Halloween Trick or Treats!

"Trick or Treats are Yummy! Trick or treats are yummy, Mummy!" Gavin was all about the trick or treats today. He started early. "Where's Gavin?" I ask. (Common question.) I find him downstairs with the jar of Ovaltine (our chocolate milk) open, eating chocolate right out of the jar. Hmm... I've learned now, if Gavin isn't where you think he should be, he's probably somewhere with candy or snack of some sort eating in pure bliss.


[Just an aside: I could have a blog completely based on the snacking habits of my kids. They are pretty funny. They do eat regular meals -- I do feed them vegetables and such, and they eat it all. They just eat constantly. Everything.]

Anyway, that was the beginning of the day. As if the sugar he'd consume later wouldn't be enough, he needed a warm up.

Luckily, Gavin did wear his costume, sans hat. And I was able to weasel Graeme into his long enough to go trick or treating. Gavin was "El Materdor" and Graeme was the bull. Pretty cute. I'm quite proud of the costume, which I said before I know. But really, I am. I wish that he'd worn it longer than 1 hour. Oh well. Maybe Graeme will want to be something similar next year. We even found roses that lit up - cheesy, but fun!


Graeme was kind of confused about the evening. His look was, "Why are we walking around in the dark? Everyone looks weird." And Gavin, having the time of his life anticipating the "trick or treats"he'd eat later, wanted to go into everyone's house and eat candy without having ripped of the wrapper first. He did, however, say "Happy Halloween!" to everyone, which was pretty cute.
He also said, "Ole!" A lot. Graeme, could he verbalize his thoughts, would've said: "I'm tired. And hot. Can I have some milk? That's a camera!"

El Materdor Emerges

My accomplishment today was getting Gavin's Halloween costume done. The trick on Saturday will be getting him to actually wear it. He's going to be "El Materdor," which if you're Cars fans, you might know what that is. It's from Mater's Tall Tales, where he used to be a famous bulldozer fighter in Spain. Graeme is going to be the bull. This actually signifies their relationship right now pretty well. I'll post pictures after the weekend, but I have to say I'm quite proud of myself. Value Village is the best for finding cheap costume ideas and materials.

Other notes: I'm getting a cold. Blah. No fun. Let's hope the rest of the family doesn't get it. If only I could quarantine myself at, say, the Seattle Four Seasons. I'd be totally willing to sacrifice a few days.

Flashback last weekend

Our friend's had a birthday party for their daughter, so we went up to Canada for the weekend. We stayed at the Hotel Rushton, where they have three kids, Smudge the cat, and Bailey the dog who doesn't like thunder. The birthday party was fantastic, virtually kid proof for accidents, except for Gavin who ran into the kitchen at the end of the party and turned on the burners of the stove. He's Craig's son, because Craig apparently did that when he was that age.

Gavin has become fond of the disappearing act, which is a little scary. Sometimes it is funny though. We we are the Rushton's house chatting, playing, making food, and marveling at the chaos that five kids can produce. I look around and don't see Gavin. "Where's Gavin?" I ask. I look in the play room. No Gavin. The living room. No Gavin. Is he upstairs? Nope, no Gavin. As I'm walking back to the kitchen, Gavin runs out of their pantry (under the stairs) as fast as he can into the den carrying a nearly empty bucket of winegums. (He's just recently really figured out what candy is, which is unfortunate.) "It's candy day!" he says. And we all can't help but laugh. (The bucket was empty when he got it, so he didn't eat them all.) Here's the culprit:


As for Graeme, he fell in love with their cat Smudge. Graeme woke up around 11pm on Saturday, so I brought him down for a while. He noticed Smudge immediately and started to crawl toward him. It was so cute to watch because Smudge just played with him. Graeme would get close, then Smudge would dash away giving Graeme the brush of his tail. Once he even jumped over his head! Then Smudge would hide till Graeme found him and headed his way. I've never seen a cat so playful or so fun with kids. These pictures are from the morning; the play continued.

Today's Highlights

Quick highlights or funny stuff from the day, which will turn into a long post for sure.

1) Graeme slept till 6:30am!! Great! (But Gavin woke up at 5am. Not sure how to help that one.)

2) We're down to just a morning bottle for Graeme, otherwise he's on sippy cups. Pretty good.

3) Don't under estimate the fun factor of a pile of pillows.

4) Gavin telling me when waking up from his nap: "It's crunchy out there." (Me: "Out where? What's crunchy?") Now, getting up and trotting down the hallway: "The square cereal is crunchy. It's crunchy in the pantry." (Square cereal is Frosted Mini Wheats, and I can't blame grandparents for that one.) Does he dream about food???

5) Reading a book about Halloween with Gavin -- he likes the "smooky ghosts".

6) Tonight at the dinner table the whole family laughing together. So fun. Graeme was done with his food, so I took off his tray and pulled him up to the table. He promptly put his feet on the table, and Gavin starts laughing. "Feet on the table!" he says in his sing-song voice of something you're not supposed to do. (That's a rule for us. Straight to bed.) I put his feet down and he puts them back up, etc. Gavin and Graeme were cracking up!

7) Ok, this wasn't today, but it is kind of funny. Graeme has learned to headbutt from Gavin as sort of a greeting. Gavin does that with him, of course, and really everyone who might potentially take his toys. Yesterday I noticed that Graeme pushed his head into Gavin without prior provocation. Too funny. When will they learn that this isn't an acceptable greeting?

Dilly beans

We tested our first dilly beans tonight! They were edible! Yeah! Everyone loved them, even Graeme ate a bunch. I'm happy that they turned out. And that was the first batch, so hopefully the others will be even better.

Not much news to report tonight other than pickles.

Finding Time

I think today is a turning point. I've done three things today that I've been meaning to do for a LONG time. Though I won't bore you with details, I'm excited to see what comes from those actions. What started my flurry of energy was the realization that Graeme really still needs a morning nap. I was thinking that he was ready to switch to one, thus I would take Graeme to the gym while Gavin was in preschool. But that didn't seem working for him, since he gets grumpy. So, today I took him home for a nap. He slept two hours and, now, is sleeping two more. I think he needs it, but anyway, not the point.

The point is, that two hours gives ME two hours. Two more hours in a day to do WHATEVER I think needs to get done. Hooray! What a revelation, provided that I still go to the gym. I can take the boys and do that in the afternoon. Right after I write this blog and then go wake them up. And, hey, this happens on Tuesday AND Thursday! So that's an incredible 4 hours of time that I can do stuff. Amazing. Why didn't I do this before??

Although you may not be interested in the minutia of my day (maybe you are since you're reading this), but here's what I did today. I downloaded a couple free podcasts and listened to them while I did my strength training in our basement. It was great and it worked! It worked because 1) I'm not so burly that I can't just use my equipment at home, and 2) I felt more energized by listening to something inspiring and educational than I would have watching TV. All I did was Google "free motivational podcasts" and a bunch came up. Try it! Kind of cool. Now, I'm off to wake up the sleepy ones. (It is hard to wake them up though... a quiet house is so heavenly sometimes...)

Sharing Graeme's Birthday

Today was Gavin's day to share something in preschool. Luckily, it was also Graeme's first birthday. So, as good grandparents do, my parents sent gifts for Graeme and one for Gavin as well. (Those first born kids always get more stuff! ;) Gavin's gift was a "pretty sweet" John Deere tractor that wasn't just a dualie, but had four huge wheels on each side. Certainly the Dualie's dualie. Of course, Gavin wanted to take his new tractor to share with the class. The teachers recorded what he said (presumably answering their questions):

My new tractor... a John Deere.
It goes on hay. From mummy.
It's a triple dualie. 1,2,3,4,5.
I want a snack.
Tractors live on hay.
It goes up the ramp.
--Gavin, 2.5 years

On the way to school we worked on saying "quadruple dualie" and counting the tires, but he came up with the "tractors live on hay" bit. And, I love the "I want a snack"! That's classic Gavin. Oh how many times a day I hear that...

Graeme had a pretty good birthday. Actually, that's not true. He was kind of cranky for most of the day. Maybe it's because Gavin got a cool tractor and he got clothes. (I'm totally kidding, Mom. The clothes and plush puppy are great.)

Happiness is...

These pictures were too cute, so I had to post them. I'm realizing that my posts are all about either sweets or vegetables. I guess a balance is good, right?? Gavin's favorite treat this summer was a chocolate dip cone from Dairy Queen, which is right down the street from us. I can hear him now, "I want a treat! Let's get in daddy's truck and go to Dairy Queen!" I have to say that Daddy did start this, but I didn't complain because I like them too. This was Graeme's first experience with the dip cone.

"Happiness is..."

"Hmmm... yummy... we love ice cream... chocolate..."

"What? I was just doing what Gavin was doing.
And look, I've got this cute french look going for me!"

Since Graeme can't talk yet, he's subjected to me speaking for him. Luckily, he won't realize this until much later in life.

One Year Old!

Ok so, technically, Graeme is not one year old until Tuesday, but we did have a very small party for him this weekend with grandparents and a few friends (resulting in a manageable number of kids). Here are some pictures of the highlights. He loved the cupcakes, and really wanted to share.
Gavin, having learned in his sweet-filled two years of life that he loves cupcakes, could not be kept away from the cupcakes for the first half of the party.

And here is our latest family picture. All bellies full of cupcakes and green tomato salsa!

Garden Goodbye

This will probably be my last post about our little garden. I thought I'd post some pictures, as I'm not feeling too creative right now. (It figures, I finally have some time to myself and I just feel like going to sleep.) But, there's lots to update, so here are some pictures from the tomato take down mentioned earlier. I'm happy to say that lots have ripened up! I will have enough to freeze one, even two, more batches of red tomatoes and I have hoards of green zebra tomatoes that will hopefully ripen too. I made green tomato salsa with some of the green zebras this weekend, which turned out pretty good... so we might have lots of that! The last picture is of some cherries right before I dried them in the oven - yummy! I totally recommend that for anyone who has lots of cherry tomatoes that may not get eaten in time.



So, I had 6 tomato plants and they all went crazy, which has been fun. I'll be sort of sad when I have to buy tomatoes from the grocery store again. Let's hope that next year is just as good! I definitely learned a lot this year, and hopefully I will remember some of that come spring.

Halloween Pumpkin Prep

We went to the farm yesterday to pick out pumpkins. I have to stuff Graeme in the backpack so I can chase Gavin around. He loves to be chased, which can be challenging at times. He usually wants to run all the way to the back of the farm to visit the tractor, but somehow I was able to persuade him otherwise. Graeme isn't fond of being captive in the pack, but since he can't walk yet and tries to eat everything on the ground, he has no choice. Incentive to learn to walk.

This year, maybe because Gavin is old enough to understand Halloween or that we have an October birthday to celebrate now, I've been trying to get more creative with decorations for Fall and Halloween. (Which is to say that I'm decorating at all, since I usually don't.) The South 47 Farm that we go to has a bunch of different kinds of pumpkins. If you were crafty, you could channel Martha Stewart and have very cool decorations. I resisted the urge to buy one of everything or more. And, really, I'm only aspiring to be one of Martha's interns. (Although, they probably do much of the creative work anyway.)

In any case, my efforts in budget decorations have yielded these results: 1) corn stalks from our corn in the front yard, with dried sunflower heads for the birds (will they actually eat them??), 2) "spooky" pictures from the Civil War era pasted over our family pictures, 3) pine cones in vases, 4) our one little pumpkin that we grew here, and 5) tissue paper ghosts that Gavin helped me make.

My only regret with the farm experience was that I didn't bring my camera. So, since we have grandparents coming down today, I'm hoping to recreate the experience and get some pictures with the boys. I doubt I would have been able to orchestrate a photo shoot with two free range toddlers anyway.

Tomato Take Down

It was a sad day yesterday because it was time to take down the tomatoes. I had noticed some black spots on the leaves and the weather is now quite chilly, so a couple of people recommended taking them down. Bummer. There are two methods (at least that I know of) to choose from: 1) picking all the tomatoes from the vine, setting them inside and hoping that they ripen, or 2) cutting the entire vine and hanging the whole thing upside down in a dry place until the tomatoes ripen and fall off. I would have loved to try method #2, but really, my tomatoes were huge. (Not a metaphor.) And I've got six of them. (Certainly not a metaphor.) So I sincerely doubted that Craig would want six enormous tomato plants hanging in the garage for who knows how long. I maybe could have hung them outside, but it rains so much they'd get wet anyway.

I guess I could have just said that I picked all the tomatoes. But now you know my thought process.

The result? I laundry room crowded with five roasting pan-sized containers full of (with any luck) ripening tomatoes. I did take pictures, but I'm too lazy right now to post them. Maybe tomorrow. I have a feeling some will ripen, but if the others don't... does anyone know a good recipe for green tomatoes? I've only heard of fried green tomatoes and green tomato chutney. I'm not sure either of those sound good to me. Any ideas?

I also pulled down most of the beans. When doing so, I encountered my tiny, yet enormous, spider friend. Total hee-bee-jee-bees. I know it probably wasn't the same spider, as those spiders are everywhere around the garden and getting visibly bigger every time I walk outside. It makes sense to me now why spider webs are such a mainstay of Halloween decor. If only our spiders were more concentrated at the front door where I could just spray them with silver spray paint. That would take care of decorations and pest control.

Cupcake Insanity

Tonight I decided I was clinically insane. I decided to make cupcakes with Gavin at 6:30pm. Seems relatively harmless until you add the extras:

1) Gavin had gone without a nap, and so was extra cranky and spazzy. (But did actually do a really good job helping me clean up the toys and his room... thus, why I entertained the idea when he ran the to spice cupboard, grabbed the sprinkles, and said "Let's make cupcakes! I want to eat them and gobble them up!" I mean, come on, SO cute and funny... but totally not something I want him to do.) Anyway,

2) Graeme was getting fussy at this point, and I didn't realize he had another surprise for me that needed to be taken care of (you can guess what).

3) There were already a TON of dishes from dinner, since I'm trying to be "Sunday dinner-ish" and made a roast chicken.

and 4) Craig was gone to his first hockey game of the season, so I was without backup.

Insane. Oh, and I had to call the neighbor and borrow some butter because I got half way through the recipe and realized we didn't have enough butter. But, as I sit here and eat my yellow (chocolate chip) cupcake with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles, I'm glad I did it. Gavin had fun (Graeme not so much, but he went to bed halfway through), and then Gavin went to bed without a peep. Even a toddler can't argue or protest to someone that just made them cupcakes, right?? Unless maybe it was his birthday, since all toddlers seem to be grumpy on their birthday. (Just something I've noticed... maybe you have too.)

And, here's the crafty part. I froze most of them. Now when Gavin's been good (or me too) I don't have to bake a whole load of cupcakes. I can just stick one in the microwave for 30 seconds and I'm golden. Or it's golden. And then Gavin can frost and decorate his cupcake to his heart's content. I suppose I just have to keep frosting on hand, which could prove to be dangerous.

An added plus is that, when Craig gets home (and I hear the garage door now), he can have a cupcake to celebrate a win, or console a loss. Hopefully they were victorious!