movie night

We've been slacking on our Sunday family movie nights around here lately.
Luckily we've been making up for it in other ways...
Last weekend we went to one of our local firestations for a super fun kids movie night. Everyone brought lawn chairs and blankets and beanbags and they set up a big projector with a movie and there was popcorn and Kool-aid and the kids just thought it was so stinkin' cool to be hanging out in the firehouse with lots of friends and neighbors!



















































Can you name the movie?































This week, tonight, Savannah's school is having a family movie night in their gym. Ryan took the kids over and he called to report they're having a fun (albeit really crowded) time eating their skittles and popcorn and watching Alvin and the Chipmunks. He's a trooper taking them both over himself since I'm laid-up here (wait- what's the opposite of laid-up since I can't really sit or lay comfortably??) and can't really sit through a movie.

Instead I have to hang out in by myself in this peace and quiet for once! Darn it!!

(hmm... Ryan sent me a pic from his phone but I have no idea how to get pictures from this teeeeeny tiny card in my phone onto my computer, so that'll have to wait...)

saturday's snaps

Recap of Halloween (and lots of pictures)!

I have never been a big fan of Halloween. It's not the most uplifting of holidays and I really don't like that it's such a kids' holiday, yet there's so much creepy, gory, really honestly yucky stuff. I've never loved the idea of Trick-or-Treating; hated doing it as a child (painfully shy) and could do without all the useless candy around here. I actually considered not celebrating Halloween with my own kids when I became a mom.

But over the last few years, it's really grown on me. Like all holidays, it's completely different really experiencing it through a child's perspective, but it's so much more than that here... and I can't believe I'm saying this, but Halloween is actually becoming one of the nights of the year that I look forward to the most with our kids and with our friends and neighbors.
Here it's like an extra large, incredibly cozy yet giant block party.

Some random guy walking down the street, following his kids trick-or-treating, talking on his cell phone put it best;
We didn't know him... must've been from another neighborhood. But we overheard him,
"You should see this, dude, this is no Hershey's Kiss neighborhood! We've got full size candy bars, popcorn balls, caramel apples, bonfires, the works! This is awesome!"

And he's right. It is awesome. Everyone's out, everyone's friendly, everyone's happy. Houses hand out candy, caramel apples, hot cider and donuts for the parents (and from a couple of our friends, offers of beer!), there are several firebowls going in driveways and a few garages set up as little mini haunted houses for the kids. Friends everywhere.
I thought by the end of our route (even though we only did our street and loop) the kids would be complaining... it was cold, their buckets were HEAVY and their costumes were not the most easy things to walk in. But they were laughing and smiling the whole way. We came home with too much candy and lots of happy Halloween wishes.
Love it!

Here are some of the kids on our corner before all the festivities got started...















And the cutest ones around that night (I think!)















Savannah had been talking about this costume since before last Halloween. She was smitten with the idea, but we didn't quite know how to pull it off, so we nixed it. Well, she talked about it all year, so I decided we had to figure something out. Lo and behold; here she is...





In a Bubble Bath!




























She had a blast and loved her unique costume. So glad we did it after all!






















And Sawyer, the robot:






















Doing a few robot moves...


































complete with flashing lights!





















Again, all his idea.
I kinda wanted to pull off another year of doing a cute pair of costumes together with my kiddos, but I loved that they came up with these ideas themselves and were sooo excited to help think them up and put them all together. It made it so fun and it was very cool to see how proud they were of their costumes out that night!

first day of first grade

Savannah is thrilled to be back at school. She loves her teacher, loves her class, loves the full day, loves that first graders get two recesses(!), loves being an old pro at the whole bus thing, loves taking her lunch to school... just all around loves being a first grader!





And I love that she loves it. I love that she's so confident and sure of herself. I love that she's up and dressed and anxious to go first thing in the morning. I love that she happily tells us about her day, even though she has exasperated once or twice, "I can't remember everything we did Mom!" at our further proddings. And I love that she's ready to get past this first week of "learning the first grade" and on to "learning first grade (or more like second grade in her case) stuff". She's anxious to get to the reading and writing and learning.
















I wanted to get more pictures of her after school that first day, but she balked at me.
I also offered to bring the camera out as she left on her second day (she's just looking entirely too grown up for me to believe on her way out the door each morning), but I detected a slight eye roll at that one. She's right though...
there's nothing like the first day of first grade!






















*****
Sawyer's loving that school's back on too... he's missed the morning ritual of Foursquare.
I have to admit one of my favorite things about the school year is our bus stop in the morning. Right on our front corner...














So many kids, so many parents, all hanging out before school. Our bus comes at almost 8:30, yet most of the kids are out by 8 o'clock just to play together.
Here's our first morning this year, but it's altogether typical of any morning of the school year...
moms and dads chatting














boys playing foursquare















and the girls who'd rather just gab while watching for the bus and examining each others' outfits and accessories!













































(minus the paparazzi of the first day of course!)























Have a great year, my favorite First Grader!!

what's newsy?

Last Wednesday was one of our usual produce co-op days.
Only last Wednesday wasn't completely usual, as Tracy had let us know the delivery/sorting/pick-up time needed to be moved earlier... because a channel 5 news reporter was coming to do a story on our local co-op!

I normally go over and help sort produce when I look out my window and see Tracy with a shortage of hands. Most of the ladies (and men sometimes) take turns helping unload and sort out the produce each week, sometimes I look out and there are as many as 10 people over there running around the driveway and what seems like a million kids running around in the backyard. More often than not, it is a great group effort and it all goes really fast.

With the early afternoon sorting time, and a chance for your very own fifteen seconds
of fame with the news crew there this week, I thought there would be plenty of helping hands and I really didn't expect she'd need me over there.

But when I looked out across the street after the truck pulled away from the delivery I realized there were was no one helping her... only Tracy's mom and her sister. Who aren't even in our co-op! They were supposed to be there to help keep the kids out of the way so Tracy could talk to the reporter!!

I so didn't want to be on camera, but what could I do... it was so hot and humid, there was a storm on it's way in, and there was what seemed like a million tons of produce to divy up between 56 baskets (yes our group of 12 has morphed into 56) all while Tracy was supposed to be talking to the news people and she only had her family there to help. So I put Sawyer in his room for a nap, checked myself in the mirror super quick, just to make sure I wasn't too scary (thankfully I had just got my haircut the night before, otherwise you can bet I would have been hiding behind the curtains all afternoon), and ran across the street to help.

Us four ladies ran around like crazy trying to get the produce all sorted and baskets filled and moved over to the shade under a tree before it all succumbed to the heat and humidity (and prayed that everyone would come pick up the baskets before the storm let loose). It was so sticky hot. And of course, the news guy is filming us the whole time... getting nice artistic shots of the baskets steadily filling up with the awesome summer variety of fruits and vegetables, but also I'm sure plenty of not so flattering shots of sweaty girls running around lugging armfuls of apples and squash and heaving watermelons around. So after most of all the work is done, they take Tracy inside to sit down and interview. Now why they didn't do that before she was all glistening with sweat, I'll never know. Poor girl (who is NOT the make-up type) did her face up and straightened her naturally curly hair just for her close-up... and by the time they sat her down to talk with her about how she started up this little neighborhood co-op that has turned city wide... well we all know what happens to hair like that out in the humidity. I could tell she felt like she'd done all the prettying up for nothing. I mean, she still looked adorable, but I know how she felt... like one hot mess.

The rest of us ladies stayed outside, still moving baskets and boxes around trying to keep them as cool and shaded as possible and helping people out to their cars with them as they were being picked up.

And then the news reporter comes out to get... me. She had asked if someone else would be willing to talk to them, another participant in the group. Well, since the other two helpers weren't technically in the group... everyone's eyes fell on me. Great.

Oh well, I thought, at least I can go inside and sit in the air-conditioning, have a chance to at least wipe the sweat off my face...
But no. "Here, right here in front of all the baskets is good!" Right in the hot sun so I can virtually glisten with sweat on camera. And let me tell ya, that is one big camera. And they stick it right in your face! Fun.

I wasn't all that bothered by it... I know if they use anything at all of me it'll most likely be all of four seconds spliced together to say what they want me to say. I remember some news crew coming to my jr high school for some story (I haven't a clue what it was) and I was so excited because they had talked to my best friend and I couldn't wait to see her on the news that night. Well I sat and watched the whole newscast, made my parents stay glued to the tv, and then she on the screen for all of two seconds at the very end. Ha!
So over here they filmed me and asked me questions for a good ten minutes, but I know (or am hoping?) most of that -if not all of it- will be whittled away.

I'm anxious to see the story though. For any of you locals around here, it'll be on channel 5 this Thursday evening during their primetime "Moms Like Me" segment at 7pm. If you catch it, you can get a peek into my neighborhood, how we're liking our co-op, the brains behind it, and maybe even a shot of my house in the background :)

movin' up in the world

The world of neighborhood foursquare, that is.

Sawyer had a proud morning today... he was granted his very own square in the morning ritual of bus stop foursquare.














He's been out there for nine months "playing" with the big boys (a kindergartner, a third grader and two fifth graders). One of the older boys (or a dad) usually takes pity on him him under their wing and lets him play in their square. But really, that doesn't make for much participation for Sawyer... sometimes they'd let him serve or send a starting bounce gently his way, but mostly they just let him think he was playing. Which is probably fine for most three-year-olds.














But these morning foursquare games before the school bus comes are something Sawyer looks forward to constantly. He loves "playing" with his bigger "friends". And it is really nice they let him play along.
So Sawyer's been practicing in the driveway with us... only I was beginning to think it's just that foursquare isn't really a preschool sport. At least when a preschooler is playing with people twice his size or more! He can hit the ball surprisingly well... think about how hard that little arm has to hit to stop and return the momentum of a playground ball sailing by! But he's been working on it, perfecting his punch. The problem is his little body can't cover the square very well and it's hard for him to hit it after just one bounce because usually it's too tall for him.

Well today he proved everyone wrong.














They let him hold a spot for someone and not only was he able to return the ball when it was tossed to him, but he got someone out. I think they were underestimating him :)














He even got Big M, the usual Ace of the foursquare court, out on a great sneaker shot.




























Sawyer had his share of ins and outs, but at one point worked his way up the squares all the way to the server spot!!! (of course I didn't think to grab the camera until after that part!*)














Obviously, the boys were going easy on him, but I was quite impressed. And proud!
And smiled to myself every time they were taken by surprise (again with the underestimating) and my little boy held his own out there!














*Yes, I took pictures. How long do you think I'll get away with that before Sawyer tells me to knock off the embarrassing paparazzi mimicking while he's hangin' with his friends??

dining well

I have pictures of Santa and other fun weekend stuff, but first I just wanted to make a quick note of our neighborhood dinner Friday night.

First I want to say if any of you know even just a couple of your neighbors I think this Progressive Dinner thing is one of the best ideas ever.
If you're not familiar with it, what happens is you take turns "progressing" through dinner with a stop at each house of the friends involved. Of course you can do this with anyone... by all means you can drive from house to house, it's just quicker and simpler if you're able to stay within your own block! The first house is where you'd find appetizers, salads, before dinner drinks, etc. Then you would move on to the next house to have the main entree. The following house would provide a mountain of desserts and maybe one last house would be for coffee or afterdinner drinks. You can do as many stops as you want, combining or breaking up the menu to accommodate how many people you have involved. If you need to add another house, separate an appetizer stop and then a soup/salad stop, etc. Also, as we do, if you have a lot of people involved you can double up on courses; two neighbors host each course at one house.

This year we had four stops with eight families participating; 16 adults and 21 kids (if you count the babies!). I teamed up with our backdoor neighbors to do the first stop of drinks and appetizers (hosted at their house). Our spread included a huge platter of chicken fries, some veggie pizza, potato bites (thanks Nicole, these were a HIT!!... and so easy!), cocktail sausages, fruit and chips and dip. Yum! I thought it would be too much food and we wouldn't be hungry for the rest of the meal, but it was just right. There's so much grazing and mingling and conversation and laughing over a little more than an hour at each house that you never really fill up and it's just a really long nice leisurely meal.

The second stop was across the street for some amazing (authentic!!) Italian dishes for the main course. That was really yum! Eventually we all made our way to the next house for desserts; a cinder cake, brownies and a chocolate fountain complete with fruit, marshmallows and other good dippables! It was almost 10 by the time we rolled our big bellies walked next door for after dinner drinks. J made two awesome recipes that I will have to get for future use... a "holiday nog" that had ice cream and Kaluha, and a punch she called "Merry Christmas Scarlett" that was basically a slush of cranberry juice, lemonade and Southern Comfort. It was so delish; it was a good thing my tummy was already so full, so I didn't drain her punchbowl completely!

It was in between the last two houses that we decided our kids were done and needed to go to bed. Last year Ryan and I just put them to bed and then took turns staying with them while the other of us went back and forth to the house where neighbors were still hanging out. That's when it works well that the party is just across the street!! The plan was the same this year, however when I took them home and got them in bed and they were both out cold in less than five minutes and then I sat there for another fifteen minutes by myself twiddling my thumbs, I decided to grab the good ol' baby monitor. I stationed it in our upstairs landing outside both of their bedrooms which is actually the spot in the house where you can hear everywhere. I grabbed the reciever and headed across the street to test the reception. Clear as a bell! Ryan went back over to check on things and test out the monitor and I could hear him perfectly. So we were both able to rejoin the party, keeping half an eye on our house across the street and with one of us running over to physically check on the kids every 15 minutes or so (just because I was paranoid!). We hung out until about 11:30 when things started dwindling down (and others had to finally get their kids home to bed and weren't so conveniently close as us directly across the street!!).

Anyway. We all had an absolute blast and it was so nice as with the weather having been so cold lately, we haven't had as much chance to visit with all the neighbors as we usually do... especially as compared to the summers when we all spend so much time outdoors together! It was really nice to have such an enjoyable evening with so many people. Once again I am reminded of how thankful we are to be in such a great neighborhood... such a community, such a great base of fun friends so close by.

I didn't bring my camera, but a lot of others took a lot of pictures that I'm dying to get my hands on. We took group pictures of all 21 kids (with the Santa Clause that made an appearance!) as well as a few attempts (with several different cameras) at a timered group shot of all us adults. The group pictures of us were taken at the third house so some of us by that point were a bit "happier" than others!
As soon as I get those pictures I'll plug them in here as well.

suggestions

I need a few ideas as my brainstorming brain seems to have taken an extra long turkey day vacation....

Ryan has a potluck at work tomorrow (he just informed me tonight) and needs to take something in. He mentioned the crock pot, but no further ideas than that. What can I he throw in the crock pot early tomorrow AM to cook all day for a potluck?

Also we're having our neighborhood holiday progressive dinner this Friday evening. We are partnering with our backyard neighbors to be the first stop in the progression... between the two of us we're on for appetizers and drinks. For 15 adults and 19 kids.
I'm trying to come up with two appetizerish things and maybe something to drink.
An adult punchbowl and a kid punchbowl? Mulled wine??
And appetizers... I was thinking these (which are oh oh oh so good but I'm not too sure about making so many and are they good if they're not hot?) or Spinach pinwheels (which are like these but with fresh spinach and ham and an herbed cheese spread instead of nacho ingredients). Otherwise I'm just drawing a blank on what to do. A veggie tray? Fruit kebobs?? My neighbor is doing some sort of cheeseball or cheese dip or something... and I can't remember what else.
Help!

goldie and the bear

So the kids' costumes were a hit around here... they had a blast and they were adorable -if I may say so myself!!

Introducing Goldilocks....





















Her hair actually turned out decently. It was better when it got darker out because it sparkled more when the light hit it and it really looked bright and golden!





















And Baby Bear (aka the only two choices Sawyer would let you call him- Little Bear or Big Boy Bear)....



I'm glad I went with my gut and went the cuddly baby bear route. I think this is the last chance I'll have to get Sawyer to dress up cute and cuddly. And he got so many of those cute and cuddly comments. :) I just wanted to snuggle him every time I looked at him!


















The funny thing is, is that no one got the "Goldilocks and Baby Bear" thing. Everyone had a hard time figuring out who Savannah was supposed to be-- a few people guessed Little Bo Peep (and one person even thought Sawyer was a sheep tagging along), and then almost every one else asked her if she was Dorothy. Dorothy??! With a pink dress and curly gold hair???
And even after Savannah told them she was Goldilocks, they then turned to Sawyer standing next to her (with his porridge bowl) and said, Oh and aren't you just the cutest little Teddy Bear!




We decided this morning that we should have glued a broken chair to Savannah's butt!!

Somebody's been eating my porridge and it's all gone!

Anyway, they had a ball. Here was their first "practice" trick-or-treating at our own house with their gramma at the door after I finally! got done taking pictures.
















And here's the gang of kids that live just on our corner.






















(Isn't that little Tiger Woods the greatest?! He's even got his little golf bag on his back. Which is where he kept his candy!!)




I swear this is the best Halloween neighborhood ever. EVERYONE is outside, everyone is visiting and mingling in the street, there are kids running everywhere and a couple of houses even hand out donuts and cider (my favorite!). One house has a whole buffet set up in their driveway each year with music, donuts, candy, cider, carmel apples, popcorn and even jello shots for the grown up trick or treaters!
You would not believe the loot my kids came back with. And this is only walking our immediate neighborhood; our street and the loop at the end. We filtered through both of the kids buckets last night to remove any peanut/peanut butter candy, and ended up with a pile that was more than ample for a singular trick-or-treat outing in itself! Crazy!!

And exhausting!
I just want to lay low today, get the kids some good naps and do nothing.
However, I have birthday presents to wrap, a cake to decorate and get ready for our big date with the birthday boy tonight. Ryan and I are taking Sawyer to his first ever hockey game and he is so excited! I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it's a fun outing. I'm a bit nervous as the game doesn't even start until after his normal bedtime. I know he'll love it though.
Wish us luck! And especially me, as I'm attempting Fondant cake #2!!

grrr

grrrrumpy Sunday.
I am just in a foul mood today.
I'm not sure why; it's a gorgeous sunny day, it's a weekend, blah blah blah.
And I think I'm putting on a pretty good act; I've been reasonably patient with not so reasonable kids this morning, we had a great fall morning to walk to church today, I was nice and friendly and chipper greeting friends at church and in the neighborhood.

But everything and everyone is just getting under my skin and making me alternately want to yell or cry. And I have done both before noon already.

Ugh.

Happier thoughts...

We made almost $400 in our garage sale this weekend! Yay!! Slated for that money are a book sellers shelf for the top of our stairs, our favorite paint for the top of the stairs, and a new bookshelf for SJ's room.

And a happy pic...

A bunch of bored garage sale orphan kids we found sitting on our front step
and took pity on them with treats from the ice cream man.

the verdict

He does have an ear infection. And a doozy at that. So we now have antibiotics as well as a steriod for him to take for the next three days because she was concerned at how bad his cough and swelling in there sounded. His lungs are good, no croup or anything, it's all just drainage and irritation from his ears and sinuses I guess. The dr ordered strict "bedrest" for the little guy (as strict as bedrest can get for a two year old) to keep calm and quiet and keep the coughing at a minimum. Even though it's gorgeous outside today and even though I had a whole afternoon planned of letting the kids run around outside while I tackled more of the garage and even though it's all but impossible to get this kid to sit quietly for more than five minutes, not to mention adding steriods into the mix... we're consequently taking it easy.

I did set him up in front of Little Bear on the tv so I could at least get thirty minutes of garage work done outside while waiting for Savannah's bus. Now he's finally napping (which between the coughing and the steriods took quite awhile to happen) and I don't really want to be in the garage where I can't hear him. So I guess I'll spend the afternoon baking (we have small group here tonight so I might as well get some homemade goodies ready) and folding laundry. Mmmm... Fall baking!

We started our neighborhood Halloween "Boo" the other night. I was actually way ahead of the game and have had everything ready to go for a couple of weeks now, and Savannah has been impatiently waiting until it was far enough into October... she wanted to be sure and be the first ones to do it! So we "made the drop" Monday night. Ryan took both the kids sneaking around to the two houses we chose. They were thrilled with the stealth of it; tiptoeing up with the bags in hand, ringing the doorbells and running, hiding behind bushes and cars to make sure the surprise package was recieved. I watched from the front window. It was fun.



And oh my, have you all tried those new Candy Corn Hershey's Kisses?? Oh. Yum. And I don't even like candy corn!
I'm glad I gave 90% of that bag away, or I'd be in trouble!!





We were also suprised to recieve our own "Boo" on our doorstep last night so quickly!
We waited until this morning to dig into the bucket we found since the kids were already on their way to bed, but sure enough, first thing today it was once again like opening stockings on Christmas morn! They were so excited. Candy and treats, Sawyer claimed a yucky squishy giant spider and Savannah of course claimed the snowglobe. Maybe our secret "booer" knows she collects snowglobes?

Fun stuff!!