10/25-10/31

Stomach Flu
Time it takes a child to throw up on the carpet: 10 seconds
Time it takes to clean up the mess: +45 minutes

My kids can never tell the difference between a stomach that hurts because it's sick and a stomach that hurts because it's hungry.  For dinner one night, we had sweet and sour meatballs, one of Elizabeth's favorite meals.  She had about 10 meatballs.  I got to clean them up the next morning off the carpet, fun!

I'm so glad I have this Spot Bot.  I can set it over the mess, hit the button, and come back in a few minutes when it's done.  Of course, it took a while to move it around and get the whole stain but it really helps keep out carpets looking nice.

Elizabeth/Mom day

Elizabeth has been waiting anxiously for her special day with mom ever since I wrote it on the calendar, over a month ago.  She planned half the day and wanted me to plan the other.  Once we put William on the bus, we were ready to go.  She wanted my half of the day to be a surprise.

We started by going to 3rd Place Books in Lake Forest Park to browse for a new book.   It's a really nice book store.  Elizabeth selected three Magic Tree house books, her favorite series.  I spent my time writing down the names of books I want to check out from the library.  Cheap, cheap, cheap!

Then, we had a treat at the Honeybear Bakery.  The bakery is located in the same building as the book store.  See the size of that cake?  She ended up bringing most of it home.  Elizabeth got chocolate mint and I had lemon cream.

While I was sitting by Elizabeth, I noticed she has quite a selection of silly bandz.  She's always on the lookout for someone to trade with.  That was the end of my part of the planning.  Next came Elizabeth's plans.

She wanted to have lunch at Taco Bell.  We ate at an Elizabeth pace.  We were there for almost an hour eating even though we got our food within five minutes!  She kept telling me what a great day she was having.  Then we were off to....

the Woodland Park Zoo!

 Elizabeth and I have come to the zoo together quite a few times on our special day.  She loves watching the animals.  This time we spent a long time at the hippo pool, penguins, and in the bird area of the rain forest exhibit.

It was an overcast day and a lot of the animals were hiding in their enclosures.  She was starting to get discouraged that we wouldn't see anything.  We found these lions enjoying a sunny break in the clouds on their rock.  I think they heat it to encourage them to spend time there.

 This time we had a fun treat.  The musical group Stomp put on a preview show.  They are an band that use household materials (cookie sheets, garbage cans, the rack from a dishwasher) to make music.

They invited the children to make shakers and help with the music. 

Elizabeth really enjoyed her day.  She thanked me over and over again for spending the day with her.

Firewood
This week we got the firewood out of the driveway and put away!  When we got wood from Aunt Morlan's, Dode split it on site and we had to get it out of the trailer and in the garage in order to use the trailer again the next day.  We were able to get wood from Aunt Morlan's three days in a row.  When we got wood from up the road, we just dumped a bunch of rounds in the driveway and Dode got to it as he could.  We put it away as we could.  Which means, it sat out there forever!  Well, this week Dode finished splitting it and we got it put away which means the wood splitter could be put away for the winter.  The bark could be cleaned up.  The driveway could be clean (cleaner).  Hooray!  Not that I would turn down more wood but it's nice to have the wood we did have put away.

Halloween
Saturday, this pirate showed up to whisk Miriam and Anastaya off for trick or treating in town.

Isn't that a great costume!

Thanks for taking them Janice.

George Washington

my inspiration

Mermaid Miriam

William is a friendly, and warm, lion

                                                            Anastaya the black cat

Crazy hair day Isaac 

cool dude Jacob 

(Jacob dressed up for a party we went to on Saturday but did not go trick or treating)

Indiana Sparrow Isaac Colson

Elizabeth is in Gryfendor house

We started our night over at Grandma and Grandpa Dickson's where the kids sang for their candy and enjoyed watching Harry the dog do tricks for turkey.  The trick or treating this year ended up being pretty much a repeat of last year.  Miriam ran from house to house while the bigger kids yelled at her and told her to walk.  We tell them that if they can't keep up with her, they have to skip houses in order to catch up.  One of the houses was handing out hot apple cider.  Miriam was disgusted.  She wanted COLD water after all that running!  William was a little too toasty warm in his lion costume.  By the end of the night, the hood was off and the front was unzipped.    When we got home, everyone dumped out their candy and got to work on the sorting.  We don't allow any trading in order to protect the little ones from unfair trades but we do allow them to place any candy they don't want into a pile that anyone is free to take from.  There are always lots of hot tamales left in the pile.  Why do people buy them?  Every one's favorite is the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Why can't I convince the kids those hot tamales are great and save the peanut butter cups for me?

We must have gotten a lot of candy because 3/4 of the way through the night, Miriam's dollar store pumpkin bag suddenly had the bottom give way.  She was running at the time so candy flew everywhere.  There was a young man near us and he was nice enough to stop and help us gather up her candy.  Luckily a friend of ours lived across the street and she was able to give us another bag.  We were walking along trick-or-treating when ran into some of the Downings who Dode worked with for over 10 years.  It was fun to spend a few minutes visiting before the kids said "enough already" and were racing off to the next house.  The Downings were on a slower speed than us and were soon far behind.

Misc.

The produce co-op is going strong.  (Almost too strong.  I feel bad telling my friends we're sold out.)  We distributed over 6,000 pounds of produce this time.  That's a lot of healthy eating!  We bought a portable garage from Costco that Dode thinks is the ugliest thing ever.  But, loving husband that he is, he put it up for me.  Dode still has to anchor the garage down but I'm wondering if that's a project he's put off hoping for a gust of wind to carry the garage away. 

I figure it has at least three uses.  1:  It's a place to divide out the "specialty pack" produce baskets on rainy mornings.  (This week was an Italian theme.  I had escarole for the first time and really liked it)  Dode was even kind enough to install florescent lights inside so the ladies working in there can see since it's still dark when we divide out the produce.  2:  It'll be a great rain shelter for the tag-a-longs at day camp.  3:  I have this irrational idea that it should be Dode's job to scrape the ice off my van windows in the morning when he does the windows on his truck.   How many times has that happened?  It hasn't, but it hasn't stopped me from believing it should.  Now, I can park under the cover, my windows will be ice free, and in a way it's all because of Dode. 

Dode had his annual eye check up this week.  He uses the Costco eye doctor and since he needed his eyes dilated, I was his driver.  William and I got our shopping done and when we checked back in with Dode, we found out the doctor was running late.  So, we went back to shopping and his eye appointment ended up costing me another $100 on impulse buys.  Do you think I can submit the receipt for my medical flexible spending account?  Such is the Costco treasure hunt!  But, I got some Christmas shopping done so I guess it turned out OK.  I found a really cool trike that you can put into a 360 degree spin.  Now I just have to figure out which child to give the Razor Rip Rider Trike to.  I wish I could fit on it!