Boo!...belated Halloween

I realize I forgot to do a Halloween post...I must begin by sharing that getting 3 kids ready = 1 hour (...tights, hair, makeup, full costumes, safety pins, shoes...)

The kids all had celebrations at school that week, and our good friends had a great party on Saturday - full costumes, painting pumpkins, lots of sweets,... On Sunday morning I realized we still hadn't done the real deal.  So we had an early dinner, full costumes again and the dads took the kids out.  Lots of goodies, scraped knees, fighting over who gets to ring the bells & then who gets to answer our door, baths, and to bed for school the next morning.  God bless all teachers the day after Halloween.  Thankfully the "Great Pumpkin" takes the majority of the candy in our house in exchange for a small gift (this year a Zhu-Zhu pet).  The kdis each got to pick 5 pieces to keep and they are still being rationed out - my stash, on the other hand, is long gone/consumed.

So this year we had a Spider Countess, a cute witch, and a pit crew chief.  (We got a good laugh when Macie confused her words and called herself a Spider Temptress). 



Yes, Laney had me make her a HIPPO pumpkin



A Month of Thanksgiving

Wouldn't it be ideal to celebrate (at minimum) a month of gratitude and thanksgiving before it is all undone in December.  For the past couple years we have done a "thankful tree" - unfortunately, the cat (that we are so thankful for this year) would likely destroy it.  By the way, I can't claim to have come up with this...it came from my favorite go-to site for kids crafts...Family Fun


Thankful Tree 2009

So this year we did "thankful valances".  I am always amazed with the thoughtful, and of course a few trivial, suggestions that the kids come up with. (I believe you can click on the photos to make them larger if you want to see what the kids said).

"Airplanes that bring Papa & Grandma to us next week"