Happy Halloween!

After a busy morning at church and a busy afternoon grocery shopping, we figured we'd better get on the ball and actually carve our pumpkin!! Livie and Daddy carved one at the Favorite Man event at school, but we had yet to do one with our family, so we got to work.


Daddy worked on getting that thing cleaned out after the kids pulled out as much of the guts as they could.

The kids each took turns drawing part of this guy's face. Livie drew the eyes, Noah drew the nose, and Madie drew the mouth. Pete got the job of carving it, while I got the kids in their costumes.

Can you tell they were ready to go?!

Off they went, skipping and running from house to house as I yelled at them to SLOW DOWN!

Our favorite house was the one behind us where Rod and Kendra live. They were dressed up like characters from the Wizard of Oz.

Rod was the scarecrow, Kendra was the bad witch, their daughter was the good witch, and their son was a flying monkey! They even had hot cider for everyone who wanted a cup. :-)

Livie knows how to work her daddy and convinced him early on to let her ride on his shoulders. :-)

They each took turns ringing the door bell, but when it was Livie's turn, the bell was a bit high, so she used her pirate sword to ring it. We were cracking up!

We were out for about an hour when we headed back home. We all were freezing and the trick-or-treat bags were full, so we thought it was a good time to call it a night. We were greeted by our fantastic pumpkins!!

And, we walked away with an overflowing bowl of goodies! I would say it was a successful night. Happy Halloween everyone!

Celebration

Today was our celebratory wedding reception for Jacob and Rachel. If you don't know the story, it's in the book of Genesis. Jacob fell head over heels in love with Rachel and agreed to work 7 yrs for her father if he gave them permission to marry. After those 7 yrs though, Rachel's dad tricked Jacob by disguising his oldest daughter Leah as Rachel and having her marry him instead. Well, we've been learning about this soap opera - otherwise known as Jacob's life - this month in Sunday School. Today we celebrated the wedding that finally happened between Jacob and his only love Rachel. The kids were all excited!!


I, of course, had to make this a big event, so I decided to attempt to make a 4-tier wedding cake. Having always failed miserably at making cakes in the past, I'm not sure why I suddenly thought this one would turn out to equal those in my imagination. Instead of a 4-tier wedding cake, I had a small, dome-like mountain, complete with a hole in the top for lava or splunkers.

I managed to salvage it by covering it with copious amounts of fake flowers and put a ribbon and button on it. Doesn't take much to impress 3-11 yr olds. ;-)

I decorated the back part of our fellowship hall like a reception - complete with bubbles, place cards, table numbers, and favor boxes with ring pops! :-)

The kids really seemed to have a great time with all their goodies.

We served apple juice (though sadly I forgot our toast to the happy couple!) and my delicious, yet embarrassingly bad cake.

Had to try a taste of it myself. ;-)

The kids really enjoyed their bubbles and were out on the "dance floor" blowing them and popping them.

Several of the moms helped out as well as our shepherds, which was fun! Loved seeing everyone get involved.

I believe my favorite part was adding these 2 menacing bouncers at the gate. None of the kids could enter without an invitation and a quick once-over by these guys. They were on crowd control duty. ;-) We had a really fun time and I'm hoping that the kids will always remember this story. From Abraham all the way to Jesus, in the middle of it was the story of Jacob and the trickery and ultimately forgiveness of this man and his family.

1-2-3 Party!

Today has been a jam-packed day of parties!!! First time I've had to show up at 3 places in 2 different towns, all at the same time! :-) It's Halloween time and today we had parades and games and yummy treats.



Started off with Livie's party at noon. She and I went and picked up treats for her class and Madie's class as well. Got her halloween glazed donuts and chocolate-covered pretzels with sprinkles. Why I haven't learned to get them HEALTHY stuff for these parties, I do not know, because they get so sugared up, they act like nutballs until they crash later that afternoon. But, for some reason, I thought it best to pump huge amounts of sugar into 12 4-yr olds. They loved it! The parents? Probably hate me now. But, anyway, Livie was really excited and LOVED her pirate costume. :-) I think she's the cutest pirate I've ever seen!! Much more on the jolly side than the mean side.

All the preschoolers walked with their classes around the playground and waved to us.

Then posed for pictures afterwards. Pete stayed for a little while after this, but I gave her a hug and said goodbye, because I was due at Madie and Noah's school for their parties as well.

Madie dressed up as a cat this year. I was a little afraid it was going to be really lame looking, because the costume is a bit beat up, but I think it really looked cute! I brought snacks for her class as well and somehow DID learn my lesson with her and bought 2 big tubes of berries. So, they all got fruit cups and it was a big hit! There was only a couple strawberries left and now Madie and Noah came home just their normal crazy selves and not sugar-crazy, which let me tell you is a WHOLE other kind of crazy!

Noah went as a cowboy. He doesn't really eat the cookies and cupcakes, because he doesn't like them, so he had some strawberries as well. I wasn't in charge of snacks for his group. I just brought a cup down from Madie's class, so he could have something better. I was in charge of games for his group though, so we played the always faithful game of Halloween JINGO. This game has been played by all of my kids for every party they've ever had on Halloween. I also have a Christmas and Valentine's Day one. They were good investments after all the times we've played them!! We also did a crossword puzzle together and it was pretty cute.

But, before the snacks and games, we walked in their parade. The older grades go first, then the younger ones and everyone lines up in the halls to watch them come down until it's their turn.

Then we walk around the block and wave all everyone standing around. This is Noah with his friend Madison. They've been in the same class all 3 years.

After I finished with games in Noah's class, I went up and spent a little time with Madie's class. They were playing Halloween Hangman. Overall, we had a great time at all 3 celebrations!! Now I'm ready to crawl into bed and sleep until morning. :-)

80s Day

This week is Spirit Week at school and today was 80s day!!! Can you tell I'm excited? ;-) I've been waiting for a day where I could once again practice my mad skills. It's hard to dress up a boy for the 80s without some type of clip-in mullet, but we did the spikes and went with an oversized tee. And, who could forget the pegged pants? That was a must! Madie was much easier, because so much of what is out there right now is totally taken from the 80s. I went with the double layer of matching socks and stretch pants, of course. Then we went all out on her hair. Unfortunately, it was shower day, so her hair wasn't even close to being dry, so it may lose some of its height as it drys this morning, but we got that sucker up as high as it would go! I loved every minute of it. The kids thought I was making them look lame. I told them if they look lame, then I've done my job.

And, to all those who aren't Facebook alum, I thought I'd let you know that I am officially part of The Write Team for the paper and will have my first article printed next Thursday. I will have one printed every other Thursday through April, I believe. I have to get writing!

Favorite Man

Last night was a special event at Opportunity School called "Favorite Man". Madie and Noah both got to do this when they were Livie's age and now it was finally her chance!


It started off by decorating their take-home sacks. Livie drew a beautiful rainbow on hers. She was able to fill it with leftover pumpkin seeds, a book, and some drawings.

Livie has been the only one of the three that hasn't been grossed out at one point or anything by pumpkin guts. She has always been able to dive right in there and scoop that stuff out!

Livie and Pete made the happiest, nicest pumpkin in the room! It looks terrific sitting on our stoop.

Yep, Livie and her daddy had a fantastic time together. Two best friends enjoying their special night. :-)

Productive

Finally! A productive day at home. :-) After a weekend spent in total laziness and another spent on busyness, we were able to have a day at home where we got stuff done that has been on our to-do list for ages! I had determined that when I got back from church today, I was going to tackle our closet. There was so much stuff in there, packed in corners, covering the floor, that it was a scary proposition. I swear, we do a major clean-up in there two times a year. It never seems to stay clean for very long. But, I can go to bed tonight knowing that it is in tip-top shape - for now.


The only way I could get in the mood was to be a bit silly. Just jumping in there and getting to it wasn't going to work. I needed to make it fun and how did I do that? Why, I wore my veil. Yes, I did. Nothing says clean-up than doing it wearing your 11 yr old wedding veil. :-) Later, I sported a nice set of cat ears as well, when the veil got to be too cumbersome.

An entire afternoon and 5 bins of donatable items later, we have a clean closet!!! To walk in there without stepping on something is just wonderful. Knowing that I'm going to open the door and nothing is going to fall on me from the corner cabinet, well folks, that's just grand (I'm watching a Doris Day movie as I type this - thus the usage of the word "grand"). There was an entire supply of children's summer clothes in there that I just took out of their drawers last month and stuck in our closet. There were craft projects and games and - well, you name it and it was in there. While sorting the games, we decided to work on the coat closet too and cut our board game supply in half and regulated those to the basement. So, actually we got 2 closets done today. :-)

Now, I have been working on getting our tiny little cubby by the garage/basement doors made into "Kid Central". We had hooks up behind the door, but the kids couldn't reach them, so my Aunt Phyl showed me a picture of this tree that was in Good Housekeeping that they used as a coat/bag rack. So, I made that and that's where the kids' bookbags are hanging now.

Dance bags and church bags are now hanging behind the door. Not quite as bulky and will fit behind there a lot easier. I found a unit I want for that cubby where the shelf is. It's got 3 hooks and 2 large baskets for boots and winter gear, so once I get that (hopefully soon!!), then that nook will be ready for the kids to make their own. Not really a great entry spot for guests. They'll know see all their gear, all the time, but had to make it functional for our family and that's the best way to do it!

Musical Fun

In keeping with our fun month, we had another gathering at a friend's house today. I don't usually take pictures when we're at our friends' houses, but I couldn't resist taking some today. :-)


James had his guitar out and was singing some songs with his friend Joel, when Livie grabbed his son's ukulele and started jamming right along with him! It was so cute!

Just a little while later, more of James and Donna's friends showed up and joined in on the music. Donna went inside and got a big bin of musical instruments and the kids all began playing and singing. Pretty fun afternoon with friends - singing and chatting and just have a great time!

Skydive Chicago

It has been a whole WEEK since I blogged! We've been staying busy, but just haven't taken the time to blog about anything. Will say the best part about this month, so far, has been all the great days we've spent with friends. Have another cook-out/party to go to tomorrow. Man, October is the best!! Anyway, on to the post... today Livie had an exciting field trip to Skydive Chicago, a local skydiving joint. In all the years we've been out here, I've never been up to this place. That all changed today and boy, was it fun!


Started off with a quick bus ride. Cole, Livie's friend, was our partner today. Livie's actually taller than her. It was really fun to see one of my kids actually taller than someone else their age for once! ;-)

First thing we saw was this cool airplane. We got to see it fly up in the air just an hour later. This is Livie with Cole and Jack.

We watched a video about skydiving, which was cool. Then our instructor Matt showed up how a parachute works. The kids got to try on the backpack and pull out the small parachute that catches the wind and makes the big parachute come out. Livie said it was really heavy, but Matt told us when you're flying towards the ground, you don't feel a thing.

Then another guy showed us how to pack our parachute. It's a really big job!

One of my favorite parts was seeing the kids use these scooters to learn how to make formations in the air. It was so cute!

As we were waiting for the jumpers to load onto the plane, we had some snacks. Livie played thumb wars with Matt.

Here are the jumpers getting loaded. I thought they only loaded like 5 or 6 of them, but once they started coming down, there must've been almost 20! Couldn't believe it!

Here was the first guy coming in. The kids cheered and were so excited to see them coming in. Just one right after another.

And, everytime you looked up, there were more and more coming! It was SOOO COOL!!!

They landed right in front of us, most of them aiming for this track of road by us. Some landed in the field.

Afterwards, a couple of the jumpers came and gave the kids high-fives. :-) Thought that was super-nice of them. They were all so relaxed and cool and really did well with all the kids. Let me tell you, as soon as we have another nice day, we're taking Madie and Noah out there too. They would love it! And, a note to my nieces and nephews, same thing. If you come out some weekend this spring, we will go watch the divers. It's quite a show!!


Here's video of Livie's formation:

Pinkie

Look at this face...

This is the sad face of a girl who's pinkie got smashed by a rock. A BIG rock. Ever had a day where you just wanted to start it all over again - hoping that it might turn out better? Yeah. That was my day today. It started out great! Livie and I went gargae saling. Got some cute stuff, did some school volunteering, etc, etc. It started to go downhill about 2:30 when I went to pick up Livie. She wasn't in the playground with the other kids and my friend Peggy, the director, was walking towards me with this weird look on her face. "Livie's finger got smashed by a big rock when it was dropped on her" Didn't think much of it, until I saw her finger. Ugh. She was crying and crying and only the promise of ice cream at Triple Js make the sobbing lessen. So, I went by and got her an ice cream/slushy combo. I'm JUST that nice. But, she was crying too much and couldn't lift the spoon with one hand, so it dripped all over her and made a mess. First failure. Picked up the other two kids, came home, and attempted to take off her bandaid, so I could get a closer look. This created a good 45 min attempt at getting the bandaid cut off, because it hurt too bad to pull off. This involved ice packs, cold water for dunking, two pairs of scissors, and lots and lots of patience. Finally it was off. Totally gross looking. So, I put a bunch of ouchless cleanser on it and wrapped it in gauze and tape, so it would get some air and be easier to remove next time. After that was accomplished, Pete came home, so I decided it would be a good time to go grocery shopping, since tomorrow we have people coming over and I have a house that could be eligible for FEMA relief. I started to back out and completely forgot about Pete's car and sideswiped almost the entire left driver's side. This is the car that he recently got back from getting repaired to the other side, because of a minor traffic accident. Guess I wanted to share the love with the other side of his car. I immediately moved forward and called for Pete, who took one look at it and went back inside. I'm guessing it was to write me a love letter, since he was so pleased with me after that. But, the kicker? After getting BACK from grocery shopping, my careful attempt to back into the car yielded a lovely crash into the frame of the garage door, denting my now scratched up back end and denting the frame. Yep. Been an all-around successful day for me. At least Livie's feeling better.