Getting ready for Halloween

 It is October and time to dig out the Halloween decorations...
With the move last year, some items were left behind, so I am on the hunt for new things this year.
(Like a few cool things scored from the cousins' yard sale earlier this summer).

This halloween pinwheel is one of Jude's favorite items.  He loves turning it around by hand; it's metal so no wind-powering going on.

We tried on all the masks and costumes.  The spider headband is never very popular with the boys, but they still try it on.

I love this hockey mask on the boys...very scary!

This was a new masks scored this year...Jude did NOT like the scary masks and emphatically told us so.  Brian had the bright idea to hang both of our skeleton-like masks on the lampposts flanking the door, to scare trick-or-treaters.

The spiderwebs and plastic spiders were by far both boys favorites.  For the next several weeks, the boys keep taking the spiders off and moving them around to different spots on the spiderwebs.

We finished the decorating with Brian reading to the boys a Halloween story, complete with spooky voices.

Can't wait to have the costumes finished!

Passing the time with Books-on-CD

Ok...

I'll admit...
I pulled this horrid book-on-cd from the library this week.
Background:   As a family, we have been listening to children's books-on-cd while driving on trips to see family or go anywhere with a little distance. It has been fun choosing classics like Motorcycle Ralph, the Boxcar Children, and the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  So far, Tam has enjoyed the boxcar children mysteries the best.  I'm not entirely sure that Jude is paying attention.  Brian usually rolls his eyes and falls asleep.

Well, I enjoyed this so I decided try some reading/listening for myself, esepcially while traveling to and from work.  I have found that adult section for audio listening at the library is a bit overwhelming.   All the CDs are in alphabetically order by author, and only separated into fiction or nonfiction.  I was overwhelmed and couldn't find anything!  I'm used to flipping through a book and reading a passage or two before deciding to check it out or not.  This last time, I had two tired boys in tow and I panicked... I pulled the first CD set where I recognized the title vaguely and knew that it had been popular a few years ago.

Ugh.
Double ugh.
It is so bad I'm mildly intrigued.
It really is Ann Rice done badly.
Very Badly.

Yep...I pulled...
It is full of cliches and teenage angst and vampires.


Good Lord... I don't remember being that way as a teenager!

But...I'm five disks in and haven't been to the library yet to check out something else.

Is there any saving grace?

It is a love story.

And it does make me remember all the little things about Brian that I love :-)  Yep...I am still in love with that man of mine
(And he isn't a vampire)

Magic

On Fridays, the boys and I order a pizza and watch a movie. We rotate who picks out the movie with the agreement that everyone must be okay to watch it.   This last Friday, I suggested an older favorite: Night at the Museum.   A fun movie in which the museum's displays all come to life at night, much to the watchman's surprise.  There's a bone chasing dinosaur, a silly monkey, little arguing soldiers, and an Easter Island statue that chews gum.

In one scene, the watchman impresses Attila the Hun with a few magic tricks.  He makes a coin disappear into thin air and then pulls it out from behind Attila's ear.  They are all momentarily impressed.   Tamlin was also impressed and totally believed in this magic.

The next morning, Tam was tossing a pirate coin up into the air and catching it.  On one of the tosses, he missed the downward fall and the coin "disappeared."
Tam: "Mom, Mom! Guess what?   I just did magic!"
Yep, he was convinced that he had made the coin disappear ;-)

Pete the Cat

 My favorite books to read with the boys are the Pete the Cat books...

These are simplistic books about a cat strolling through his days...
but then something happens...
like he steps into strawberries while wearing his white shoes and then turn red
Or
he wanders into a room filled with books
Or
one of his buttons pops off.

But
Does Pete worry?
"Goodness No!"

"It's all good!"

"Groovy"


 When reading with the little ones, Jude loves to shout out "Goodness No!" in his sweet little voice.
Pete is such a hippy little cat and I love that he is teaching the littles that "it's all good" and things will work out no matter what happens :-)

Tamlin has also read the Pete books at pre-school and in Kindergarten.  He brought home this awesome artwork:

Such a Cool Cat!

 Here are a few other pieces of artwork (some based on other favorite books) that Tam has brought home.

Harvest winding down?

We are hoping that the gardens are slowing down....

 But the tomatoes keep coming...and coming...and coming...

Let's see what varieties we ended up with...
Roma,  Yellow Pear, Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine Black, Brandywine Pink, Black Cherry, Red Cherry, Orange Beefsteak, JL Blues


We harvested the carrots recently.  This was another one of those: "Here, boys, plant these" thinking that most of the seeds wouldn't germinate.  Wrong.

We have rainbow carrots: orange, white, purple, red, orange.
I think many will end up in stew stock :-)

The beans were let to go to seed for next year's plantings.

Fire and sparklers

 It was a beautiful clear night, so I asked Brian to set up a fire in the pit for us.  We used some of the wood left over from summer camping excursions.

Then Brian taught the boys how to light sticks on fire and create glowing embers...
What?!
Apartently, he thinks the boys are old enough to learn a healthy respect for how cool fire is.
Sigh.

 Nothing but sticks and marshmellows were caught on fire while we sat around in the late evening watching the glow.  PS: the marshmallows were chocolate and excellent for roasting.

 Our neighbors across the street came over to play and chat around the fire.

And we had sparklers = cool.
I love being able to spend time outside with the boys and friends :-)  Since it is September now, I don't know if we'll be able to have another one of these this year :-(