Halloween

Frances, Henry, Ken and I went trick-or-treating with some friends this year. We went over to a different neighborhood because not very many people in our neighborhood participate (but they leave their lights on, which is very confusing for Frances). We left a full bowl of candy on the porch and crossed our fingers that some little hoodlum would come along and dump the whole bowl into his/her treat bag!

Frances dressed as Princess Aurora (AKA Sleeping Beauty) complete with glow stick wand and necklace.and Henry was the dragon that tried to keep her locked in a tower (OK, not really, but I've always wanted to have a theme set of costumes, so I made up a back story!) Doesn't he look scary!?

Anyway...we walked a few blocks over and hit the Halloween jackpot! Finally! A neighborhood where people play along! There were kids all over the place and houses were decorated and the girls got super excited. Bailey and Frances walked up to the first few houses together and knocked on the doors and yelled "Trick or Treat!" That's what I'm talkin' about!! We went down one side of the street and then came back up the other. Henry stayed in the stroller and ate cheese cubes. Near the end he started yelling and it was pretty cute. He CRASHED when we got home though!

Both kids slept until about 8 this morning, and Henry is now at the end of a 4-hour nap! He was one tired boy!!

By the way, this is Frances' pumpkin. She drew the face on by herself and I carved it out.

PS We came home to an empty candy bowl for the first time in 5 years! Yeah! No leftovers...except what I stashed!

Frances' Theological Question of the Day

"Mommy, what does God eat for dinner?"

This is the Day!!

For any of you who have been reading my blog, today is the day that MckMama's fourth child, Stellan, will be born. I am on a staff retreat all day, so it is an excellent day for prayer! Please join me in praying that MckMama's surgery goes well and that the tests to be done on Stellan will go smoothly and quickly so that this amazing family can get to loving on this special kid.
Check out: My Charming Kids for more info and updates.
"this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!" Psalm 118:24

Hess' Corn Maze

I planned a trip this year to Hess' Corn Maze for the teens at church. We had three other families come with us and they each brought a few extra kids along. Ken, Henry, Frances and I were able to stick together in a group to ourselves. The teens split up into their own groups and set out through the maze on their own. We went through the corn maze with varying degrees of success and then set off for the other fun things that they have there. There is a straw bale maze with different tunnels to crawl through. They have a cute wooden cow set up with udders that you can actually milk!

There are old fashioned water pumps with gutters that you can race ducks through (with a convenient "napping table" set up just behind it!)and

a great big slide built into the hill.

Did I mention the orchestra area? It has lots of metal objects suspended from a wooden board. You can bang on the objects and make up a song about whatever you choose!

P.S. Just as I turned the camera off, she added "and Grandma" to the end of her song. So don't worry Grandma, you were in the finale too, I just cut you off. Sorry!!

31 things

1. Where is your cell phone? ummm...jacket pocket, I think!
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? Madeline
5. Your father? Blair
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? didn't sleep long enough to have one
8. Your dream/goal? to be a good wife, mother and friend
9. The room you're in? Preschool classroom
10. Your hobby? blogging, sleeping, reading
11. Your fear? swarms of birds
12. Where do you want to be in six years? in a house that fits us
13. Where were you last night? at home
14. What you’re not? hard to get along with
15. One of your wish list items? new dining room ceiling
16. Where you grew up? Garland, Texas and Radford, Virginia
17. The last thing you did? wrote down a list of books for the Red Book Bag Program at school
18. What are you wearing? black corduroys and a burgundy ribbed sweater
19. Your TV? doesn't get much love from me
20. Your pet? Oscar, the cat
21. Your computer? Toshiba laptop
22. Your mood? okay-a little cranky
23. Missing someone? my mommy
24. Your car? 1997 Buick LeSabre
25. Something you’re not wearing? a clown wig
26. Favorite store? CVS
27. Your summer? field trips with the preschool
28. Love someone? lots of 'em
29. Your favorite color? navy blue, celedon
30. When is the last time you laughed? during circle time this morning
31. Last time you cried? last week in a discussion at work

If you read this, consider yourself tagged. To play along, just add a comment with your link.

Not Me Monday

It's been a few weeks since I participated, but I thought I would give it another try. This past week was quite busy and mostly successful.

• I did not eat donuts for breakfast three days this week. That would be unhealthy, and I would never do such a thing! Not me!
• I did not put in a 3-hour DVD of Bible stories on Saturday so I could take a nap. I mean even it I was tired from getting up at 5;30 am for a CPR and First Aid class, I would never stoop to the electronic babysitter for such a long period of time. No way! Not me!
• I did not send my son to school wearing his sister's socks because I could not find any of his. That would be silly. And people would probably notice. It wasn't me!
• And speaking of my son, I most certainly did not allow the teachers at day care to dress him up in a pink velour dress with white marabou trim. And if that ever did happen, I would NEVER take pictures of it so I could laugh about it later! Uh-uh! Not me!
• I did not give away an entire package of cupcakes to another teacher because I did not want to deal with the mess. That would be wrong! Not me!
• Also, I did not write this post on Sunday evening because I had a really funny item to post and I wanted to make sure that I got it written down. It was also not me that FORGOT to deny the story that made me write this post in the first place!! Wasn't me!!
• Speaking of forgetting--it was NOT me who, after waking up at 5:30 am on a Saturday for CPR class, forgot to nurse my son! After all, I remembered to pack his yogurt for breakfast. I remembered the extra car seat and the stroller. I would certainly NEVER forget to nurse my son. No way! Not me!!
• I heard a rumor that some dummy created a schedule for the teens who wanted to proclaim the readings at Mass. I heard that this big dummy sent out the wrong dates and then sent out another email to correct the dates while still attaching the wrong schedule. Said dummy finally fixed the problem with a very early email this morning-but it was NOT ME!
  
  How about you? What have you not done lately?
  
  

I traumatized my son today

We went out after nap time to run some errands for church. We went down to the shopping center close to our house. I stopped at Staples for some labels, Michael's for some fabric and Bed, Bath & Beyond for a long-overdue wedding gift. While we were there Frances asked if we could go to the pet store. It is a fun place to visit and she likes to look at all the animals, so I said "sure." We went in and looked at the rodents first: mice, guinea pigs, gerbils, hamsters, and ferrets (which I know are not rodents, but whatever). Henry stayed in the stroller for a while, but then he started fussing. I thought he just wanted out of the stroller, so I leaned over to let him out and noticed that he has shaking. Everytime we would get close to a cage, he would hold tight to me and his lip would start to quiver. Same reaction for the frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, fish and birds. Poor kid was terrified of all of the animals. Even some dogs that walked by us make him jump, and he usually likes dogs. The nice customer associate assured me that he would grow out of it, so I am not too worried.

Frances rendition of the first part of Genesis

"God said let there be a moon and there was. God said let there be a sun and there was. God said let there be a lot of stuff and there was. God created a man and a woman they were the first people. God created a bear and a giraffe and they were the first creatures. All the animals had a girl. And there were mean people who would not share nothing. But there was the only man and other people god would save-Noah and his family. And they built...and God told them to build a big ark and they did-7ft tall and 80 inches big! And then Noah did. His brothers and his wife and everybody worked hard. Nobody gave them directions and then they went into the ark-it was the inches it had to be. "


She was "reading" the first couple of chapters of her bible. I thought it was quite amusing! I wonder how far she would have gotten if Henry hadn't woken up?!

My dancing daughter

This is the reason that I love having a digital camera. I can kill half an hour by turning on some music and filming the kids. To answer your questions before you even ask them: Yes that is a purple velour leotard and a dragon costume that my daughter is wearing. Yes, that is Henry's Halloween costume. No, it is not too tight. Yea, my daughter is a weirdo-she gets that from my side of the family.
Enjoy!

Linking up:

Holding my baby

We have been doing some cleaning and purging in the kids' room (and the rest of the house as well). We moved the ottoman out from in front of the glider and I decided to actually use it for a change. I nursed Henry and put him to bed and then Frances came up to me and said in her baby voice, "Rock me, Mama." How could I resist that?? So I pulled her up into my lap and held her and rocked her and sang to her the song that was on the CD player. We rocked and rocked and I gazed lovingly down into her face. Her little eyes were closed and her body was so relaxed. I said a little prayer of thanksgiving to God for my beautiful little girl and what a gift she is to me. Henry started to get a little restless with me still in the room, so I determined that it was time to put her in the bed. I carried her over and laid her gently on the bed. I pulled the covers up over her, brushed the hair off her face and gingerly kissed her forehead. Then I walked slowly out of the room and shut the door. I will admit to having a few tears in my eyes as I walked back out to the living room. And then just as I was about to sit down on the couch, I hear, "I CAN'T SEE!" Ken laughed and said he knew she had been faking, but I refused to believe it.

Gus Bus Birthday Bash

We have an AWESOME program here in town called The Reading Road Show. The program consists of a classroom set of book bags that contain books for the children to take home from day care to their families and read together. These books get swapped out once a week, so the kids are continually exposed to new books and they get excited about reading. Another component of the program is the Gus Bus. The Gus Bus is kind of like a bookmobile made for kids. It comes to area day cares, home care facilities, public preschools and low income neighborhoods on a monthly basis. While on the Gus Bus, Mr. Mike reads a few stories to the kids, sings some songs and sometimes plays a game. The kids LOVE Mr. Mike!

This program was funded originally through a grant and it is now in its 5th year. So what does a bus do to celebrate its birthday? It invites all its vehicular friends out for a party!! The JMU Convocation Center parking lot is the host for the celebration. There are motorcycles, race cars, school buses, charter buses, trash trucks, police cars, and lots more vehicles that the kids can sit in or get into. We invited Stacey and her brood out for the morning and let the kids explore. There is a scavenger hunt while you are there to find a certain number of labelled bunny rabbits. When you find a bunny rabbit, you have to write down where you found it. When you find all the rabbits, you get a prize. This year my two both picked toothbrushes. We finished off the day with hot dogs and free ice cream. Then we headed home for naps!

Frances turns 5!!

My little baby has turned 5! I look back on the years and think about how quickly they have flown by. I bought the #5 candle for her cake and commented to myself that seemed like just last week that I bought the #1. (Of course then I remembered that it was just a few months ago that I did buy a #1 for Henry's birthday party!)

We went to church on Sunday morning. As soon as I parked the car Frances said, "Mommy, when you are five do get to have Communion?" She was disappointed that she would have to wait a few more years. ) On a side note: on the way to school Monday morning she wanted to hold a candle I had in the car. I heard her mumbling and asked her what she was doing. "Playing First Communion" was her reply!)

After church we came home and had lunch. Then she and Henry went to take "naps." I use the quotations because he slept, but she didn't. She faked it really well, though, and really, that's fine with me. We got a few last minutes ready for the party and then woke her up for a birthday phone call from her godmother in Honduras. Thanks for calling, Marylee!

The guests arrived and we had presents and cake. She is mostly excited because she can now chew gum! I think it was when she was about 3-1/2, she asked me for some gum. I told her at the time that she couldn't have gum until she was 5. She took that as gospel and told people that when they offered her gum. It seems like it was just a few weeks ago, but it was a year and a half; and now she can have gum! She went through about 10 pieces last night! She is very responsible about it-she knows to keep it in her mouth and throw it in the trash when she is done. We talked about places where you cannot chew gum (bed, car, school, church, etc) and she was fine with that. Ken and I are not regular gum chewers, so I feel certain that this will be a once in a while thing for her-but she sure feels grown up with it!

We had a great time with my parents, Ken's parents, my brother, John, and his wife, Jessica, my brother, Alan, and his pumpkin collection, Ken's brother, Dan, and his wife, Nikki, along with their daughter, Abby, and our friend Julie.

My carpet

I have a friend at work who actually likes to clean!! And she likes my children! What a gem! I invited her over for the day. First she took the kids to the park so that I could decorate a castle cake for the big day tomorrow. When she came back, we had lunch and put the kids down for a nap. Frances never did take a nap, but she did stay quiet in her room for a while. We did a lot of work in the living room and in the kids' room. You can see my entire carpet! We also went through the kids' drawers. We took out all of the out of season and too small clothing. Now we have plenty of room for clothes they can actually wear!
Thanks Jessica!!

Giving Money to Sick People

Frances spent this past weekend with my parents while we were at Busch Gardens. As I was putting her to bed last night I was asking her about her trip. I asked her if she had gone to Children's Church while she was there and she said "no." Then she told me that they had prayed for her at church. I smiled at that thinking about how nice it was for that to comfort her. Here is the rest of the conversation:
FJ: But, I didn't get any money.
Me: OK, what? Who didn't give you any money?
FJ: Grandma's father didn't give me any money.
Me: Who didn't give you any money?
FJ: Grandma's father. Father Ken.
Me: Oh, you mean the priest? Why would he give you money?
FJ: He gave the sick people money at the end of church.
Me (starting to catch on): What did the money look like, Honey?
FJ: Like nickels.
Me: Oh. Well, Honey those weren't nickels. That was a pyx. Father was giving those people Holy Communion to take to sick people.
FJ: Oh.

And that was the end of the conversation. SO CUTE!