Carnival Fun ~ part one

Today was our backyard carnival. It was so much fun. H and I had a blast planning and getting things ready with Teresa and Alexis. They are awesome friends :)

We spent the morning getting the house cleaned up and doing our shopping. Grandma and Papa came over to help! Yeah!

The girls had planned and made the decorations and everything looked spooktacular!



I didn't even count how many people were here but it was a ton. We played games first. We had six individual games set up.


There was our ghost tree with donuts tied to it to eat off a string.
Bobbing for apples.
The bean bag/pumpkin toss.
Ghost bowling.
Blow out the jack-o-lantern with a squirt gun.
and a potions class.

let the record show....

J is mad at me. This morning she came in my room at 5:45 and said she forgot to set her alarm and she didn't make muffins for seminary. What should she do? I told her to go without them. Natural Consequences. Truth be told had it been a normal day I probably would have gotten up, made them and taken them to her. But today DH had to leave at 6:30 for an early morning engine test and I wasn't willing to wake up the three little kids and take a half hour out of their morning when really every minute in the morning is carefully orchestrated so that brother gets to school on time and everyone has a chance to eat.

So, she's mad, and I feel badly. And I know she'll remember for ever after. It will go into the "the times mom let me down" hall of fame.

so, for the record I will remember some of the nice things I did for J this week. And when she looks back and remembers the muffin incident of 2007 maybe she'll have a tiny bit of perspective to go with it...or at least her therapist might.

Monday morning I got up and took J to Emma's so she could spend the day at 6 Flags. I gave her $20 and a kiss good-bye.
Tuesday after school I took J to the mall where we looked at 50 dresses for 3 hours and finally picked a lovely homecoming dress for her to wear, and I paid for it. Then we looked at jewelry.
Wednesday we went to Grandma's after school so Grandma could alter it, and I took her out selling for her fund raiser. Then I took her to the Ballards for her meeting. Where she forgot her purse.
Thursday I went to pick her up at Sofia's house where they were making mums at the agreed upon time of 7pm. She wasn't there. I went back at the newly agreed upon time of 8pm and got her. When she reminded me she forgot her purse at the Ballards. We went home did some stuff and then at 9pm went to the Ballards and got her purse then she remembered she needed to make muffins so we went to Albertson's where I carried a sleeping Lucy through the store and we got muffin supplies (does this sound like when you give a moose a muffin?).
We got home and I said you need to make them tonight. No, I want them to be warm. You won't get up in the morning. Yes I will. Okay.

clean and ready for bed!

this is not a political blog

nor do I have tons of political opinions, and I would never try and sway you to agree with me. Okay, never is a strong word, I guess there might come a day when I would but not today, and not while I feel like I don't have enough knowledge about it and them.
However I do think it's important that we vote and that we try to elect good people who will serve our country well.
My MIL sent me this link. It's a quick quiz that lines you up with a candidate after answering a dozen or so questions. This guy was my match. I actually have never heard of him, although I am sure DH, who lives and breathes politics, history and airplanes (not necessarily in that order) has.
Anyway, it was fun to take.

Take this quiz

getting ready for our backyard carnival

ghost of Halloweens past

D was a ghost, J a black cat and S was Jasmine. 1997
1995 This Halloween I had no money. We were in the middle of getting divorced, living with my family, and I was finishing my degree. Still we had a very fun time.
D was a cheerleader. We cut felt out and basted it onto a shirt and she wore Anna's skirt and used her poms. S was Pocahontas and J was Tiger Lily: pieces of felt, noodle necklace, paper headbands and a magic marker were our supplies. The girls looked very cute!

Woman to Woman: Book Review

Lei at My Many Colored Days is hosting woman to woman this week, the theme is books we have read.

I got this at the airport on the way home and almost finished it by the time we had landed. It is the story of four generations of black women and their lives and dealings with abuse at the hands of their men.
I liked it. It was not depressing despite a lot of heartache. Each of the women showed courage as they loved their children and tried to make their way in life as best they could.

bathing beauty

Little Missy has been very sad to day.  She's been crying and complaining.

 

So our solution was to have an afternoon bubble bath.  It helped a little.

 

 

... See my Tabblo>

pumpkin patch.. the truth comes out:)

I got stung by a bee today. It hurt, surprisingly this was the first time in my life I've been stung. Ouch.
Rather than post a picture of me crying I thought I'd use this one of Lucy. She's had a very grouchy day. I think she's mad at us for being gone. I wanted to do something fun today with the kids. The pumpkin patch was fun, it was also sweat dripping down your back hot, so crowded you had to count noses every minute and a half, and there were bees everywhere. Not that we didn't have fun, we did, I'm just saying.

pumpkin patch

We spent a very hot, very sweaty, very fun day at the pumpkin patch!!

The kids had a great time looking at pumpkins, jumping, running through the maze, having a picnic, going on a hay ride, and most of all eating shave ice!

 

 

 

... See my Tabblo>

deep in the heart of TX

We're home! We had a good weekend. It was really fun to get to know the other couples; hanging out with 22 engineers and their spouses is different than our usual crowd. Never have I seen so many spread sheets or heard so much talk about when solids become like liquid (as in things hitting the earth and the earth acting like a liquid, or planes vibrating), weapons, planes, math, "fun formulas", spooks, etc.
Maryland is very beautiful, quite different than here. The crab is delicious! The smell like an ocean, the color green, the prices expensive.

We were happy to get home to our kiddos. I missed them a lot.
The only bad thing about the weekend is we missed conference. We tried to watch last night on line but they were not rebroadcasting yet. Luckily we DVR'ed it and will be able to watch each evening this week.

Maryland Battle Reenactment

We, luckily, happened upon this reenactment up in Old Saint Mary's City.

Maryland

Yesterday we traveled here. It took a lot of the day. We drove to the airport, waited for our flight, flew here, waited for our bus, drove another 2 hours and finally we were here.

We started with a tour of the base. It is right on the Chesapeake with runways running straight out to the water. It is nice. We saw where DH will work. Nice cubes, big hanger.

Last night we had a big company dinner. The fish and crab casserole was delicious. We had a fun time visiting with other couples who are doing the same thing we are. At our table was a couple who are newly married. He's been doing this for a long time, she's new to it. I think they are in the later 40's and have no children. They talked about not wanting to change their life and their free time so I think maybe they won't be planning on having any. She's a free lance writer, which will be great for moving.
Another couple had two kids. They spent four years in Korea with Lockheed and have been in Ft Worth about four years, so it's time to move again.

I don't mind moving. There is always good to be found in any place and a new adventure. I do mind leaving friends behind. We are happy and comfortable where we are.

Today we went out with a realtor. It was a good tour. We saw homes in "our price range" which are much smaller and much more expensive than what we have now; but it's not Texas and I think we can find something we will be happy with. Getting rid of stuff is always good....just ask FlyLady:)

My impression of this place is lots of trees and lots of water. It's very different than TX or even CA for me. Both places have lots of space. This seems older and not as spacious. The water is beautiful and there is lots to do.

After looking at houses we drove around a bit and saw St Mary's College, Solomon's Island and we stumbled upon a battle reenactment.

Tonight it's more crab and then tomorrow we travel home.

It was funny when we arrived and after the tour but before dinner we had about an hour and a half. We came up to our room and fell on the bed to nap. Very happily. I guess we're old:) This morning we slept in and tomorrow we can again. It's been a good weekend.

We've been talking to the kids and I am sad I missed transportation day, but it sounds like it was great. We missed Bub's game and karate and tonight is the soup thing. I am glad Papa and Grandma are there to fill in.

all our bags are packed...

we're ready to go.

Off for three days. Which means two mornings to sleep in!! Several hours to read with no one wanting a drink or to interrupt my book so I can read theirs to them. No laundry to do, meals to cook or phones to answer. ...At least I think DH won't want me to read to him.

The kids are sad, but they'll have a great time with Papa and Grandma. They have a busy weekend planned and hopefully everyone will do great! And maybe we'll see Duff?!

out of the blue

Yvonne gave me a blogger award. Thank you very much, that's so sweet. It's fun to know that people read and that what I write makes you feel good!! yeah!

I would like to award my friend Joy, who is always there for me. And my awesome VT, Good Life and Pioneer Woman, because I love her hiney tingling love story with her cowboy and even though I know how it ends~ four kids, a camera and a ranch full of cows; I'm still holding my breath to see how it all turns out :)

I need a list

what I need to do today:

finish folding all the clothes so we can pack and so the kids will have clothes easy to find while we are gone

put away clothes

wash bedding

buy light bulbs for kitchen and deodorant for DH

clean out car and put seat down so Papa can take the F-35 to school tomorrow

get stuff together for backyard carnival projects

go to Teresa's and help kids with projects

go with Papa to the school to get him in the system to pick up brother tomorrow

show Papa where brother's class room is

call Tori about the girls fund raising, see if she can take J and E this weekend, and then I will take them next

make sure all the bathrooms are stocked with TP

clean up (cause you know mom has never met me and doesn't know that we are sometimes messy)

1. bathrooms
2. bedrooms
3. vacuum
4. kitchen
5. dust
6. empty all the trash

pack (going to go do that now~ and it's only 8:30)

school with H

1. finish civil war book
2. 7 times tables
3. 2 lessons in each subject in purple book (spelling, LA, reading, writing, math)
4. handwriting practice
5. Spanish
6. devotional
7. violin

call Joy and tell her I'm not going to shop in her closet :) but Thank you !

feed the kids (threenine times)

make a list for mom for the weekend

mail pkg to baby Avery before she out grows what we got her

call Heather and Mike about pot luck this weekend

set DVR to record conference

edited during the day and now at the end of the day to say, got lots done, not all but I guess that's life. I might have gotten everything done but I also had to feed the dog, answer the phone, help brother with homework, get everyone off to soccer and back home, pack activity bags for the weekend~ you know, one with soccer stuff, one with karate stuff, one with..., helped J with homework, looked at class ring stuff with S, read stories and played babies, and more.

October 1989

This cute little pumpkin picker is two year old Dani, searching the patch for the perfect jack-o-lantern!

She asked me to find some pictures of her at Halloween, through the years. It was very fun to look, although I might take this moment to say how much I love digital. There was a time when I thought I would never like it, I would never want to give up holding a picture in my hand. That day is gone. I LOVE digital. I love having everything on my computer instead of 27 albums on a shelf somewhere.

While I was looking I was feeling a little badly that I couldn't remember every costume, every year. Until I added it up. So far I have made or bought or what ever 65 costumes. That doesn't count this year. Who could remember 65 different costumes?
I do remember everyone's first.

D was a little pink bear, who screamed her way through the holiday, like she did every day that first year.
S was a clown
J was a cave baby
H was a lady bug (also screaming)
E was a pumpkin
Lucy was a cow

...don't tell but two I am not 100% sure of and one I had to go back and look at a picture of. Sad.

blue

Brother has been learning all these cute songs at school about letters and colors. It's so cute we ask for a show every night!

twinkle

H is learning to twinkle. This is the run pony jump pony variation.

family home work

transportation day is coming up and brother wanted to make an F-35. No surprise. He and DH worked on it this weekend. It turned out pretty cool, it'll be so fun for him to fly it to school on Friday!

This is not the finished model. Since this photo it's gotten it's silver paint job, and now it's waiting it 's finishing touches and then we'll have our first production model ready to hit the skies!