Halloween Eve: A long and rambling post

Today's post is going to be an ongoing event - I plan to add to it throughout the day...


Yesterday I went to Walmart, which reminded me of why I don't really like shopping there.  Anyway, I did get some supplies for C's party and a few more pumpkins.  The kids, supervised by Lucy and Roxy, carved the pumpkins after school...

Clearly, they're not interested in cooperating with the papparazzi today...

I have to snap pictures when they're not looking...

Whoops...guess he sees me.

Lucy (to the left) and Roxy (on the right by the mums) supervising...

This takes immense concentration...

Because you want it to be just right...

Look - a smile!

Look - another smile!

Yesterday we also made deviled eyeballs and more decorative ghosts, and the kids baked cookies.  WE finalized the details of our costumes...I will be a witch (it seemed apropos!), and P is going to be a flight attendant.  She is wearing one of my old uniforms, which is a perfect fit, and I must admit that it is really quite strange to see my baby girl wearing it!  C...has his own unique costume planned.  You'll have to wait for the photos!

Today we will be cleaning, making more spooky party food (witches' fingers, monster toes, and bat brew) as well as learning to make spring rolls.  We'll also be decorating - putting up cobwebs, setting up the jack-o-lanterns, and putting ghosts and spider decorations on the table while listening to spooky music.

I think I am as excited as the kids about their party.  I'm also looking forward to tomorrow when an old flight attendant friend of mine will be in town.  The kids and I will pick him up and take him to lunch tomorrow.  I can't wait to see him.

I'll be adding more stuff, and more photos, to this post throughout the day - so check back!  

UPDATE #1

11:59 PM

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

************************

The house is still a mess, because I am refusing to do the cleaning when it is THE BOY who is having a party in just a few hours.  And it is THE BOY who told his friends to come over to said party several hours earlier than said starting time of said party.

So, although it wasn't fun, I summoned my inner Mommie Dearest and yelled at THE BOY and threatened to cancel said party if THE BOY did not start participating.  THE BOY is now in a pouty mood.  I do not care.

More updates later.  I'll bet you're on the edge of your seat waiting for the next installment of the party saga, right?

UPDATE #2

3:42 PM

The pre-party?

KTP came over around 12:30 and gave us all lessons in making spring rolls.

C was KT's sous-chef...

And then he tried his hand at it...

Those spring rolls were yummy...rice noodles, cucumbers, bean sprouts, basil, mint and scallions...

A short while later B & L came over to help decorate.  P worked on the "monster toes" and B & L made witches' fingers...

UPDATE #3

6:03 PM

Please note the time.  The party (ahem) is supposed to begin at 6:30.

Yeah.

Monster fingers...

Bat brew...

Deviled eyeballs...

Thai spring rolls

and cookies!

The costumes...

My son...the "seductive dancer"....

I'm sorry.  I just don't even know what to say about it.

My son's mind works in mysterious ways.

Race car driver and cowgirl...

My daughter the flight attendant...

Boo!

FINAL UPDATE:

9:09 AM

A few more random photos from C's little get together...

C's friend L stopped by for a bit...

C apparently got  a bit mouthy with L, and had to be taught a little lesson.

By the way, I don't know if I've ever mentioned on this blog how much I adore C's best buddy Miss "B", but I do!  She is beautiful, sweet, kind and respectful.  But the main reason I love this girl can be seen in the above photo.  Look behind the boys, see her posing?

And again here?

The papparazzi LOVES a willing and eager subject.

I'm just saying....

Eventually the kids trooped back inside the house to hang with the uber-cool moms...

Poor old Lucy was all tuckered out and tried to drop a few hints to the kids that it was way past her bedtime and they all needed to go home...

Eventually, they did.

Happy Halloween!

Something is rotten in the state of Florida

Last weekend the kids carved pumpkins for C's Halloween party tomorrow night.  As I was snapping pictures, I kept wondering why it had been so many years since we had done it last - since the kids were having so much fun with it.  This week, four days later to be exact, I remembered precisely when the last time we carved pumpkins was.


It was the year we moved back to Florida.


When we lived in Michigan and in Washington state, we could carve the pumpkins and they would last and last.  In Florida, where the temperature this last week of October has been hovering around 92 or 93 degrees....this is what you get after a couple of days:

I also realized this week why we have so many of the plastic, plug in jack-o-lanterns!

For the record, that was also the last year we had a real Christmas tree.  After spending the ensuing 12 months picking up pine needles from every conceivable spot in the house, we opted for an artificial, pre-lit tree the following year.  I buy pine pine scented air freshener...it works for us!  Tradition doesn't always work so well in this state.

Anyway, we had a big, slimy mess left from the decaying pumpkins.  I will go buy a couple more pumpkins today, for The Boy and his friends to carve tomorrow before the party.  I think they'll last until tomorrow night - especially since we had a cool front move through and today's high is only supposed to be 76 degrees.  It feels like fall!

Speaking of The Boy and his party...which by the way, is supposed to be from 6:30-10:30 tomorrow...he has informed me that a couple of his friends are coming over a little early to help him set up. 

 "OK", I replied, "How early?" 

 "Um...well _______ is gonna come over around noon and teach you how to make spring rolls."

(Which is fine - I love this girl, and she HAS been promising to teach me how to make spring rolls...)

"And, uh..._______ is coming around 5:00, and so is ______ and ______"

"Oh yeah, and _________is probably gonna come over early in the afternoon too, OK?"

And, ya know, it IS fine.  But...I wonder why we even bothered to set a beginning and ending time for the party, since it appears that most of his friends are just going to come over and hang out all afternoon anyway! Apparently The Boy wonders too.

C is planning an interesting costume for the party.  I won't tell you what it is - but it involves recycling an old costume of his sister's and putting his own unique twist on it.  I'll take pictures!

Proof that Halloween is truly an American holiday...

...and that some things just don't translate well!


(Many thanks to Nikki Peterson for sharing the photo from Paris)

Great Expectations...The Sequel.

Sometimes I struggle to find something to blog about, and other times inspiration seems to come up and slap me in the face.  Tonight's family dinner was inspiring in just such a way...

(This is NOT what our family dinners look like)

I've blogged about our family dinners before, but I felt the need to revisit the nightmare topic again, because I felt the need to share the joy.  You're welcome.


We had a wonderful meal - grilled, ginger glazed mahi mahi, yellow rice, and green beans.  The table was cleared of all homework and miscellaneous pencils and highlighters, and set beautifully by The Girl.  Mr. Wonderful poured us both a nice glass of Cote du Rhone...thank goodness!!

I won't go into the constant entreaties from me begging the kids to please use their cutlery and not their fingers.  I won't tell you about how I have to constantly remind The Boy to use his napkin and not his shirt to wipe his mouth. 

Our dinners usually start calmly enough...we say a blessing, and Mr. W and I ask the kids about their day.  That's usually when we lose control.  They try to outdo and out talk each other.  We try to interject.  They talk louder...and then, somehow, we always lose control.

Tonight, The Boy was telling us about the new club he has joined at school - which he insists on calling a sport, which leads to hearty guffaws of incredulity from us - (ultimate frisbee...see what I mean!)  He segued off into a girl telling him some, ahem, personal details regarding a particular time of the month.  I'm not really sure why the girl was telling him this, or why he decided to share it with us...but that's not really the point of this story, anyway.

This was when we lost control.

The Girl, for some reason, said (quite loudly), "C should wear a bra to school tomorrow!"

Then she brayed like a donkey laughed quite loudly.

We looked at her with confusion on our faces.

C made a rude comment to her.

She laughed again, then began choking on her water.

"Hey - I just spat water all over myself, and no one even cares!"

C made another rude comment.  Mr. Wonderful and I made shushing noises, but we were well aware that we had lost control at that point, and it was halfhearted.  We reached for our wineglasses.

C then said in a faux British accent, "Oh dear, I do believe I broke wind."

I looked at him in horror and said, "You are joking, right?"

He replied (still in the faux upper-crust British accent), "Oh no, my dear...and there's more where that came from."

And then he cackled like a hyena.

Mr. Wonderful kept asking me what he had said....then when I told him...HE LAUGHED!  Oh yes, he did. 

I realized I was fighting this battle all alone, and I reached for my wineglass again (for courage)...

C then tossed his balled up napkin at P and began making beatboxing noises (or so he claimed...it just sounded like weird noises to me.)  P quickly joined him in making the strange sounds.

I said, "SHHHH."

They ignored me.

I asked Mr. Wonderful to please pass the bottle of wine.

KIDS 1   PARENTS 0

Help.

The one where a migraine sucks all coherent thought from my head...

Because I have had a migraine for the past couple of days (which keeps coming back and is making me crazy, irritable and mean), and because the aforementioned migraine makes it hard to think, today's post will consist of lists...


Yesterday I...

swept and steam mopped the entire house...

did two loads of laundry...

walked back to my son's room to put laundry away, glanced inside, and ran away - screaming in horror...

made a spaghetti casserole which was consumed sporadically by my family as everyone came and went in different directions at different times...The Boy tutored elementary school kids after school, worked on homework, and then had Taekwondo and The Girl had Ballet...

made maple-walnut bread which was eaten up in a voracious frenzy when the family returned home...

Today I have already...

done yet another load of laundry...

tried to deliver another load of the boy's laundry to his room, and again ran screaming from the room in horror...

noticed that The Boy's room smells like a stinky dog...

made a mental note to have the kids give the stinky dog a bath this afternoon...

made another mental note to have The Boy shovel out the disgusting pigsty of a room so that I can shampoo the carpet and remove the stinky dog smell...

cleaned the ceiling fans...

wiped down all the baseboards in the bedroom...

This afternoon I will...

drive to Mayo Clinic for the annual fun-fest I like to call "Squish-a-thon"...

hope that this stupid migraine doesn't come back...

While searching for the image above, I came across a couple of others which made me chuckle...

and this one made me laugh out loud!

I apologize for the randomness of this post...

Hopefully, I'll be back up to speed tomorrow.

Stupid migraine.

Facebook: going beyond relationship status and getting to know your friends better

I used to love going on Facebook and chatting with old friends I had lost touch with.  I loved seeing how everyone had turned out, and catching up on their lives. Lately though, I find myself questioning what I know about some of these newfound "friends."

Let's face it - Facebook allows us a brief glimpse at people's lives.  We know their relationship status, their work and education history, and possibly what they are doing at any particular moment in time.  We are able to see what they look like - but not what type of person they have become.

I wonder if the quiet guy from high school ever really came out of his shell?  Does the party animal from college still like to party?  Is the old boyfriend still a selfish, unfeeling scumbag or has he developed a conscience?

I think Facebook should develop a questionnaire that allows us all a better look at what type of people we are befriending.  I have pondered this, and have come up with the following questions as possibilities.

1.  What type of car do you drive?

2.  Do you consider yourself to be a cat person or a dog person?

3.  If your home were on fire and you could only save three things (other than pets or family members), what would you save?

4.  What is your favorite thing about your home?

5.  When you are not at work, what do you like to do?

6.  If you could go back in time to any period in your life, what time period would you choose?

7.  What is your source for news?

8.  What radio station do you listen to in your car?

9.  What accomplishment are you most proud of?

10. When you have an evening free, do you prefer to go out or stay in?

What do you think?  Don't you agree that you would get a much better sense of who a person is and whether or not you want them to be your "friend" from these questions that from "What is your relationship status?"

Whether you follow me on the blog or via the MDSA facebook page, I'd love to hear your answers!  I'll get the party started....

1.  I drive a 2010 Honda Insight (hybrid) and I love it!  After 14 years of being a minivan mama, I love driving a smaller car.  I also love getting between 45-50 mpg!  

2.  I think I'm both, but if I had to choose one I'd probably say I'm more of a cat person.  Cats don't eat their own poop.  Enough said.

3.  If I could only save three things from my home I would probably grab the photos of me holding the kids when they were babies from our hallway (they match, so I'm counting them as one item!!), the lowboy that my grandfather made in shop class in high school, and one of the many art projects my kids have done throughout the years.

4.  My favorite thing about my home...the view.  Definitely the view. (But I love the floors too....)

5.  I love to read.  I also enjoyed a stained glass class I took a couple of years ago - I'd love to have the time to do more of that.  I love traveling, and museums and spending time with my family - whether it's on the boat, on an airplane, or watching movies on Family Movie Night.

6.  This was a tough one for me...I'm pretty happy where I am right now, but I had a lot of fun working as a flight attendant in my pre-kids life.  Still, I think I would have to pick that precious time when my children were toddlers and pre-schoolers.  I really miss that time.

7.  Lots!  I read the paper every morning, get updates online, listen to NPR, and watch the news on television - although I tend to steer clear of Fox News.  I don't dislike them (necessarily) for political reasons...I was turned off after 9/11 when they were reporting salacious items that had obviously never been checked for accuracy - like that a flight attendant's body had been found still strapped into her jumpseat, and that they had located the hijacker's passports amid the rubble.  I kid you not.

8.  NPR or I listen to my ipod.

9.  I am most proud of my marriage and my children.  Mr. Wonderful is my best friend, and we talk every single day - no matter where he is in the world.  I think that has helped us to stay married for over 20 years.  My children, while they do drive me crazy on occasion, are great.  They are polite, respectful, funny, and talented kids!

10.  This is another hard one.  Sometimes I like to go out and sometimes I like to stay in.  I guess if I had to pick one, I'd say stay in. I guess that means I'm getting old...sigh.

Please play along and send me your answers...either by commenting here, on facebook, or sending me an email....

The one about planes, scary pictures and another sunrise...

Yesterday afternoon, while driving home from taking the Princess to Nutcracker rehearsal, we had an amazing view of the Blue Angels!  Thankfully, I had a small camera in the car and The Boy was able to get some pretty good shots...

At one point they flew directly over the car as we were stopped at a red light, but we weren't able to get any pictures of that because we were all craning our necks at weird angles to look out the windows and see them!

No matter how many times you see the Blue Angels perform, it never gets old.  It is an amazing show!  Both of the kids have decided that they now want to be pilots when they grow up.  This is nothing new from The Boy, but I was a bit surprised to hear it from my girly-girl!

This morning, when I returned from taking C to school, I grabbed my mug of coffee and walked out onto the dock.  We're expecting rain later today and there were lots of clouds in the sky.  I know I've posted 5,678,843 (approximately) pictures of sunrises - but I couldn't help it!  I had to grab my camera and take some more.  It was breathtaking.  

So, yeah, I know it's yet another boring sunrise picture...

But honestly - could YOU walk away from that without taking a picture?

Nah, I didn't think so!

Finally, you may have noticed a bit of a different look to the blog.  What do you think?  There are still a few kinks to be ironed out - so please bear with me.  This awesome blog design is by April over at April Shower's Blog Design.  I love the new look!

PS...If you want to make really cool, scary Halloween pictures - like this...

or this...

then go to picnik and click create.  Fun!