Halloween 2010- Bug had a great time

The big day has arrived- the start to the holiday season in the US.  Halloween 2010.  I tried to keep things low keep here for the last week, other than school stuff.  We bought pumpkins on Friday and carved them this afternoon.  Bug was not happy that I got do the carving and he was not allowed to use the cutter.  At one point there was a melt down, but he came around after some dinner.

 Pulling out the icky guts of the pumpkin- all drama for Bug's sake.  I am fine with it.  Usually I would have roasted the seeds, but not this year- too tire and too many things going on this week to add another item to my to do list.

 Our pumpkins!!!

 Mam came over to hand out candy while we walked around and we had dinner for her.  Yummy bean soup and home made bread (bread from the farmer's market).  Bug was in a mood at this point, but more so because he was hungry.  Once he was told that if he did not eat, there was no candy tonight, he ate his dinner, which is one of his favorites, and he was in a much better mood.  Life is always better when Little man is not dealing with a blood sugar drop.

 see, happier boy- We set up everything on the porch to make it easy for Mam.

 Some silliness from the little man

 The usual play group- E2 (4 years old, Alice in Wonderland), Bug M (8 years old, Vampire), Bug (5 years old, Ninja turtle), E1 (5 years old, Queen)

 Same goup- just adding Little M (3 years old, Witch).

 Handed out candy for the last 15 minutes. I think there were 3 trick or treaters while we handed out candy and let Mam rest inside.  But we were nearly out of candy when trick or treating ended at 8 pm.

 Little M was one of the last trick or treaters- although he was just posing for this picture so I could show you Bug's enthusiasm at this point of the night.

 The haul.  Bug trick or treated for 1.5 hours.  We had the fun or walking with the playgroup for a while and then with N who will be moving away in a week.  We got to listen to an argument escalate into a fight and threats of the police being called (we left that area quickly).  Bug lead the pack, which was so overwhelming  watch.  This was the first year he really understood what was going on with Halloween and embraced it. He was not scared, he thanked every person who gave him candy and he had a great time.

Mam- the best candy hander outer (distributor) in the house.  Mam rocks!!!!!

Well, Bug is fast asleep on the couch and I need to head to bed too.

happy Halloween and Day of the dead to all.

Love and hugs,
Deb

N's bday- 30Oct2010 (3rd post for the night)

Today we had N's birthday party to attend.  But before we could go to the party, we had to buy a present.  I decided to leave the present buying until before the party because I wanted to keep some of the focus from bike shopping for Bug.  Santa is going to bring him a new bike this year and I think we have found the one.  Bug wanted this one and he wanted it NOW!!!!!

 The best part to him is the sound device on the right handle that "reeves" up the bike.  So Santa will be shopping in the next 3 weeks and storing it in the basement locked room.  Now to find the mini trampoline for Bug and his Christmas is done.

N's birthday was at Chuck.E.Cheese.  Now keep in mind- last year, Bug hated characters (Disney) and look at him now!!!!

Bug played some games

 We saw the cake.  I am showing N's full name as his momma's blog posts his name all the time.  But he remains N on our blog.  I just did not get a picture of the cake without his name.  This was the car Bug originally asked for when I asked him what he wanted for his birthday.

we played some air hockey and as usual, Bug won.  And when I say he won, he really won, we play for real.  I do not allow him to win.  He is a shark at this game- be warned.

 he shot some hoops- and did great!!!!

 he rode some more rides.

 Then it was pizza/cake time.  I am not sure why Bug looks so serious.

 remember Bug's reaction to characters last year, well N is right there.  he hide under the table when Chuck E came out.  He was quite upset.  Of course, he originally wanted a party here, so I completely understand the delimia his momma was in.  But the crew of  CEC was super great about working to keep the giant character away from N.

 Of course all was well when it came to cake time and present time.

 Oh, and giant wind pod with lots of extra tickets.  N really did not know what to do, but it was cute to watch him open and close his hands instead of grabbing tickets.

 This is our present, a home made tie blanket in OSU colors and a CARS game.  N's Mam is reading our card to him. 

 The boys played some more games together.

Including this whack-a-mole style game.

 We had Spanish church this evening, but needed some gas.  Little man is in charge of pushing the gas grade for me.  It was pretty cool out there.

I was hoping for pictures from church tonight as children's church was highlighted.  Ms Diana did the teaching and the puppets like she does for the kids and then we had 3 songs the kids know.  Bug and 3 other kids lead the song with me standing off where they could see me and doing the motions with them.  Trust me when I say it was awesome to see Bug in front of the entire La Vina congregation helping to lead them in "Jesus es mi Superhero".  He smiled the entire time.  Unfortunately, my camera batteries died before the song started, so there are no pictures yet- but there was some video being taken and I am going to see if I can get a copy of it.

Well that has been our busy 2 days.  Tomorrow is Halloween so I should have plenty of more pictures to share.

Love and hugs,
Deb

Farmer's market- 29Oct2010

After work and school on Friday's we head down to the farmer's market.  They just moved to a new location and Bug loves it.  There is a playground right next to the market.  So we start our shopping time with 30 minutes of playtime for Bug and he is happy.

This week, Bug was starving because he did not eat a snack after school, so I bought a wood fire pizza for us to share and Mam bought us hot chocolate.  It was delicious.  We had fun walking through the rest of the market, buying pumpkins for Halloween, apples to eat, awesome bread to have with our soup this week and checking out the new things.  I love our farmers market.  I even volunteered to put out the weekly newsletter.  I will post a more complete blog on our farmer's market this coming  week.

Love and hugs,
Deb

Halloween Parade at school- 29Oct2010

Friday, Bug's school had their Halloween party and parade.  The K thru 4th graders get to where costumes and parade while the 5-8th graders, parents, and grandparents watch the parade. 

Unfortunately in Bug's case, I was unable to go to the parade due to a meeting at work.  But, thankfully, Mam and Pap were able to go and get pictures for me.   Bug said he had to stop 3 times and his group went on without him.  But at least he stopped.

The kids were not allowed to wear big accessories or masks, but Bug was still happy.  He was the only Ninja Turtle.

I think  he enjoyed it!!!!

Love and hugs,
Deb

outside after the rain, in the coolness of fall

We had some lovely (I use that term in a sarcastic sense) come through today.  Call from Mam at 9 am that the tornado watch had been issued, at 11:20, the warning sirens started going off, I spent an hour in the basement listening to the weather channel and the local TV station.  At 12:40, came back upstairs to rain and dark clouds.  Light rain for the rest of the afternoon and falling temperatures.  When I went out to pick up Bug at 3:15 from the bus, it was cold!!!

Due to the rain, we went to the library after I was done working.  The sun was starting to come out when we left the library, so we came home to play outside for a while.

It was a good night of playing- lots of running, lots of playing and some worn out kids when we came back in after playing outside for 30-45 minutes.  Hopefully Bug sleeps tonight, because I certainly need some sleep. The weather triggered a migraine, hopefully it is gone in the morning.

Love and hugs,
Deb

urban farming at our house

Sunday was a gorgeous day here.  As the rain is finally due to arrive tomorrow - we spent the afternoon moving the garden beds around.  We collect leaves and grass from Pap most years, but with his surgery this year, we have gotten no grass from him.  We were fortunate to get 6 bags of leaves this weekend.  The leaves become great compost over the winter.

Bug choose to wear his overalls and boots for this adventure.  He is busy moving bags of leaves from the fence line by the driveway to the first set of moved gardens.

 You can see the dead corn behind him here.  Those are the 2 beds being moved here. The one box behind him was moved later in the day.

 asking for help with this bag- it was a little heavy.

 5 garden beds moved.  The gardens have been moved in about 10 feet from the fence line.  The neighbors next door are going to add a pool and deck along the fence line. So their deck will be 5 feet from my bedroom windows.  So we are putting in trees.  I am planning on 3 semi dwarf apples trees where the gardens were and then a couple of Junipers between the fence and house to block the flood lights they have on the current deck. 

 This is the area for the semi dwarf apple trees- you can see the current deck on the right side of this picture. 

Bug is excited about apple trees in our backyard.  he loves his apples.  We should get apples the second year.  The trees will be 12-16 feet tall, so not too bad.  The neighbors are  not happy about the trees going  in.  The wife is terrified that the tree branches will fall off and hit her house. But really she is not happy that I cam going to shade her yard- as the sun is on the left side of the picture most of the day.  My thought on this- oh well, you should have considered my bedrooms when you plotted out the space for the pool (it will be on the slope of the yard) and the noise from her deck (right outside my bedroom and Bug's bedroom.  Apparently the fact that I put room darken clings on the window, that they have room darkening shades and room darkening curtains (she has seen the inside of the rooms) means nothing.  We seldom have the windows that face their yard open- because there is too much light and too much noise.  But I digress. 

We have to finish composting 2 of the garden boxes and I have to find some good fertilizer to add to the other boxes to replenish the nutrients used this growing season.  What I need is some manure - but I would need a truck for that.  oh well, I have all winter to get things sorted out and get the beds ready for spring planting in March.  I also need to think about what to plant in the first garden bed as it is going to be in shade the earliest in the day.  I am thinking about herbs, as the bed will still get 6-8 hours f sun in the summer, but the other beds will get 8-12 hours.

And the other project will be rain barrels- after the drought this summer and having to give up on the gardens in July because watering 5 hours every 3 days was too expensive- I need a way to preserve water in the Spring and Fall, and then only have to water in the summer. 

OK that is all for tonight.  Updates on the gardens coming over the winter as I plan out what to plant and get ready.

Love and hugs,
Deb