The roundup of Halloween week

 We kicked off the week before Halloween with a fun party for Aubrey and 5 of her friends, who attend a total of three different high schools. What great girls they are! I was so impressed with the kind way they visited with each other. After eating dinner and talking they watched "My Best Friend's Wedding." We hope to have more fun friend parties soon!

 The next day the girls received their pre-order of Taylor Swift's new album on itunes. You should have heard the shrieks and giggles emanating from our den.

Monday night . . . family home evening was about the Armor of God (Dan taught the same lesson he would give to the freshman-age seminary kids the next day).  Joseph very happily volunteered to dress up in complete head to toe armor, including Iron Man helmet, random tough guy breastplate, Batman belt (to "gird" up his lions"), Captain America shield, Spiderman socks, Pirate sword.  It was pure awesomeness in every way, and I even learned some things about the symbolism of the armor talked about in the scriptures.

 Tuesday. . . . after cello lessons and basketball practice we raced over to the church for the ward Halloween party. Joseph decided at the last minute not to wear the Ninjago costume we purchased this year. Instead he wore a ninja costume from a year or two ago. The length of the costume really shows how tall he is getting! These are three of his good buddies.

 The party was a hit in every way. So much better than lame truck-or-treating.  Dan was asked to deejay music and songs for Just Dance. He dressed the part, as deejay Dan the crazy Seahawks Fan. Or something like that.  Bailey dressed as Taylor Swift.  I dressed as . . . a chauffeur. Luckily, I didn't have to change my outfit because chauffeuring is my almost full-time Mom job. In fact, I had to leave the party early to get Aubrey picked up from her theater class.

 Dan in his deejay duties.  The entire ward had such a good time dancing along to Just Dance songs!

 We held our annual Mom's Disgusting Halloween Dinner two days before Halloween.  We had lots of gross sounding but normal tasting food on the menu.

 Bailey pointed out that this was her last Halloween at home. From now on she will be at college and living her life elsewhere.  That makes me sad. I hate how there is a hole left in our family when each of the kids grow up, even though we are so happy for them and proud of them.

 Joseph choosing his menu items.

Only Joseph wanted to do pumpkin carving this year, and he attacked it very studiously.

First he drew a picture of his plan and transferred it to his pumpkin with a sharpie.

Then he very meticulously carved it just the way he wanted it.

When we were done I taught him how to light a match and we looked at the eerie glow the candle made.

Halloween Night

I'm not going to lie. By the time Halloween hit we were pretty darn exhausted in this house. The week before the holiday was full of events, adding to our schedule already filled with sports and theater practices, college applications, and high school homework. The emotions at our house were all over the place and we had some major costume drama. Luckily, one of my good friends saved the day with the perfect costume at 10:30 p.m. the night before Halloween.

And the costume that Bailey was really excited about turned out to be pretty poorly made and needed major alteration, and she lost her nerve and decided not to wear it for her party.

But Halloween day was really fun and festive.

The cleaning the house part wasn't so fun, and neither was my mad dash to stores to get food for the evening.  But then I was able to help at Joseph's school. What could be more fun than an elementary school "Harvest Party" (they aren't allowed to specifically call it a Halloween party).  I was in charge of planning a game for the party so I did what all seasoned moms do . . . I picked the easiest activity I could think of, one with little preparation required.

The kids dressed each other like mummies using toilet paper.  It was actually an interesting sociological experiment, as I observed the girls meticulously wrap toilet paper around the "mummy," with very neat and proper mummy-looking results.

And the boys (including Joseph, here on the right), chose to haphazardly throw toilet paper all over the place. Because their "mummy's" wraps wouldn't stay on, they chose to lay down like they were dead for the picture.

By the time evening came had lots of friends visiting and our house was literally rocking with kids from age 9 to teenager eating, laughing, running up and down the stairs.







Dan handed out candy nonstop and supervised the parties while I took Joseph and two buddies trick or treating.  Joseph is crouching down in true ninja form in this picture, and in coming years he is going to wonder why he looks so short!

I love trick or treating, and when the boys wanted to quit after half an hour I told them they were absolutely NOT done yet. I might have even (lovingly) told them they were being wimpy.  Don't kids these days understand the value of candy? I lived for trick-or-treating when I was a kid and then hoarded my candy for many months!  Despite their whining, we did continue on for another half an hour, until their pumpkin baskets were sufficiently full enough to meet my approval.

Then we came back home and the boys traded candy, which we all know is the very best part of Halloween.

Except that I have realized something interesting about Halloween, at least in our neighborhood. Because we get SO MANY trick-or-treaters and hand out so much candy, everyone in our neighborhood buys the same huge bags of chocolate candy at Costco. Which  means that the kids get the exact same 5 types of candy. That's kind of a bummer!

Our friends the Kartchners talked to us in the living room for a long time while the kids handled handing-out-candy-duties.  While we talked I shoved one Snickers bar after another into my mouth.  That very likely explains my serious stomach ache the next two days.

Happy Halloween!

Welcome, November!

Rolling with a change of plans - Pumpkin Patch 2014

Every year since we moved to Washington we have visited a pumpkin patch, every year but one we chose the one at Bi-Zi Farms.  We have loved all the activities, the hayride to the fields of pumpkins, the live music and free hot chocolate, and the fun of running into so many of our friends and neighbors there.  

Here's a visual recap of the last 8 years of Washington pumpkin patches.

2006

2007

 2008

 2009

 2010

 2011

2012

 2013

So, that brings us to this year. When we looked at our October calendar we realized that there was only ONE day when all the kids would be available for our annual pumpkin patch foray, and that would not be until the end of October, when the kids had a day off of school. Every Saturday since September has been monopolized by soccer and football games and Aubrey's all-day theater practice.

So, we planned to attend on our one free day with the Kartchner family.

However, when we arrived the pumpkin patch at 10 a.m. we found it was only open "by appointment" for preschool groups until 3 p.m. And the weatherman had accurately predicted that by 2 p.m. it would be POURING rain, and the kids had lessons planned for later that day anyway.

So, we first felt sad and disappointed that our pumpkin patch trip could not happen. (All except for Alex, who couldn't figure out how to look disappointed).

Since I had my camera all ready for pumpkin patch pictures, first we snapped a few photos.

And then we decided to make the most of it and head to Starbucks to treat ourselves to some hot chocolate/pumpkin creamers and cake bites.

Then on the way home my kids and I decided to stop at the Felida Red Barn, a local store based in an old farmhouse. While they didn't have all the bells and whistles of the big pumpkin patch, they did have a lot of pumpkins for purchase spread out across their property and a small corn maze.

It wasn't what we are used to, but it was nice in its own way. And we got our pumpkins and got home before the deluge hit our area.

Joseph hated touching the wet and slippery pumpkins, so pointing worked too. 

And one last picture . . . as we drove away from the farmhouse I saw this sign which is just so Pacific Northwest. Around these parts even our firewood needs to be organic!

'Twas the Night Before Halloween . . .

. . . . and all through the house CHAOS REIGNS.

• ONE . . . young boy dripping with mud after football practice in the pouring rain
• THREE . . . hours Bailey has spent tonight trying to understand inexplicable statistics facts for a critical test tomorrow.
• TWENTY-FOUR . . . the number of years ago I took statistics. I remember NONE of it, which is proving to make me not a great helper to Bailey in her hour of math crisis.
• THIRTY-SIX . . . unfrosted sugar cookies Bailey needs to take to school tomorrow for a Storm Buddies activity.  To find the cookies we went to TWO stores since district policies forbids homemade treats.  Once home we noticed that all the purchased cookies are crumbling, so Dan just drove back for prepared sugar cookie dough, which we are going to bake ourselves tonight, defying district policy.
• THREE . . . the number of costumes which are needed for tomorrow for trick-or-treating or Halloween parties.
• ONE . . . costume that fits and has been deemed sufficient.
• TWO  . . . costumes purchased online two days ago for two daughters, with very expensive shipping. TWO costumes will be returned on Monday. Expensive shipping not refunded.
• NINE . . .  the number of stores I have been to today in a fruitless pursuit of assorted last minute Halloween paraphrenalia, including FOUR stores to find the perfect yellow tights which are now going to be returned because that particular costume is unworkable.
• FOUR . . . the number of stores Dan has run to today after work, also looking for assorted Halloween stuff. 
• TWENTY-SEVEN . . . .is the number of people, mostly teenagers, who are invited to our house tomorrow for a big Halloween party.
• ZERO . . . . the amount of preparation or cleaning we have had a chance to do for this party. 
• 100% . . . the amount of preparation I will need to tackle tomorrow morning, including cleaning a very messy house.
• ONE . . . Halloween activity I need to come up with for Joseph's school Halloween party tomorrow. 
• UNCOUNTED . . . more things I could say about today which I won't because I don't want to implicate anyone.
• 4:45 a.m. . . The time our alarm clocks go off in the morning for Seminary.
• TWENTY . . . minutes I just spent writing this blogpost instead of accomplishing anything, because I needed some time alone.
• FOUR . . . ibuprofen pills I took which have not even come close to touching my headache.

Happy Halloween.  Please, make the nightmare go away!

Of Mice and Other Assorted Pests

Mice

I am unphased by most things, including cleaning disgusting hair and black slime out of bathroom drains, dissecting cadavers, and cleaning up assorted bodily fluids. But my nemesis is mice. They just totally creep me out. 

A few weeks ago I smelled a distinctly unpleasant odor in our big walk in pantry. We all smelled it, but I kept reassuring everyone that it must be a rotting potato somewhere. So on a Saturday morning I started pulling out and organizing the pantry, all the while sniffing in nice and deep to try to find the source of the odor. At the very back of the pantry I reached down to the floor to pick up a box of cereal and I SAW IT.  A box mousetrap, which had been forgotten in the back of the pantry since our last mouse infestation years ago was occupied with one rotting mouse and one trapped live mouse!  My scream spanned four octaves and woke Dan from a sound sleep. I was speechless and traumatized for at least 10 minutes.

Dan extricated the trap and helped me remove everything from the pantry so we could bleach water everything the vermin might have touched.  Well, he actually bleach watered everything because I was still moaning and shallow breathing in the other room.  We set more traps under the kitchen sink and cupboards because we saw evidence of mouse poop there too.  Seriously. There is no redeeming value to a creature that poops as it walks. 

A few days later I opened the cupboard under the bar to pull out the slow cooker for dinner and I saw a splayed, bloody mouse in one of our traps. I screamed and writhed on the floor for half an hour before I came to terms with the fact that I really did need the slow cooker out of the cupboard. It took everything I have in me to open the cupboard and pull it out, with my eyes mostly closed and my nose plugged.  Yuck. Dan found one more disgusting surprise under the kitchen sink, and since then we seem to be rodent free. I make Joseph check the traps every day because he is way braver than me.

Spiders

Spiders are not as bad as mice, but they have been plentiful in our house lately too. In addition to the normal brown house spiders we see now and then, twice we have seen a spider that was seriously as big as a hand.  Luckily, Dan was home so I didn't have to test my spider-killing superpowers.

Ants and Fruit Flies

Combatting ants and fruit flies is definitely more in my comfort zone, but this late summer/early fall has been a doozy for both. 

Little sugar ants have been scurrying all around our candy cupboard (yes we have one) and the cupboard with sugar, honey, etc.  I've have had the exterminators spray twice, but I'm leery of adding more chemicals to our kitchen. I have to admit that I did put some ant bait down last week hoping the ants would eat it, take it back to their nests, and die painful deaths. Sure enough, the ants swarmed all over the bait and licked the cardboard clean, but they must be immune to ant bait because they digested the poison and then continued to crawl all over my cupboards. I have resorted to vacuuming them up umpteen times a day. Not terribly effective, but it's non toxic and it feels good. 

We are trying to eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies and a few fruit flies are the inevitable result this time of year. But this year we are being overtaken by a veritable army of fruit flies. My many vinegar traps are killing hundreds a day, but the fruit flies are reproducing at a much higher rate, so I have been resorting to the vacuum trick again. I do not have the patience to wait for the fruit flies to decide to land into the cup of vinegar so I've kept my vacuum handy and every time I see that flies have landed in a swarm I gleefully suck them up.  Ha ha ha - their tiny little bodies are no match for my super powered central vacuum.  

(I think that the rodent/insect battle of 2014 might be threatening my sanity a little).  

The De-Acquisition Phase

We have moved firmly into a new phase of life, the de-acquisition phase. For many years I was focused on acquiring, adding children's books, puzzles, toys, and clothes to the collection for our growing brood. When we lived in Utah for 8 years I went to garage sales almost every weekend with my Mom, and I found a treasure trove of awesome stuff for little money. Over the years we amassed a great library and collection of all the puzzles and toys we could ever need.

But things change, and even the youngest child is rapidly outgrowing lots of our stuff.   For years now I have been weeding things out and giving them away. When it comes to getting rid of toys or clothes I have had no problem or regrets whatsoever.  I gleefully take big piles of stuff to Goodwill, and I love the feeling of less stuff and being unencumbered.  But books are a different story.

Joseph recently pointed out that the bookshelf in his room is so filled with children's picture books that his chapter books and lego creations don't have enough of a home. Sigh. He's right. And that's after I have already heavily edited our collection of children's books many times. I left just the must-haves and how-could-you-ever-grow-out-of-this-book books, but apparently he's moved on.

I have a huge attachment to books. It might verge on being an obsession. As I have sorted through our children's books the last few years, I have given away several hundred, I'm certain. But I have also been boxing up and storing the "special" children's books so I can someday pass on to my grandkids (or have in my "grandma library".)  The problem is that so many books meet my criteria of special that we have boxes of children's books under almost every bed, at the top of most of the closets, and in several bins in the garage. And now I have two more big piles in the hallway until I figure out where to store them. Help. I think I need an intervention. 

In related de-acquisition news, I recently decided to clean out my many file folders which have been squeezed into one filing cabinet in the den. For 25 years now I've collected articles, stories, children's games and activites, etc. and filed them by topic. The files were helpful and even essential for a long time, but now just about everything I need is more easily accessed on the internet and I rarely sift through the files. 

So I spent an afternoon pulling stuff out of files to put in the recycling bin. It was an interesting experience for me. I felt like it was an archeological dig, uncovering layers of myself over the years. . . the things I thought about, was concerned about, was focused on. I said goodbye to my files of lesson plans for teaching preschool and the articles I pulled out of countless magazines with craft patterns for little kids. No one in our house is interested any more. It's sad and it's also really okay.  

Another thing I found and discarded was oodles of church lesson plans from years past. As I skimmed through the outlines I realized that even the way I teach has changed radically over the years. Not to mention the fact that I used to think it was so important to make a cute handout to go with a lesson and then save the original in case I wanted to re-use them. I am so over that!

Time to recycle and give away the old so we have room to embrace the now.