un-drafted: Halloween 2011

(yet another post that's been sitting in drafted stages for nearly 2 weeks. There just aren't enough hours left in the day when you have sick kids (croup included), regular headaches (one coming in as I type, ugh), and a baby (still refuse to call her a toddler) who all of the sudden decided that going to bed at night is no fun, so it takes us nearly an hour to get her to sleep...)

I can hardly believe we are almost half-way through November. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and Christmas might be coming even sooner than that, judging by how badly stores and businesses are wanting us to shop (was I the only one confused by that shiny gigantic snowman lawn figure at Costco in August?). I am still recovering from Halloween preparations, and now I'm supposed to decorate for Thanksgiving? Just so I can replace all the orange, yellow and brown stuff with red and green the day after that? I think we'll just stick to more versatile decor - shreds of paper from cutting out shapes or folding origami creatures. We never run out of that stuff, it's cheap, comes in variety of colors, takes no time to create and virtually impossible to get rid of. Might as well pretend like it's part of our interior design, right?

Speaking of Halloween, as much as we don't look forward to it, we always get a chuckle out of our ability to put together cute costumes for kids without hardly spending any time or money on them. This year was no exception. I know I'm probably the only person posting Halloween photos 2 weeks later, but why not? Just doing my best to record stories and events that I would want my children to be able to read about 15 years from now. (Children! Remember that unforgettable vacation in August 2011? Yes, I'm still planning to write about it some day, but the memory of it is still painfully fresh.)

Ok, on to the costumes... The only *thing* we bought just for the costumes was wire to hold hold Maya's braids. Everything else was 100% reused, borrowed (between siblings) or recycled.


is there such thing as Halloween miracle? Because I don't know how else I'd call the fact that I got a decent picture of all 4 kids looking cute and standing together for a few seconds. Elijah even tried to smile.

Pippi Longstocking:

old corduroy pants from 3 years ago with old knee patches
Mismatched knee high socks
old 4t dress over t-shirt
small-ish jacket with patches sewn on by Maya
Anya's rainbow gnome skirt (from 2 years ago) used as neckwarmer
vintage pillowcase for candy


Cowboy (I know, very original):

his every-day jeans and shirt
Maya's hat (bought before last year's Halloween for Maya)
Maya's boots
my head-kerchief
vintage pillowcase for candy


Rainbow fairy/princess/ladybug without a mask, anything really:

dress up dress - from consignment store (bought months ago)
flower crown - my mom sent them for the girls and they've been wearing them all summer)
rainbow cape - from her old rainbow gnome costume
re-used Christmas gift bag (so much easier that wrapping oddly shaped gifts in paper)


Lamb (which is so not her personality)

Hat - from Elijah's old clothes
Jacket - same

We tried to minimize the damage to their immune system from all the sugar, as they were still recovering from the first round of sickness. A couple of them managed to get sick again (and then pass it on to Mark and I). So I have to say, I'm glad Halloween is only once a year, and that we survived it, again.

Hiking

I love autumn. Everything about it just seems right. And I love that it's a season of chance, just like spring, and unlike summer or winter, when the same weather can last for weeks and weeks, and you feel like it will never end. But autumn... you know it won't last forever and it will end, and the very last warm day might be right around the corner. So you savor it, and try to enjoy every day, breathing in that air that smells of wet leaves clinging one to another on the ground.

We love hiking at this time of year. September was still quite warm, much like summer. But after a week of really cold weather, the autumn is undeniably here, keeping us on our toes and calling us to spend more time enjoying these last warm days and beautiful rich colors outside. So we've been hiking, and still plan to squeeze in a few hikes before trails get completely covered with snow for a good 6 months...

White Pine Trail has always been one of our favorite hikes around here. We don't make it as far as we'd like to, having 4 little hikers with us (one of which refuses to stay on her papa's back and walks quite slowly on a rocky trail, or even better - in an opposite direction) means stopping and exploring rocks and leaves every few minutes. Still, just getting to the river is exhilarating and addicting enough to make us plan another hike before we even finish the one we are doing at the moment. Thanks to certain little(st) person, we got to our turning point at dusk, and our hike back to the car was pretty much in the dark. So worth it.

well, hello there!

Oy, where did the last 2.5 months go? There's so much updating I need to do. Just wish kids would be asleep before 10:30 p.m. which hasn't happened in weeks. Tonight, I'll make it a goal to write a real blog post. Until then, cute baby face.

Little Valley Days

having aunt Angie come for a visit was a special treat for all of us

I've been parenting my children long enough to know that no matter how long or short our visit with grandparents is going to be, I still need to bring at least one change of clothes for each child. We met up at a campsite for a lazy Saturday afternoon lunch, unloaded the kids out of the car and 10 minutes later they were covered in food and dirt from head to toe. Every single one of them dropped half of their noodles covered in pasta sauce (made lovingly by Mark at home) onto their lap, then rolled in the extra dark campground dirt and splashed in a nearby stream and mud puddles for a full effect. Luckily for us, a clean change of clothes was ready for each unrecognizable child. So when we showed up for the Little Valley Days celebration later that evening, nobody could tell that our kids had a food/dust/dirt bath just a few hours earlier (and taking a real bath at grandma's house helped too).

poor Ivy started running fever that night, so I wrapped her and she fell asleep before I was done tying the knot...