Let's Talk About Halloween!

Well, I'm glad I didn't promise to be here every day as I've already let 2 days go by without blogging.  Oh well.

Anyhoo, Halloween was last week and I think it's safe to say we ALL had a really good day. The older boys wore their costumes to school and in the afternoon had a costume parade.  Usually they march the kids around the school, but since it had rained a little in the morning, they marched them around the one parking lot 3 times.  I was able to go because my mom was wonderful and came up to stay with Finn.  There were a bunch of cute costumes, and the parade was fun to watch.

Except for when he was posing for the above picture, 

Ezekiel took this parade thing WAY seriously.

After the parade the kids went back inside for their classroom parties.  I volunteered to be a classroom mom for Ezekiel's class this year (since I was nominally one last year for Deacon's class). For this party I was put in charge of the craft and I think the kids enjoyed it.  They all did a great job. We made little lanterns I guess you'd call them. Basically they glued tissue paper over a baby food jar, added some googly eyes and put in an LED tea light. Here's Ezekiel's:

You can see my example watching from the shadows.

After school was over we went home, tried to get Finn into his costume (with no success), and went to the bus stop on the end of our street for the little parade they do on base. All of the kids looked really sweet as they walked down our street then up to the community center where there was hot dogs and cookies and pictures to color. A bunch of our friends were there so we hung around for a little bit.  Then we went home and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" until it was time to trick-or-treat. Or, until it was time to release...the ninjas!

My mom and I took the boys around to the houses on our street while Josh handed out candy, then we switched. Josh and my mom took the boys over to another part of base for more trick-or-treating while I stayed home and handed out candy.  Since it was a warm night, I invited my neighbor over with her candy and we sat outside my house chatting while handing out candy.  It certainly made the evening more enjoyable for me.

The boys (all 4 of them) had a great time trick-or-treating and got so. much. candy. Once they were finished it was time for bed and for my mom to head home.  All in all, a pretty great day, if I do say so myself.  And I do!

Let's Talk About Hats

Another reason I haven't been blogging much is because I've been busy making hats.  Hats for Christmas, hats for Kirsten's coworkers, a hat for a birthday, all kinds of hats.  Linda, don't let Sam see this post, I'd hate to ruin his Christmas surprise. *giggle*

For Christmas I made my nephew, Sam, a sweet looking minion hat. (The link is to the pattern because it's a wonderfully written pattern and that lady deserves mad props for it.) Shortly after I finished it my sister, Kirsten, came over and was saying how her boss had decided to dress up as Gru for Halloween and wanted everyone else to dress up his minions.  She was saying how they weren't sure how they were going to do it. I was still excited about Sam's hat so I got it out and showed it to her.  Wouldn't you know it, her coworkers all loved it and I was asked to make 6 of them for Halloween (about 2 weeks before). Plus 2 or 3 extra ones, but those can be done whenever she says. Well, I worked hard and I got them all finished in just under 2 weeks.  I must say, they came out really cute, and apparently everyone was pretty well pleased with them:

At the same time I was making those, I was working secretly on Josh's birthday hat.  Well, it was originally going to be a Christmas gift, but I was too excited to wait until then. I would bring it with me to soccer practices if I knew for certain Josh wasn't going to show up. I mainly worked on it Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after school. Soccer was Tuesdays and Thursdays, so the other days we would hang out at the school playground and the boys would run around and work off some energy before we'd head home to do homework and dinner and what's it. So, while the boys played I knit:

It's a TARDIS hat! This past summer Josh and I blew through all 7 seasons of the "new" Doctor Who and LOVED almost every single minute of it.  It is a brilliant show and a lot of fun. As I was writing this I realized I don't have picture of Josh in his hat, so I used one of the two of me in the hat.

Besides all of these hats, as if they weren't enough, I've also been working on other knitted Christmas presents and have been keeping my self quite happily busy. Since they are Christmas presents for people who read this I won't write any more about them...for now. And that is it for now.  Tomorrow (or Monday, I don't know if I'll blog on Sundays yet or not) we will talk about our Halloween!

Let's Talk About NaBloPoMeh

November is National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) and every November (except for 2011 apparently) I take on this challenge and blog every day for the month. I'd like to say I'm going to do it again this year, but I'm not entire sure I'll be able to get to it every day, and I don't want to make an empty promise.

It's kind of crazy, isn't it? Here I was, thinking that with both Ezekiel and Deacon in school all day long, I'd have PLENTY of time for blogging and sitting at my computer messing with pictures on flickr and what's it. I think I've blogged...well, let's see...I've blogged exactly ONE time since school started. I can't even tell you what all Finn and I have been doing, but apparently we have been busy.

What I really think it is, is that we usually are busy running errands and going to Bible study and what's it in the mornings while it is just the 2 of us (which is easier than when I have the older 2 or even the older 2 and Josh with Finn and me), that by the time I get Finn down for his nap I'm too "tired" to do much of anything but play games on the computer and/or watch TV. It's my downtime too y'all.

So then I think, "Why don't I blog instead of (or before) playing games? I don't know.  I guess because sometimes the blog feels like work. Some days it doesn't occur to me. Sometimes it seems not as necessary since we're around family right now, even if we don't see them all the time. Sometimes it's because blogging reminds me of how far behind I am on organizing my pictures and taking them off my phone/camera, and that IS a chore, so I blow off blogging so I can continue to blow off my pictures.

Well no more! Here's hoping I get to blogging every day this month.  Here's hoping I get my pictures organized both on my computer and on flickr. Here's hoping I also keep up with the household stuff, even as the holiday season begins and accelerates. Pray for me y'all. It's going to be a long month. Hehehe. Now, enjoy this picture of the boys from September, and I'll see you guys tomorrow!

Dumps Like a Truck, Truck, Truck

Apparently it's been a month or so since I've posted here - where does the time go? In attempt to answer that question, here is a photo/post dump, snapshots of what we've been doing since the end of August. My apologies for any blurry photos or for being brief on things that could probably have their own post. We have been crazy busy so it's sort of a feat to get this much done.  So, let's see what we've been up to (in some sense of chronological order):

 

Every Friday we went to the library for the summer reading program they had:

This could probably go without being said, but there was MUCH Lego'ing:

 

There was also much gardening of the tomato variety (still hoping my peppers won't let me down):

There was as 2nd mud run with more family and friends participating:

The first day of school (2nd grade for Ezekiel, 1st grade for Deacon):

 

My women's Bible study group (of which I am president this year) started meeting Wednesday mornings and Tuesday evenings:

Soccer started for the older two:

And Josh got a new "toy" for hunting season, which opens Saturday. Venison anyone?:

There have also been quite a few trips to the water park until it closed, some play dates, a trip to West Point, a trip to camp, as well a day here and there with no where to go and nothing to do. Now we're into the swing of things with school and Bible studies and soccer, and Josh started his new job and maybe we'll get to slow down again around Thanksgiving?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone