Guest Post: Will's Halloween

Hi.  It's Will.  Mom's pretty busy so I'll be doing some guest posting.

Yesterday was Halloween.  I like Halloween.

This is my little brother Andrew.  He is not big.

You can carve pumpkins to look like faces.  You will need a grownup to help with the knife.  I made a scary face and Mom tried to carve it on a pumpkin for me.  She did all right.  I probably could have done it myself, though, because I am 3.

Dad did Andrew's pumpkin.  He is sticking his tongue out.

I got the pumpkin seeds all ready to go in the oven for roasting.  You need to get them out of the pumpkins, wash them, then pat them dry.  Then you mix them with salt and a little olive oil and put them in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes or so.  A grown up can stir them sometimes while they are cooking because they are VERY HOT.

Mom tried to help me dry the pumpkin seeds, but I could do it all by myself.

Mix the salt and olive oil on really well.  Wash your hands first.
Then you need to wash your hands again.  They will be sticky.

When people ring your door bell, you can open your door and hold out the bowl of candy and they will take some.  They wear costumes.  Sometimes they smile at you.  If they ask you how many they can have you say "one".  Otherwise you don't even have to say anything.  When you open the door and hold out the bowl they know to take the candy.  When they are done taking the candy you can shut the door.  It is nice to say "Happy Halloween".

Then after dinner you can go to other people's houses.  They will have candy.  You say "trick or treat" or "Happy Halloween" and then you can take some candy and put it in your purple pumpkin and eat it later.

Try to eat as much as you can right after you get home, because after Halloween is over you will only get one piece a day at snack time and that is not a lot.  Two would be better.  Or five.

Did you have a good Halloween, too?

Photo of the day: Our Montessori Closet

It's really great if you can arrange your child's closet so they can reach their own clothes.  The more they can do themselves, the less frustrating it is for them to be little and have so many things they can't do or decide for themselves.

We've hung all Will's clothes where he can reach them, and I'm so glad.  It teaches him responsibility in caring for his own clothes, and helps him feel empowered by letting him choose what to wear.

It's awesome.

Painted Halloween Pumpkins!

I painted Halloween Pumpkins with the boys - they had a wonderful time, didn't eat too much paint (*cough* Andrew *cough*) and they've lasted for several weeks on our counter as a great Halloween decoration.

The activity itself probably lasted for under ten minutes, but that didn't make it any less fun :)

Apples!

Give your kids apples.

For dessert.

Sweet, crunchy, and an event when they have to wait until after lunch!

Idea for embellishing a lunch box

I don't like going to the mall.  I don't like being inside, under fluorescent lights, I don't like driving the busy, divided highway to get there, I don't like using my precious babysitting time to be there, I don't like dragging my complaining kids in the stroller who want to get down, run away, and fondle everything over $100 that they can reach.

So, I kind of put off getting Will a lunch box for his first lunch at school.  He'll be staying at his preschool for a little extra time just one day a week, and having lunch there.  That way, since his normal school time is only 2 hours and 15 minutes, I'll have a chance to get more done with Andrew one day a week.

Only, he needs a lunch box.  And all the other kids are probably going to have SUPER CUTE lunch boxes.  Because what parent doesn't want their adorable little preschooler to have the coolest lunch box ever that will make them smile at lunch time?  No parent.  We all want that.

Except I didn't go to Pottery Barn kids, or Hanna Andersson, or even manage to Amazon Prime one from Skip Hop in time for tomorrow.  I didn't even hit up the local toy store, Magic Beans, that I'm sure has lunch boxes.

Epic.

Fail.

So I did what any parent would do in the eleventh hour, after all the stores have closed, the night before their child's first school lunch ever.  (I may have been in denial, because this seems like a big deal, Will actually eating a meal without me...)

I rummaged around the house.

I found a lunch box of Greg's.  (Sorry, honey.)

I found colored duct tape in the basement.  (Huh?  Ok.  Cool.)

I spent over half an hour making the best darn duct tape train I could, and cut out Will's name in bright letters to label his lunch box.

Is it from Pottery Barn?  No.  Did it cost a lot?  No.  Is it, from an artistic perspective, of any merit whatsoever?  No.

Will he love it?  Probably.  Does it have his name on it in big, bright letters for the teachers to see?  Definitely.  Will any other kid there have the same lunch box?  Hell no.

Love you, Will.  Doing the best I can.

Happy 30th... to me :)

I turned 30!  And I'm still alive.  I'm only mildly surprised.  I realize I've just alienated all of you who are over 30... except perhaps you remember feeling the same way.  After all, when you turn 20, you have 21 to look forward to.  When you turn 30 you have... umm, well you see my point.

To celebrate, I ran my first half marathon on the last day of my twenties, something I'd been training for for four months.  (Read about my journey on my other blog, www.iamrunningthis.com)

My husband then surprised me with a birthday party where he rented a bouncy house and invited all of Will's playgroup friends and some of our favorite neighbors over for a wonderful afternoon of fun, complete with Qdoba catering so none of us had to cook or clean up from dinner.  The toddlers ate like champions, the weather was perfect, my parents were in town and helped with everything, it was a wonderful time!

If you're looking for the perfect gift to give anyone who is having a big birthday, my mother spent hours and hours putting together an amazing photo book of my last thirty years.  Since I grew up before the world of digital cameras for the most part, she had to recruit my Dad's help in transferring images from slides and prints, as well as choosing from hundreds of images and organizing them to tell my story.

It was such a heart-warming, powerful, and beautiful gift.  Many of these photos, since they were in slide format, I haven't seen in years.  Even the recent ones were often from their cameras rather than ours, and it was fun to see memories I shared but different photos than the ones we have.

My friends at the party enjoyed laughing with me over photos of my teenage years, and smiling at what a happy childhood I had, which is very obvious from those early pages.

It almost... almost, makes it easier to leave my twenties behind ;)

Yeah... We hired a babysitter on a weekend

This was such a revolutionary idea the first time we did it, but there's a lot to be said for hiring a babysitter on the weekend!

We had lots of family time, friends over yesterday, a long morning at the playground today, car washing and a snack this afternoon... And then 3-6 with a babysitter so Greg and I could have a break and get stuff done.

I wrote a post for my running blog and tackled a closet that was driving me crazy, he went for a swim and is trying out running shoes.

(Wow, they didn't even use it as bonding time... Yikes!)

I know.  We're rebels.  We love it.

And in fifteen minutes, we'll have a nice meal together as a family and then bath and stories.  What a great day :)