Halloween Bypass

Would you be upset if we went past Halloween pictures and straight to some Thanksgiving ones?I've been trying to get Silas to make hand print turkeys, but he wanted to make 3-D ones. He stuck teh eyes on and bent all the feathers. But what he really wanted to do was use the glue gun. He didn't do too badly actually. No burns at least. Though the crazy strings of glue about drove me crazy. Thank goodness I was wise enough to not attempt this project while Emmet was awake.
And just kidding about the Halloween photos. Here's one of all the boys in costume. And not one of me. I did dress up for the 5k runwe did with the boys in the stroller; leopard print tights (I think they date from Mom and Dad's trip to London when my Aunt Susan lived there), ears stitched to a headband, and painted face. But I post 'em, so I choose 'em.

Great Pumpkin

Just because it's the Halloween Capital of the World (!) doesn't mean we don't wait until the last minute to carve our pumpkins. Silas actually carved a good portion of his. "The flame face is the scariest!"
Team Orrin and Emmet carved the friendly monster in the back.
In typical fashion, Emmet was nearly inverted into the pumpkin while getting seeds and strings out. Meanwhile, I asked Silas to help get the pumpkin guts out; "Ok, Mom. but not with my hands!"
The 50 pound behemoth Silas picked out in the pumpkin patch remains uncarved. We don't know how many we might have to host for birthday and Thanksgiving celebrations. We might need a lot of pie.

Breaking my heart

Some ridiculous things Silas has said in the past few days:

• Being with Grandma, just being with Grandma. (When I asked him at bedtime what his favorite part of the day was.)
• It doesn't matter if we find it Daddy. Super Why said in the super story answer that you just enjoy the game. (When Orrin said they had to hurry so they could find the Halloween medallion in the scavenger hunt, referencing the Tortoise and the Hare episode of Super Why.)
• Look at this face Mom. And when you think of this face you will remember me this night splashing in the bathtub. (Tonight after his bath, on the way up to bed.)
  

Orange ya' glad it's Halloween?

We have entered the age of the knock knock joke. As Grandma and Grandpa will attest to after having an interrupting lion, pig, goat, chicken, horse, as well as a cow, come a' knockin. He also seems to think that any word can replace "orange" in the banana joke. For instance, bat will knock over and over again, then suddenly it's pumpkin. Pumpkin ya' glad I didn't say bat?

Emmet also is getting in on the act.
"Knock knock!"
"Who's there?"
"Juice"
"Juice who?"
"I ha juice!"

Silas is loving all things Halloween at the moment. He spent the morning cutting scary things out of the newspaper. And has been telling everyone he meets that he has a cheetah costume. Emmet's going to be a lion. Here's a preview. The make-up needs work, we were ina rush to get to the library Halloween story and craft time.


Apologies for my prolonged absence. We weer away on vacation in Michigan for a week, then came back to a new computer, with a new operating system, and nothing where I can find it. And then. we became hooked on watching Lost on Netflix Instant so every evening was two hours of that. And then Orrin was traveling to the Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan for work for two weeks so the boys and I escaped to Grandmas in Michigan and Indiana. But now we are back home and getting caught up and I will try to be more consistently here. (Hmm.. where have we heard that promise before?)

Oh yeah..

And...
Emmet screams, screams!, "airpane! airpane!" anytime he sees an airplane, or hears what he thinks is an airplane. And he doesn't stop until you say, "Yes, Emmet I see the airplane."
Likewise, a slide or swing or anything resembling play equipment, "Paygroun! Paygroun!"

The net enclosure is up around the trampoline. So jumping can commence. Already games have been invented with spray bottles and assorted balls. Emmet loves to be on the tramp', but not if anyone else is jumping. Then it's very swiftly, "Top it! Top it!"

Took a family canoe trip down the Rum River this morning. Sans dog, of course. It was delightful. Nice breeze, not to hot, virtually bug less, the boys were angels. They played with cat tails, and watched for dragon flies, and herons, and ducks and geese. They paddled a little bit. They ate fruit leather. It was only about an hour paddle, but still quite nice.

We picked corn for lunch. We found one ear that had gotten really too old- starting to wrinkle, and totally blue. After the boys went up for a nap I tried parching it. I pulled the kernels off the cob and tossed them in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil and salt. Then a slowly pan roasted them until they were brown and drained them on a paper towel. They are quite good; some crunchy, some a little chewy, but all sweet and salty and yummy.

Bullets of Toilet Learning

So, what has the youngest member of our family been up to lately?

• Last weekend he used the toilet for the first time ever! Liquid and solid! Hooray!
• Monday he peed in the potty while Silas was watching Curious George and he was running around naked, between diapers. Unfortunately, before I realized he had done it he managed to stuff his new dry diaper and the clothes I had brought down for him into the potty as well.
  
• The next day he pooped about 6 times, each time about a teaspoon, each time hopping of the potty shouting "hoe-ay!" clapping his hands, and "look dat!", each time making me dump it in the toilet before his next deposit, each time standing on the seat of the potty and squatting.
  
• The past three days he's had his "morning poop" in the potty.

Early August Photos

The lack of posting here caused Linda (my mother-in-law) to join Facebook. Little did she know I don't post updates on there either!! Bwah-ha-ha!!
So here's a few pictures and commentary on the last week.Adorable Emmet looking cute in the twilight at National Night Out/Night to Unite, last Tuesday. The kids rode bikes and scooters, blew bubbles, and ran around in the (blocked off) street.

The fire department stopped by to play dress up.And to look for new recruits.Emmet had to practice his skills with the hose before they'd let him wear the gear.
Orrin was too busy taking pictures of the ducks to realize that they were eating all the Swiss chard!
We had some bad luck with the bee hive. I think they swarmed and were left without a queen. We replaced the queen and she is laying now, but I don't know if we'll get much honey this year or how they will fare over the winter. But at least they seem to be on the mend and seem more purposeful as they gather pollen from the giant sunflowers lining the fence.

In other back yard news, we set up the free trampoline we picked up from a church rummage sale a couple weeks ago. It was missing one spring, the spring cover pad, and the safety net. I was able to find replacements online today. I am hopeful that I can keep all the bones in our bodies unbroken until that shipment arrives!

As corny as Minnesota in August

A rather sad patch of sweet corn. It's definitely not Kansas.

So we bought a dozen ears from the farmers market and picked one from our own patch. Here they are shucked on the counter.

Orrin challenged the boys to try to select which ear came from our garden. Here they are pondering it over.

Oh come on Silas, give us a little credit.

That's right! The purpley bruised looking one! Wait! It's supposed to look that way. It's called Triple Play since it's tri colored. I thought it would be a good cool weather short season variety to try. It seems to have done alright. There are more ears out there we'll have to pick soon, since i think we let this one go a bit long- it was a little on the starchy side.