Pumpkin Carving 101

Step 1: Spend far, far, far too long at BHG.com's pumpkin stencil maker. Here's a sample of the conversation:
Me: How about these eyes?
Claire: Are they scary?
Me: No.
Claire: OK. No, not those.

Repeat that about 60 times (we needed to choose eyes, nose, and mouth you know. Print, and you wind up with something like this:


Step 2: Use a large sharp knife to make a hole in the top of the pumpkin while your children look on in awe.

Step 3: Clean out the pumpkin guts. You may be able to recruit help for this.


Step 4: Tape the stencil to the pumpkin, and poke many many little holes in it with small plastic pointy objects.


Step 5: Unpeel stencil, and hurriedly carve the pumpkin face. After the kids admire it and go to bed bring it back inside to clean up the fine details.


Step 6: Force the children to pose with the pumpkin.


Step 7: When dusk settles, and the trick-or-treaters start arriving, light the pumpkin for a final photo.

Woohoo!

I have not mentioned yet that I am thrilled that the Red Sox won the World Series. Convincingly, too! I'm glad that I let Dustin out of my pocket to play - he did great!

However. I need to complain. About the game times.

I get that during the week they want a later start so that people on the west coast have the opportunity to watch most, if not all, of the game after work. But why on earth were both the Saturday and Sunday games also started at 8:30 PM EST? This was really frustrating as A) it kept me up past my bedtime, B) I usually fell asleep during the course of the game, and then woke up frustrated wondering what the final score was, and C) how on earth are East Coast people supposed to watch the game with their young kids who like to watch and play baseball? I thought baseball is supposed to be be all-American - so it would seem that people may want to watch the World Series with their kids. How else will they learn how to chew large wads of tobacco/sunflower seeds/gum, and spit convincingly? I joke, but I really do think that at least one of the weekend games should have started at 3:30 or 4 so that it could be enjoyed as a family. Am I alone in this?

I did fall asleep during game four - sometime in the 7th inning. However, apparently my Boston blood pulled through as I woke myself up just in time to watch the last out of the top of the 9th, and then managed to stay awake as Papelbon pitched the last half inning, and to watch the post-game celebrations and presentations.

Best Shot Monday - sunrise

Fortunately, I wasn't up early enough this morning to see the sunrise, but I was one day last week. Here is what you saw when you stepped out of our front door.



To see more pictures from Best Shot Monday visit Tracey over at Picture This, and look for the links in her comments.

Rain rain, go away

Guess whose garage door opener stopped working last week.

Guess whose garage door has no handles on the outside.

Guess whose garage door is weighted so that if it is any higher than 4 inches off the ground it flies open on its own.

Guess where it has been raining non-stop for the last three days.

Guess who hasn't gotten to the pumpkin patch yet to buy pumpkins for Halloween.

At least the rain is maybe supposed to stop by late morning tomorrow. I'm sure the pumpkin patch will be nice and dry by afternoon. Right?

The language of fall

RISPs, ERAs, HRs, and RBIs.

Go RED SOX!!!

And thank you Dustin Pedroia, who helped me keep my sanity last night. You are so little and wee, I just want to pick you up and put you in my pocket. But I'll let you out to play in the World Series.

Best Shot Monday - sky

To see more pictures from Best Shot Monday visit Tracey over at Picture This, and look for the links in her comments.

Three Wishes

Amalah over at Mom's Daily Dose posted this writing challenge, and I thought it would be an interesting thing to think/write about.

What are the three things you wish for your kids to experience in their lives? Is it different for your sons and daughters?

Obviously every parent wants their child to be smart, funny, wildly successful, healthy, good-looking, talented, wealthy...the list could go on and on. But apparently I only get to pick three.

Narrowing things down, I know I want my children to be happy. I know that there is no way they'll be happy all of the time in every aspect of their lives, but I hope that overall their lives are happy ones. I hope that when they make important decisions in their lives, that in the long run, they are happy with the decisions that they made and do not live with regrets.

I want them to be successful. That can take many paths, depending on where their skills lie. I hope to be able to encourage them without imposing my expectations on them. I hope that they will choose their own passions, and then be successful at whatever those are.

I want them to be strong. I know that no matter how much I try to take care of them, life will throw many obstacles at them throughout the years. Sometimes I will be able to help them, sometimes I may only be able to comfort them in the aftermath. I hope that they have the strength to persevere, to keep trying new things, to not be afraid of failure because every failure teaches you something new, and to know that no matter what anyone says to them, that they are wonderful, wonderful people who will do amazing things.

As corny as it is, even before Claire was born, I dreamed of being able to share the words and sentiments of LeeAnn Womack's I Hope You Dance with my children. I think it does a great job of verbalizing what parents dream of for their kids.

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance..........

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance,
Livin' like me, takin' chances, but they're worth takin',
Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin',
Don't let some Hell bent heart leave you bitter,
If you come close to sellin' out reconsider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
Tell me who wants to look back on their years
and wonder where those years have gone.)

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

Dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance..
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
Tell me who wants to look back on their years
and wonder where those years have gone.)

Shiny Happy Yogurt Eaters

I took this picture while we were in NC visiting family. I just can't resist a picture of a cute kid enjoying their food.

Ben has been up to his usual tricks lately. Charming everyone except when he is having tantrums because he can't get what he wants. Like the other day when his mean, mean mommy would not let him keep the smooth, shiny bottle of hairspray, that - based on his screams of fury - he had. to. have.

I love how much he loves his big sister. He has learned to say Claire, and almost everyday when he wakes up from his nap the first person or thing that he asks for is "Cware?". Then when we head into her bedroom he happily greets her, "HEY CWARE!"


Of course as soon as I took Ben's yogurt covered picture, Claire insisted that I take her picture, too. She couldn't possibly be left out.

Yesterday afternoon when she was cleaning up her room after rest time she was trying to throw all of her "friends" (stuffed animals) onto the bed from across the room. One of them went almost entirely sideways hitting me in the head. She said, "Mommy. I'm really sorry I hit you in the head with my friend." I was actually impressed by how sincere she sounded. Then she continued, "BUT, you need to learn to dunk when I throw things at your head." Thanks for the tip, Claire. Much obliged. I may not have picked up on the "dunking" all by myself. I'll certainly try harder next time.

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day.

On October 15th - Blog Action Day, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone's mind.

The issue for this year is the environment, and bloggers were asked to publish a post on their blog which relates to an issue of their own choice pertaining to the environment.

Honestly, there is so much more that our family could do to be more environmentally friendly. We have in the last few months gotten a variety of re-usable grocery bags to use when we go shopping. I don't always remember to take them in to the store, unfortunately, but hopefully this will become more of a habit over time.

We do recycle, but there are probably a lot of things that we could recycle that still wind up in our trash. I have even, in the past, searched the website of our trash and recycling service to try to find out what items they will recycle to no avail. I should probably make more of an effort to find out so that we can do a better job of decreasing the amount of trash that we produce. One nice thing is that if Claire spots an empty soda can on the counter she will grab it and announce that she is going to take it to "cycling" and head out to the garage to put it in the recycling box.

One thing that Blog Action Day has done is make me think a little more about what else we could do around our house to make a difference, however small. As parents, we feel an obligation to raise our children to be valuable contributing members of the world. Shouldn't we also feel an obligation to do our part to make the world that we are handing down to them a little bit better by being more aware of how we use it?

What do you do to help the environment?

Best Shot Monday - chicken

Last week at the River Bend Farm at the Biltmore estate we saw this chicken with a cast on its leg. Very unusual. It was very tame - Claire could pet it which was very exciting for her.

To see more pictures from Best Shot Monday hobble on over to visit Tracey at Picture This, and look for the links in her comments.

Think Pink!

As I'm sure many of you are aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In this day, nearly everyone knows someone who has been touched by breast cancer. It is a truly devastating disease.

Right now there are so many opportunities to do something that will help support breast cancer research. We recently bought one of these vacuum cleaners.

Pretty, isn't it?













I also purchased this cookbook last year. it's a cookbook that I wanted anyway, and how could I resist it when they did a special edition to help support breast cancer research?

There are a myriad of other options out there. I've done some Christmas shopping this month at Bed Bath & Beyond which has a number of different items for sale that support breast cancer research.

So I ask you please, to keep your eyes open when you're out shopping, and do something this month that will maybe help to do something to put an end to this terrible disease.

Yahoo!

GO RED SOX!!!!

And in other news...we've been busy lately, and I have lots of things to share. Last weekend we spent one day at an alpaca farm for National Alpaca Farm day, and then the next day we headed to Tarara winery for wine tasting, apple picking, and having a picnic on the playground.

This weekend we're outside of Asheville, visiting Brian's dad, stepmother, and two brothers. The kids are having a blast playing with the three dogs, going for pony rides and carriage rides with Grandma Laurel, and a trip to Chimney Rock State Park. Unfortunately this computer does not have the software for me to get pictures from my camera, so that will all have to wait until later in the week.