Guatemala

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I Love Me Some Halloween Time!

Things I love about Halloween:

 1.  The change of seasons....fall is starting to slowly creep out while winter sneaks in.  In the past few years here, there has been one Halloween where we had snow and one Halloween where the temps were in the 70s.  This year it was around 40, which is just perfect to me.  I love all the signs of the upcoming winter - the few leaves barely hanging onto the trees, the crisp air, and the kids outside playing trying to enjoy the last few weeks of weather that can be played in for hours on end.

2.  Ummmm COSTUMES!!!  So many parts of costumes to love - the deciding, the sewing, the trying on, the wearing of costumes from sunup to sundown during the days off before Halloween.  Love it all!  I was a little disappointed with my craftiness this year and had some mishaps with the "light blue princess kitty costume," but Beans was nonfluffed about it and that's all that really matters.  Otter, as always, required black, gruesome, and something violent.  I think this has been his theme for the past 4 years; he just gives it a new name each Halloween - this year it was called "Spirit Archer."  Uh duh.  He actually drew what he wanted, came and picked out fabrics, help cut, and was standing over my shoulder with ants in his pants while I sewed it up for him.  Smoosh is also consistent in his costumes for the past few years - really cool guys that beat up bad guys.  Spiderman.  Thank goodness we have quite the collection of costumes for him to just pick through.  Squeaks was a "little orange kitty kat," which translates in Mommy language to "adorable."  The girls helped out with the sewing.

3.  School parties.  I don't understand why the kids were looking at me funny when I wanted to join in the eyeball races and eat some gooey brain cupcakes.  Sheesh.  Can't a girl have some fun?

Look - its spidey at the window!  Good party times!

4.  Pumpkin carving!!  Pics say it all:

seeds in, seeds out

and i'm done with that silly seed schtuff

ooh - don't forget to taste the seeds

5.  TRICK OR TREATING!!!  Minus the yelling at kids for saying "trick or death" or running across the street in a black costume in the dark.  Did I say kids?  I meant yelling at the Otter.  My most favorite part of trick or treating is coming home and dumping all the candy on the floor then sorting!  SO FUN!

It was a great Halloween season!  I am already planning the costumes for next year:)

Fall Carvings

Ahh Fall, how I love thee.  Our yard was a beautiful blanket of fall color before the mighty winds set our way.  Now our neighbor's yard is a beautiful blanket of fall color!  We have been busy with all the projects that fall brings.

The first was a venture into homemade applesauce.  We have made this before, but this year Smoosh and I decided to spice it up a bit and make it in the crockpot.  Crockpot applesauce leaves a smell in the house that lingers well into the next day, just like bread baking does.  We carved at least 20 apples to get maybe 2 full cups of applesauce.  I learned that when cooking with Squeakers I should probably keep a better eye on her or give her jobs that do not involve actual food products.  I think she "tasted" every apple before putting it into the crockpot.  I did not notice this until Smoosh raised a fuss about wanting some "taste tests" too.

There go all those apple peels to our bunnies and some to our compost pile!

Next "carving" project up will be canning pears and make absurd amounts of pear pies, pear sauces, pear whatevers!  It was a pear-a-palooza this fall from our trees!

Smoosh and Jack -he's our neighbor who helped with the picking!

One of our biggest fall "carving" projects was a new bed for Smoosh!  Check it out - that's a dragon rail on there!!!  Big Daddy at work again with his craftiness. 

 The bed still needs some paint and a few more details to be added, but I don't think Smoosh minds too much.  He was pretty excited to finally have a big boy bed!

Of course, there is always the Pumpkin Carving of each year that is such great fun for about 5 minutes before I start wigging out from the knives being used recklessly, the over-the-top need for violence and gory items from an eldest child who shall remain nameless, and the smiles from watching the littlest one take seeds out the pumpkin then put them back in, out, then in, out, then in.  Pics will follow in another post:)

I should know by now....

..........that a quiet child is ALWAYS up to no good......

ps I took the picture because the milk carton was empty and there was just no more damage she could do....I thought I would capture her cleverness for posterity.

wiCkEd!

Last night, we went to see Wicked at the Overture Center.  It was incredible! Beans and Otter had a great time and it was so neat to be able to take them to a performance like this.  Our neighbor with her 2 kiddos were there with us to join in the fun; now we have 4 kids running around singing and dancing to the soundtrack (even as I write this they are in the kitchen reenacting their favorite song).  And by 4 kids, I mean 3....because Otter is too cool for that kind of stuff. 

Everyone smiled when they saw her at the Overture Center with her little hat on.

Ok ok, I got a little witched out too.  I even had black nail polish...

The littlest one had to be a part of the witch action too.

Oh my goodness!  She even flies!

Life in Dairy Land

Someone recently asked me how life was going in Wisconsin for us.  Seriously, I cannot complain at all....here's just a look at how much fun we have up here in our own backyard....

The hammock and tire swing in the back corner of the yard.

The chicken coop:)  Hi lovely chicken ladies!

Seriously cute baby who really isn't a baby any more.

The mini-orchard!  Pears, peaches, and plums....oh my!

The garden in the other back corner with the cutest little gardener digging up....

....toPotAtOs!  :)  at least that's what he called them.  There were also some yummy carrots, sweet topotatos and leeks that still needed to be dug up.

The pergola - designed and built from scratch by the big daddy.  He's very talented.  We have grapes growing in there!

The kids treehouses, swings, and mobile home...hee-hee

The mobile home for the bunnies and chickens - we move it around the lawn so they can hang out with us.

I think I would have to say life is good....very good here in Wisconsin.

Madigan and Cricket

The latest creatures to join our menagerie.   ToO cUtE!!  Callie likes to call them her own little pez dispensers....because Callie can talk and she tells me these things.  Huck likes to call them fruit snacks, but we haven't let him try them at all. 

Dragonfly By

Smoosh was at one with nature today.  Beautiful.












We saw the dragonfly in the flowerbed and the little guy flew right over and landed on Smoosh's leg.

Happy Smoosh :)

Smoosh's First Day of 4K

And Smoosh started school as well this month.  He is going to an afternoon program which is scary for many reasons:  1) He has to be awake during a time he is normally sleeping.  For Smoosh, this is bad news.  He has so exhausted himself by noon most days that he sleeps for 2 to 3 hours.  And now he is supposed to be in a group of other 4-year olds at that time behaving.  Uh oh.  2) He has to ride a bus.  Ok, ok, so it is only a few days a week that he has to do it and only for the drop off.  Not too bad I guess.  He is very excited about riding a bus though as it gets him one step closer to being as cool as his big brother and sister.  3) Well, there is always that anxiousness about Smoosh being in with a group of other kids.  Every time he gets near other kids he has a tendency to run them over and somehow hurt them.  Uh OH.

Amazingly enough, when it is his turn for a solo pic,
he is able to sit for a few seconds.

 I was a little bit on the wicked side and gave him some hot chocolate and biscotti before school (well, we normally have tea and biscotti but I ran out of tea and thought, eh - its the first day, everyone is excited anyways....that won't be able to link that insane sugar rush back to me.....will they?). 

Going.....

uuuummmm....yeah.....gone.

 









And some shots of the big man at his big school:

And what does the little Squeaks have to say about all the other chillens' no longer at home with her???

Whose room should we destroy first Mommy?!??!?!?

First Days of School

It is so difficult to get a picture of Smoosh because he never sits still.  And when he does, he decides to be a grouchasaurus.  We literally had over 20 shots at this pic.....what a stink. 

Beans took it upon herself to be the social director of the morning and show all the kiddos she could manhandle where their teachers were.  Nice Beans, nice.

 Two weeks ago (wow, I am slipping!), the older kids headed back to school.  It always reminds me of my back-to-school days and how the night before I would lay out all of my new school clothes and leave the backpack right by my door.  It is such fun getting my little Beanie ready for her first day and lying out all of her first-day clothes with her backpack ready to go.  This year, she even got a little bit of the Mommy Beauty Salon treatment with nail polish, blow dried hair, and some yummy smelling schtuff in her hair.  I don't even know what the heck that schtuff was except that it smelled good.  While I love having a Beanie to pamper, I also love having Otter who is very nonchalant about it all.  As Otter puts it, his favorite days of school are the first and last.  I don't think I could really argue that one.