Colors

There are three little colors that scream HALLOWEEN to me more than anything else. I mean, purple and black have their place and I love all the browns and reds of Fall, but there is something about white, orange, yellow.

Photo of the week:

I actually love all the colors this time of year, but that combo of white, orange, and yellow makes me giddy with Halloween delight. I even sewed a costume today. Look at me getting into the spirit of things. And no, you can't see it yet. Daisy asks me every day, "Is it Halloween today?"

Nope, not yet.

Bangs?

Sorry. That was truly cruel to talk about those delicious muffins and not provide a recipe. But I couldn't remember where I found them and I didn't want to hunt them down last night. Lucky for you, I found them this afternoon. Ok, hurry, click here.

Now I would like to lament our tragic loss to the battle of the scissors. With so many girls, it was inevitable that someone would get ahold of the scissors and cut their locks. I was amazed as each year passed and we seemed to come out unscathed. I admit there were a few singleton hairs snipped away in idle curiosity, but no serious damage. And then along came Daisy...(How many of my stories start that way?)

She tried to cut out a hair tie the other day. (This was actually a few months ago.) It didn't go so well and instead she hacked off a chunk of hair at the front of her head. But it was easily disguised. However, when she went back for seconds this week, there is less ways to hide the damage.

It isn't as bad as I made it look. I pulled the damaged part together so you can see her handiwork, but most of the time it just looks like she has some interesting bangs. And I guess she does now.

And she is banned from scissors, of course. It could have been worse, but knowing her, I don't feel we are in the clear yet. And there is always Pearl...

Grandma is still hoping that someone will accidentally cut off her tail.

All in an Afternoon

Broke Something

Yep, this is a normal occurrence around here. Sometimes I love the object, most often not. (Since you know I am training myself not to love material possessions that my children can break.) This time it was a jar that held small pumpkins. Although it was their home, the pumpkins are often found elsewhere and have a spirit of wanderlust, so I am sure they can move easily, unlike me and my hoards of stuff. (Read: Holiday decorations.) Pearl was the culprit. She was dragging the jar around and dropped it. Lucky for me, it shattered into a million fragments, as per usual. This happens often enough that I have a system. 1)Remove all children. Oddly enough, they are always there when it happens. Oh wait, things don't break unless children are present. Good to know. 2) Sweep. 3) Vacuum 4) Mop or use something wet to pick up the last little slices and slivers.

I swept, and then vacuumed which was good because my sweeping job stunk based on the huge chunks I got with the vacuum, but I didn't have time to mop before Daisy cut her foot on a wayward shard. Well, I'm glad she found it, and also can't be bothered to listen to me when I clearly state, "Please, no one walk with bare feet in here until I mop." She has only herself to blame. And she loves bandaids more than candy on most days, so I think she was secretly pleased to 'bleed' finally. It was the least I could do for her.

Defended the Ankle-Biters

Another bee flew in the house. Usually it is flies. We kill those. The girls love to watch us hunt the flies, and I must admit I was pretty proud of myself the other day when I hit one out of the air while it was flying and also killed one around a blind corner. I should have sewn myself a belt or something.

The bees like to fly up to the high windows because they are bright. I don't really like them up there, so today I decided to coax it down. Naturally I threw baby shoes at him. Every time I hit the window, it would startle, but it couldn't be forced to move. The girls all got a big kick out of watching me, but in the end, I gave up and didn't see it again. Come to think about it, that happened with the last bee as well. (Minus the shoe-throwing.)  I am sure that some day I will put up a ladder and find an abundance of dead bees on the window sill. Maybe this is their secret bee graveyard. No more shoe throwing for me. I will let them die in peace.

Lost a Biter

Yep, still not a happy feeling. We searched the neighborhood over only to find her right across the street in a neighbor's house. She plays outside over there sometimes, but I hadn't realized she had ever gone inside. Regardless, the rule is that she cannot leave without informing me. She was in trouble. Still is.

Did Something Stupid

Now, I submit that I do something stupid every day, but some cases are more amusing than others. Today's was worth mentioning. I decided today was the day to make these Pumpkin cream-cheese muffins that I have had my eye on. I am always cracking eggs when I realize I am missing an ingredient. (See with eggs, you can't go back. You can only move forward.) Today, it was sugar. At least it was a common ingredient, but I still scolded myself for my lack of preparation. So I called Becca and sent over offspring number one. Becca was more than happy to loan me a cup and a half of sugar. She is a good neighbor. I feel like everyone nearby is more than happy to sacrifice a cup of whatever, myself included. BUT, as I continued to work my way through the recipe, I noticed that it called for another half cup of sugar for the crumb topping. (No skimping on these muffins.) I was frankly embarrassed to call Becca again, so I availed myself of the friendly neighborhood and called Sarah instead and sent off offspring number two. (They were actually fighting about who got to go.) Feeling rather sheepish, I finished the muffins vowing to repay my neighbors with pumpkiny goodness wrapped around a warm cream-cheese center.

Muffins are baking, life is good. There is a knock at the door. There is Sarah holding a half cup of sugar for me. You can imagine my surprise because I had already received sugar from offspring number two and finished the baking. Why would I need more? Sarah was surprised at my face, because I had called and asked for sugar, right? That is when it hit me that I never gave directions to offspring number two and naturally she had gone right back to Becca for more sugar. My genius plan are not only gone awry, but it was more embarrassing than ever. My kids had bummed more sugar from Becca without a second request and poor Sarah had finally brought the sugar to my house because no one had shown up to get it. Sometimes I am beyond awesome. The good news is that the muffins probably made up for most of my stupidness. I should probably make muffins every day. Just to be on the safe side.

As you see, an afternoon can be very busy around here.

A Collection

Life is good. I ran a 5k this morning, in which I did not die. I will tell you about it later.

I meant to put this picture on here long ago. I mentioned this frame back here, and I filled it very quickly, but I kept forgetting to post it on here. I see these pictures every time I walk up my stairs.

I like them. It reminds me to keep it real and that things don't have to be perfect. And it is important to laugh.

Also got me some new jeans recently, since my old ones finally ripped through the knees. (Have I mentioned that I live in jeans?) I ended up at Old Navy, and really I don't love their jeans, but they had some new ones. They call them Trouser jeans, but Hello? They are totally Bell Bottoms brought back.

Love it. I have a thing for jeans with flare. I could not get on board the skinny jean's train. My girls ended up with a few pairs from Grandma, but I will probably never own any. I don't feel like a hippie, but I sure love my new jeans.

Daisy went to a princess birthday party the other day. She was cute and so happy to be invited to something that the other girls weren't. (You can tell she visited Grandpa the week before because her name is still on her head.)

Of course Pearl came anyway. She is my little tag-along.

Anyway, must run and play with my kids. We have nothing going on today (small miracle) so that is what I intend to do...nothing. Or a close approximation.

Before I forget

I have to write down the funny things right away. Yesterday morning we came downstairs and I had left the Fiber Optic Scarecrow on during the night. The girls were appalled because they were worried he would run out of batteries.

Me: Don't worry, it doesn't run on batteries...it is plugged in.

June: Oh, it goes by the energy of the wall?

(Yeah, I guess you could say that.)

Love it.

Grandparents

This last weekend my parents were in town. Actually, they were here for about a week. It is cozy when they come because we don't have a guest bedroom, so Grandpa takes the girls room and we have the four oldest sleep in the loft. But I don't really begrudge them the room. Plus, I want my girls to realize that it is good to sacrifice things for family, even if it is just a bedroom for a week.

It was a really relaxed week with them. Well, it was still crazy busy for me, as per usual, but my folks entertained themselves and we got to spend some evenings together.

It is always fun to see how the girls react when family is here. (Since we don't live nearby any.) The girls bombarded my parents with everything from their latest school assignment to what they ate for lunch yesterday. Pearl (who is not sure of everybody) felt at ease almost at once and spent their entire trip bringing them anything she could lay her hands on. I would often come into the room to find Grandma holding five books, two blankets, a bear, and other odds and ends. Here they are making friends in the beginning.

Another fun thing my mom does, is write stories. There is no end to her creativity, and a few years back, she decided to write a story based on the girls. She writes one chapter at a time and the girls love to hear them. They are always looking forward to another installment. Grandma was tentatively planning on writing another one while she was here, but when she realized she had left June's birthday present at home, she was more dedicated to getting it finished. I make it sound like it took a long time, but she went upstairs one morning to use my computer and a short time later, she was finished. Super impressive.

When the girls were all home from school, they sat down to listen to the next chapter. (It did have to be about spiders, didn't it mom?)

The red-head is not mine, but Hannah might as well be, since she and June are as thick as thieves. She comes over every other Friday and she seemed to enjoy the story as much as the rest of them.

I didn't take pictures like I should have. (Typical.) Tyler snapped this one that I thought was great.

June was decorating G'ma's shirt. The blue jewels are part of the shirt, but the leaves are all strategically placed. It looks like they should be there, huh? But they just came off our bush out front.

Over Conference weekend, Tyler took the kids up to see his parents, and I stayed and watched with my folks. I don't know who had more fun, but I KNOW I had the quieter house.

It is always fun when you come to visit, Mom and Dad. (Please imagine a picture here. I meant to get one with you all weekend and somehow forgot. You may flog me later.)

Nine Lives

Yep, I have been missing, but when you combine having family in town with a giggly-girl spectacular (a.k.a. birthday party) then you come up with one tired momma who is amazed she is still functioning.

I will highlight family soon, but because I have already missed her birthday by a few days, let's talk about my oldest (now 9) June.

June had an excellent birthday, if I do say so myself. Which I guess I will have to until she gets a blog of her own. Trust me...I am not encouraging that yet. This year was her scheduled friend party. I was skeptical, but I want to create memories for her and then remind myself why I only do this every OTHER year. June is attending her new school with new friends that she will probably have in her class for a few years, so this seems a good time to get to know all these young ladies.

The morning started as usual. I sent June off to school, but then I brought balloons when I picked her up.

I got her the traditional nine, but one popped in her classroom. Two things stuck out to me when I visited her school. 1) It is only an elementary school, but over half of the kids who passed me were taller than I am. Sad. 2) June requested Rolos as a treat for her class and although they were a bit pricey, I got them because she has never asked for a specific treat before. They were a bit hit. I don't really think of myself as that mom that gets her kids whatever they want, but birthdays are special.

When all the family was assembled we opened her family gifts before the party started. I was surprised at how alike June and Robyn look here.

Pearl was digging the balloons. Please ignore my stone face.

We bought June a bike earlier this week. I don't even think she likes to ride all that much, but her legs are out-growing her last set of wheels, so it seemed time. Pearl though the helmet was cool. (Pearl likes to be doing everything we do these days.)

And then the party guests descended like so many birds on a live wire. Actually they weren't too bad and we had plenty of activities to keep them busy. Our craft was trickier than I imagined, but the end result was so darling.

Winkum turned out to be the big favorite. Whoever got the winkum card was in charge of winking at people to get them out. But people could raise their hand if they saw someone winking and get winkum out instead. Simple game, but perfect for this age group. And that is why it looks like we are all sitting around staring at each other...because we are.

Gift opening was a treat. Some parent got gold tinsel that the kids promptly spread all over the entire floor.

It is a good thing I wasn't paying attention to who gave that gift because I might have sent home a nasty note. Well, not really, but I am still finding that stuff all over the house.

The cake was not homemade. (I can't do it all.) But it was cute.

June blew out the candles as usual.

I can't believe she is nine. She is growing up fast. She is such a fun child. I love to watch her sense of humor take shape and her independence develop. And I take heart that even though she is the child we experiment on, she seems to be turning out okay.