Happy Halloween!

"Tender lumplings everywhere
Life's no fun without a good scare
That's our job, but we're not mean
In our town of Halloween"

Danny Elfman for Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas


Today was Chloe and Owen's school parade and parties. I ran back and forth between both parties. Chloe's class had a little dance, while Owen's class had games and a story. Both classes had snacks right after the parade. The parade has been going on since I went to school there (and before). All the kids dress up in costume and parade around town. Family members and town people come out and watch. It's so fun. Although I heard one kid ask another when the parade was and the other said "We are the parade".

Owen had a wonderful time at his class party. It was his first school party. He soaked it all in and really enjoyed it. Chloe had fun at the fifth grade dance and won a prize for the Fanciest Girl.



Phoebe got to watch the parade with Danny, Mom, and Betsy. She liked it. She dressed like a cheerleader. A mountaineer cheerleader of course.






We came home and after dinner Owen started feeling bad. He's had a cough since yesterday but has been okay. Now he has a 102 fever and is just laying in the chair. Hopefully he'll feel better for some more Halloween fun. We want to make caramel apples tonight and watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and The Nightmare Before Christmas, our favorite.

Some pictures from the parade and school parties:

Chloe with her Fanciest Girl award, with the boy who won Fanciest Boy.



At the dance:



Playing a game:



At the parade:



Wrapping the teacher aide up like a mummy:



Owen's class:

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Phoebe and I made some cookies today. Pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips and pecans, and maple frosting. I love pumpkin. I love chocolate. I love pecans. I love maple. I love frosting.

2 1/4 cup self-rising flour
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Whisk together flour and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter.
Add both sugars and beat until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla.
Add eggs one at a time and beat until combined.
Add flour/spice mixture to sugar mixture in three additions. Alternate with pumpkin in two additions, ending with flour mixture.
Stir in chopped pecans and chocolate chunks.
Drop on cookie tray lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Makes about four dozen cookies.

Let cool.

Maple Brown Butter Frosting

3 cups sifted confectioners sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp maple flavoring

Sift sugar and set aside.
Melt butter over medium heat until golden brown. Watch closely so it does not burn.
Add butter to sugar, scraping all the butter into the bowl.
Add milk and maple flavoring. Stir until smooth.
Spread on top of cookies with an knife or offset spatula.





Phoebe can't be bothered with holding a cookie.

Spider Snack

The kids and I have been doing some Halloween crafts and treats this week. Yesterday evening we made a bat craft and then made this spider snack. So easy, even little ones (like Phoebe) can do it.

Spread peanut butter on the inside of two Ritz crackers. Lay 4 pretzels across one cracker (to look like 8 legs) and put the other cracker on top. Put two raisins on for eyes. Phoebe wasn't a fan of the raisins and took hers off before she ate it. Chloe and Owen ate several for their bednight snack (as Owen calls it).

Jack-o-lantern

We carved our jack-o-lantern tonight. Phoebe didn't want any part of it. She said it was stinky when Chloe and Owen were scooping out the inside of the pumpkin. Chloe drew on the eyes, Phoebe helped do the nose, and Owen wanted the mouth to have fangs. Once we lit the pumpkin, Phoebe was afraid of it.






I remembered to turn off my flash and got this awesome picture:

Trick-or-Treat!

We had our little community trick-or-treat yesterday. We always pick the day that works best for us and don't really go by the schedules that are set up for trick-or-treat. We all met at our church and rode a little bus around to the houses for treats. A neighbor owns a daycare and we use her daycare bus. The kids had lots of fun. We went to the church afterward for food and fun.

Here are my treaters; Miss America, Darth Vader (who didn't allow many pics), and the Princess.







Here's the crew with the bus:

So true

I went this week and had my drivers license renewed. Chloe was with me. She was interested in the whole process. She watched me get my picture taken and answer the questions. As we were leaving she was looking at my new license with the new picture and she said it was like an adult school picture. So true. The only thing not true about my license is my weight. I'm not changing it, I can always dream.

Phoebe cuteness

Phoebe is sitting on my lap and saw my blog. She saw the pictures of herself I posted recently and said, "That me when I was little".

Lately when I ask her something like, do you need a drink, or do need me to wipe your face, she'll say "No, I'm good". She also likes to answer questions with "sometimes" or "I guess". I love when she does that, and she always says it appropriately.

When I say something she doesn't like (like stop doing that) she says "Don't say that again, Mommy".

Tonight at dinner she took a few bites and started getting out of her chair and said "Be right back". I asked where she was going and she said to see Chloe. So she went over and sat with Chloe for a bit.

I was reading to her today and the book had different animals. Every page she would see an animal and say "I love pigs", then "I love dogs", etc.

And finally, her latest ploy that works like a charm, when I try to go pick up the kids off the bus and leave her home with Danny, she looks up at me and says "Don't leave me". I take her with me, of course.

Alvin...Simon...Phoebe!!!

There is a reoccuring chipmunk theme around here for some reason. First it began with our cat, Camille, killing the occasional chipmunk and bringing it to show us. She usually just leaves them on the sidewalk. The latest one was studied closely by the kids. I make Danny get rid of them. He was a few days getting rid of this one. I walked by it the second day and noticed something different about it. Chloe had taken sidewalk chalk and drew a circle around it and wrote RIP. She also sprinkled some flowers around it.

Phoebe has a shirt with a squirrel on it, but she calls it a chipmunk. She has a little Cabbage Patch dressed like a brown bear (or maybe it's a dog) and she says its a chipmunk. Now that it's been cold, when I zip up her jacket and put her hood on, she says "Like a chipmunk". I have no idea what that means.

Can I pet her?

When we were at a fleamarket last weekend, a little girl was pointing at Phoebe in her stroller. She was saying something about look at the baby. I walked closer to the little girl and told Phoebe to say hello. The little girl then asked me, "Can I pet her?". I was thinking about that today and about how cute that was. It reminded me of when Chloe was small. Probably around Phoebe's age. She was rubbing Danny's arm. Then she said so sweetly, "I like your fur, Daddy". When Phoebe was a baby Owen asked to pet her too. She is such a fun thing to pet.

Retail Sales

I think Phoebe is going to work in retail. She always wants to put things in a plastic store bag. Then yesterday as we were leaving the shoe store, she turned back to the sales lady and said, "Have a good day!". Here she is this morning with her plastic duck in a bag. She asked me to tie the bag for her. She's always gathering things up and putting them in bags.

New Clariol Model

I gave Phoebe her bath this evening with Owen. Then she stayed in while Chloe got her bath. When Chloe got out I went in to get Phoebe, and she had washed her hair again. So she had to be rinsed all over again. She has very clean hair tonight.



Today it rained and Phoebe said she needed her rainbrella.


For Owen news, he got Student of the Month at school!

Bedtime Princess

Today Phoebe and I went shopping with my friend Anna. Kohl's was having a great sale on toys. I got some for Christmas. I was going to let Phoebe pick something out to have today. She looked at dolls and other toys and would hold them for a little bit, and then tell me to put them back. Then she saw a Princess nightgown and didn't want to put it back. She looks so cute in it. It came with slippers that look adorable on her feet. She wore it around for an hour all proud of it. Then she had to take it off because she said it hurt. Great. It has tulle like stuff on it and she didn't think it was comfy. I tried to put it on her again before bed and she would have none of it.



When Owen saw her slippers he wanted his slippers. I dug his out from last year. He said he wanted to sleep in them. He was in bed a little while and he got up wearing his short pjs and slippers and said his feet were sweating. I told him to take off his slippers. He did and went back to bed. I can't stand to sleep in socks, and I have to have my feet sticking out of the blankets. No hot feet at night for me.

The bedtime princess is now asleep in a soft cotton Princess nightie. A girl's gotta be comfy.

Farm Festival

Yesterday we went the 38th Annual Bob Evans Farm Festival. I've gone since I was a little girl, and we like going every year with our kids. I think Chloe and Owen's favorite part was riding a horse. I asked Phoebe if she wanted to ride and she said "NOOOOO!". When I was little and went to the Farm Festival I always bought a leather bracelet with my name stamped on it. (I still have one of them.) Chloe, Owen, and Phoebe bought one this year (Chloe and Owen had ones from last year). They are still $2. I think they were $2 even nearly 30 years ago when I bought them on Field Trips from school. I always liked to buy a painted pumpkin and apple cider too. I haven't changed much since then. Owen played games and Chloe and Phoebe got their faces painted. Chloe and Owen stuffed their own animals, Chloe made a giraffe and Owen made a bear. Phoebe bought a handmade blanket and she liked the popcorn but wouldn't touch the maple sugar cotton candy. A fun family day.








Here are pictures from last year. Look how much Phoebe (and her hair) has grown!! Chloe was sick last year there, so she doesn't look very happy. Her asthma was terrible and we almost didn't go. It was a lot warmer this year, but a nice sunny day.

Offering to God

In my Sunday School class at church we collect the little offering and we put it in an attendance envelope and slide it under the door. The secretary/treasurer, Kathey, gathers up all the envelopes from the classes and counts the money and does attendance. All the kids in my class like to be the one to slide the envelope under the door. We take turns doing it. Last week it was Owen's turn. He put it under the door and said he was giving the money to Jesus. Then one of the little girls said "No you're not. You're giving it to Kathey".

Mountain Music

In music class the kids are learning Mountain Music by Alabama. Previously they've learned Rocky Top and Country Roads. I sense a WV theme here. I'd forgotten about Mountain Music. It's been fun listening to Chloe and Owen sing it. Here's the chorus :

Oh, play me some mountain music, like grandma and grandpa used to play.
Then Ill float on down the river to a cajun hideaway

Drift away like Tom Sawyer, ride a raft with ol Huck Finn.
Take a nap like Rip Van Winkle, daze dreamin again.


Owen was singing it today and sang the part about the "cajun hideaway". Then he said "I wonder what is in that cage?". Hilarious. How do I explain cajun??

How nice of them

This week the school went to the Fire Station. Owen was impressed. They gave out smoke detectors. Owen opened his up and looked at it this evening. He showed me that it already had a battery in it. He said the firemen must have put the battery in there for him. Then he saw the little packet of screws in the box to hang up the smoke detector. He held them up and said "How nice for them!".




Phoebe has been funny lately too. She was sitting with me when a buzzer noise went off on tv. She said "Food's ready!". She put Chloe's backpack on this evening and went to the door and said "Have a good day! Going to school". She tried to open the door but it was locked. I told her it was dark outside and she couldn't go to school now. She turned around, walked away, and said "Awwww, man". When I walk Owen up to the bus in the mornings I always kiss him and tell him to have a good day. Now before I can say it, he says, "I'll have a good day".

Dentist

Today was a busy day. It was my turn to do the fluoride rinse at school today. After that I got Owen and Chloe early to take them to the dentist for cleanings and check ups. On the way to the dentist we had to stop at the bank. We got to the dentist right on time. It was Owen's first trip to the dentist and we was so brave. He went right back without me and did wonderful. I could watch him during the exam through a window. I could see Chloe too, but she's used to the dentist by now. They got good reports. Then we had to stop for diapers, and then they wanted McDonalds for dinner (I won't tell how many pumpkin pies I bought). On the way home we saw an old cannon at a park. Owen said "They haven't used that in years". I just love that little guy.

Park Pictures

We had a great time at the park today. We packed a lunch and had a picnic. The weather is beautiful and Fall is in the air.

She's figured me out

Chloe's getting wise to me. Yesterday we went to the Dollar Tree (you know, where everything is $1.00). I told the kids they could each have one thing, because I'm generous like that. Owen said "Yay!" and Phoebe got excited too. Chloe on the other hand said, "That would just be $3.00". She got some purple fake hair. Phoebe had to have some too, but she got pink. Owen got a foam sword. Here are the girls this morning in their pajamas sporting their new hair. Phoebe calls it fancy hair.





And here's Chloe's log cabin she had to make for school.





Chloe and Owen are home today because there is no school for students, just teachers. We have these Faculty Senate days once a month. It was nice to have a long weekend. They've been playing all morning and we may pack a lunch and go to the park. I love when they are home from school. This week they go to the fire station and get their school pictures taken. At least its a short week.