October Weekending

"Hey Mom, you should go to college to become a cheerleader. You would not have to work much except during Patriots games. And you could just wear your underwear!" Matthew told me this during a Patriots game. In his unprejudiced mind I could totally become Patriots cheerleader in my underwear or anything for that matter if I went to college for it. Currently his plans are to go to college to play goalie for the Bruins and to divide his time teaching and being a police officer during the off season.

Speaking of football Matthew had a special guest coach this week – his Grampa! Bob’s assistant coaches couldn’t make it to the game this week so Grampa helped out in a pinch. 

This past weekend there was a library sale and I gathered my pile of books for the winter plus some armloads for the kids. We didn’t have any plans Saturday night so we built a fort with blankets to read in. I wanted us to enjoy some chocolate chip cookies too, that were still warm from the oven, but that turned out to be a bad idea like the time I decided that we should eat pancakes on the beach. This time instead of sand getting everywhere it was little chocolate covered hands.

Naturally I’ve been coercing the children into doing Halloween crafts. I’ve used our ghost shaped cookie cutter on everything from sandwich bread to pancakes. Matthew and I made some spooky Play Doh characters and Sammy and I painted pumpkins. 

It was nice to spend a weekend at home unwinding and making messes.  

Paper Eggs

I opted out of dyeing real eggs this year and we decorated paper ones instead. I set up an egg decoration station in our kitchen and let Matthew decorate however he was inspired to do so. Even Sammy decorated an egg.  Afterwards we ate real eggs for dinner. These two love scrambled eggs so much that they would eat them by the dozen if I let them!

Let the decorating begin!

Are we boring you down there?

Can you spot the green Ninjago? How about the one that Sammy made?

Do I have some on my face?

To Catch A Leprechaun

When Matthew catches the Leprechaun he is going to use the gold to buy toys. We know that Leprechauns like to break rules and the sight of gold so we made a trap using an overturned berry box, a treasure chest of gold, and signs that read DO NOT ENTER and STOP.  We also made rainbow cupcakes with green frosting and gave ourselves St. Patrick themed tattoos. 

I am not sure why I am inviting more trouble makers into our house. In the first picture above that is  Sammy is in the background chewing on a Batman. I had to ask Matthew to refrain from using his Lego sword to mix the cupcake batter twice. I cannot wait to see what kind of tricks the leprechaun will play on these two!

Zen Sand

One of best holiday gifts that I received was a Zen Garden for my desk. I felt this way until I took it out of its well organized box. When one of us (usually Matthew) raked it some sand would enviably fall out and onto the dark wood of my desk.  I hated the gritty feeling of sand under my desk papers. Once Sammy was sitting on my lap and reached to grab a handful of the sand. It quickly seemed that my Zen Garden and small children could not co-exist in a peaceful way. Instead of hiding it on a high shelf, I decided to repurpose the sand by adding a little water and food coloring. Matthew filled a glass vase of sand art for me which he modestly proclaimed to be the most beautiful thing in our house. Best of it does not need to be raked. 

Here is my favorite Zen Parable, which is ironic given this project:
For me, this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. But when I put this glass on a shelf and my elbow brushes it and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, 'Of course.' When I understand that this glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious"

Snowmen At Night

The books

Cutting out Darth Vader alarm clock

Story hour with Sammy

Our Snowmen | Lego Star Wars At Night

We first heard the book Snowmen At Night during my blissful stint of unemployment during story hour at Borders one Thursday morning. Matthew and his friend Celia were Sammy’s age and sat on our laps while Melanie and I drank hot cocoa meant for the children old enough to do a craft after the story. After story hour we would often lay out a blanket in the history section and let the kids roll around while we chatted over our second (paid for) cups of cocoa.

Nowadays I am at work on Thursday mornings and Borders has closed. We still have our happy memories and a collection of books leftover from our Thursday morning story hour days. Determined to give Sammy a similar experience, we did a Snowmen At Night story hour in our home, followed by a craft. She fell asleep and Matthew was sidetracked cutting out things from the magazine he wanted instead of creating a nighttime scene for his snowman. Things didn't go exactly as I had planned but it was still an enjoyable time!

Higgins Armory in 25 words

The Knight Hall Of Fame Matthew said. A dragon looked on from the ceiling while we made a shield. The home to chessboard for giants.