And Halloween Recovery Begins... The Dark Side of Halloween :-)

Today marks the beginning of Halloween Recovery at our house.... Which of course is ironic because it won't be Halloween for a couple more days... For the last week we've done Halloween parties, parades, school events, etc. However, that's about all we've been able to do (well, we've managed to keep our jobs and school going.) There are no clean towels (or other laundry) in the house... the big kids used beach towels last night for their showers. There is almost no food, milk, juice, etc. in the house... It's veal sandwich and beans day in the school cafeteria today, and Mom knew Lydia and Seth would starve before they touched it. She couldn't pull together ANYTHING to stick in their lunch bags and had to run by Subway on the way to school. (You have to balance out their sugar intake somehow.) The family vehicle and house are an avalanche of Halloween costume parts, party favors, candy, coats, hats, etc. Morgan woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible cough, probably bronchitis from being out in the cold for the last two nights. Sydney woke up with some type of cold and looking really rough. Mom decided Sydney's bath would mark the beginning of the recovery efforts, and then the trip to the bank to pay the mortgage would come second since it's due today and Mom and Dad haven't found time to swing through the drive through window at the bank and pay it. Everything else will follow...

Trick-or-Treat Night

For reasons that defy all logic, our town routinely reschedules trick-or-treating on random days other than Halloween. They scheduled one hour this evening for kids to trick-or-treat. It was really cold so the kids are wearing many layers under their constumes (just in case you're wondering why Morgan looks more like a football player than a ladybug :-) ). They had a good time!

Town Halloween Costume Parade

Tonight was our town's annual Halloween Costume Parade. Seth and his best friend won second place for child under 9 couple and the girls and their friend next door (not pictured) won first for child under 9 group.

Beautiful Fall Sunday

Yesterday was a beautiful day, but today was also great. The weather couldn't have been nicer. We went to a local farm this afternoon. They had a wagon full of corn for little ones to play in... we buried Morgan in corn. The kids drank fresh apple cider, did rubber duck races with water pumps, shot corn cannons, sat on pretend horses, and took a hayride to pick out the perfect pumpkins.

Beautiful Fall Saturday

Today we took advantage of the gorgeous fall weather. Dad had to work part of the day, and Mom took the kids to the zoo while he was working. The zoo had a fall event for kids today. The kids got to paint pumpkins, jump in a bouncehouse, paint their faces, play games, and see animals. When he got off work everyone went for a walk in the woods and enjoyed a big playground.

Looking For Work: What Happens When You Run Out Of Teeth To Lose...

Lydia is a frugal child by nature. Her normal spending is a pack of gum or mints when she goes to Walmart each week. She pays a dollar toward her mint/gum habit, and Mom and Dad pay the rest. She occasionally buys something else such as yarn for her headband knitting but not often. As a result, she normally has a decent amount of money (think $20) at any given time. She accumulates it from tooth fairy money, relatives giving her money for gifts, and work around the house. However, she hasn't done much work lately, and her money is running out. She's was in an after school program for the last month where she stayed at school until 4:30. She would then come home, eat, go play soccer or dance, do homework, shower, and have only a few minutes before bed.

Things are slowing down a bit in her life now though with the after school program cutting back to two days a week and soccer ending. She explained her financial woes to Mom this evening. She said she needs some work (around the house) to earn money because she doesn't have any more teeth to lose. She has a way of getting to the point with her troubles.

Riding Pumpkin Train

We rode a little train this weekend to get our family pumpkin. Mom is having technical difficulties getting the files from the camera phone to the blog, but she was able to get this one of Seth to work. All the kids enjoyed it!

Preschool Field Trip

Today Mom joined Morgan and her class on their first preschool field trip. It was a lot of fun. Without a doubt, the highlight of the day for Morgan (and almost every other kid) was getting to ride the school bus for the first time. Morgan sat by Mom and told her multiple times, "I'm a big girl." Mom had trouble remembering this as she watched her barely 30 pound kid bounce around on the huge seat. Mom kept thinking if the bus stopped Morgan would go flying under the seats.

The kids first went to a Jim Gill concert. He is a kids' musician. After that, the kids went to a local greenhouse for a tour and ate their packed lunches. They don't normally eat lunch at school, and they thought it was cool to have a packed lunch.

The day was lots of fun!

The Smell Test.... The Decision-Making Process of Five-Year-Olds

Seth normally eats very little lunch at school. His school makes an announcement about 5-10 minutes after he sits down to eat that the kids can go outside and play when they finish eating. When Seth hears the announcement, he immediately throws everything in his lunch bag and heads out the door.

Mom usually packs him a lunch that he can sit down and eat quickly. Today she threw him though by packing a new type of yogurt. Lydia enjoys it, and she thought she'd let him try it. When he came home today, he told Mom he liked it.

He then explained how he decided to try it. He said he saw the package and wasn't sure about it. He asked his favorite pool friend from the summer Whitney (who is in the other kindergarten class and not sitting with him) to smell it and see if she thought it would be ok to eat. He passed the open container through all the (germy handed, dirty little) kindergarteners between him and Whitney and back. She yelled that it smelled ok, and she thought it would be ok to eat. He took her word and tried it. He decided he liked it. If only Whitney could come home with him and smell all his food... he would be a lot less picky.