A Halloween-ish Weekend

Our neighborhood hosts an annual Halloween costume party so we obviously got the kids all dressed up to attend.  There were very specific costume requests this year, mostly from David who wanted to be his dad, complete with his '94 4-Runner.  Sure sweetheart, I was hoping to do some postpartum cardboard crafting anyway.  Henry just wanted to be a cowboy from the dress-up box (and under no circumstances participate in a costume contest or have anyone look at him, ever).  John had been asking to be a ghost for over a month but once he was outfitted in the costume I made him (from sheets, not over his head--as per his request) he decided that actually, he didn't want to be a ghost after all.  He picked out the dinosaur costume David wore circa 2010 instead.  And as for Margaret, she wore the princess dress that Aunt Courtney sent along with the flower crown and wand I crafted.  Well, she didn't actually wear the crown and she probably would have been just as happy in the dinosaur costume but when you wait so long for a princess option you go with the princess option.

After the party we hit up the pumpkin patch and found the perfect giant pumpkin to go along with the smaller ones we already had that the squirrels have been nibbling.  Today we carved them up and Chris got to show off his super handy masculine side by busting out some power tools to get the job done.  I suppose that's what you should expect when you turn over pumpkin gutting duty to dad.  It really was a labor of love since he really dislikes everything about pumpkin carving.  If you don't carve pumpkins though you don't get roasted pumpkin seeds and everyone loves roasted pumpkin seeds.  I made these sweet ones and these regular ones this year and they were delicious.

Especially the sweet ones.

They'll hold me over nicely until I raid the children's Halloween candy stash tomorrow night.  I'm going to be attempting my first solo trick-or-treating adventure with all five kids so wish me luck.  Maybe luck and prayers.


PS David totally won the costume contest in the elementary school age category and he only lost one wheel in a fight with a Jedi :)


Happy Halloween!

On a Rainy Fourth of July

We had a vague plan that maybe this year would be the year,  the year we finally let the kids stay up late and take them out to see some real Fourth of July fireworks--which would probably be a sight worth seeing in DC.  Then we checked the weather and realized that there was no way our vague plan was going to become a reality.  Sorry kids.  It's nothing but sparkling ground fireworks for you this year.  Again.

We have pretty much no family traditions for this holiday, which I know we should rectify.  Next year.  Maybe a bbq with some sort of flag based dessert and a rowdy reading of the Declaration of Independence?   Maybe even with actual fireworks?  This year we settled for setting off our own fireworks before the rain started and playing games with dad the rest of the day.

The kids loved the fireworks even if they weren't real fireworks.  Well the boys loved them and Margaret was simultaneously crying in abject terror and laughing with delight while they were going off all while pointing and yelling "firewors! firewors!"  I think she's still a little confused about all of her various feelings.  The photo of her laugh/crying might be my favorite moment that I've managed to capture with my camera ever.  And apparently in addition to the fireworks Chris actually bought, he briefly considered sparkler swords which sound like a lot of fun and also the beginning of yet another story that ends with us at the emergency room.  I'm glad he passed on those and decided to stick with only a mildly alarming and mostly immobile display.

I did get ingredients to make a fried chicken feast today which would definitely up the celebratory feel of the day, but since it's four o'clock and I haven't started that yet I'm thinking it's more of a BLT kind of night.  Hey, there's always next year.

How did your celebrations go?  Hopefully more festive?  Tell me someone took their kids to a good old fashioned parade with children riding bikes tied with red, white, and blue streamers and everything :)

 

On Having a Less than Ideal Advent

This year Advent started out on the right foot, well as much on the right foot as could be expected when attempting to prayerfully anticipate the coming of the baby Jesus while your own baby has just gone.  By the first Sunday we had all the presents bought, the Christmas books down, the children's nativities out, the candles rolled and the Advent wreath made with a good hour to spare before dinner.  Of course Chris had gathered such a prodigious amount of greenery that I had enough left over to make a garland for the mantle as well, which meant there was only room at the table for the two of us to actually eat dinner, but still--the candle was lit and I'm sure the children enjoyed it from the other room.  

The actual *nice* nativity was more difficult to place this year since Margaret can reach just about anything she puts her mind to reaching but in the end it settled in nicely on the mantle--high enough for the baby not to be able to shatter, reachable enough for the big boys to put in their pieces of hay to make the manger soft for baby Jesus.

I even managed to have the kids write/dictate their Christmas lists which all included things that they will actually be getting which is not always an easy task when you do your Christmas shopping in October.

David's translates to:

Dear Santa, 

I would like 10 sheets of iron, 20 steel, 30 gold and silver, 20 bronze, 10 brass, 10 tenders of coal.  I also want Legos and a scooter.  This Advent, I'll let my brothers pick the games.
Love,
David

Apparently he wants to build his own child-sized train so that he and Margaret can ride it together.  I encouraged him to list some toys, just in case Santa doesn't bring raw materials.  The boys also all picked one thing to work on during Advent as their own gift to Jesus.

All in all, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself and how I pulled off that first Sunday after everything we'd gone through in the weeks leading up to it.

Advent, I've got this.

And then, the stomach bug.  First it was just Chris who wasn't feeling his usual self but by Friday the kids were going down fast and we spent the whole weekend in survival mode.  And disinfectant mode.  Survival-disinfectant mode.

There was no Christmas tree bought, no lights put up, no popcorn strung.  We didn't even remember St. Nicholas' Day and the boys forgot to put out their shoes. Luckily, St. Nick realized his mistake on Sunday morning and the kids eventually found their new Christmas picture books and chocolate coins along with a "get well soon" note tied up in a trash bag on the front porch.  I told the kids St. Nick must have been worried about spreading their germs around.  It was a very classy St. Nicholas Day.

With all that time lost, I'm feeling very behind on our Christmas preparations.  There are Christmas cards to write, cookies to bake, a tree to procure and decorate, Christmas dinner to plan, gifts to make, presents to wrap and just a little over two weeks to go.  There are so many things I should be doing right now, but mostly I just want to sit on the couch and luxuriate in the fact that I currently don't have to clean up after any sick children--maybe I'll just sit back and make a new and improved and more realistic Advent plan instead.  Sorry St. Lucy, things are not looking good for you.....

On Last Minute Halloweens

This year we left pretty much all the Halloween preparations until the day of.  That meant that it was a little tricky to find Halloween candy for the trick-or-treaters, we only had a vague plan for costumes and we couldn't find the kids' pumpkin carving tools--but we figured it all out in the end.   I managed to rummage up some Halloween candy from the back of the bottom shelf at the commissary.   We never found the carving tools but the boys sketched out what they wanted and I carved it for them with the big knife, after they and daddy handled all the goopy gutting that is.

For costumes, David decided to be Fred Weasley and wear his flying car, Henry wanted to be an "army man," John rummaged in the costume bin and finally settled on an octopus and Margaret is dressed up as "the little sister who got left behind."  It just doesn't seem worth it to drag the baby out when the big kids don't want to wear cute matching family costumes anymore, does it?

Now, the baby's sleeping, I'm at home handing out candy and I've learned two things.  One, hardly anyone trick-or-treats down our super busy street.  And two, I cannot be trusted with a bowl full of Halloween candy.  Who knew?

Happy Halloween!

A Harry Potter Halloween

.......or alternately, No. He's Not Yoda.

We had a pretty epic Halloween this year, the main event being Chris's admission to the ER for a respiratory infection which left me alone to take all the kids out trick-or-treating.  Luckily I had my lovely neighbors with me to make sure none of my brood met their demise running into the street in a sugar fueled craze.

Not that anyone would ever describe one of my children as crazed........

The big boys both wanted to be Harry Potter this year and since Aunt Courtney graciously offered to finance Halloween they got their wish with some really cute robes and real broomsticks I found on Etsy that I think will get a lot of use in the future.

Of course the fighting over who exactly would be Harry Potter began pretty much immediately and my cries that they could just both be Harry Potter fell on deaf ears.  Clearly two Harry Potters was a ridiculous solution. Henry thought David should be Ron Weasley because--red hair.  But David countered with the argument that Henry should be Ron because David's the oldest which obviously makes him the boss of everyone.

I'm not sure if that debate was ever resolved.  I guess once the candy started pouring in it didn't seem as important anymore.

And since we were doing Harry Potter costumes I got to dress up John like Dobby the house elf which was perfect because he likes to wear hats and also doesn't have enough words to argue with me on who he'd rather be for Halloween or whether or not he wants to be seen running around the neighborhood in a pillow case :)

Not everyone "got" John's costume though--a lot of folks thought he was supposed to be Yoda.  I thought the dirty pillowcase would clearly define him as a house elf--and also the fact that his hat was not green--but apparently I was mistaken.

We were not amused.

Well maybe a little amused.

The big surprise of the evening was that John turned out to be a very serious trick-or-treater.  He even outlasted Henry in his desire to acquire all the candy.  

And not to be left out, we also had a little Hedwig with us but she spent most of her time just sleeping and looking precious--apparently two week olds are pretty apathetic when it comes to Halloween :)

All in all I think the evening was a success.  Exorbitant amounts of candy were collected, Chris was released from the ER and is doing just fine and almost all of the children promptly went to bed, hopefully to sleep well into the morning hours and not notice that a good bit of their best candy is missing........

Happy Halloween!

St. Valentine's Day Fun

Okay, that title's misleading, this is just regular Valentine's Day fun.  I didn't even manage to remember to get the Saint Valentine book from the library this year....oh well, I'll just summarize it from memory as the children gorge themselves on chocolate for breakfast.  I'm pretty sure that's the liturgically correct way to celebrate his feast day anyway.

We had a playdate last week and of course I didn't realize when I read the invitation that it involved a valentine exchange.  Luckily I am well supplied with construction paper and googly eyes.  Well, I was well supplied with googly eyes.......

I had seen this idea on Pinterest and I have to say, we totally nailed it :)

The boys had a lot of fun making their heart monsters and, bonus! I taught David how to cut out paper hearts so this activity totally covered math practice and fine motor skills development......

I know, I didn't even manage to be the obnoxious Catholic friend who makes sure to write "St. Valentine's Day" on the cards.  You can just give me the liturgical year dunce cap and send me to the corner now.......

I suppose we could have done some handwriting practice as well, but I didn't want the valentine creating process to take an additional ten hours so I opted to print out something (hastily scrawled) for the boys to color in and glue to the back of their cards.  We were also lame and gave one joint valentine to each of our friends from all the boys, which of course none of the other moms opted to do.  Hopefully the other children weren't too devastated but I just do not have the mental energy right now to make extra valentines to give out from my baby who has no idea what's going on to other people's babies who are equally indifferent.

I hope the valentines you all receive this year are made with just as much love and attention to detail as these beauties ;)

Candles are for Rolling

We are a little off our Advent game this year with Thanksgiving and the first day of Advent being so close together (although I probably shouldn't be complaining knowing what those of you celebrating Thanksgivukkah had to accomplish).

We did manage to get our Advent wreath up and running in time for the second day of Advent though and I pulled out the nativities and Christmas books, so even if we don't accomplish anything else this season I can still feel pretty good :)

I ended up buying this Advent candle making kit and the boys loved it.  Well, David loved it.  Henry said he wanted to make the pink candle and when it was time for him to do it he said he wanted to play with the nativity angels instead.

I asked him if he was sure.

He assured me that he was.

I asked him if David could make his candle instead.

He said that yes, David should make his candle.

After David finished rolling the candle and we assembled the wreath Henry burst into an hysterical crying fit sobbing, that he thought he might have "told a lie" and that he really did want to make a candle.  It didn't end well, but I assured him that if we needed to make another candle before Advent was over he could roll that one.  It looks like the kit has enough to get through two and a half Advents or so, factoring in the occasional need to replace that first purple candle that burns the longest so I'm sure he'll get his chance--whether he takes it or not is another story......

In other really exciting and interesting news, I went to a cookie exchange this weekend and I won the prize for "most tasty" cookies--well I suppose great grandma Haigh's easy and delicious raspberry thumbprint recipe had more to do with it than my baking skills, but the prize was a new apron and I am in love with it! I pretty much snatched it out of our lovely hostess's hands before the other winner could choose it as her prize because I am gracious like that.

These were all that was left of the cookies the next morning.  You'll notice I did not win any prizes for prettiest cookie........

And in case you are interested, but mostly because I already typed it up for the party anyway........

Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients    

                                           

Cookies:                                                                      Glaze:

2/3 cup sugar                                                               1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup softened butter                                                  1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. vanilla                                                                2-3 tsp. water

2 cups flour

½ cup raspberry jam

Directions

Combine sugar, butter, vanilla and beat at medium speed until creamy.  Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour until mixed well. 

Cover and chill in refrigerator for one hour.

Shape into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.  Make an indentation with your thumb in the center of each cookie and fill with ½ tsp. of raspberry jam. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350˚ (don’t over bake!).  Cool for one minute on the pan and remove to cooling rack. 

Once cool, make the glaze by mixing powdered sugar, vanilla and water and drizzle it over the cookies.