The Pumpkin and the Pine Tree

Elise and Lydia's costumes have kinda fun back stories:

One day in early October, as I was walking Elise to school, I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween. I think she must have looked around and said the first thing she saw, because the answer was "A tree." A few days later I asked her again, expecting her to have forgotten, and she was definite this time, and even more specific: "A pokey-pine tree" (somehow merging the word porcupine in her mind with pine trees). I suggested several alternatives as the month went on, but she was sure she wanted to be a pine tree.
The idea behind making it all frou-frou was that if I was going to all the work of making a pine tree costume, she had better not change her mind. I figured she probably couldn't resist a tutu style tree with a pinecone necklace.

Lydia's costume was not decided upon until much closer to Halloween. Up to that point, she didn't quite get the concept of "being something for Halloween." I don't know how she figured it out, but out of the blue one day she said "Mommy, I wanna be a punkin for Halloween." A couple days later when she was wearing a shirt with a butterfly on it, I suggested maybe she could be a butterfly for Halloween. "No, a punkin!" came the reply. I bought an $8 pumpkin costume at the grocery store, but returned it a few days later when I came across the pumpkin costume I wore as a toddler. Yes, my mom made it, and she saved it! How lucky for me. Isn't it cute? I just love that hat.

Here are the girls with their cousins, visiting Mike's mom in her classroom. I had to laugh at the contrast between what most 2 and 4 year-olds would choose for costumes, and what my kids chose.

Marianne and Eric's Halloween Party

We had fun at Eric and Marianne's annual Halloween party. Marianne made yummy tomato basil soup, and the kids decorated pumpkins with fun foam stickers (a way cleaner activity than carving).

Carnac the Magnificent and Aretha Garlique

Mike and I were invited to a How to Host a Murder party the weekend before Halloween. Our sister-in-law, Ashley, really outdid herself. The decorations and everything were so awesome and spooky. I wish I had taken pictures of the decor. Everyone's costumes were so well done. For those who have never been to this type of party, a whole murder mystery with characters and clues comes in a box, and you invite 8 people to come dressed as the characters and solve the mystery. To make this a bigger party, all of the couples shared a character. Our character was Aretha Garlique - the "flamboyant clairvoyant" who always wears a wreath of garlic (get it? A-wreath-a Garlique).
To take advantage of my "condition" I disguised my pregnant belly as a magic 8-ball (Shaunda's awesome idea). I even had a pocket full of magic 8-ball answers, so you could ask me yes/no questions.
Mike, as Aretha's date, was "Carnac the Magnificent" like on Johnny Carson.
We were assigned to bring a fruit salad, and there was a competition for the most creative/spooky dish. This was the best I could do to make fruit spooky. The ideas came from Family Fun magazine. Unfortunately the watermelon brain lost to Cindy's kitty litter cake. :)

Pumpkin Patch

Usually we just get our pumpkins at the grocery store, but this year we decided spend the extra $.06 per pound and go to a pumpkin patch. It was so fun, and a great photo op. As long as this particular pumpkin patch stays in business, I think we'll make it an annual tradition.

On the way there I explained that each girl could choose any pumpkin they liked, and Elise told me she was going to pick a big HUGE pumpkin. I modified my original statement and told her that she could choose any pumpkin she could carry. You should have seen her disappoinment with the first few pumpkins she tried to lift. Even when she got a little more realistic (like this one), I had to lift them into her arms so she could make sure they were carry-able.

These were their final picks. The one on top, they picked for the baby "because he's a boy and boys like green".

Primary Program

Elise, who is a Sunbeam this year, had her first chance to be in a Primary program at church. She loves singing, and Primary songs are some of her favorites. Sometimes she bursts loudly into song in the middle of Costco, to see how many people will pay attention to her. Lydia has begun to join in too, and has picked up a lot from what she hears Elise sing.

So, I wasn't too surprised when the chorister told me a couple weeks before the program that Elise is one of the loudest singers. I was excited to hear what she meant. I was not disappointed, it was very entertaining to watch her sing her little heart out. The cutest thing about her singing was that she would tone it down when she wasn't quite sure of the lyrics or tune, and then when she was more sure she would turn up the volume again. People in the ward keep commenting to us about how well they could hear her, what a great job she did, etc.

She also had a speaking part, which she practiced a lot, but she froze when it was her turn to talk in the mic (wonder if that's inherited?). But if anyone would care to ask her, she will gladly repeat her part for you: "Teach me all that I must do."

Lydia had a fun time at church that day too, because my parents, Chris, Alan, and Alan's fiancee Dani, came to visit. Lydia just went from lap to lap as she pleased!

Emergency Preparedness and General Conference

I heard an idea recently and decided to try it out for a General Conference tradition. We ate the old food in our 72 hour kits, to rotate in new food. Most of it was expired, but edible (we're all still alive, so that's good). Most of it was bought when Elise was allergic to dairy, so that's quite a while ago.

We had:
Pop tarts ("Brown Sugar Cinnamon" held up better than "Frosted Strawberry")
Canned pineapple and mandarin oranges (both were a hit with the kids)
Vienna Sausages (surprisingly they ate these!)
Quaker chewy granola bars (I thought they tasted stale, but the girls ate them)
Chicken noodle soup (still good)
Shelf stable soy milk drink boxes (yuck!)

There wasn't nearly enough for 3 days of good eating. We pretty much had it all for lunch between sessions.

Down on the Farm

These pictures are from a random picnic we had at Wheeler Farm with some of our neighbors. We really love that place, because it's free, educational, it doesn't take a lot of planning to go there, and I always feel like I'm being a good mom when I take my kids on outings!

I wish I knew what Elise was thinking while making that face. Something like "Ew, do you know where that grass has been?"

Elise is so fond of this cute kid who lives in our ward and is in her preschool class. I try not to make a big deal or call it a crush because she's only 4, but aww how cute.

Lydia and the pigs.

What a fun group!

Mike's Knee Surgery

Four surgeons were discussing their work.
The first said, "I think accountants are the easiest to operate on. You open them up and everything inside is numbered."
The second said, "I think librarians are the easiest. You open them up and everything inside is in alphabetical order."
The third said, "I like to operate on electricians. You open them up and everything inside is color-coded."
The fourth surgeon said, "I like Engineers. . . they always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end. . . "


As I explained in this entry a while back, Mike tore his ACL and had to have surgery.

The surgery went well (no left-over parts, ha ha), and his recovery is going well too. He had the operation at the very end of August, just before Labor Day weekend so he would have to take fewer days off.

He was supposed to spend a whole week off his feet with his leg elevated before going back to work, and he really was a good patient for all the pain he was in, but it was one heck of a week. I felt like I was going up and down the stairs fifty times a day. We got a trial Netflix membership so he would have lots of movies to keep him occupied, and most of his time was spent in the basement.

The surgeon and physical therapist have told him that everything should be back to normal by about February.

First Day of School

Shuffle Ball Change, Princess Twirls

Elise is back in dance, and this year she and McKenna are taking a tap class. Cindy is their teacher. All of a sudden one day, Elise informed me (as she held up her right hand) "This is my right hand." I thought, wow, where did she learn that? I certainly didn't teach it (sometimes I have to think really hard myself about which is which!) Apparently she picked it up from tap class, cool. Now I can give real directions about stuff like which button to push on the cd player if she wants to skip to the next song.

Lydia just started her first ballet class, with Savannah. It is so funny watching their teacher interact with the little 2 year olds. She talks in this enthusiastic high voice, and everything has a cute name, like "Princess twirls".

I feel really lucky that my girls can have this experience. When I was little I took one ballet-type class, and a clogging class, and I always wished I could have done more. Cindy is kind enough to trade us tuition at her studio for babysitting McKenna and Savannah 2 afternoons a month.