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Pumpkins

Last weekend I got a pumpkin spice latte (Mr. H got coffee) and we went to the pumpkin patch to try to get adorable photos of our children with big, orange vegetables. It didn't really work out.

My camera was on the wrong setting but at least I have blackmail photos for Oscar of the time mom dressed him as though Halloween vomited all over him.

We brought home a sugar pumpkin so I could try my hand at pumpkin pie from scratch. Yesterday we roasted the sugar pumpkin and scooped its guts.

And today, TODAY was pumpkinstravaganza.

PIE!

Which was enjoyed after a meal of pumpkin risotto (except Oscar who enjoyed his pumpkin puree straight up.)

CARVING!

She is so ready for Halloween.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

And the moon sailed along with

Biscuit realized her Halloween costume dream today. Oscar helped her out by playing the part of Harold. Do you know the book?

Because she wanted to up the obscurity factor, she specifically wanted to be the "terribly frightening dragon"

And, of course, the apple tree the dragon was drawn to guard.

A local church hosted trunk or treat tonight with some impressively decorated cars. The kids' costumes got a lot of appreciation along with questions and confusion.

Biscuit painted the tree and dragon this morning (we had traced it from a projection of the illustration--see the book there?)

I made the crayon during naptime and we were set. I sure hope it doesn't rain on Monday!

 

Dramatic

Today I told Biscuit the story of the boy who cried wolf. It seems we have a very dramatic six year old on our hands and the "oh my gosh I need you right now, hurry!" exclamations followed by "just kidding" are wearing a bit thin. We'll see if the fable sticks with her. I couldn't actually recall the details but I told her that, in the end, the wolf ate someone. She wanted to know who. I wasn't sure but she thought it was probably the little boy. I guess that taught him!

Anyway, that's the down side of drama. The upside is math homework with a certain flair:

And very heartfelt thank you notes for very modest gifts from Great Aunts. (Note, she hasn't done any thank you notes for friends who attended her party but she was very excited to get mail)

And while we're on the topic of Biscuit and drama, a little public service announcement from my cautious daughter. Let me paraphrase the story she told me tonight:

"Mom, even if there are bad guys you shouldn't sleep with a gun under your pillow to shoot the bad guys. You know why? Because if you are sleeping and your hand is around the gun under your pillow and it's wrapped around the trigger while you are sleeping you might accidentally squeeze the gun and shoot your head and you would die."

So there you go, one reason to not sleep with loaded guns. The more you know....

 

Fancy

Because a friend asked for more photos of the Fancy Nancy themed 6th birthday party and who am I to resist? Ready?

Hairdo (thanks to Grammie's gift of a trip to the hair salon)

Porch decor (thanks to Grandma's purchase of awesome, pink balloons)

The dress up area (Oscar's room)

Testing the mirror

The dress up chaos

The parfait parlor (including menus)

The table including 10 thrift store parfait glasses. An excellent use of $5!

The best shot of the party--the fancy fashion show.

All the kids who wanted to be fancy

Playing "pass the package" and excellent party game

Parfait parlor in action. Skittles and gummy bears were popular with the kids. My dad was disappointed to realize those M&Ms he'd put on his sundae were actually Skittles. Oops.

Love this shot of my niece+parfait+KoolAid+fish(?)

 Group shot

Wish making

Nail salon

Cool balloon decor before we cut them down for....

Game Biscuit invented for the party that involved balloons as consolation prizes. It was sort of like hot potato. With notes. Person with the winning note at the end won a Fancy Nancy book. The rest got a balloon.

Burning off parfait sugar

And, done. Next year we're going to have to separate the kid party and the family party. And possibly invite fewer kids. But it was totally worth it because when I asked what was her favorite part she replied, "everything!"

Special thanks to my mom for all her fancy stuff and cleaning help!

Big Day

Biscuit's 6th birthday party. (Ignore the funny looking sea creature/baby shower cake decor. It tasted good.)

Plus Oscar rolled over for the first time and cut a tooth. 

Nobody witnessed the rolling but after his nap he was on his back so it must have happened. Here's a goofy video we took just before the party started of Biscuit using her magic wand to try to get him to roll again. Turn your volume down, my voice is super loud on this.

 

And, finally, what you might look like at your Fancy Nancy themed birthday party if you had a grammie who took you for a haircut and updo and a grandma with the best dress up box in the world. Pretty fancy.

I may post tomorrow about the fancy decor and parfaits but for now I best go finish knitting Biscuit's birthday present. After all, she'll be six in less than three hours. (though hopefully not awake for at least ten hours).

Weather and doing nothing

Looking at the downpour outside I'm feeling worse and worse about Biscuit going to school in a dress (with shorts, not pants, underneath) and without a coat, umbrella or anything. Although, odds are they won't be doing PE in a downpour and the classroom is probably the same temperature regardless of outside rain.

I'm rather enjoying the quiet and listening to the rain while Oscar naps and naps.

But listening to the gutter overflowing and running inside the house through the broken door threshold makes me think "replace doors" should have come up higher on the house project priority list. Or, maybe, "de-gunk gutters" would be enough.

This last weekend we went to Yosemite. It's a 3-4 hour drive and we were leaving Friday after school and had to be home by 3ish on Sunday. I'll be the first to admit I didn't want to go.

Arriving and realizing we had forgotten the tent (of all things!) did not improve my sense that this was a bad idea.

But, my sister-in-law had set up an extra tent for suitcase storage so we moved out the suitcases and moved in our family and didn't even have to set up a tent in the dark. Pretty good planning, eh?

We were there in a patch of beautiful weather between storms but it was pretty chilly. There was snow on top of Half Dome but none in the valley. Still, I woke up cold on Saturday morning after a poor night's sleep and thought about driving home.

Instead we left the big kid with her aunt and cousins and took the baby to the Awahanee. It was the perfect attitude adjustment for me. I was there with nothing to do. Nothing I even could do. Unlike downtime at home where there is always laundry to fold (ie right this minute) there was nothing I could do but snuggle my non sleeping boy and accept compliments on his cuteness from strangers.

Eventually he drifted off for a little while and I was able to contemplate the interesting patterns on the ceiling and read a few pages of my book. And drink a $4 cup of coffee.

Warm and relaxed I went back to camp to find the big kid playing pirates with her cousins. Dinner was cooked over the ever present campfire. Saturday night I went to bed at 7:15 and worked out how to sleep/feed Oscar/stay warm so I got a good night's sleep.

Amazingly it was a really good trip. But I still think I'll focus on camping in the summer when it's warmer.

 

Report from here

Just jotting down some thoughts.

It's raining. First rain in a long time. It's actually rather nice but a bit of a bummer for Biscuit's outdoor field trip tomorrow.

Today was my first day back at work. It was fine. I like my job and my co-workers and it was good to start reconnecting with them and projects. And a friend took me out to lunch for soup so that was good.

Oscar can (and will) go 9 hours without eating. But he did eventually take the bottle and doesn't seem any worse for the wear. Although he seemed to want extra snuggles and nursing tonight which I can totally understand and am in favor of.

This apple cake is good. Smitten Kitchen. No surprise there.

I just finished reading Matched and I think my dysptopian teenage romance reading phase may be coming to an end. I felt like I was reading a mashup of The Giver and Hunger Games. Of course I say that now but the sequel is coming out November 1 and I'm pretty sure I'll be reading it. Now I'm reading Buddhism for Mothers of Young Children which is a bit of a departure from the dystopian teenage romance stuff. I'm also listening to Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates on audiobook. I like her but not sure I'm following all this history very well via audiobook format.

I am excited about Biscuit's Halloween costume. It's a bit, how shall I say it, esoteric? Anyway, nobody will know what she is but she's going to be the dragon guarding the apple tree from Harold and the Purple Crayon. I LOVE that book. Oscar is going to be Harold. Biscuit has her costume all planned out and I can't wait to see how she creates her vision.

Speaking of Halloween, found this in her backpack today

And on that note, goodnight.

Scrapbook layout on the wall

The previous photos hanging in this hallway were so old they included my ex brother-in-law and did not include 3 newer family members. Time for an update. I decided to commemerate our best summer ever on the wall with a quick scrapbook style layout.

At first I just stuck them up but it was too flat so I put in some nails and hung them clothesline style.

I like the dimension of the nails and clothespins. Theoretically it would be easy to change out photos but I sort of like capturing this moment in time in a single wall. All the images are from Instagram from Mr. H's iPhone. I took them all this summer and had them printed at Costco in the 8x8" format. Yes, they're grainy but Instagrams are supposed to look sort of rough so it doesn't bother me.

Between Oscar, my maternity leave, vacations, the new "shed" and numerous other things this really was the best summer ever. I'm savoring my last few days of it now--back to work on Tuesday.

Images from top to bottom left to right:

Tomato harvest :: Biscuit attempts waterskiing at Topaz :: happy Oscar

Toothless children :: Biscuit in braids at the lake :: giant sunflowers in the garden

Serious Oscar :: lake view :: Bodie, CA