Makeup Lessons - Part II

To see Part I, click here.


It's lipstick, not blood, I promise. It is a little sad my girls get more use out of my makeup than I do.

Sharing

And I wonder why Grace is always sick.

The Thank-You Card

Two Sundays ago, Ethan made a thank-you card for his father during his Primary class. He finally remembered to give it to Michael yesterday. It is a picture to thank Michael for scooping the poop - something for which I am also grateful.

Thank you, Michael, for scooping the poop and may this thank-you masterpiece be forever etched into our memory.

Random Happenin's

Ethan and Libby were working on an art project at the table so all the crayons and markers were out. Grace investigated what they were doing and found a brown marker. I was working on a knitting project so was just watching her out of the corner of my eye. Sam was sitting in his bouncy chair watching all the action. Grace uncapped the marker and looked it over. She looked over and spied Sam. She very purposely climbed down from her chair and headed in Sam's direction. She got to him, pulled up his shirt and very calmly and precisely commenced to color in his belly button. Such a funny, strange little girl.

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Today the kids and I ran errands. I put everyone down for rest. The phone rang and I went to answer it. The caller ID said it was the cell phone, which I have today. The kids love to call the home phone from the cell phone and vice versa. They think it is the greatest game ever invented. So I answer the phone in my firm Mommy voice and say, "Quit playing with the phone." I hear a mumbled "Excuse me?" so I say again, "Quit playing with the phone!" The caller on the other end then says, "Um...I think I found your phone." Don't you love when you berate perfect strangers for trying to do a good deed? Good times.

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A little background. Sam still sleeps in the bassinet part of his playpen. When he has a hard time going to sleep we shake the sides of the play pen and this rocks him to sleep. So I was giving Ethan a spelling test while Sam was sleeping in his bed. Halfway through the test I heard Sam wake up and start to cry. Ethan was halfway through his test so I decided to go ahead and finish up before I went to get Sam. Grace went into my room (where Sam sleeps) and I kept giving the test. Sam quit crying so we finished up quickly and I went to check on him. He was laying wide eyed in his bed while Grace was hanging off the side furiously shaking it. It was very sweet in a slightly disturbing sort of way. She doesn't talk much, she doesn't even say "Daddy," but she says Sam. She loves her Sam.

Happy Halloween Happiness!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. And my favorite part about it is pumpkins. They are just so bright and orange and cheerful. So these are the pumpkins we harvested off my surprise pumpkin plant. All of the orange pumpkins (and the one green one) we grew and the white ones were gifted to us.

We only carved two. The plan was to let the kids carve them. We helped design them and Michael couldn't bear to let them get messed up so he "helped" the kids carve their pumpkins, meaning they stood there watching their father carve their chosen designs. Speaking of chosen designs, I tried to talk Libby out of a flower but that is what she really wanted. So she got a flower pumpkin. Ethan decided to stick with a spooky bat.

Two mummies and a lady bug at our homeschool Halloween party. Ethan wanted to be a mummy and then at the last minute Libby decided she wanted to be a mummy. I had about ten minutes to get them in their costumes. Sam was screaming and Grace was exhausted. Thankfully one of the other moms scooped up Sam and trotted off but good grief! Mummies are hard and time consuming and messy and make me want to run screaming into the night even more than I normally do. So we did a haphazard job and I sent them on their way. They didn't seem to mind. Grace on the other hand HATED her costume. You would think I had put her in a straight jacket and a diaper made of cactus needles for the fuss she made. And then she realized that there was candy involved. Everyone she went up to gave her candy! Life was great, and the costume was nothing but a distant memory.

That evening we went to the trunk-or-treat at the church and once again I had to wrap up both kids (shoot me now) in their mummy gear. Grace tolerated her costume now because she suspected it might have something to do with free candy. They got tons of treats and we came home and promptly fell into sugar-induced comas.

Saturday morning we packed up and went to Boo at the Zoo. At this point Ethan and Libby were forbidden from even mentioning the word mummy. Libby dressed as a witch, her original choice, and Ethan donned a fire fighter costume from years gone by. Grace practically dove into her costume this time. That ladybug thing was a candy magnet. We biked to the Zoo for some good wholesome fun. We met a couple of friends and started on our adventure. One word: madness. If I was allowed two I would add torturous. The zoo was beyond packed. At one point Ethan looked up at me and said, "Mom, if I want to go to Boo and Zoo next year remind me not to." My sentiments exactly. If you are tempted to go only go if you love crowds and crowds (and more crowds) of people.

After much hemming, hawing and such, we decided trick-or-treating around our neighborhood as a family (Grandma Hobson included!) would not land us beyond about the Third Circle of Hell (Gluttony). See how much happier Grace looks now than she did up there at the top?

Thus the trek began. Ethan peed in the bushes, Libby biffed it on someone's step, Grace soiled her diaper, Sam fell asleep and all the kids (especially Gracie 'cause everyone thought she was the cutest of them all) scored some high-quality Halloween goodness. Everyone had a good time, and we're so thankful we don't have to do it for a whole 'nother year.