Halloween birthday boy

Somehow I didn't get a photo of Thing Two in Halloween garb, but as he was head to toe black as the Angel of Death, I trust you can use your imagination to envision this:

He loped to an open garage to collect a treat and was accosted by what he called "a tiny princess- she was about thigh high" who asked him, "are you a real pirate?"

He rumbled, "oh yeah."

I did have these photos with "his" yellow tree. He is affectionately known locally as "Yellowjacket." I wanted to get one of him in his robe as it creeps ever higher and shorter on him, but we've had some frosts and now those lovely yellow leaves are a sad brown, not the "happy crispy brown leaf" as our friend Sharon coined. 

The rest of us. My wig was trying to bisect my brain, which I suppose was a good thing as it was rainy with a wind advisory, but it reignited my "I have zero desire to wear a wig when I'm bald" mantra...

Thing Three loves over the top costumes and has already devoured the vast majority of his haul. Good thing we put off him getting braces until the New Year.

And the amazing artistry of Thing One:

Hope you all had a Halloween and are not finding candy wrappers behind your couch or in other suspicious locations!

 

See you in September...

 Tomorrow kicks off Pinktober (breast cancer awareness month, and don't think it has escaped our notice around here, heh) and Inktober in case you want the official rules. We made it into autumn, people! Not to tip anybody into a complete panic or anything, but we have Trick or Treat, a fairly major election, Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up. I suppose I should start thinking about shopping. My mother is probably already done. Way to go, Mommeeee!

In the meantime, I'd love for y'all to try Inktober with me. Once I find my sketchbook, since I probably haven't done more than a squiggle or two, I will attempt the daily prompts and post them here. Don't hold your breath for them to appear in a daily post; there is a reason Mommeee says I am the least competitive person she knows. Remember that it's for fun, not pressure, so doodle on a napkin somewhere and you don't have to go in order and just enjoy getting the creative juices flowing. You might make something hilarious that you know someone would love! In that case, feel free to give it with boldness to the recipient, who can then post/mount/display it with pride because someone who cared about them took a risk and thought about them! Everybody wins. Be brave!

And here's another PSA- go get your parts checked. Heavens, especially if wherever you work supports that, take advantage of the points or the system or whatever. Go see your doctor and be honest with them about what's working well and what's working not so well. If they don't listen to you, it's okay for you to try a different doctor. Just because you've gone to the same person forever doesn't mean you have to. Find your tribe, add them in, and with diligence you'll both find out early if anything is going wrong with you. Men, this goes for you, as well. Yes, it can be awkward. Go anyway. Your doc can turn into a trusted friend. Tell the truth. Make them earn their money- you had to wait for their time for your appointment. Be real. 

If anyone's not seen this refrigerator magnet before, it's partly to credit with me finding this round of cancer. You can click on it to enlarge it. The dimple part was what caught my eye and then I noticed the lump underneath it.

Know your body so that when something changes, you notice. A cousin would also like me to remind you to get checked for skin cancer. It doesn't take very long to do and the peace of mind of being declared free or getting samples sent off is worth it. Again, we're aiming for early detection because that brings better results. If you feel crummy, don't wait! Be your own advocate. Trust me, going forward, I'm going to be vocal about my allergy to chloraprep! I'd not go through the intense itching again if I don't have to! 

Take good care of you, grab your doodling pen, and I'll see you in October!

Halloween Shenaniganery

Thing Three was a sumo wrestler with some added gloves and his red crocs. 

Thing One headed off to scoop ice cream in costume. Yes, Link. Again.

Thing Two, celebrating his 18th birthday in style,  was the Black Knight from Monty Python. He even tied for second place in the costume party competition. 

And I'm not sure where the Tuscan Raider (Star Wars canon) came from, but you can bet there are snow pants on under the brown pants and a Carhartt under the outer layer. It snowed right before trick or treat and was a fabulously frosty 33 degrees. Grandmama informed me it was 23F with windchill. Very different from last year's balmy warm sprinkles!

Dada was a lumberjack and we visited thing one before taking the boys to their party and trick or treating. We had a great night. pray for teachers everywhere who are dealing with excessive amounts of sugar today!

 

Tis the season

No, not that one yet. I don't skip Halloween and Thanksgiving to head straight to Christmas, though I did muse to Grandmama that I should hang Christmas lights outside today since it's 60 degrees. On Halloween. In Ohio. 

Some sneak peeks:

Above would be Carrie as a mirrored ninja. Below would be Liam as Skullduggery Pleasant, based on the series written by Derek Landy.

You can always tell what time of year it is once Carrie's hair goes dark:

And Count Chocula becomes the breakfast of champions:

Dada becomes the Artist Extraordinaire:

More to come, today or tomorrow, as tonight is Trick or Treat + Liam's birthday = utter chaos.

Happy Halloween! Be safe and have fun, everybody!

All dressed up and no place to go

Kidding! All dressed up to hit the town! Everyone was excited about trick-or-treat, including Carrie (faceless phantom) who had declared last year to be her last time begging for candy. Perhaps it had something to do with being allowed to go with her friend Isaac (chicken killer, killed chicken? Not sure what's going on there) through the same neighborhood we'd be visiting. Damon found a storm trooper costume that he fell in love with, and while you may assume that Liam teamed up to go as the Emperor, I'd then have to point out his humungous scythe. That's right. He's Death. Dada then borrowed the Harpo Marx wig and coat which Liam used last year, but the honking horn couldn't be found before we needed to leave. It was okay though, because that Captain Jack you see before you wasn't me this year, it was our good friend Josh who was in town all the way from Hawaii and he was game enough to let us dress him up, too. After purchasing latex pointed ears and a fancy cape that will definitely be worn again and again to get all of our money's worth out of it, I was transformed into an Elf with a little bit of help from clothing and jewelry I already owned: win! Even Pap, who was visiting for Liam's birthday, was tickled about risk-or-treating, because he didn't have to go this year. He got to stay warm at our house, supervising the dogs and reading a book. 

It was frigid, hitting 31 later that night, and I suppose it may have had something to do with the runny noses and scratchy throats some of us are now experiencing. I'm not sure who's in charge of planning Halloween costumes, but I don't believe they've figured out that trick-or-treat is usually in October and in the northern hemisphere that means winter is coming and you may have to fit a snowsuit under that sleeveless fairy costume with the gossamer wings, my dear. Thankfully it was dry and frigid as opposed to that time maybe 3 years ago when we tried gathering our candy in freezing rain. Poor Josh observed, "hmmm, my blood has definitely thinned since moving to Hawaii!" 

At any rate, our town allows an hour and a half and we were thrilled to finish, get home, sort loot, pay taxes (the kids to us, of course) and procrastinate on going to bed. Liam was too busy assembling his birthday gift from Pap to even take more than a bite of his frosting from his slice of cake before trick-or-treating; it is such a crazy evening between school/dinner/homework/costumes on/leave to then try to add in any kind of birthday celebration. I probably make that observation every year. 

Safe to say a good time was had by all!

Halloween Thursday

Must rest up for all the Halloween shenanigans...

Trick or Treat was cancelled on actual Halloween because of the 50 mph winds we were having. The only damage I saw was to one of the neighbor's trees out back:
 

 

Damon started swim lessons on Halloween. I signed him up for the first class that didn't involve me having to get in with him. The being in the water part is not a big deal. The chasing a naked, wet 3-year-old around the slippery locker room while I myself am trying to shower/dry/change would be the part I object to!  He'll have about 6 lessons on Thursday mornings, and the big kids will start their evening ones this week. We will be at the Y a lot this fall!  And yes, he loved it.
 

 

Trick or Treat 2013

 

The kids were a "chocolate skellie", dark Link, and regular Link. Once again, for those of you who've missed it, Link is an elven character from The Legend of Zelda, Carrie's obsession since she first played the video game. Somehow she convinced Liam to be dark Link, who apparently is evil and has a black face with red eyes. I'm hoping this passes and quickly.

I was a gypsy (which is, yes, politically incorrect), but I already owned everything for my costume so I'd call that a win.
 

 

 

Somebody is SIX!

We made a big number 6 on Liam's cake, which he blew out as we began singing "Happy Birthday." Oh well. He wanted a Funfetti cake with Funfetti icing and chocolate and vanilla ice cream, so that's what he got. We did this party on Sunday, right before he officially turned 6. Halloween is crazy around here. Carrie had school because it was a Monday and then we had Trick or Treat that night. Grandma Barb and Pap took the kids Trick or Treating while Dada and I stayed in with Tigger (Damon) and handed out candy. It was a good birthday weekend, that's for sure!

Damon's thinking, "I just know I can get cake outta Mama Rita. She's a softie!"

"See!? I knew it! Go me!"

Lost...

I'm not sure how this conversation even started but Care Bear and I ended up talking about Santa Claus and she wanted to know if he was from Earth. I told her that yes, the North Pole is on Earth. She said she wanted to go visit the North Pole and see Santa. I told her that you don't get to see Santa, that he comes to YOUR house, but only when you're sleeping. Then I said how he works all year, and wondered out loud if he got to go on vacation. (Can you tell my mouth is operating without any connection to my brain? I'm folding the laundry!) She informed me that yes, he does, on Halloween. He dresses up. But his dwarves go naked. I told HER that they're ELVES and that they most certainly do not Trick or Treat naked.

What in the world!?

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I took the kids to IHOP this morning for breakfast since "Dee" was home sick from preschool yesterday and today. She has a bad cough and has been running a fever. They both got those chocolate chip face pancakes with the cool whip and extra chips on top. They both also pretty much ate the cool whip and the chips and drank their chocolate milks. Sugared up long before trick or treating! Oh well. Poor Dee even missed her party at school but she said she didn't want to go today even though she was much improved from yesterday. Hopefully she'll be done w/ her fever and can go back tomorrow- I've gotten dependent on her being out of the house! =/

And happy 2nd birthday to Liam =D He was Tigger tonight for trick or treat and Carrie was a pirate. They were pretty great looking! He was incredibly distracted by all the "pretties" along the sidewalk while we were going house to house. First he found some leaf stems that he ripped off his mittens so he could pick up. Then it was a red leaf. Then it was a magic dandelion. Then a blooming dandelion! He was more enamored with everyone's pumpkins than with the candy- to him they're just shiny wrappers. Except for lollipops. He totally gets what those are ;) He got one at the second house we visited and chattered about it the rest of the night, including using it as a microphone and singing into it while waving his arm just like Rob does in the video a few posts down! Too funny. It was much warmer this year (MUCH warmer) and we started at 6 when it was still light. Dada thinks we had around 40 kids... lots of them were our kids' age. A handful of junior highers and the rest were all about 8 or under. Everyone pretty much was done once it was dark even though it lasted until 8 PM officially. I think Liam and Care Bear were in bed by 8:20 or so...

He had a slice of pumpkin pie today since I made three of those instead of cake this year. He dug right in and ate it all up. Most of his words are food words, like his Hinrew did too. But "book" is another very favorite, along with his no. 1 word= NO! Eh, he's two. Egads, he's two!

Sorry this post is so scattered- wrapping up to go to bed. The pictures, we did get them, are awesome, so I'll try really hard to figure out how to post them soon! We have so many! Thanks to Kay (I think- a singing card- what were you thinking?! Haha), Mar, and Pap & Grandma Barb for the cards that came today. Nana, yours didn't make it yet. Love y'all! =)