Trick or Treat!

We joined our neighborhood trick or treat festivities this evening, although we were slightly earlier than most of the other trickers. It was just falling dusk when we started out, but it was very dark by the time we made it home to hand out our own candy (a job that Sam LOVED!) Our neighborhood (subdivision) hosts a hayride on H'ween that is quite the festive gathering...lots of singing and shouting. Since we didn't intend on stopping at each and every house, we skipped out on that insanity, er...fun. Mostly, we stuck to the houses where we knew all of the little, old ladies that live alone (they give out the best candy.) So, we saw lots of blue hairs and got lots of good candy and more than a few, "Oh. Those are the cutest kids...." Again, another benefit of trick or treating in a geriatric rich community! Go us!
I must say that the highlight of the evening came at what, if I remember correctly, was the 5th house. After knocking on their door for an obscenely loud and long time, Sam announced that we needed to move along because 'wasn't nobody at home.' So, as we turn to leave, the fellow opens the door. He was a rather generous sort and even gifted us with extra goodies in case "your Daddy eats all your candy (has this guy been peeping in our windows?)" Anyway, we said our please and thank-you's and as we turned to leave Sam tells the guy, "Hey. Why don't you get a doorbell next time?" I thought Mr. GP and I would collapse from laughter in the man's front yard. Rather funny, yes it was.
A few pics for your viewing pleasure. Grand total spent on H'ween costumes....less than $6! YAY!! Of course, our ghosts were wearing cowboy boots and old sheet. BUT WHO CARES?!

Just one of those days...

We're getting really good at this stay outside all day and sleep in the grass and sunshine thing. The weather was just too good to be true today, so we just made it an outside day. The boys played in their grapevine fort in the garden, walkie talkies and all. They are hilarious on those things. Sam hasn't quite grasped that you have to release the TALK button in order to hear what the other person is saying, so he would scream into the walkie, "ARE YOU GONNA TALK TO ME OR NOT YOU BIG STINKER HEAD?" He was so thoroughly aggrivated with, what he thought was, Jack's failure to respond. That kid.
Lets see. What else? We had a family baseball game. Girls against boys. We way cheated, so the boys quit playing with us. Spoiled sports. What can I say? We were outnumbered. Somewhere along the way, I observed the following activities:
Monster Ball (those giant velcro disks you attach to your hands that catch a tennis ball?
Fire House (this is something the kids play in their dilapidated wood fort with the fireman pole you can slide down...it's amazing they can still play on it since Sam sawed through the floorboards.)
Car Wash (Sophy brought out all the boy's Hot Wheels and washed them in the creek...how sweet?)
Secret Agents (the boys donned backpacks filled with food, boots, hats, walkie talkies, and hauled lumber planks to their grapevine fort to make floorboards, and plotted and planned secret agent...things.)
Pumpkin Rolling (Sophy took all of the pumpkins off our front porch and rolled them down the hill in our yard trying to knock over other pumpkins...pumpkin bowling?)

Well. Tomorrow is back to school. Yay! Or not.

Documentation! Sniff, sniff.

Jack had his first sleep-away-from-home-at-someone-other-than-Mimi's-house-sleepover last night. He invited his little friend to Sam's wild and crazy party, and then we dropped them off at Friend's house around 9 o'clock p.m. I'm guessing they stayed up really, REALLLLY late (ha!) because Jack was less than interested in his 8 AM soccer game this morning! Can't say that I blame him! He had a great time. Friend's mom made them pancakes. According to Jack, they were "from the cabinet and not from the freezer like mommy's are." Great. Thanks, Friend's Mom, for showing me up! What can I say? I hate pancakes almost as much as I hate chili!! Pah!
Jack muddled his way through his soccer game, played at the Fall Festival, and then attended the soccer awards ceremony late this evening. After his bath, he crashed soundly into his bed with no cohersion and fell fast asleep. Hey, maybe he'll sleep past 6:15 in the morning! No such look I'm sure! He's been waking up before 6:30 since he was like 2 years old. Yeah. We love that about him. NOT! Hehe.

Having non-grandparent related sleepovers makes me feel really old. I mean, I can remember a time when he was little, and for whatever reason, I would think about the day that would come when he wanted to go to a friend's house to play or sleepover. I didn't know how I would feel about that when the time came. I guess I still don't know how I feel about that. He just looked bigger when he got home today. Which is weird, 'cause I'm sure he didn't just sprout overnight. Or did he? I'm thinking maybe he did. See...about a month ago, I bought him all size 8 pants for school. Now, they are flooding big time. He's wearing a size 10 slim all the way. Can you believe that? A size 6.5 shoe. And "I'm really, actually hungry." is all we ever hear come out of his mouth!! Ug. We are in such big trouble.

But back to the sleepover....SO, I guess he is a big kid now. Sniff, sniff. I'm an old lady that is teaching herself to crochet...(oy).....the birthdays and milestones just keep zipping past me like cars on the highway. Guess what? Sophy will be 5 in about 3 weeks. Yes. THREE weeks. Now that hurts. Hurts, I tell you. I'm going to go kiss my sleeping BABIES and drown my sorrows in a cup of hot tea. Wahhhh........

A Bouncing Baby Boy!

6 years ago today, Sam was only a couple of hours old and chilling in the NICU, and look at him now! As I type he is outside with his daddy learning how to use the blower. HA! We spent the morning playing our final soccer games and then headed to the Fall Festival (or as Sam called it, The Fall Vegetable...HAHAHA!) We bounced to our hearts content in first one jumpy thing then another. Somewhere in the meantime we stopped and ate hotdogs while we sat in the grassy festival area and washed it down with a giant wad of cotton candy! I tell ya, is there anytime like October? Nay, I tell you. Nay.

Learning to use the blower (heaven help us.)


Of course, I have tons of bday pics to post. The party was absolutely wild, but the kids had a blast. Just one pic of the action while you wait:

Stuff and stuff.

Another week for the history books. Well, the really boring (but fast paced) history books. Here are the highlights of the week:

CHILI - Yes, it's considered a highlight ANYTIME I cook. Well. Maybe not a highlight so much as an oddity. Pah! I hate, hate, hate chili. Mr.Pinkie; however, loves it. So I made a giant pot of it yesterday and appeased him for (hopefully) another year or two. I detest chili or can't ya tell? On a positive chili note, it was rainy and cold all day yesterday, so at least we had good chili weather. Is it just me or does anyone else out there crave certain foods when the weather changes? And speaking of changes..set your clocks back on Sunday!

REMODEL - So, the master bath is complete. The new (and by new I mean in addition to the pre-existing)window in the living room has been installed where the built-ins used to be. SO! We are planning to start construction on a little (and by little I mean Mr. GP is doing it and not me..heehee) project in our giant dining room. We have this dining room, you see, that is the size of two rooms. It's ridiculous really. I've had these peyote type visions of dividing the room down the middle and making two smaller rooms of the one. This would mean a somewhat smaller formal dining area and a guest space/home office. Each room would be about a 10X10 when the division is complete. Most people, ok...ok...everyone I've told, do not see the beauty of my vision. BTW, here is a BEFORE photo from one angle.

And the view from the other entry:

However, I do believe once it is completed not only will everyone love it, but they will see how much more user friendly (although smaller) the space is. We use our formal dining about 2 times a year. Thanksgiving and once for a mommy/daughter tea each spring. I am not about to give up that space. I mean, c'mon. It's a place I can put out cute table decorations and buy china. So there. But we desperately need a guest space and a more conveniently located home/office for Mr. GP's photography clients. So, there ya go! Wa-la! Once that is finished, I will intiate Operation Mudroom and revamp it once it coughs up the computer it is currently housing. It will then, finally, become a true family mudroom as nature intended...complete with sports storage, coat storage, backpack storage, sitting area, boot/shoe/hat storage. Oh yeah.....AFTER pics to follow!!

DENTIST VISIT:
I took the day off yesterday to take the boys to a dentist appt. It was Sam's first appointment ever, and he did great! Of course, he did chastise the dentist for taking too long, but everything else went smoothly. Sam had a good report, and Jack's was better than normal...HA! We did learn that it's looking like Jack will not have to get braces this year as we were originally planning to do, per the dentist's recommendation. Seems his mouth has really grown over the last year, and one particular area in his mouth where we were needing to preserve a space actually solved the problem for us by his eleven (yes..ELEVEN)year old molar dropping down and holding the spot nature planned on it having even though it's not time. Long, confusing story, but we're thankful nonetheless. Of course, we realize we haven't dodged the bullet entirely, but that is ok. Poor Jack. I'm afraid he inherited my horrible mouth. I have beautiful teeth (now), thanks to my parent's diligent dental overhauling they insisted on. Impacted tooth in the roof of my mouth, 2 teeth under my tongue, 8 extractions, an apecoectomy, dimples (yes, you can get those on your teeth apparently) and lots of words that I can't spell, more crowns than the royal family and 5 years of braces later...I have a gorgeous smile! HA! So, of our 3 kids, we'll be lucky if only Jack has my mouth. God bless him.

PARTY FEVER: Tomorrow I'm in charge of Sam's Fall party at school. We've got some cute games going, and it's an early release day. The kids are released at one, but the teachers (oh joy) have to stay until 3 for a workshop. Do I sound excited? I'm not. After school, we're having Sam's bday party. Good times! The red monster will be 6 on Saturday...which is the day we have 2 soccer games, a fall festival, and a soccer awards ceremony to go to. But most importantly, on Saturday we're making a special trip to town for Mr. 6 year old to pick out his new bike! He is so excited!!!

"I just love driving on hay."

This was said by Jack as we took a turn around the woods on a hayride last night. I was sort of embarrassed. I mean, are we so city-fied that my children can not refer to a hayride in the correct terminology? Sad times. Sad times. HA! More than once I had to correct Jack...haydrive this, haydrive that. It was almost more than I could stand. Still, despite the city-fied ways of my children (HORRORS!), we had a really nice time. The kids roasted weiners, marshmellows, made s'mores (as in, "they're so good I gotta have s'more"...that's about retarded, isn't it?), went for a hay drive (er, ride...), stuffed themselves with spiced cupcakes and nearly froze our tooties off once the sun went down. We really enjoyed experiencing a hayride through the eyes of the kids. At one point in our LONNGG trek, we came upon a really pretty pond just sitting there all by itself with the setting sun making it glow and look like it was on fire. All of the kids started screaming (at the top of their lungs), THE OCEAN!!! I mean, really. I had to giggle. They were so serious. Jack learned how to chew on a hayseed. Sophy called a cow a donkey (again, we really have strayed from our West Texas family heritage...my Papa would come back from the grave to rip my throat out if he knew Sophy had called a cow a donkey...still, she defended her stance and swore to us that it was, in fact, a donkey.) Sam tried to unhitch the trailer from the tractor. I quote him now, "Mom. What does this thing do?" As he tried to unhitch us. All the way home they were telling spooky stories and making each other giggle. I love this time of year and just about most things that go with it. I promised Sam that we would make hot chocolate and sugar cookies tonight and sit on the porch to watch the sunset. Sometimes, he can be so sweet. Sometimes. HA!

I left the camera in the Jeep when we took off, so this was taken pre-hay drive.

Friday Night Lights

((Play that funky music white boy....play that funky music...))Sam doing a pre-game boogy.


Well. I can honestly say there is nothing like a football Friday night in Texas. What is it about Texas and football games? It's just who we are. People become different people at football games. The kids transformed into cheering, chanting, head bobbing maniacs. The crowd was insane, but we had a good time. Jack especially loved crashing through the sign made for the 2nd graders (who won the penny drive in case you haven't figured that out by now.) Oh, and Sophy almost imploded when she saw the school mascot (Wildcat.) She had on her leopard print leggings/outfit just for the occassion. She ran to the wildcat with open arms and hugged her as if she were long lost family. HA!

It's like finding Waldo (or Nemo...ha!), but see if you can locate Jack. He's wearing a grey hoodie and jeans.


Sophy talked about this all night long. She wants to grow a tail now. I'm all for that, actually. I love the idea of her having a handle! Much easier for keeping up with her in a crowd!!

One step closer to becoming an old woman.

No, it's not my birthday or anywhere near close to it. Yet, I'm steadily creeping up on old age. It's got to be just around the corner. Know why? Because I started crocheting. CROCHETING. ME!! That is bound to make someone out there giggle, if you know me at all.
It's just so....not me...at least, I think it's not.
Well, we'll see if anything significant comes of it. It would be nice if I could just go ahead and learn all the terminology already. Plus, it would be nice if I had actual directions and not just hand written notes that my aunt (who can make a GORGEOUS baby blanket in a day) jotted down for my mom somewhere around 1982 when my mom crocheted a rainbow afghan for my bed that now is on Sophy's bed. WHEW! What a sentence!!!
It's been one crazy week. From beligerent (how DO you spell that?), stupid people at school to overall insanity at home (of the nonbeligerent variety.) The kids, mostly Sam, have been so WILD! What is up? You would think it's the week before Christmas or something.
Sophy, knock on something, seems to have bolted out of the terrible two's...'bout time since she's rapidly approaching the age of 5 in about a month. HA! Whatever has brought on the change, I am so thankful. She's actually agreeable and sweet, as opposed to defiant and mean which is what we had for a while.
Homecoming will be Friday night. Now, this is the district where I went to High School, but I'm just not much of a joiner when it comes to folks. I try to like people. I really do. Sometimes it just doesn't work. I haven't been to a homecoming game since....well...high school? HAHA. I graduated in 1991. Do the math. I mean, c'mon. I still teach in the same district where I went to high school. How much of a homecoming do I need? It looks as though I may not avoid the game altogether. Seems that the elementary school came up with this fund raiser for the United Way. Yeah. The grade that raises the most $ in their annual penny drive gets to smash through the paper banner at the beginning of the game with the football team. Wouldn't ya know it....2nd grade is winning and has been all week. Sigh. Of course, this makes Sam fighting mad. Needless to say, I'll be going to homecoming this year at this rate. Ug. Oh well. Maybe the cheerleaders I used to throw ice at from the stands won't be there. Amongst other folk.....

Kickin' up our heels.

Look at me go!! Who knew I could still do a cartwheel? The kids laughed so hard at their poor mama. I probably did 50 cartwheels. Something tells me that I probably won't be able to move tomorrow. HA! Sophy tried and tried to do a cartwheel. Oh, we had so much fun being stupid.
It was no where near cool enough to start a fire in our chimenea (how do you spell that??? chimanea??) Anyhoo..you know, the outside fire thingy. It wasn't cold enough, but I wanted to smell that pinon wood so bad...so we did it. The kids brought a quilt out and read while we did yard work. It was really, really nice to just be together and with nothing to do.

At some point, the boys had the bright idea to see what kind of secret fort they could make in the grapevine (it's a MONSTER) that borders the east wall of my garden. It's very dense, so Sam got a pair of hand clippers and Jack found a hack-saw and away they went....we didn't see them for hours. Sam told me later that they were making their 'secret agent fort.' So it would seem that my secret garden just became a shade more secret-ish.


My little wood sprite. Here she is...she spent all day playing in the creek, throwing rocks in the pond, picking flowers and putting them in bottles....

The not-so long weekend.

Technically, it should be a 3 day weekend for me. But since I'm a slacker and didn't attend a mandatory workshop this summer (I had my reasons...er, mostly), I have to go to an in-house workshop tomorrow at school with the other slackers who didn't attend the mandatory summer workshop. It'll stink, but it was worth having all my summer days....so there!

With soccer season (and team pics) upon us, we've had a very chaotic October. Daddy Pinkie has been running like a madman (doing photography), so we haven't seen near enough of him lately. After church today, we rushed home to change clothes, eat a sandwich, get in the car and go to the annual art festival (or is it arts festival?). We saw lots of neat artists in action, tons of cool works of art in all forms (Jack was in awe of the metal whirly-gig artists), and of course we ate lots of good festival food...of which our favorite was the funnel cake. Oh, the funnel cake. What is it about a funnel cake....



((I'm absolutely unsure of what my camera was doing here. I need to do some serious camera course. Looks like we had flood lights on...ha.))

Sophy had her turn on the rock wall and went just as high as the guys, but she kept free falling backwards on purpose every time she made it halfway up the wall. She's like a tree frog with suctions for feet. Something I did learn today about Sam. He can hang indefinitely from a fake rock ledge...which can be annoying when someone below is waiting for his turn on the rope. HA!

The kids did their thing on the rock wall, had some face painting, watched a weird guy in fancy pantaloons doing a trapeze act who was very talented but not nearly as funny as he wanted to be.


We checked out a bone dig exhibit,made some sand art, and dreamed about a giant turkey leg. Here's a nice pic of Sophy getting her forehead painted. No, we couldn't just get the cheek..we had to go for the forehead. Maximum visibility. See how still she is sitting? It's because she was getting a RAINBOW painted on her head.

Why does George get to be curious?

Sam-isms:

Why does George get to be curious? (He was in trouble for digging in my closet.)

Janufery, Febufery, Mark, April, May, June, July, Ankust, September, October, December. (the months)

Have I been good? I ain't been griping or whining yet.

When is school gonna be over forever? (Wish I knew.)

Jack, you don't tell me nothin' 'bout what I'm doin'. (That's code for mind your own business.)

This is my sposponsibility. (Dishwashing--his favorite past time.)