Halloween

Doesn't Two Fish look thrilled to have his face painted? He isn't into dressing up for Halloween. He has only done it twice in the ten years I have known him. (Just for me when we've had Halloween parties.)
After I drew Red Fish's clown face on she insisted that Two Fish and I needed some makeup as well. How often does a little girl get to draw on her parent's faces?
It was rainy and yucky for trick or treating so we decided to go to the mall to trick or treat. It was a bad idea. The girls hated it and I think I might have hated it more. It was crowded and crazy and the girls were tired and cranky and I was stressed. A delightful combo. We had much more fun handing out candy at home.
The bright spot of visiting the mall is always riding the carousel. Good thing Grandma came with us.
After the mall we headed straight home (serenaded by screams) and started working on our pumpkins.

First we sliced one open and played with the guts for awhile.

Then we broke out the paints and the girls decorated the pumpkins. They loved this. I'm going to have to get used to having two messy art makers inside this winter. It's a little more complicated but hopefully I'm up for the challenge.
New Fish painted her head along with the pumpkin. Overall, not our best Halloween evening but we had a lot of fun throughout the week and once we got back home the girls were happy. Next year, more painting- less mall.

Murder At The Four Deuces

Last night one of my friends and I hosted a murder mystery dinner. We each invited a few couples so nobody knew everyone there. It was a 1920s themed speakeasy full of mobsters and flappers. It was a blast. We could steal, blackmail and commit murders. I've discovered that the key to hosting a murder mystery party is to make a complete fool of myself from the beginning so nobody else feels stupid. Acting and making myself the center of attention like that takes me pretty far out of my comfort zone but I end up having a lot of fun. Everybody was good sports and we had a lot of fun spreading gossip and rumors. I think this party was a lot more fun than the pirate themed one we did three years ago because there was no script, just a booklet of secrets that everyone got and then they had to just run with it. I had a lot of fun designing stuff for the party. I hardly ever design things just for fun. Since we don't drink alcohol, I had prohibition themed soft drinks. They were pretty fun.

Kitchen Curtains

I had a goal to get the kitchen and family room curtains done before Halloween but I don't think I am going to get the others done in time. I'm happy with how these ones turned out though.

A Witch And Her Cat

First Snow

New Fish wasn't sure what to think of all of the puffy clothes and boots she can't walk in. Red Fish wanted to stay out all day.

Halloween Festivities Begin

Red Fish's costume this year is a clown suit that my grandmother made for my Dad when he was a little boy. I wore it when I was little and I asked my grandpa to track it down a few years ago so I could have my kids wear it. I'm going to have to scan in the pictures of me and my Dad wearing this suit. I'm completely scared out of my mind of pretty much every other clown on the planet except this sweet little redhead.

New Fish is a cow. She wasn't feeling cooperative for pictures so she played dead but she can't help being cute.
Today was the last time that LJ, Red Fish's speech therapist could come to our house to play. Red Fish will be entering a new program when she turns three next month. She is going to really miss LJ.
Today was filled with Halloween activity with projects at home and a halloween fair. I was happy that we finally fit in some of the October things I had planned to do with my kids and hadn't gotten around to. We decorated cookies.

We played Halloween games.

A paperplate witch we made last week. Now if I can get my hands on some pumpkins and carve them with the kids and trick or treat I will count October as accomplished. We went to a pumpkin patch/Halloween fair thing last week but by the time we could buy pumpkins they were overpriced and the girls were too tired to care. So grocery store pumpkins it is.

Stuff we've made lately

Now that we are more into cub scouts and having weekly acitivities, the girls think they are cub scouts as well. We had a night on eco conservation and ocean conservancy (don't worry I used smaller words) and we made posters on fish anatomy and how we can help protect endangered species. We did a collage of our own new species of fish. Red Fish used the scissors to make her own fish. It was pretty cute.


Red Fish is obsessed with the footprint ghosts. She must have made at least 50 of them lately. They are all over our house. Everyone must have their foot printed to make a ghost.

Now I remember why we didn't own any glitter. I don't think I was meant to work with it. Red Fish had a blast helping me make these pumpkins.

New Fish has discovered contact paper collages and she is a fan.

Red Fish is getting really good with the scissors. She loves cutting piece of yarn and small papers over and over.

Felt monster puppets have also been a hit around here.

Where I've Been

I caught the girls pretending to check a proof the other day. It made me laugh when they kept pointing things out for each other and acting like they were carrying on serious business. Then they got their toy laptops out and worked for awhile. I guess they've been watching mommy pretty carefully.
They went down this slide about 100 times holding hands and laughed their heads off every time. Such funny little friends.
It looks like I am holding her up in this picture but I'm not bearing any of her weight. She can go across the monkey bars repeatedly without falling off once.

A picnic with Mimi

I'm not sure why I haven't felt much like blogging lately. Just in a bit of a funk I guess. Sometimes a mom just has to do what we can handle at the moment. With the warm weather the last few weeks what I can handle has been a whole lot of playing outside and riding bikes with the girls. We've payed with friends and been to the playground and aquarium a lot. I've also been working a lot. Making the rounds of the daily appointments for swimming lessons and speech appointments has worn me out. So it's just work, play with girls and crash at night. My to do list has gotten so long that I dare not even look at it but I'm trying to just concentrate on the important things and it has given me a sort of tunnel vision.

New Fish has learned to shout No and Ba (which is how Red Fish says stop.) She shakes her head at me but can't do it without shaking her whole body. It's hilarious. Any time she hears some music she does this funny little dance and hops around. She is completely mischievous and we call her baby destructo because she is into everything all the time. She has this glint in her eye when she walks around and it's obvious she is looking for trouble. She wants to do everything that her big sister does and CANNOT understand that she is smaller and younger than Red Fish.

Red Fish's speech is getting better everyday. She is kind of enjoying working on her exercises everyday. She is turning into a fish she is swimming so well. She can swim all the way across the pool by herself except for a few reminders to flip on her back to breathe. I love to watch her play make believe. Her games are getting more elaborate. She has started trying to teach New Fish a lot of little things. It's sweet. Red Fish has become very attached to her little friend C who lives a few doors down from us. She refers to him as "my buddy" because his name is hard to pronounce.

I went shopping for my birthday a week and a half ago (my birthday is next month but my Mom will be out of town) with my Mom and Two Fish took care of the girls all day. He took them hiking, bike riding, to the farm, to the park, for a walk and read them stories. I think it's clear those two little girls have their daddy wrapped around their fingers. I think they were almost sorry to see me come home.

So that's it. Just caught up in life.

Books of Late

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

This was my book club's pick this month. The story centers around one young girl's experience during the devastation of the Salem Witch Trials. I've read several other books on the trials but this one seemed to have a pretty distinct viewpoint. It didn't really glory in the gossip, propoganda or drama of the whole experience but instead tried to really show what the experience of living through the torment was like. The story is told years later so there isn't a huge sting of anger, just reflection on what her feelings as a ten year old girl were really like. I liked that it was pretty heartfelt and honest and didn't take itself too incredibly seriously. It's not a weighty historical work but an interesting story and worth reading.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevensen

Pirates, adventure and treachury seemed like good Halloween reading. I have a fabulous illustrated version that my Great Uncle bought me as a child and I read several times. I had never read the original book but decided to give it a try since I so enjoyed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was a fun read but definitely not my favorite of Stevensen's work.

Pumpkin

Stuff I've Been Working On

We've Been Spending Our Time Outside

This beautiful fall weather has been perfect for riding bikes and playing on the playground. I've been working a bunch lately so the time outdoors has kept us all happy.

Random Projects

A couple of fall crafts from the girls. Ghost footprints and a collage of leaves cut from construction paper. They did some of these at Red Fish's preschool and she wanted to do more at home.
In my never ending effort to keep the girls stimulated enough, I've been making file folder games. I'm planning on getting them ready for Red Fish's birthday next month. I've finished 50 of them. It has been a much more involved process than I originally planned on. I've cut, laminated and stuck velcro on until I'm no longer sure they were worth it. I'm sure she will love them. They should last her through kindergarten because I've covered a pretty broad spectrum of topics. Hopefully they will make our speech practice a little more interesting and provide us with some fun games to play. They better stand up to a lot of playtime after all this work!