It's that time again ...

They've only been wanting to dig into our pumpkins for like three weeks now. We finally did the other night while Daddy was in class.

Jell refused to ever touch the stuff, only willing to scoop it out with a spoon. Meri, on the other hand, got nice and dirty - I love how she's up to her elbow in one of our smaller pumpkins!

I think it's tradition now - we had it out and glowing for the Blazers' opening night again this year and it helped them to a win :) Course it was lit last night too, but we won't talk about that.

Then Jell absolutely insisted we make one into a witch, and after her not liking any designs we could find online, I made up this one while she slept and she loved it in the morning:

I can't take the credit here, this one did come from the internet, but it was so funny (Jell didn't stop laughing hysterically for like a minute straight) that we had to have our own Cannibal monster pumpkin. "Poor, poor baby pumpkin" she kept saying after she stopped laughing.

Now we're finally ready for Halloween, come rain or shine! And from all indications, come rain it is!

Hindight Being 20/20 and All...

So chalk this up to unforeseen circumstances I really should have foreseen. After yesterday's feet/hand painting ghost project (see previous post), I should have seen today's announcement from Meri coming a mile away:

"Mama, I'm going to paint my feet now."

Both Cooper and I were busy and not paying attention, so she continued to say it 5 or 6 times, until suddenly it dawned on us what she was saying. We quickly stopped her, of course, which she expected--which is why she was making sure we heard her announcement before she proceeded. Now if only she'd tell me before she did anything that was bad....

Oh, and by the way, when I finally dragged myself out of bed this morning because I suddenly realized that I had been hearing the girls make noise for a while, I found them lying side by side on the couch, nicely snuggled under a blanket they were sharing, watching Dinosaur Train. Sigh. They grow up so quickly and learn how to turn on the tv, change it to their favorite channel, and turn the volume down so as not to bother mom and dad (which she told me she'd done).

Pretend ghosts

As we've been seeing Halloween decorations everywhere, we've had quite a lot of discussions about what's real and what's pretend, and how pretend things aren't scary. They're just for fun and often silly. So here's our pretend hands/feet ghosts! We love the end product, and they loved the process, however mom was a little stressed about keeping the white paint from getting everywhere!! I'm giving myself a pat on the back for being a good sport and letting them do it in the first place :)

And that was the end of the sprinkles

Jell dumped basically the whole sprinkle jar onto one cookie. Oh well, right? Maybe she was trying to make him feel better after she busted his arm off ... before she ate him.

The Witches Ball

Ready to go party!

The whole witchey crew

Witches in trainingMama Witches - even Moms have fun dressing up now and then

Miracle at the Pumpkin Patch

It didn't rain on us!!! I'd been so worried about the potential of a very soggy field trip, but the clouds even parted for a bit and we saw the sun! We went to the Flower Farmer pumpkin patch to check out their Phoenix & Holly Railroad. It was great fun! Although, as can be seen, Meri wasn't all that comfortable with the idea at the start:

But she did warm up and by the third time we got on the train, was laughing her head off. Jell even sat by us for a couple minutes before ditching us for all her friends :)

And surprise, surprise - look who got all brave all the sudden!

Also a bit surprising, look at who wasn't brave. She did get some of the food, but each time the goat turned it's head toward her, she chucked the food at it. Catch!

And somehow, nobody fell down this! There were a dozen constantly climbing on and in this - what fun!

Buddies!

Cute girls!

The preschool group happy to have pumpkins!

What did you draw in Sunbeams today?

"Well, that's the girl (in the middle) helping the three-headed monster. She has bangs. And the boy (far left) is helping too."
My assumption would be they learned something about helping. But what's with the three-headed monster???

Choose This Day

Not tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. I gotta be better about this!

Talk to me more about reindeers

(This morning in the car - coming totally out of nowhere)
Jell: Mom, do reindeer have pointy ears?
Me: Um, I guess you could say that.
Jell: Talk to me more about reindeers mom.
Me: Well, they have horns on their heads that are called antlers.
Jell: Antlers! Ha. (deep in thought for a minute) Mom, cause I was thinking about could reindeers not hide under rocks because of their pointy antlers?
Me: What? Yeah, I guess that would be difficult.
Jell: Because of their pointy antlers.
Me: Yes, and they're a little big to be hiding under rocks.
Jell: Hm ... talk to me more about reindeers mom.
Me: Well, they're brown. They have big eyes (Jell laughs loudly). And their feet are called hooves.
Jell: Hooves!?! I like hooves.
Me: Yes, hooves are nice.

(Where do her thoughts come from????)

I don't mean to laugh, but ...

So Jell got these beautiful puzzles for her birthday:
She loves them. But the other day Meri dumped out all three of them and they got a bit mixed up. I sent Jorge (name has been changed to protect the innocent from embarrassment) over to help clean it up while I worked on dinner. He found this to be rather difficult and complained to me that the pieces are the exact same shape in the same place in each puzzle (they must've been cut from the same mold). This is true, as best seen when looking at the them from the back, like this:
However, how many of us put together a puzzle upside down? When you have to place these three pieces in their respective puzzles, there might be a couple of other clues to look for.
I mean, this can't be right:
Nor could this:
As if to prove my point, while photographing these, Meri came over and got very upset and told me "No, no, Mommy. Daht's not how it goes." When I corrected it, she clapped and cheered for me - "Yay Mama!"
The backgrounds aren't even the same color. Jorge - you're wonderful in so many ways, and I adore you, but the fact that you put half of the pieces in the wrong puzzle before realizing it, and then spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure it out, really cracks me up.
(Sorry that I posted this Jorge, but I had to do something to keep me amused while you're at school!)

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum

So we had to make the trek out to McMinville to drop off a painting and thought we'd stop in on the air/space museum to check out the air part this time. As we entered, we passed a statue of the pilot who is the founder of the museum. Coop told the girls he was a pilot. Jell replied, "Nu uh dad, he's a statue" in a total, duh-type voice. Can't get anything passed that girl.
Scattered throughout the museum are these old (some really old with ash trays and stuff) airplane seats. The girls insisted on sitting in every one and buckling up. Although Jell always reassured me, "Mom, we're just going to stay here, we're not going to take off."
And we of course, were blown away by the enormous Spruce Goose, or wooden flying boat. Very, very cool. Fascinating. Incredible testament to ingenuity and progress. But a big, cynical part of me wants to know how it was worth the money. Back in WWII times, it cost the federal government 18 million. That's a lot - especially back then. It flew once for about a mile. No others were ever made from the model. Good use of taxpayer dollars? Who is still wondering how the US is so badly in debt?
Anyway, politics aside, I love how you can just barely see Jell here:
And Mer had a blast too:
But of course we couldn't leave without running around the awesome playground.
Then, only because of a false alarm to use the bathroom, we ran into the space museum. And they have this new carnival ride in the front that is free. Who's heard of such a thing? Of course, that's with admission, but still, how cool. Jell loved it, especially when she finally figured out how to make it go up and down.
Meri started out excited, but then she accidentally made her plane go up (which makes a rather loud noise) and she cried and cried her big crocodile tears. She'd calm down, then she'd pull up again and burst into tears. Since they were the only two on the ride, he stopped it for her to get off. She spent the rest of the time watching Jell with her hands on her ears, shaking her head and muttering that she didn't like that.
Fun times! Can't wait for the massive waterpark addition ready in 2011!