scare young children.

Before leaving, the kids just had to try answering the door and fending off monster guys!

We confused this woman a bit. She was expecting just Carter and then on top of seeing our children out of context she had the additional confusion of Mary being there!





Will loved trick-or-treating! He'd never gone around a neighborhood before and got the hang of things very quickly!

Something spooky was in that tree. What was it?!

When we all got back to the house every child emptied his bag onto the floor and began the sorting ritual. Morgan couldn't resist having Carter count his Kit Kat bars!


This girl loves a good time! And candy!


We all had a great time - from dinner to the treats - and everyone fell asleep easily! Some even on the way home!

Project 365: October 30

Grandma came through town on her way to Florida, where she'll spend the month visiting with friends and tending to some business.

She and Lucky stayed right near the Red Lobster, which provided for a convenient venue for our meal. (Tuesdays are shrimp night so if you go on a Tuesday be prepared to wait a bit for your food!)

We had a nice meal -with those wonderful cheddar biscuits - and then visited with Lucky in their room. Lucky loved the attention from the kids and didn't even mind that David was there. She's come so far from the days when she'd run and hide when any man walked into the room!

More Birthday

This is just too cool!

It's super exciting to find a huge cardboard box on your front porch, and even better when it's addressed to you. Then when you open it and find all these wonderful art supplies, life really can't get too much better! Until you can actually open it and use it!

I can't wait to see what artwork comes from these supplies! It's perfect timing, because although Caroline attends Art Club every Wednesday, her 9 weeks in Art class has come to an end. This makes it all better!

A Boy, A Cat, and a Snack

Project 365: October 29

Can you see it?

Can you see what just may be the final, as in l.a.s.t, straw with regard to that dog.

Gracie ate Caroline's birthday cake. Not the whole thing, but still.

Anyone want a well-fed dog?

C12

Here's my baker boy, making a cake for Caroline's birthday! The boy just loves to cook and worked hard on this cake!

Unfortunately Gracie got to the cake while it was cooling - not that we hadn't pushed all the chairs in or anything. The dumb dog nudged one out and climbed onto the table, and the damage was soon done. I'm surprised she didn't eat the whole thing.

We frosted the remaining cake with a yummy mocha icing and decorated it in such a way that if her brother hadn't let the cat out of the bag, the birthday girl might not have noticed that there was a problem with the cake at all!

Morgan insisted that Caroline needed a Build-a-Bear puppy. We named it Sweet Pea and gave it a blue fairy costume similar to the one Caroline has from last Halloween.

And no birthday would be complete or official without the pearl necklace from Grandmama and Grandaddy! There it is - Caroline is officially twelve!

Of course, following cake and presents there was homework. Happy birthday Caroline!

Cute Cat

Project 365: October 28

I love marshmallows. I love chocolate. You would think that these would be right up my alley.

Nope. These are gross.

Of course, I was the only one who thought so. Maybe my self-talk is working. We can hope!

Halloween Event #2

Field Hockey Sunday #5

Caroline saw a little action in her last field hockey game of the season, but not much. And when the ball did end up on her side of the field, I managed to miss it!!

Yup, this is it. This is the only picture I have of her in action!

I love it when she wear the orange socks 'cause there's no missing her on the field! Right now she reports that playing and watching field hockey are her two favorite things...after reading of course!

Project 365: October 27

This what the sky looked like at the track this morning.

Once the sun came out a little things brightened up quite a bit. Still the track wasn't as inviting today. As a result VJ and I went walking. We took the 10-miler course for about 3 miles and then headed back. It was good to get away from the oval and get some distance in!

Homecoming 2007

Tonight is the Homecoming dance at our high school. On Tuesday(!) Morgan told us that she was going to be going to the dance with her friends and that she would need to go shopping on Friday...with her friends...alone...at the mall.

We said okay to the dance, but drew the line at shopping for the dress alone with friends. Yesterday I took her to meet her friends so they could look for dresses. Whenever they found one they'd call me on my cell phone and have me come see. They did pretty well, once they moved out of the women's' department when looking for dresses for Morgan! The other two girls found pretty party/dance/holiday dresses. Then we were off to look at some dresses I had set aside at the department store.

Aside from the "Ew, I can't believe you thought I'd like a cheetah print." I think I did okay! She wouldn't even try that dress on! We ended up buying two dresses, once that is more party/holiday, and one that she'll wear to the dance.

The best part of the purchase was that her dress cost less than her hot chocolate at Starbucks! Got to love that sale!

Then, of course, we had to buy shoes. I knew that was coming because she's been claiming to own only flip flops and running shoes. I found that hard to believe but knew that she didn't have any fancy, strappy, break-your-ankle shoes!

She does now.

Halloween Event #1

Project 365: October 26

This is what we watched tonight. It was supposed to be a family movie night, but one of us had a change in sleepover plans. Oh well, she'll just have to watch it alone!

Have you ever noticed that Dorothy's hair changes in the scarecrow scene? For some reason that has always bothered me. Maybe they didn't have continuity people back then, but someone should have noticed! Of course, they have them now, and there are all kinds of continuity problems in movies today.

Even so, it's a fun movie to watch. The kids enjoyed it - even Will, who covered his ears whenever the witch was on the screen!

Project 365: October 25

Troop 2074927846

Tonight we had our very first meeting of the new school year. We're not even official yet, but we just had to get our girls together before the year ended! This troop is a combination of three different troops, two of which were folding, and some extra girls who just want to be scouts! Tonight we had 6 show up - not bad for late notice for a meeting on a night before a no-school day!

So far we have two 4th graders, two 5th graders and two 6th graders, with another 5th and four 6th graders who couldn't come tonight.

Body Parts In Song

Before, during and after our girl scout meeting tonight Caroline, Katherine and their friends were trying to remember all of the words to this song. They got the first stanza and then started making things up. They had Eileen loving Tony (!) and Tony loving Pat, Eileen crestfallen, and Tony liking that. A bit racier than the K1 version!

Here it is - the real song. It's a funny song, especially when you're watching it being performed by a bunch of K1-ers who are doing the movements in K1 style.

Tony Chestnut knows I love you.
Tony knows. (Tony knows.)
Tony Chestnut knows I love you.
That's what Tony knows.

Tony, Tony and his sister Eileen.
And Eileen loves Neil and Neil loves Pat.
But Pat still loves Bob.

And there's Russell and Skip.
This song is silly, but it's hip.
How it ends, just one man knows.
And guess what, it's Tony Chestnut.

Tony Chestnut knows I love you.
Tony knows. (Tony knows.)
Tony Chestnut knows I love you.
That's what Tony knows.

Tony, Tony and his sister Eileen.
And Eileen loves Neil and Neil loves Pat.
But Pat still loves Bob.

And there's Russell and Skip.
This song is silly, but it's hip.
How it ends, just one man knows.
And guess what, it's Tony Chestnut.

*Original Music and Additional Words from The Learning Station.

Not Shy At All

There's nothing shy about my boy. He doesn't shy away from the spotlight at all. As you can see...he'd go on all day. I love it. I'll never have to worry about him fading into the background, will I?

So between his renditions of Bob the Builder and The Wise Man, my days are complete.

Right now he's telling me every time the bedroom clock changes to a new time. One.dot.dot.five.seven. One.dot.dot.five.eight.

Time to go read him a story. I'll leave you with this.

Project 365: October 24

Making Their Mark

The workers are finished, have cleaned up and are gone. Now we just have to wait two weeks before we can move our furniture back into place, but at least we no longer have the threat of water in the basement! Just in time too! yay!


The kids decided it would be a great idea to carve their names into the new cement. Not pictured are CGW, Charley and Gracie.

Districts

Today the District Cross Country championship meet was held at Pleasant Grove. There were 3 races, the girls' varsity, boys' varsity and an open race for both boys and girls' JV. Morgan raced in the open race. The school's varsity girls came in 2nd and the boys came in third!

Here's a video of the start of the open race just to give you the feeling of being there with us!!!



The weather was fine for the 1st race, and then it got wetter and wetter, which meant muddier and muddier! Check out the runners' legs!

Morgan had a strong race, and despite slipping quite a bit in the mud, finished strong with her second best time of the season!



The varsity girls in their superhero capes holding their second place trophy!!

Pupcakes and Pets

We have our annual church fall festival coming up on Sunday afternoon. Once again I'm in charge of the cupcake decorating table, which means I have to have cupcakes! We found out a couple of years back that the little cupcakes are best for the kids.

Give that there is no free time between now and Sunday Will and I decided to make the cupcakes today and freeze them for Sunday! The boy loves to make things, and is such a big help.












While the cupcakes were baking Will and Charley* looked out the window at the rain. They saw leaves falling, and a small, white, beagle-like dog sniffing around. Gracie had been gone for several hours, but I wasn't worried. I knew she'd come back, because of all the things about her that are consistent, the one positive thing is her nose. She'll always find her way home!





*Charley, as opposed to Charlie. Does it really matter? Since Charley is written in soon-to-be permanent forever concrete, Charley it is!