End of October

 Halloween is of course done and over but being that I am the slowest blogger in the world I am still in Oct. as far as posts go.  I just have to do a quick recap and then it is on to all things Thanksgiving and Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!

These pics were taken at Trunk or Treating where I gave out almost 150 suckers and gummi bears in less than 20 minutes.  Next year I will be better prepared, and with my vehicle as well.  Some of these trunks were so cool.  Pimped out with webs, flashing lights, pumpkins and music, very Halloweeny.

                                          

              



Between the Harvest Festival, our Par-tay, and trunk or treating you would think my kids would be rolling in candy.............you would be wrong.  Here is what we ended up with, and this is from THREE children.

The reason for our lack of candy?  We were inundated with trick or treaters and not only gave away all of our candy, but the kids stash as well.  Since Halloween was on a Sunday our children were not allowed to go out trick or treating, but after all our previous fun they were more than fine with that.  They loved handing out candy and did not mind at all giving away all their loot.

 I was shocked but glad at how freely, even Ethan, loved making all the kids smile.  I said "It really is more blessed to give than to receive", and they all agreed.  I have a feeling their thinking will drastically change as they peruse all the Toys R us and Target flyers that will surely fill our mailbox in the coming weeks. 

Halloween Party

Are You Scared?????????

 
    

 This would be Emry, Lila's & Kylee's Halloween bash.  I was so busy the whole night I didn't really take any great pics but all the kids had a ton of fun.


We had scary cupcake decorating in the dining room, bobbing for apples outside,a huge screen set up in the dance area with Frankenstein being played while the kids danced to the monster mash and Chris Brown.  


Food consisted of Halloweenies, chips and salsa, carmel corn, spooky soda with dry ice,candy of course, fruit and the most popular item of the evening......ring pops.

                                                         Happy Halloween !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the air....

I am usually not so excited for Halloween.  I think it's a combination of many things.  Expectations for this holiday are pretty low.  Really, all you need are a couple of cool signs your handy husband made a few years ago.

10 bags of candy corn bought after Halloween long ago for 5 cents a bag.  All little kids flock to this jar and I just tell them the candy was bought before they were even born and if they eat it they will get sick, which would hold true even if it wasn't stale.   And all those cute but soon to be put in the garbage Halloween projects from school.

Add in some cute retro Halloween books from the Goodwill and you're done!

There really is no holiday shopping to be done other than candy which I must say is a lot this year.  I need 1 bag each per Wallwork child for school.  A few bags for our Halloween party on Friday night.  Oh, did I mention we are having a party.  Emry and Kylee are in charge, it's going to be AWESOME!  A few bags for trunk-or-treating Sat. night and of course a few bags for Sunday which is actually Halloween.  Whew, that's more sugar than I've bought all year.


As for costumes, I have the same guidelines every year.  Whatever you can find around the house, at Goodwill or in the dress up box is what you'll be.  This year it extends to Grandma's and Auntie Netty's house as well, so their options are practically endless.


Tomorrow the teachers will all be receiving these...

 Wrapped up like this.......

Lucky Me

100% handmade and absolutely gorgeous

Attached to the legs and skirt

Next comes the Hutch

Paint, Stain and Done!!!!

Contrary to the story the pictures tell, this happened over the course of a few months.  As I watched Glenn measure (over and over and over) I realized how much precise engineering goes into making furniture.  This is Glenn's latest project and obviously the most time consuming and laborious to date.  He needed 2 new tools, over a dozen episodes of 'New Yankee Workshop', many tutorials courtesy of YouTube and tons of time, patience and perseverance.  


I gave him 3 pictures of different Hutches and told him which parts I liked best from each one.  It turned out so beautiful and it makes the formal living room my new favorite room.
Thanks again Honey, you are the best!!!!!

The Shape of Love

    

       Yesterday I took Ethan to Chuck E Cheez  because he had 10 dollars that he was dying to turn into tokens.  It was a fun mother/son trip.  We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.  I ate my smuggled in salad while Ethan played a driving car arcade game.  Lunch finished I joined him making the rounds of all the games.  Ethan was in kid heaven.  He earned 85 tickets which got him an airhead and a medium size tootsie roll.

     Later that day he asked me what my favorite shape was.  I knew my clever answer of "A heart, because I love you so much", would put his circle or square to shame.  But he came right back at me with "My favorite shape is Mommy", and right then & there my heart broke.

Organic

  
 Went on the 2nd grade field trip with Lila's class to an organic farm.  We sampled delicious sunburst tomatoes, saw beautiful vineyards, watched the dogs run amok throughout the squash, and just enjoyed the beauty of the day. 

 

This beautiful farm is only a few minutes from my house...............as is Wal*Mart, I love Temecula.

Jumping before Thunder

                    There's nothing like watching the kids jump on the trampoline.  I have heard (from my pediatrician) and read (in Readers Digest) that trampolines cause many many accidents every year.

                     Fortunately we have been very lucky aside from the girls wrapping baby Ethan in a blanket, putting him in a laundry basket in the middle of the trampoline and jumping wildly around him.  Or all the times the kids climb to the top of the swingset and jump from way up high down to the trampoline.   I am sure there are other close calls that luckily we've all survived and my brain is too frazzled to remember the most brilliant acts of bravery.

We got our first trampoline within a few months of moving into our home.  The kids literally wore it out so trampoline #2 was bought about 3years later.

jumping in the rain with thunder soon to come  Sept. 30 2010

Trampoline #2 came with a Net.  I didn't think it made our trampoline necessarily safer because all the children wanted to do was slam into it as hard as they could and see how high they could climb up it.  It was shredded to pieces within a year, as was the padding that surrounds the trampoline.  

I never minded the use & abuse our trampoline received though because it meant I could cook dinner in peace.