H-H-H-HALLOWEEN!

We've had a whirlwind of Halloween festivities the past few days. We tried to go to a pumpkin patch on Monday with Preschool, but the person in charge dropped the ball and it turned out that the pumpkin patch was closed. So, we ended up getting our pumpkins from Wal-Mart. We did take our time choosing the right ones...

After the pumpkin patch debacle, we went to Friends to go trick-or-treating around the dorms. The girls enjoyed trick-or-treating (it was so funny watching Kristen realize that if she walked up to the doors, they'd give her CANDY!) but what they really liked was the pizza and watching Charlie Brown's Halloween.





Tuesday, we carved pumpkins (before book group, which was at our house). Caitlyn got mad at me because SHE wanted to scoop out her pumpkin and I did it before she came home from school. Instead, she carved her own pumpkin. Megan carved two designs on hers: one side was a pumpkin, on the other a cyclops. And Alison's is a "scary princess".








And today, we went to Caitlyn's school to watch the costume parade (Alison loved ALL the princesses) and dropped in at her class party (to see her friend Nick, who was dressed as a vampire slayer. Caitlyn liked that.). Then we got in costumes, took Caitlyn to piano and headed off to church for the trunk-or-treat party. We gorged ourselves on hot dogs and chips (oh, so healthy) and played games... but the real show was in the parking lot. The girls all went around at least twice... Alison thought Kristen was going to slow, so she dashed off ahead. And Kristen, she barely took enough time to actually stop at the cars to get candy before moving on. It was fun.



Then we came home and crashed. What a week (well, three days)! (Individual pictures of the girls are up at Flickr.)

The Greatest Show on Earth

Friday night, Russell took the girls to see the Ringling Brothers Circus. We had hopes that it would be the BIG one, but it turned out to be the small one-ring, home-town version we saw a few years ago in Jonesboro. That's not to say they didn't like it; they did. The clowns (Caitlyn's favorite) were funny, the trapeze artists (Alison's favorite) were spectacular, and they even had the ribbon-lady (Megan's favorite). There were some disappointments, too. Megan was sad that Jim Weiss didn't do his balancing act that he did three years ago, and Caitlyn was sad that they didn't have the motorcycles driving in the wire ball. And because it was a Friday night, they didn't make to to the pre-show, unlike Jonesboro, and so missed out on that experience, too.

Still, all said and done, they had a great time. After the show, Russell took the girls down to the ring in hopes that they could catch up with Jim Weiss and get a recreation of this picture:

But everyone had dashed off backstage and didn't look like they were coming out again, so he just took one of the girls by the ring.


We love the circus! (We'll have to take Kristen in a few years, too!)

Welcome Back, Jack

We put together our scarecrow, Jack, on Monday. He's back after a year hiatus; our porch at the duplex last year wasn't big enough to fit him on. But our house now has a nice little alcove by the front door, just right for Jack. (And it should keep him out of the rain.)

Alison was a big help with stuffing him, and getting him situated.


But Kristen wasn't sure what she thought of it all.


Megan decided she was too cool to really help (I think she came out of her room when he was half-stuffed and only did a couple of newspaper balls), and I have no idea what happened to Caitlyn. Hey, at least two of the kids enjoyed it. :)

Introducing Cider

So, we finally -- after months and months of the girls begging -- got ourselves a cat. She's an 8-week-old orange tabby, and we named (after much deliberation) her Cider. We brought her home yesterday, and she's assimilated pretty well. She seems not to mind the little girls chasing her around too much, or the older girls excessive affection. She might just fit in well around here.

Sister Love (And a Wardrobe Change)

We're TWINS!

Did you catch the wardrobe change? ALISON'S WEARING PANTS! (First time in more than a year!)

The Anatomy of a Haunted House

Take one gingerbread kit (instead of graham crackers this year!):


Two gullible helpful missionaries:


Try to figure out how it all fits together:


Get some (very) exited helpers:



Be willing to make a big mess:


And you, too, will have a lovely home-made haunted house!

The COSMOSPHERE (dum-da-da-dum)

Since they all had a day off from school, Caitlyn's Girl Scout troop arranged for a field trip up to Hutchinson to visit the Cosmosphere. I had volunteered to drive, and everyone else decided that the whole thing sounded like fun. And it was, for the most part. It's a small museum, but they have a planetarium (too cool! I loved those as a kid), which EVERYONE thought was neat. Even Kristen sat still the entire time.

Megan's checking out some B52 ejector seat (or something like that)

The other favorite part was a recreation of the NASA mission control of the Mercury and Apollo space programs. All the girls had a good time playing there.


Caitlyn wanted a picture next to the stained glass that was hanging near the entrance.

More pictures over at Flickr.

Fieldtripping

Yesterday, as part of our Preschool fire and safety unit (that I taught!), we went on a field trip to the Fire Station to meet real firefighters and see the engines and all that cool stuff. We -- Sister Kitchen and I -- took four preschoolers, one older brother, and three younger siblings along. Amazingly, they were all (mostly) good. Except for Michael, who decided he wanted to play with the electrical cords on the truck. :)

Anyway, here they are listening with rapt attention to the firefighter talk about something on the truck. Possibly their "house key" (aka, the ax).


Here's firefighter Steve all geared up. I wish it turned out better, but he was facing the wrong way. Alison wouldn't go near him (with our without the gear).


And here's Alison getting helped out of the big truck. She wanted to do it by herself, but they wouldn't let her. :)

The Bestest Most Famous Poem in O'Nealia

The Black Rider
By C.B.

Back then toc de
fine yi black rider
de friend O mine.
Black as darkness,
his cape looks
as he rides.
His hair dark black
buts can't see toe
De ow chess
de con over now
ruby stone.
Black-black-black you all
BOOM!
Bloody bodys die.
Black rider still stands
Blood spills down his face.
Ye die kill wond de
his eneby.
One hang
to za keen over
May hon.
Bleed-bleed blood
die ko.
Sang Agles o fee
down Black Rider.
Black now kill
the On wo.
Black Rider stands
on a ship to bon a be ko.
Neh o Lando.
Chee mon ka.
Die no how chee
no ton no ton.
Wo Black Rider
is died in
1779 Mar. 13.

The End

She wrote this during the morning session of conference. She said, "I'm sorry Mom, but O'nealian poetry is violent." All the words you don't know are O'nealian.

Hey, Psst....

We've joined the 21st Century!


Thanks, Martin and Jessica!