Happy Halloween!

Leaves have fallen Pumpkins have been picked

And presented

Let the festivities commence!

Dinner?

I know I'm not always on top of things where food is concerned, but I don't know why this never occurred to me before. It came about as I tried to use what I had on hand to make english muffin pizza's.
Tortilla Pizza
Spread your favorite pizza sauce on the tortilla. Add pepperoni and then cheese. Place under the broiler for about 30-60 seconds. Take out of the oven and cut into pizza slices or roll it up for a pizza taco. Let cool and eat!

I used 7 pepperoni slices and felt as though I'd had a meal. At our party we had the kids make their own. They loved it! And it was one less thing for me to get completely ready.

Whew! Two parties in one season--that may be a record for me. I'm thinking about taking the rest of the year off.

I needed a little sunshine today so here's an "old" flower pic.

I'm loving autumn, don't get me wrong there--I just haven't the time to download pictures at the moment, so here you go. The time is coming though--just you wait.

Have you ever discovered such an incongruity with what you're doing and what your children are doing that it shocks you. For example I'd like to make something today--applesauce, a hat, maybe leave prints. My little guy would like the guitar restrung so he can sing all the words to "I want my mullet back" (thank you pop culture world). I'll accomodate, I like him to play with the guitar, but does it have to be............well, I guess it does.

I've been thinking about blogging, or rather reading blogs. Nearly every day there are places I visit as diverse as Scotland and Las Vegas and Australia. They are as interesting as Idaho, Oregon, Texas, Maine and New York City. So what I'm really doing is traveling every day. The difference is I don't have to leave home. I don't get jet lag. I'm not too tired to see amazing things. Most importantly I get to see the little details of life in those places. Those were the things I always liked the best when I was really traveling. Thank you bloggers for sharing the places you live and the things you do with me.
(This is not to say that I'm no longer traveling--at all.)

Halloween

It's coming soon. I still don't know what I'm going to be. I'm not really into the gorey side of halloween. We have an asian theme for the tiny girl. Then there is bat boy. My dearest is finally getting into this kind of thing, but I'll not commit him to the ideas he's tossing around. Then there's me. I'm just at a loss. It may be that I just need that last minute panic in order to come up with something. Ideas anyone?



Here's some fun Halloween Picture books:


Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves
Man can he dance!


Halloween Pie by Micheal Tunnell
What's not to love about saying "Give Me Some Pie" in all kinds of different ghoulish voices? I have to say the illustrations in this book aren't my favorite, but it's just so much fun to read.

The Little Old Woman Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams and Megan Lloyd What's spooky about a scare crow? Just noise.

Happy Halloween!

Christmas

No, I'm not jumping the gun. We get to read Christmas stories all year long, last night it was Santa's Magic Bag. Whatever the person looking into the bag wants is what comes out. After we finished reading I was presented (from the "bag" of course!) a "machine that gives you fabric". Daddy was given "a machine that turns the garden plants in the dirt when they are done." I think that maybe, just maybe our boyo knows us pretty well.

I'm needing more thankfulness in my life so here it goes:

I'm thankful for
The thoughtful things my husband does for me--even when he's sleep deprived and busy.
(Like making sure the garbage is out on garbage day)
The sweet noises and "talking" the tiny girl is doing these days.
Watching kids play peaceably together.
Organized garage
Books! (even if they're everywhere)
The interest that Mowg has in almost everything.
Rulers that moonlight as guitars.
The telephone and it's connection to people I love.
Imaginative stories told by a little guy that begin: "When I was firteen"
Letters and cards
Working together in the kitchen
Rocking--a word which means many different things
Little House in the Big Woods
Dreams
Plants that look like I feel sometimes and make me laugh
Friends
Space
Children that aren't babies
Watching those children grow and explore--even when it means copying my bad habits exactly or in some strange variation
That no matter where he is in the world or what he is doing that my dearest is still my dearest
That my physical body works for the most part pretty well
Picnics beneath autumn leaves
Contagious excitement for snow

Thanks. I needed that.

I thought I'd share the other give-away items (sorry for giving away the suprise Gwen. Thanks for your note Jess! It made my week.)

Gwen:

A pencil roll for colored and or drawing pencils

(Little man's getting one of these for his birthday too!)

For Jess: I forgot to photograph before I packaged it (can you see the brown/grey package beneath the envelope?)

A "BOOG Bag" with "The Napping House" and a little glue bound journal inside. Why Boog? Honestly a distracted mispelling on my part amused me. Most of my distracted forgetfulness does not amuse me (or others for that matter) but this one did. Besides what better way to economize language than to call a book bag a Boog. Well that's all folks. I need to go get my Boog ready to return things to the library.

Thanks guys for playing along!

My dearest and I have NEO's (a very portable dedicated word processer made by AlphaSmart. It's very handy) that we use for writing projects. Ours didn't have cases before now.

I made him a case for his blog give-away gift. Here it is: (the fabric is flies (as in fly fishing flies))

Relatively Safe

It's cushioned with some of that foam stuff that came in a computer box or something like that from my "garbage" for crafts stash--see honey I do use it sometimes. As a little side note I got ride of 5 kitchen garbage bags of formula containers in our garage clean out. It was hard, very hard. I was able to recycle 2 bags of plastic formula containers (I never thought I'd say this, but Thank You Walmart!) I still have 3 left, but they're organized. Yes, I have a collecting problem. We're going to find things to do with them this year I am certain! Any ideas?

As part of the "get ready for winter in the yard" A small "snow" tipi was set up in our yard:

Lots of good help!
Then came the first snow.

We're hoping this will be an out of the wind place to play a little this winter.
I'll keep you posted!

Friends!

The boys are looking at a polar bear den. They discovered it on a recent "hunt". (they weren't hunting polar bears)Hey there Yummy Girl!

Friends

A tradition that the boyo started is a toast of friendship in our family. (Thank you Franklin the turtle). If we're not careful this can go on all mealtime. I wanted to capture this last dinner of the summer on the patio. Friends!

Book Quotes

From the upturned face of a boy to his father while visiting a bookstore:
"Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! That's all I can say."


Same boy observing little sister going through a stack of books at home:
"Baby discovered a family of books!"

I think we'll keep him. :) Boy and Books. Mmmm.