Tuesday night we had a trunk or treat at church. Dode has spent most of the last month dreaming up things for a "house of mystery". He ended up building a bottomless tunnel, creating a laser/fog machine effect, and hooking up black lights to feature Black Light Bubbles
. We contained all this under three pop up canopies in the parking lot. The bottomless tunnel turned out the best. He'd wanted something people could walk across but since he was unable to find anything online that would tell him how thick of glass he'd need for that, he built a tunnel people could look down inside of. He used plywood left over from day camp, an old pallet, a light fixture, a mirror, and some mirrored privacy vinyl to create the effect. One of the cutest things to happen was to see a little girl look into it and back away before cautiously peeking over the edge again. I think she really got that feel of endless space!
Where does it end?
For the fog light/lasers, Dode used the old kitchen fan he removed last year to spin lasers in fog. It ended up being a dud. The lasers weren't bright enough, leaving the area around them dark and perfect for older kids to hang around to scare the smaller children. Not what we wanted.
The black light bubbles were the hit of the night. Dode was kind of bummed that it took so little work (and it was my idea) to create something that enchanted the kids and parents.
Having the trunk or treat on a Tuesday night was a challenge for us. Especially when they decided to start the night early! Tuesday night is our night to fold 800 newspapers and deliver 600 of them. We usually have just enough time to get the papers folded after Dode gets home from work before heading to the church for youth night. With the trunk or treat starting early, and with Dode's big plans for his creations, we had to meet him at the church right after he picked up the papers and worry about the papers once the activity was over. We spent 30 minutes taking everything down, leaving us the last car in the parking lot. In fact, I went into the bubble room to tell Dode, "time to go" and he was quite surprise to step out into the parking lot and find it empty! Once we got home, we had to go into full out production mode getting papers stuffed as quickly as possible. Then, Dode and I went out and did part of the route we normally finish. I needed to get as much done as possible because the next day was just as busy. Sound like enough chaos? There was more!
The week before, Isaac had his surgery. I'd been sick, in bed, all weekend and missed teaching my Relief Society lesson in church. We'd barely got home from the surgery when I received a phone call from the Relief Society President (head of the women's organization at church). I immediately thought she'd called to see if there was anything they could do for our family with me being sick and Isaac having surgery. "What a nice gesture" I thought. I was a bit surprised she'd even known about all that was going on in our lives. I was wrong. She was calling to see if I would make a meal for someone else. It was a reminder to me to forget myself and serve others. I had the feeling I'd be sick for a while so I asked for a day the following week. Wouldn't you know it, I got assigned Tuesday, my busiest day of the week. There was a chili cook off at the trunk or treat so I wouldn't have had to make dinner. But, there was no way I felt good about bringing chili to an elderly family. So, I made a special dinner just for them. While scrambling around trying to get ready for the trunk or treat, dealing with last minute costume changes and finding pieces that had gotten lost, getting the newspaper things out for when we got home, and trying to make the meal, I managed to burn carrots into the bottom of the pan so badly, there was 1/2 inch of carbon in the bottom. As you can imagine, the house smelled terrible. The smoke detectors went off (We have ones that are linked together. Once one goes, they all go.) blasting our ears out. I wasn't sure where they lived for the meal but had a feel for the general area. Google maps steered me in a completely different area. A phone call to Dode for directions sent me on my way. I raced out of the house with the meal, instructing the kids to be ready when I got back. Since I was in a hurry and going somewhere I'd never been before, I missed the house. Then, when I dropped the meal off, they wanted to visit. Finally, I was on my home to pick up the kids, where I found them mostly ready but fighting over who got to sit where in the van, and we raced to the church.
Pumpkin Patch Field Trip
Wednesday morning, I went with Miriam and William to a pumpkin patch field trip. (What does visiting a pumpkin patch have to do with education? Why do they waste their one field trip of the year on a pumpkin patch? These are questions I will never have answers to.) I drove straight to the pumpkin patch instead of taking the bus from the school with Miriam and William so that Elizabeth could come too. It was a cold morning and we found it a challenge to keep warm. The kids enjoyed the various activities offered by the pumpkin patch and we finished up our visit by selecting pumpkins.
Miriam had been really worried starting school that she'd be the smallest child in her class. Once school began, she happily reported that Chad was smaller than her. She pointed Chad out to me at the pumpkin patch. He's height impaired (is that the politically correct term for midget?). We are pretty good at having runt children!
train ride
tractor fun
we are definitely building one of these for day camp next year!
hay ride with Caitlyn, Miriam and William
Book Club
Wednesday evening, I hosted the book club at my house. We read Wonderstruck
by Brian Selznick. I've been eating really healthy lately so I made a vegan meal for the ladies. I was pretty nervous about how they'd react but they loved it. I made a creation I call Buddha Bowls. (Brown rice with assorted toppings: BBQ tofu, roasted butternut squash, sweet and sour cabbage, sauteed bok choy and mushrooms, fresh chopped veggies, avocado, curry cheese sauce). I made two tasty desserts from a blog I read. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Deep Dish Cookie and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake, adapted from Chocolate Fudge Pie. I added a peanut butter layer on the bottom and a chocolate ganache to the top. I'd tested both recipes out on the kids ahead of time. Isaac went back for seconds so I knew they'd stand up to book club.
When Dode got home from work, I reminded him that I had book club and he was in charge of dinner. He decided to make pancakes. Once he got going, I realized that it just wasn't going to work with two of us fighting over the same kitchen space. Add to that, by the time he was done cooking, there was no way the family would be able to eat and clean up before the book club ladies got there. I was thinking, "Come on, it's just one night a year. Can't you please take the kids somewhere?" while at the same time feeling badly that I was feeling like pushing him out of his home. So, I never said anything like, "Just go to McDonald's already!" although I'm sure my body language was communicating that loud and clear. Meanwhile, Dode was thinking, "She's not happy with me but if I take the kids out to eat, she'll say "Can't you manage to feed them without going out?" We were finally able to reach an understanding that eating at home that night was not going to work. Dode finished making pancakes, set them in the fridge for future breakfasts and the children happily loaded up in the car for a trip to McDonald's. Crisis solved!
Isaac's last ortho visit
On Friday, Isaac had his post operative visit and the doctor said everything is healing nicely. Better than that, the tumor came back as a benign growth! It was a teacher in service day and I'd told the kids that after the appointment, we'd go to the Children's Museum, followed by Value Village and then the China Buffet. Unfortunately, I've been having to hide my wallet lately in order to keep a sticky fingered child away from my money and I'd neglected to bring it along. (I'd been in the habit of keeping my wallet under the driver seat in the car.) So, instead of having a day of fun, we went straight home after the doctor. The kids were not pleased.
Pumpkin Carving
Carving pumpkins is one of my least favorite activities. I dislike the mess and I especially hate that they never turn out as well as you imagine in your head. My mom and Greg came up for dinner on Sunday and graciously helped with the pumpkin carving. My mom is in the middle of a 7 day, 12 hour work day stretch so it was an even bigger sacrifice for her to spend some of her down time dealing with pumpkins.
Dode can do anything in a white shirt and tie!
My chair of girlies
She brought a bag of giveaways she'd picked up at a conference she attended for work. Once she left, it was a battle for the kids to decide who got what. William got to go first and he selected the baggie of almonds. No one was too mad about that. Going youngest to oldest wasn't working so the kids put names in a hat and let William draw names. They were then able to distribute the goodies with a minimum of hurt feelings. What they didn't want will go in the day camp prize box. For some reason, the children weren't interested in the alcohol impregnated port protectors or the accompanying information about the "impact of alcohol impregnated port protectors and needleless neutral pressure connectors on central line-associated blood stream infections and contamination of blood cultures in an inpatient oncology unit." Probably not appropriate for day camp either!
More security
I know there are children out there who listen to their parents. I truly believe there are children who when told, "No", listen. I am convinced there are parents who can say "No" and put up a few barriers to keep children from making certain choices, and those children will listen. I don't have those kinds of kids. I have the kind of kids who will say to our face, "No matter what you do, I'm going to try to find a way to still do what I want." We were having troubles with the boys staying up all night in the room over the garage watching movies and playing video games. Dode started taking the gaming machines to work and only bringing them back on the weekend. They were still watching movies all night which meant getting anything constructive the next day difficult. We'd go to bed at night, thinking everyone was tucked safely in. Then, children would sneak out, walk over to Blockbuster, and rent movies to watch. Dode modified the circuit breaker box in the garage so he could turn off the power to the room over the garage where they were hanging out and then lock the box closed. That slowed them down for one day. Then, they ran an extension cord to the downstairs of the garage and were back in business. We had freezer in the garage and they figured they had us stuck since we couldn't cut the power to that too. We ended up moving the freezer to the covered deck off the kitchen, thus earning us the label of hillbilly and allowing us to turn off all the power to the garage.
No screws anywhere they can access
Padlock
that goes over the plug in for the TV. With the turn of the key, it disables the power to the TV and locks the power cord in place. They haven't found a work around, yet (that we know of). Parenting is not for wimps!
The plug to the TV is locked inside the blue box.
It takes the turn of a key to turn the power on.
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