Friday, November 21, 2008

"Candy"

First of all, let me just say: When you get free stuff, take advantage! I got a small box full of apples from my neighbor, who got them from our other neighbor's trees. Free. Today, I made almost three quarts of applesauce. It would have been probably four quarts, except I waited a tad too long and had to throw away five or six of the apples. To buy that much applesauce at the store would be at least $10. More if I bought organic and unsweetened, which is what I get as a result of canning my own. As I was preparing to make the applesauce, I had to peel and core the apples first. I have a peeler that I can mount on the counter that peels, cores and slices at the same time. It peels the entire apple in one long strip. Sarah was fascinated with the whole process and was helping me on and off throughout it. When I was just about done with the peeling, she asked me if she could have some candy. I said, "what candy?" because there wasn't any candy out anywhere. Pointing to one of the strips of apple peel, she said, "This candy. Right here." She was obviously pretending that the peel was candy. She knew exactly what it was because she watched and even helped me get it off the apples. I said, "Really? Um... sure, I guess you can have some 'candy,' but I don't know if you'll like it." But she did. She ate two entire apples worth of peels! I guess that's good, right? Isn't the peel where most of the nutrients are in an an apple anyway? Go Sarah! She's picky and weird in what she likes to eat, but pleasantly surprises me sometimes.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Seriously?

Okay... I sweep the floor pretty much daily. I'm pretty sure I swept it at some point yesterday, and if I didn't, I did for sure the day before. Either way, it was completely dirt free at least once in the last two days. Well, I swept it again today. This is what I gathered up:Seriously? After just ONE day?? Please tell me I'm not the only one whose kids make this kind of mess in their kitchen...

By the way, this is my 101st post!! Hooray for blogging! Had I been more organized or observant, I would have done a nice "100th post" post. Oh well. I have other things to worry about... like cleaning the floors! ;)

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

What's For Dinner?

Usually, I like to make something yummy. I enjoy cooking, and usually like what I come up with. The rest of the family? Not so much sometimes. Tonight, though, I made whole wheat biscuits and the kids helped me cut shapes. They each chose which shape they wanted and we made peanut butter sandwiches with homemade banana jam and some raisins, pickles and goldfish. Nutritious, eh? They seemed to enjoy making these a lot more than eating them, unfortunately. I've been blessed with incredibly picky eaters in my children. Oh well. I love them anyway. Looks yummy, though, doesn't it?
So what did you have for dinner?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Pure Sweetness

Jeff and Audrey had the privilege of attending Kathy's 60th birthday party over the weekend. She had a sixties-themed party for which I made Audrey a retro little outfit to wear. I was hoping it looked the part because it was terribly hard to find any pictures online of sixties fashion, especially for babies. Here's the outfit.

And here's the cutest little sixties baby!


Earlier this week, the boys had a playdate with the neighbor boy. Apparently, this is what happens when I let them stay up to play instead of napping during the day. Alex fell asleep at the top of the basement stairs.

And Lucas fell asleep at the bottom of the entry stairs.I'm not sure what it is about stairs, but that's the cozy place they chose to rest that day.

Now, these ones aren't the best pictures because I was in a really bad spot for taking them. But if I had moved, I most definitely would have missed the opportunity. Alex was very upset this morning because Sarah let Lucas sit in Alex's chair at the table so he could color with her. Alex wanted his chair and refused to sit on the other side of the table in the other chair. He came over to where I was sitting at the computer and sat down on the floor to cry. Audrey came over shortly thereafter and decided to try and comfort him. These are the pictures I caught of her patting Alex on the head as if to say "It's okay, Alex." You see... when Alex or Lucas accidentally do something to make Audrey cry, that is exactly what they do. They pat her on the head and say "Sorry, Audrey." She was mimicking their consoling behavior! What a sweetie.


Thursday, November 6, 2008

Double Trouble

This is why we don't own any crayons that are not "washable." At least it's one of my many reasons. Audrey also likes to eat the crayons, so washable is great for the rainbow colored slobber that ultimately ends up all over her shirt.

This morning, as I was following my kids around picking stuff up and cleaning up after them, I found this:

I asked Lucas if he did it and he said "No." When I asked him who did, he said, "Alex did." As I proceeded to clean it up, Alex walked in the room. I asked him if he did it, and he said, "No." When I asked him who did, he said, "Lucas." Now, I'm pretty sure Alex is the real culprit judging by the guilty look on his face and the color of the crayon. I'm sad that he's learning to lie to get out of trouble already. I guess all kids learn that at some point, right? Better to get a handle on this bad habit early... not to mention the coloring on the floor thing.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Post-Trick-Or-Treating Fun.

**There are like six new posts here. This one is the last in the actual history of things, so if you want to see this week in the order it occurred, start with the post titled "Pre-Halloween Fun."**

Halloween day and night brought more trick or treating. We went to the locally owned grocery store where they always hand out candy throughout the store to the trick-or-treating patrons. We met with our neighbor friends there, then headed to the assisted living home (Emiritus Estates) down Washington for a visit with the elderly and more candy gathering. One of our neighbor's grandmothers lives there. It was fun to see the joy on the faces of all the elderly men and women as they saw all the cute kids in their costumes and handed each a piece or two of candy. After that, we came home to empty out our pumpkins, and get ready to stroll the neighborhood.

Once everyone returned home for the evening, the feasting began.

Here's Lucas saying "cheese" for the camera with a mouth full of candy corn.

"Mwah hah ha ha ha!"

On Halloween night each year, the kids are allowed to eat as much candy as they want... until bedtime. Then they place their pumpkins full of candy on the kitchen table as an "offering" to the "Great Pumpkin." Then it's upstairs to brush teeth REALLY well, and off to bed. In the morning when they wake up, there's a great new gift in place of the candy filled pumpkins that was left by the "Great Pumpkin" sometime during the night as a little "thank you" for the candy they so lovingly bestowed upon him. Here's what that looks like.


In the morning, the kids all came down to eat breakfast and found the gifts. Both the boys got new trains. Alex's pulls a car with a dinosaur skeleton on it, and Lucas's pulls a car with a bicycle on it. They were very excited about them. Here's Alex looking at his.

Lucas wasn't quite as thrilled with having a gift.

"Hey...

"Where's the candy???"

Audrey wasn't quite sure what to do with hers. At first, she picked it up and dropped it on the floor. She's been doing that with everything that she doesn't feel has a use to her lately.

Eventually, with a little help and guidance, she got hers opened. I think she likes it.

Sarah slept in quite a bit longer than the rest of the kids. Which is understandable. She did stay up quite a bit later than everyone else also. But when she finally did come down and see her new gift, this is what I got.

She got the Belle doll (from Beauty and the Beast) that goes with the princess horse she got for her birthday earlier this year. She was thrilled. Which is good, considering I bought it back in August because I happened to see it on sale and thought it would be smart to store it for an occasion where she might do something to merit a new toy like that. I'd say it worked out quite nicely.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Party Time!

Well, I survived the sewing machine attacks and we were ready to go for the party in the morning. There were about 20 preschoolers, a dozen or so moms and one dad. The kids all had fun decorating halloween cookies, playing musical chairs, and making footprint ghosts. They had their fill of cookies, pumpkin shaped sandwiches, chips, grapes and goulish punch (apple juice mixed with 7-Up in a punch bowl with a blue, frozen, floating monster head.) Later that night, we headed over to the church for our ward party and door to door trick or treating around all the kids' primary classrooms.

Here's my little mummies decorating their cookies.

I can just see the thoughts running through Lucas's head in this one. "Hmmmm... should I put more candy on it?" He decided in favor of that option.

Here's Audrey at our ward party. Unfortunately, she was feeling a little ill that day. She did have plenty of smiles at the party, but my camera takes so darn long to focus and take the picture that I missed every single one of them! She made such a cute creepy baby mummy, though, don't you think?


This is my "cool kid" Lucas. He was posing for me at the church before the costume parade.

Our little mummy family won "Best in Show." Which really earned us nothing but bragging rights. There was no actual prize. This was the only picture of our entire family on my camera. I think a few other people got some good ones. But I only have one.

Alex really liked his "scary clothes."

Here's Mommy Mummy with her baby.

Cutest, littlest mummy at the party.

And the sugar high begins...

Scary Papa Mummy!

Poor Audrey. She did so well despite not feeling very well. Then she zonked.

Here they all are on the ride home showing off their mummy growls.

I Sewed My Finger!

That's what I get for procrastinating and staying up late. I waited until three days before the first Halloween party to start on the three new costumes for this year. Sarah's, Alex's and Lucas's. I finished Sarah's and Lucas's, and half of Alex's in a couple of late night sewing sessions in a row. Then I had the last half of Alex's to finish the night before the first party at 11:30am at my house. So... here's what happened:

The first finger.I was tacking one of Alex's mummy strips down, and my finger just sort of jumped up under the needle! I swear it did! I poked a hole right through. It bled like crazy too. So I went up and washed it off, wrapped it for a minute while I got out all the first aid stuff, then proceeded to put neosporin and a bandaid on it. It was throbbing, but I wasn't finished with the costume that I needed the next morning. So I put all the stuff away and headed back downstairs.

The second finger. It was less than five minutes later. The first time, I just yanked my finger back away from the sewing machine and said "Shoot!" Not even very loudly. The second time, I yanked my finger back and yelled "CRAP!" which, if you know me at all, only comes out of my mouth when I have done something I consider seriously stupid. So I went back upstairs and had to get all the first aid stuff back out. When I was finished, I left it out just in case! This one was much less severe, though. It was more of a cut than a puncture, really. Which is a little funny because that's the finger that still bugs me today, after 4 days. The first one that went through is practically healed. Go figure. The scratched finger is more of a nuisance than the actual wounded finger...

So this is what my hand looked like for a few days. If you'll notice, the time on my watch in these pictures is AM, not PM. Thus the tired stupidity that led to sewn fingers.

On a brighter note, my nails were very festive. Look at the cute Jack-O-Lantern polish!

Our Halloween Decor

We've had our Halloween decorations up since September 22. Jeff's birthday. This is because Sarah was so excited for Halloween that she kept asking over and over again every day "When is it going to be Halloween?" And the response was always "After Papa's Birthday." Well... guess whose birthday was on a Monday night. FHE September 22 was putting up Halloween decor. Here's what it looked like for most of the month and a half before Halloween at the Farnsworth House:

Front.

Here's the front porch close up.

Here's the ghost I made this year. Sarah really wanted it to be a girl ghost, but I needed something to help tie off the neck. So it's got a necktie, and a bow in it's "hair." Plus some creepy red tulle under it's "skirt." I thought it turned out pretty cute. A good mix of cute and creepy at the same time.

Here's our creepy big spider. It's actually pretty daunting staring down our guests from the ceiling as they're knocking.

Some of you might recognize this from years' past. Maybe from a great, awesome, amazing haunted house that was put on at Kathy's house a few years back? Yep. It's the creepy amputated leg I made. I kinda like having it around for occasions just such as Halloween.

Along with the creepy, we do also have some cute stuff. Here's the scarecrows that became some of the newest additions to our Halloween decor this year.


Apparently, this is the kind of pet we really should choose to get. She stayed right there and out of trouble for an entire month and a half.

This is the first time we've had a real fireplace. Along with a fireplace comes a mantle. This was fun to decorate.

The cutest Halloween Spider ever! Sarah made this at preschool and brought it home. It was so cute, I just HAD to hang it up somewhere.

Last, but not least, and certainly not all-inclusive, is the bats and skeletons hanging from our dining chandelier. As an added bonus, you can see what the fixture looks like now that the ugly gold has been painted over. Nice, huh? Looks like a brand new chandelier. It used to look exactly like the one in the picture above with Sarah's spider, only smaller. What a difference a can of spray paint can make!