Halloween Fun

Halloween festivities began with a trip to pick out pumpkins in mid-October.  Some of them were bigger than Jackie!

All three smiling, even if they're not all looking at the camera

 We spent part of our "hurricane days"carving pumpkins with our friends.  Can you tell which was Claire's and which was Ben's?  Everyone was happy with how they turned out.

Halloween evening began with some mummy dogs and mac and cheese.

The older kids decided on their costumes back in August.  We had read the first of the Harry Potter books early in the summer, and are about two-thirds of the way through book 2.  Coming up with a costume for Jackie was more of a challenge.  Then I spotted this leopard print tutu for $9.99 at Marshalls, and I knew we had this hat that Claire had been given for Christmas when she was about this age.  Of course Claire never left it on for more than 7 seconds at a time - fortunately Jackie was more cooperative, and so there was a simple and cute costume for my kitty loving little girl.

Hermione and Harry sported cloaks made by Nonni, scarves crocheted by Aunt Sarah, and ties created by me, with a little help from some yellow painters tape.  They were both happy with how their costumes turned out, and got lots of compliments from others.

As usual, we were joined by friends for trick-or-treating.

Post trick-or-treating, Jackie tried out a Kit Kat.

Yummy!

I only included this last picture, because this face is so typical of Jackie.  I had just told her no, and this is her expression when she knows she is doing something she's not supposed to, but she wants to see how far she can get anyway.  Welcome to my life - every day.

A fresh start

My blog has been sorely neglected over the past couple of years.  I read a LOT of blogs, and a few months ago there were many people who had been blogging for a long time writing about the changes in blogs, and how it was affecting the way they wrote (or wanted to write).  One of the biggest things that I took away from that, was from one blogger whose summation was basically, decide what you want your blog for, and be true to that.  Don't try to emulate someone else, if it is not your style.

My goal for this blog, when I began, was to document the things going on in our family.  Part of it is so that I have ways to remember the silly, funny, bizarre things that go on when you're dealing with kids everyday, and part of it is for family who don't live close to be able to see and hear about what we are up to.

One of my big hangups in posting is that I feel like there are events that I should have posted about that I have skipped, and so then I don't post about more recent things because in my head I want to get back and play catch up.  So right now, I'm giving myself a "get out of jail free" card.  I need a fresh start, and I will go back and do a little catching up, but for now my focus needs to be on what is happening in the present.

So if anyone out there is still reading ... hopefully there will be more for you to read very soon!