Our Halloween History

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003


Ahh, the sweet and fun memories. Speaking of sweet, can someone please pass me a Kit Kat?

A Quiet Night for Me

And a noisy night for the rest of the neighborhood.

We decided at the last minute to have a campout in the backyard with the kids. We let them play in the tent for a little while to get their wiggles out - though I have learned as a mom, there is no such thing. Kids' wiggles are never out. So when the sun finally set and the tent was rocking back and forth and on the verge of collapse, I brought out some homemade cookies and the kids calmed down as we had a family chess tournament by flashlight. Then, when it was time to go to sleep, I decided that it would be better for Bridger not to be exposed to the cold night air and that I needed to stay inside with him during the night and just have Alan sleep out in the tent. HA HA! What a sly woman am I! I kissed them all goodnight and went inside the warm house, tucked Bridger into bed and cozied myself up to a good book and another cookie and milk treat. Except for the distant squeals I was hearing coming from the backyard (he he) it was a quiet and peaceful night for me.

Until. . . an hour later. When every hour, for the next 3 hours, I heard Alan tromping each child into the house to go to the bathroom. After that parade was over, Bridger's reflux kicked in pretty bad and he began crying in pain and needed to be held off and on for the next 5 hours. Somewhere in between my sleep cycles with Bridger, I heard Alan escorting Sadie inside. I went down to see what was going on. Tired and shivering with cold, Sadie whimpered to me that she "just wasn't good at tents" and she came upstairs and climbed inside her warm bed. Alan retreated back outside. I crawled back in my bed, blinked, and then the sun rose. Alan and the remaining two came in bright and early. The kids - beaming from their exciting night in the tent. Alan - muttering something about the worst night sleep he ever had. Pathetically enough, that night for me was par for the course.

As a mother, I have almost convinced myself that sleep is overrated. The children won't remember the ginormous bags under their parent's eyes that day, only the fabulous fun they had that night in a big tent in the backyard.

A Pumpkin Patch of Our Very Own

While the economy continues to take a dive and businesses all around are going under, we are pleased to announce that business is booming for us and our production is up 600%. Our pumpkin production that is. Statistically speaking, a 600% increase is not hard to achieve when your original yield was 1. So you can do the math to realize that our little pumpkin patch has yielded a whopping 6 pumpkins this year!

What is the secret to our success? Very simple. Love. Literally. In years past I have toiled and researched reasons why our little patch would produce a meadow full of vines and only one little pumpkin. This year the pumpkins were under the complete care of the children and the magical growth element was love. Not the meticulous soil analyzing, fertilizing and consistent watering kind of love. Love came in the form of constant poking of the pumpkins, prodding, soft and kind words, studying them, rubbing them, marveling at every stage of growth and telling them how amazing they looked. All that love paid off as the kids went and proudly harvested their patch. Now the pumpkins have been adequately tricked into believing they are loved, we will soon take great stabs at them with a very large knife and carve away [insert evil laugh]. I'm just excited for the $40 I have saved from not having to go to Cox farms to buy pumpkins!

Favorite Things

Another "favorite things" blog of something that is too wonderful not to share:

Having a bad day? Need a little boost? Go to Panera, get yourself a cinnamon crunch bagel and ask for it to be sliced in the bread slicer (that is the key to making this such wonderful treat - making it into little bagel strips makes the treat last so much longer) and a little light honey walnut cream cheese. Mmmm, a simple pleasure that is sure to turn a quasi-blah day down the right path again.