Hang in There, Thanksgiving!

I'm just going to state here and now that I am now celebrating Thanksgiving. Just because Halloween is over does NOT make it Christmas time yet. I know the stores and television commercials would like to make you think so, but I am here to say Oh No You Don't! This week as I packed away the hanging jack-o-lanterns and dangling spider decorations I very resolutely placed my fall leaves on the front door and dried corn on the piano. And now I'm going to just sit around and Be Thankful. Happy month of Thanks, everyone. I'll pull out the Christmas tunes later.

Just Can't Stop It

As hard as I try, I just can't convince Bundle that she should stop growing up. Okay, there have been more rough nights than usual lately which makes the growing up not all bad, but mostly all I can do is kiss and smooch and squeeze and nuzzle her as much as I can. Of course, when the big kids do this I yell at them to "Get off your sister!" but when they aren't looking I do it myself. So, Bundle is now five months old. I am thinking that perhaps "Bundle" is no longer an appropriate name for her since she is starting to hate being bundled up the way she used to. My ideas for a blog name for her are Cookie ('cause I wanna munch her), Posey or Boo. What do you think?

To celebrate the triumphant completion of her fifth month I decided to feed her some cereal. She is definitely not going as long as she used to without a meal at night and I'm wondering if it's because she's just hungry and growing. Here's what she thought about that:

Epilogue

Remember how I was talking about my mom and her little Halloween problem? Well, I guess my dad's in on it now. Behold:



What did I tell you? I invited my folks to our Trunk-or-Treat so they could see the kids' costumes and they kind of upstaged everyone else there. They were so funny. They were a troll and her troll-trainer. And guess where they were going next. Out dancing. I hope my mom didn't twist her ankle dancing in those troll feet!

Well, Halloween treated us right this year. We had quite a mellow day. You may remember that the kids got me up at 5 in the morning (curses!) so I took them for a drive around 2:30 and they all zonked out for 1/2 an hour. I don't know that we would have made it otherwise. After that we donned costumes and went to visit Troy's parents. That's a really fun tradition. Every year our first stop is to see Grandma and Grandpa, collect our first candy of the evening and then trick or treat up and down their circle. It's really great.


At the last minute Bitty put a Bundle toy on her head and decided she was a princess kitty.

After that we had to scurry off to our Trunk-or-Treat to set up our car. I'm so glad we did a car this year. There was a UofU football game last night and so there were pitifully few cars there. Luckily I brought tons of candy and I think it was okay.


After that Bitty was pretty much fried so we took her home, along with Peter and Sheri who came to enjoy the Trunks with us. Stomper went out for some serious candy collecting with friends and didn't come home for two more hours. Meanwhile, Peter, Sheri, the girls and I ate pizza, simultaneously cleaned up and made more messes, and plopped the big girls in the tub.



Now there's only two things left to do. Clean up and eat candy.

Birthday Boy!

For all of you out there who are ticked that it started snowing in October, you may officially blame me. It was I who planned an outdoor birthday party at the end of October. Stomper, who celebrated his SEVENTH (!!!!) birthday on the 28th, has lots of buddies, which is a joy to me. I'm so grateful for all his good friends. Good boys they may be, I knew I couldn't have them all in my house at one time. My house is good for one friend over at a time, two if we're lucky. So I thought to myself, it's been a nice warm October! I'm sure that if the day is dry it will be warm enough to have a party at the park. So I made some announcements and sent them out. It was that night that the news first reported the upcoming snow. Great.

Luckily we have a great church building with a big gym and a kitchen connected to it. We changed plans and had everyone join us there. My parents came and helped me decorate. The theme? Godzilla. We had a Godzilla party. Let me warn you, any of you who may be interested in such a party that there is not a single Godzilla item to be found in this valley. So we went with green streamers and balloons, a black table cloth and I had Stomper draw a bunch of Godzillas for the table. I did find one giant eyeball balloon that seemed to fit the theme, which is still floating eerily in my living room. I, as expected, found not a single Godzilla pinata. I was directed by my friend to a dive-y little joint on State street to the best, most giant pinatas the valley. They are magnificent. I printed out a couple of pictures of Godzilla off the Internet and stapled them on. (Yes, I'm turning out to be quite handy with a stapler.)




I was worried that because we weren't at the park I'd have to plan some games to keep kids busy. I have a hint for all of you party planners out there. You only need two things to keep a party going. 1) Balloons. I was going to have a relay race and balloon volleyball, but the kids weren't interested. They just wanted to romp. 2) Coloring Pages. We had a table set up with crayons, markers and a stack of Godzilla printouts. Thank you, dear Internet. What with the romping, coloring, pinataing, pizza and caking plus presents, the party was over before we knew it. I'd call it a success for sure.

And now I have a seven year old boy, who is turning out to be an okay kid! You know what I love about parenting, especially since I get to do it along side my best friend? I love those moments when your child does something funny or sweet or a little naughty and, unbeknownst to the child, you and your spouse meet eyes across the room and you share a little laugh or a little amazement. I love that. Happy Birthday to my big boy whom I'm getting to be quite fond of!

Halloween Tales

-Just one question. Of all the days, of all the weeks, WHY did my kids (all three of them) feel that today was the day to arise at 5:00 in the morning? I mean, I threw a birthday party this week, I made costumes and helped out in the class room this week, I even put on a cooking demonstration for church this week. Plus I fed everyone, kept the house from complete chaos (I won't say it was actually clean), and did the laundry. My reward? Good morning, Mommy! It's Halloween! Heaven help me.

It did give me a bit of happy flashback of getting up at 5 a.m. on Halloween morning in years past, not due to my children but due to my mother. Most of you know that my mother is the sweetest person on the planet. Such a good heart. Well, everyone has their dark side, their wicked little ways they keep to themselves. My mom has only one, and that is to get nasty on Halloween. She hasn't done it much in recent years, but when I was in high school and had some stage-makeup training she was teaching at West High and then Rowland Hall. We'd have a little 5 a.m. date every year for me to do something horrible to her. Werewolves, witches...that was just the beginning. One year she was the Bride of Frankenstein - I made these latex lacerations with stitches in them that we put running up the side of her mouth and wrapped around her neck. One year she was a basement lady - we glued bugs coming out of her hair, wounds in her face, and one coming out of her mouth. See? Truly a dark side. The best ever was the year I painted her up in full skeleton makeup. She donned a LONG red cape, skeleton hands, streaming black hair and a scythe. The kicker? Painters stilts that made her seven feet tall. She scared the crap out of me, then every one at West High, and, feeling that her job wasn't yet done, went to my dad's work up at the University and stalked around campus handing out heart attacks. It was awesome. Even in the years after she stopped working at a school she just couldn't resist. A couple of years ago I took little Stomper to her house to show off his costume and to trick-or-treat up and down their street. Mom just couldn't stop herself. The next thing I knew she had donned this terrific Troll costume she has and as Stomper and I tricked and treated I caught glimpses of her literally scampering to and fro across the street scaring kids and spreading Halloween cheer.

The Basement Lady

The Werewolf

I must admit that my costume efforts this year for the kids fit under the category of "another lesson learned." Don't you hate that? I mean, I thought I was being pretty smart. First of all, I listened to the kids, over the past 11 1/2 months, recite to me the myriad costume ideas they had. "Mom! This year I want to be Wolverine! I mean Venom! I mean a pirate!" So I gave them a lock-down date. You must choose your costume by October 10. Great. Stomper picked (never heard this one the whole year) a werewolf. (No, he didn't see the picture of my mom when he decided.) Bitty picked a scary black cat. (She is unable to say this without simultaneously flexing her claws.) Great. I then took Bitty WITH ME to the costume store because I knew that whatever I picked would not be okay. So I purposefully had her pick out her ears, tail, fangs and claws. I then chose a multitude of werewolf type items to please Stomper.

You know what happened, of course. As we've been putting things together over the past few days for class parties and school carnivals and such, Bitty has refused to wear the ears on the grounds that "they just can't be straight."The fangs went before the ears did. The claws have largely been rejected as well, though I think they'll make a comeback tonight for trick-or-treating seeing as how the claws are attached to gloves. As far as Stomper is concerned, I think I doubled what I actually needed to make him into a decent werewolf. I had all sorts of intricate plans and costume pieces but it all came down to me, the kitchen table, 1/2 a yard of furry material, a glue gun and a stapler. Yes. I stapled Stomper's costume together. Probably not the best idea as far as longevity goes, but it was quick and easy, just in time for the school carnival.

The school carnival. I'll say one thing. Next year we're doing something else. Enough said.

I think my favorite part of Halloween, once all the costuming and candy-purchasing and pumpkin carving has been taken care of, is seeing the kids all decked out in their garb. I love it when they get so excited that they kind of get into character. I was a little afraid that Stomper would scare himself, but he just loved being a werewolf and was disappointed that the moon wasn't full so he couldn't howl at it. I wasn't sure if I sure tell him that he could howl whenever he wanted or to just agree and enjoy the quiet. Aw, it's Halloween. Howl away, my boy!

Another Pumpkin Post

We didn't think we were going to get to carve the pumpkins this year. It was a close call! I mean, we were all set to go. We had wrestled the gigantic pumpkins into the kitchen. We had towels carefully laid out on the floor. We had the kids draw faces on them and everything. And then Troy stuck the knife in. Woah. Talk about your solid pumpkins - no wonder the dang things are so heavy! But we persevered, and with some minor simplifications to the design, we managed to get a couple of jack-o-lanterns created and set out on the front porch for all to behold. I dare anyone to come pumpkin smashing at our house - you'll need a crane.

Stomper especially enjoyed "ripping out the guts." He continually exclaimed about the major sliminess throughout the process and spent a lot of time massaging the pulp in his hands. My favorite Bitty moment of the night was after she asked why we put the pumpkins out on the porch. I said that it was so that people in the neighborhood could see them. Her reply to that was, "Mom, 'neighborhood' is just such a darling word." Yes, I suppose it is.

So Much For Alone Time

Now, I'm going to sound like a wretched mother here. And I'll just have to own it. Yes, I am a wretched mom today. Bitty has had a couple of weeks off of school and I'll just say that I can't WAIT for school to start. Sometimes Bitty is the master of the onslaught. She talkstalkstalkstalks with lots of screeching and yodeling and meowing. Add that to constnat bouncing, kissing, twirling and crashing into your legs. Plus the questions. I don't even want to get into the questions. Okay, it can be darling, actually, briefly. Then I start to feel like someone (Bitty) is slamming a cymbal on my head over and over as per Tom and Jerry and I just need a little break. Is that so wrong? We had a Costco run today and by the time we got home I was silently gritting my teeth and holding Bundle above my head out of Bitty-arm's reach. (See? Wretched.) Then I had a sudden stroke of genius and told Bitty that mommy needed some quiet time so she, Bitty, could take any toy she wanted into her room, shut the door, and she had to play quietly for one hour. It actually worked for about 15 minutes until I heard her crying for me, banging on the door and jiggling the doorknob as quickly as she could. I went in to remind her about quiet time when she asked me this very awesome question:

"Mommy, do you want to see what happened in my underpants?"

I guess that trumps quiet time by a long shot.

Glorious Day

What a day. Can you believe this weather? Couldn't be more perfect. After the sudden onset of cold last month (we went from using our cooler to using our heater within a day!) I was missing a little warm fall time. Well, today made up for it. Nice morning at church, and then Bundle decided to be extra nice and took a two hour nap as soon as we came home. Stomper and Bitty also pitched in and let me sleep for an hour too (miracle!). Then we packed up some snacks, apples and water and headed to what we call "Oma's New Park," a.k.a. Evergreen Park. Couldn't have been more gorgeous. Blazing leaves everywhere, lovely warm sunshine, me on a comfy camp chair with a fat happy baby, my kids having a ball. Stomper and Bitty obviously haven't been to the park in a while and really needed to just run. I enjoyed a long conversation with a fellow husky-owner. Well, actually her pup had died last year at the age of 14 (yikes, Alex is 13...) and they just got a new lab/aussie mix. Cute pup. Anyway, it was one of those days when we got to the park and the kids just took off and stayed happy for almost two hours. I just wish I had brought the camera!