Sheryl and Campbelle

This is what our family awoke to early on Sunday morning. 

The girl loves to sing.

Tearing down walls

I’ve given up on trying to keep this house clean. I’m at the brink and just don’t care anymore.  In fact,  I’ve decided to let the kids write on the walls.

Ok – not really.  But ever since we built the house two years ago, I’ve hated this half wall in between our formal living room and dining room.  I even asked the builders to omit the wall, but there were unable to break from the specific floor plan that we selected.  (Dumb – believe me I know!)   I was never able to expand my table all the way and it felt too cramped whenever there were more than just the 5 of us eating in there.   So finally, after all my complaining about it, we hired a friend to get rid of it for us.  He did a great job and I’m amazed at how much it has/yet hasn’t changed that area.  (Does that make sense?!?)

Here’s a before photo:

And after:

I can hardly wait to throw the biggest dinner party and just expand our table all the way open and have all this comfortable space.  Thanksgiving …. anyone want to join us?  We’ll have plenty of room!!

Trick or Treat

Um…. I think I’d slam the door if I saw these two monsters coming up the walk. 

We should have used thses masks as ‘Crowd Control’ … if a group of kids came to the house looking a bit too old to be trick or treating – these two should have answered the door.  We had some questionable trick or treaters this year…. and i hope those teenage boys were happy with my choice of goodies – stickers with googly eyes, pencils or bookmarks.  (That’ll teach them to trick or treat past their time.) Leif was worried the house would get egged – but it didn’t.

 

Thank goodness our night was mostly filled with cute little trick and treaters like these guys:

And of course sweet Marie:

At the end of the night, the kids had about 22lbs of candy but we found tons of fun things to do with it besides consuming it all.   The kids sorted, by kind and color and made scientific predictions on which category would be the winner.  They dissolved some in water to watch them break down.  They made patterns out of the different ones and saw who could build the highest tower.  There was candy wagon racing and all sorts of fun – without eating more than just a few.

The kids gladly turned in their loot at the end of the night to the famous Candy Fairy who visits these parts.  They left their bag of candy on the front porch and in return they each got a magazine, a flute and a puzzle.  And in hind site, the Candy Fairy really should use her head and think before buying two flutes for this household ever again.  Damn Candy Fairy!

;-)

And I’ve heard that she in turn delivers the candy as payment to Microsoft.  I think they basically own the rights to her.

Happy Halloween

Watch DOGS

Leif is one of the Watch DOGs…. Dad of Great Student.  And today he volunteered at Campbelle’s school.   He spent time in her classroom as well as three other classrooms ranging from pre-school to 5th grade.  He was a recess and lunchroom monitor.  I don’t think he’s ready to change careers – but I think he had a great day.  And Campbelle was sooooo proud to have him there.

The back of Campbelle’s shirt says ‘My HERO is a Watch DOG.’  Love it!

Getting ready….

Seems Halloween week is here ….. we kicked off the fun with an afternoon at the Mt Si Community Center Halloween party on Saturday.

But prior to getting there was a bit of drama at our house.

1st.  Christian was going to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle.  At least that was my understanding when I bid on a costume on eBay for him (with him standing right beside you cheering my winning bid).  I thought he was excited about it.  At least that was my understanding.  But come Saturday afternoon and time to get dressed, I realized there had been a miscommunication.  Tears ensued – and after a bit of uncharacteristic drama from child #2 – he thankfully agreed to don his karate costume from last year.  Anyone need a last minute turtle costume?  Cheap.  Send email inquiries to me.

2nd.  Campbelle asked me a few weeks ago if it’d be ok if she was a chef again this year.  “ABSOLUTELY” I shouted – pleased with the thought of not having to buy another costume for her this year.  (Had I known about the turtle issue – it’d really had been a cheap year for us).   She decided that this year she was going to be a French Soup Chef – not to be confused with her character of last year – the French Baker.  Duh people! I drew on a pencil thin French moustache on her face –  and upon inspecting it in the mirror she came to near hysterics over it.  The make-up came off quickly and the idea of a boy French Soup Chef was scrapped.

3rd.  Beckett was extremely bothered by the flour that had been sprinkled on Campbelle’s face.  (ah, flour for a girl French Soup Chef is not all that baffling – and please don’t confuse her with a French Baker!!) Anyway, Beckett cried in horror at it.  Truly, would shriek in terror every time he looked at her.  You’d swear it had been blood.  Or maybe it had something to do with his Elvis shirt.  (onsie courtesy of his father and his business trip to Vegas)

 

We eventually made it to the party with our good buddies Rory and Riley.  The kids had a blast and anxiously await more Halloween fun this week.

Christian’s Make-Over

We’ve talked for awhile about cutting Christian’s hair.  Leif has always wanted to, but I usually hold back.  Perhaps because I’m a bit envious of his thick, coarse, wavy, naturally highlighted hair.  But today we (and by we I mean ‘I’) worked up the courage to try something different.

Here’s a before:

Here’s what he looks like now:

And I really like it, reminds me of someone else I sorta fancy (in an entirely different sort of way)!

Pumpkin Patch

I went along with Christian’s preschool class to the farm on Tuesday.  The kids had tons of fun seeing all the animals, walking through the fields, and picking out the best pumpkin.

Indi – one of his best buddies and car pool pal.  Such a cutie pie.

His pumpkin snowman.

A bit late

I just today pulled pictures from our small point-n- shoot camera and realized that we had one photo from our trip to Norway on it.  These are our great little travelers on our flight there.  If I recall – they each slept about 5 hours like this.  Thank goodness we didn’t encounter any turbulence (would have had to wake them and buckle them in) and thank goodness they didn’t mind smelly feet down there!