Family Traditions Old and New

Last night we did one of my favorite family traditions. We carved our pumpkins and toasted the seeds. The night before I took the kids to pick out their pumpkins. I love watching them look over each pumpkin closely trying to decide which one will make the perfect jack o lantern. Eric and Charles each found "the one" then helped me find a few more great ones for myself, dad and Katie. We loaded up our pumpkins and away we went. When Eric came home from school we started cleaning out the pulp and the seeds. The boys each cleaned out their own while I worked on the rest. Katie sat up on the kitchen table watching and playing in the seeds. I was surprised that she sat on the table for nearly an hour and a half watching us and keeping track of the carving tools. Eric carved the classic jack o lantern with triangle eyes, square nose and a toothy grin. Charles chose the shapes he knows best: circles. Circle eyes, circle nose and an oval mouth. Both of them carved by themselves and then Eric helped Charles with the last few cuts to get the pieces out. Katie's pumpkin has a scared look and mine looks scary. When Dean came home from work he started on his Headless Horseman design. It took him a long time and it looks great. I then put the candles in so the kids could see the final product. I added something new to our Halloween traditions this year. I printed out menus for our dinner of worms in a slimy sauce, frog legs, severed fingers, blood red punch and worms still in the dirt dessert. I decorated the kitchen with a few streamers and balloons. When dinner was ready Dean and I blind folded the boys and brought them to the table where they put their hands in cooked spaghetti (the worms), green beans (frog legs), and felt the severed fingers (bread sticks with a sliced almond as the fingernail). Charles was a little freaked out by the whole thing while Eric loved the grossness of it all. After they felt the food we served up a delicious spaghetti dinner complete with dirt pudding dessert. It was such a fun family night. I can't wait until next year!

Funny Things

On the way to school this morning Eric and I were stopped at a red light. In the car next to us was a woman smoking like a chimney. Eric looked over at her and said she was a teacher at his school. I asked him where she worked. He told me in the library. He then said, "yeah, I remember her, she sits in the library with that smoker." I chuckled to myself and told him yeah right, they don't allow smoking in schools. He smiled sheepishly and said I know. I think he knew he was caught in a tale.

Season of Change

Fall is my favorite season. The chill in the air, changing colors, my birthday. What's not to love? We have had great weather lately. Today was the first time in a long time it was cold and rainy. Eric's school held their Fall Carnival this morning. There were lots of games and food. The kids had a great time. Later that afternoon we went to a swim birthday party for Eric's friend. Eric went down his first water slide. Unfortunately, Charles was not tall enough. This evening I worked on this slide show forever. I couldn't get it on my blog so Dean came to help. With much trial and even more error we did it. Now, if I could learn how to move things around on the page into the places I want them things would be even better. Live and learn.

Fall

Gibber Jabber

Katie is days away from being seventeen months old. She doesn't say many words. She will however walk up to you with a most serious look on her face and gibber jabber quite matter of factly. So it is exciting to me that in the last three days she's learned two new words. We go to the YMCA four days a week for me to workout and for her to play with other kids. Every day she walks down the steps and I say "down" when she steps down. Friday I was holding her hand so she could go down the steps. Out of her little mouth came the word "down" as she took each step. Now, thirty times a day she drags me to the stairs so she can go down and say her newly learned word. Then on Sunday we went out for a walk. The neighbors have crab apple trees and there are apples all over the ground. She went straight for the apples, picked up a few and asked "what's 'at?" I told her it was an apple. She repeated the question a few times and I repeated the answer. Soon she was saying "apple". She says it in a cute, drawn out, high pitched way. I love watching her learn new things so quickly.

My First Time

So, Natalie Tenney emailed me a while back to tell me she started a blog. I looked at it and thought it was adorable. She had cute pics of her kids and funny stories about her and her family. I didn't think I would ever have a blog. From what I had seen of them I thought they were, dare I say, lame. After seeing Natalie's my tune changed. Here I am creating my own blog for the first time. I wanted to do it mainly for my family. We don't get to see each other often enough and I am not great about getting on the phone to chat with them. Sorry! Anyway I hope this will keep us connected a little better. They will be able to see recent pics of the kids and read what we have been up to.