A Happy Snowy Halloween

Sam.. I am your brother

Cupcakes

Cupcake

Sammy wants to try a ghost pop

Ten inches of snow did not keep Halloween from coming. Children merrily trudged along snow banks to ring doorbells and wore mittens over their costumes to keep warm. We will always remember Sammy's first Halloween as ‘the year it snowed a ton before Halloween’. 

While getting ready for his preschool Halloween party Matthew informed us, “I’m going to freak everyone out. They are not going to know that it is Matthew; they are going to think Darth Vader came to school!” 

Will There Be Snow This Halloween?

Monster hands

The finest paint brushes that nature has to offer

Jedi battle

A birds nest just out of reach

I like this picture because it looks like Sammy is holding the light saber

Pumpkin muffins

First snow fall of of the season

We are still in apple slice and pumpkin mini muffin mode here and  have been spending our afternoons outside enjoying the things fall has to offer. We examined an empty bird nest,  had a Jedi battle (against imaginary enemies), painted with acorns and leaves, used baby socks as mittens to protect little hands from the chilly air, and I recited the words from a poem called The Whisky Frisky Squirrel for them. 

What started as rain in the morning ended with snow before bedtime. Matthew was so excited that he ran outside in his boots, “Is this practice for Christmas?” he asked.   

No sooner had they backed out of the driveway did he come barreling back into the garage, “It is super duper cold out there, my hands are really cold!”

It was real snow alright!

The Witching Hour Fiesta

The witching hour

Some music for the occasion

Yum, empanadas!

I am not what one would call an artist

Sammy wants a bite!

Chips with dinner

I am always looking for ways to make dinner time more fun at our house. That time of the day is a witching hour for the kids and sometimes adults too! We have been working hard to break some of our bad dinnertime habits like snacking out of a chip bag to tide us over until dinner or preparing a frozen meal when in a hurry. Now we snack earlier in the day and prepare our grocery list around our planned meals for the week. At least once a week we do a “on your own” night which has Matthew eating his hot dog right out of the Tupperware container it was heated up in and Bob practically dives head first into the freezer. I have found that on those nights, as well as the ones that we eat out on, we often seek out a desert after dinner whereas on the night we prepare a home cooked meal they leave the table stuffed until bedtime.

One night his weekend I felt inspired to do a Mexican style dinner. I did things right with a salsa CD, homemade guacamole, chips, and empanadas. Then I scribbled on some paper with crayons to make place mats for everyone. “Is this a restaurant?” Matthew asked when he was called for dinner, “That’s so funny!”

Pumpkin Fest

“This is so awesome!” Matthew exclaimed as we walked through the jack o’ lantern lit grounds of the museum after dark. “This is super duper awesome!” 

Bob and I would have to agree! What we have come to think of as a sleepy museum was bustling with activity like hayrides, crafts, and a corn maze. People big and small were dressed in costumes and pretend ghosts hung in exhibits. 

The downside is that we waited nearly an hour for a fifteen minute train ride. This is the same train ride we have been on many time before but as Matthew pointed out, never in the dark. Bob and Sammy waited inside a warm tent while we froze in line. I played a game with him where I would pretend to take his picture and then show him a picture of a spooky pumpkin or another family member when he asked to see it. That kept him entertained until it was our turn. Once we were on the train we forgot about the cold. It turned out to be a spectacular ride with a large inflatable dinosaur hidden in the woods. 

On our way out of the museum we all agreed that we can’t wait to see what they do next year.

One Fall Day

A typical fall day around here includes football games, crisp air, yams, elf slippers, and spooky stories read by flashlight.  

Spaceships and Skeletons

Growing up the thing that I enjoyed the most about family gatherings was getting to see Lauren.  Her name is attached to all the stories I tell about my childhood holiday experiences like the time we switched identical wrapped gifts and it backfired on us or perfecting our recipe for the drink we called L&L (imagine a lot of soda in the same cup if you will).  

She lived in a different town but went to high school at one located at the end of my street. During our teenage years our friends and family vacations sometimes overlapped so we saw a lot more of each other then.  

The kids and I met her at the Museum of Science earlier this week. 

“Why does General Grievous have four arms?” Matthew asked her the second formalities were out of the way. He knows that Lauren can hold up her end of a Star Wars conversation, a rare capability among the adults in his life.  

“Well he is kind of an alien because humans don’t have four arms, am I right?” She answers. The two of them mull this over for a few paces until we walked up to a spaceship motion ride. Sammy was hungry so I fed her while they went on it together.

I had no idea the Museum of Science was so child friendly! I figured there would be interesting things for us to look at but as it turned out the majority of the exhibits were hands on. Matthew’s favorite part of the museum was the electricity room because when he touched his hand to the large plasma ball it looked like he was using the force. I enjoyed rooting though discovery boxes and getting to touch a real human skeleton.  Sammy seemed to like watching her reflection in a mirror best. 

These days Lauren and I do not get to see each other as often as we used to but when we do it is a lot of fun.

Paper Mache

I knew something that we could do with all the scrap paper (i.e. catalogs, old school newsletters) that piled up around our home. We made paper mache Halloween Decorations. Matthew opted to make a scary mask and I made Frank the monster from a picture book we like to read together called,  Frank was a Monster who wanted to Dance.

There was some drama in the making of this craft as Matthew did not understand we would need to wait overnight for the paste to dry, we heard the sound of thunder that threatened the future of our masterpieces drying outdoors, and I needed to make homemade paint at the last second because we didn’t have all the colors that we needed on hand. 

In the end the craft was a success, not only did we recycle but we also had fun. Plus with our new decorations our house looks a little extra spooky in time for Halloween.

Lion Cookies

If I had to pick one book to read to the kids each night it would be The Library Lion. I picked this book out for Matthew as a birthday present earlier this year. It’s a hand illustrated story about a Lion that is allowed to visit the library just as long as he doesn’t roar. He ends up breaking this rule when someone gets hurt because he needs to catch the attention a more villainous librarian. He then believes that he is banned from the library for breaking the rules and doesn’t return until the villainous librarian tracks him down to apologize and explain to the lion and little readers of the story that sometimes  it is okay to break the rules if someone is in danger. 

The last time that we took this book off the shelf we practiced our best lion roars and made Library Lion cookies using sugar cookies, M&M’s, and chow mien noodles. Sammy was noticeably wishing she could take a bite of one as she sat on my lap while we decorated them.  

3 Desks Down

We have three desks in our home, try to see if you can guess which person each desk belongs to.

S. Cakes

First time seeing the ocean

Well Fed!

Watching her big brother

So happy all the time!

 Sammy is three months old today! She is up to all sorts of new things like rolling to her side, batting at toys, and giggling in delight.  She is such a happy and an easy going baby to have around.  Words tend to end in “kins”, “cakes”, or “y” when we’re talking to her.  One of my favorite moments of the day is watching her wake up.  She does it by stretching her arms way over her head and pulling her chubby legs in towards her stomach. This is almost always followed by cooing noises for attention and a big smile when she is picked up.  We feel so fortunate to have a baby that is as sweet as she is.