Pooh Hat Set

I wanted to make him pooh for halloween, but figured I'd put my efforts into something he could use all winter long. The scarf is supposed to have bees flying around, but the pictures are funky (the actual bees are a little weird looking, too.)

All Hallows Eve

http://romans52.blogspot.com/2009/10/pro-life-pumpkin.html

What a cool idea!

pro-life pumpkin carving.

Halloween Hullabalu

I wasn't sure if I'd make it to this year's Halloween party, but I got a good night's sleep the night before and was able to attend. (My WONDERFUL homeschool friends were already going to make sure that my kids could attend, whether I could or not.)


The mummy race was a GREAT game that we played for the first time this year. It's destined to become a classic. My Indian brave (you can just see his war paint peeking out of his mummy bandages on the far left) lost the race, but enjoyed it, nonetheless. On the right, you see the remnants of a game well played (and the kids had almost as much fun racing to clean it up!)

Next is a pic of my St. Fancis doing the monster mash after loosing a game of hot potato. Many of the kids (the boys in particular) were hesitant to participate in the dancing. My children had no such inhibitions, and eventually, even the older boys joined in.

The craft award goes to the mom who had a couple of 2x4's leftover in her garage. She used her circular saw (Cari's quite a multi-talented lady) and cut them into squares & short rectangles. She had her kids sand down the edges (I would have gotten sooo many whinney complaints about that part) and the older 2 (10 & 11 yr old girls) drove a large nail in the top of each. Then she spray painted them all orange all over. It was a BRILLIANT craft. She brought paint shirts & paint & let the kids paint their own jack-o-lanterns. Then she had raffia & black ribbon cut for the kids to tie onto the nail top. They all looked sooo cool. The picture at right is my Cleopatra in front a paint shirt rushing through the craft (she rushes through ALOT of things) -- someday we'll laugh at how much we have say, "Sweeheart, S-L-O-W D-O-W-N!! I thought my kids did a particularly poor job (the were much more into the dancing & ripping toilet paper apart), so when we got home I had them draw jack-o-lantern faces with permenant marker. The results were so pretty that I'm going to keep them for decorations for next year!! (and I don't usually decorate for Halloween!)

All Saints Day Party

I can't believe we actually made it to one of these. We're usually sick around this time of year, but I guess we got it over with early (I'm not saying we won't get sick for Christmas). It was so nice. We haven't had one of those school days in a long time - Mass, a homeschool activity, then go out to eat. We used to do those all the time!

The kids dressed up as St. Michael, the Archangel / St. Francis / St. Cecelia, patron saint of musicians / St. Philomena. The girls noticed that during the Eucharistic prayer on Sunday, St. Philomena and St. Cecilia were mentioned for intercession. They thought that was really cool. I sure do like living out our faith in such a hands-on way with a God who is so interactive with all of us.

This week I'm trying to get my house clean this week while I don't neglect the kids' school... I'm not overly optimistic, but figure the effort is better than none.


The week before Dave took all the kids and a friend trick-or-treating. I was supposed to, but wasn't feeling well, so I stayed home to pass out candy (which is what I like about Halloween anyway). The kids were a pumpkin, St. Francis, a basket of laundry & a german girl. Our friend had just woken up out of bed.

Well, it doesn't look like I'll get a digital camera for Christmas. While we were shopping this weekend, I saw a George Forman that was a huge rectangle. It looked like I could actually make an entire dinner for us on it! It was $50 and mine is on it's last leg (my dad gave it to me several years ago and it has been USED alot since Dave says that "you can't fool me, I know grilling is cooking" and he's not about to do any of that, so I use my George Forman ALOT.) I also accepted this as a Christmas gift, because I ordered pretty expensive tupperware and Mary Kay this month and didn't exactly tell my husband, yet. We'll find out how much he checks my blog now that he's started his own Insurance Insider.

We had a perfect homeschool picture (in our heads, no digital camera) this Saturday night. Dave lit a fire, the kids were all in their new sleepers playing checkers on a rug checker set that my dad got them years ago in front of the fire -- while one of the kids practiced Christmas hymns for the upcomming homeschool Christmas pageant and the other one played with the hamsters...that room happened to be recently cleaned... it was just soooo sweet! Then Dave roasted marshmellows over the fire for the kids (even though he won't eat them - he doesn't like the taste!) What a wonderful dad! I pray to God that our children choose wisely and God grants them a wonderful marriage. It makes such a difference in good times and in bad.

We've been "Ghosted"

We don't do much for Halloween. We allow the kids to dress up & trick-or-treat and we hand out candy. The kids go to a homeschool Harvest Party or an All-Saints Party on November 1st...
Today, both girls (& Mama) were sick with colds, so school was going along at an easy pace squeezed in between naps and doses of Motrin (I swear we should buy stock in that company - we buy an obscene amount in the winter.)

Then the doorbell rang. No one was at our door. A lunch bag was on the porch with 2 pieces of paper & candy in it. One piece of paper had an outline ghost with cute big eyes that said "You've Been Ghosted" and another piece with instructions to make 2 copies of each sheet and secretly "ghost" 2 neighbors. Then put the original "You've been ghosted sign" up on our front door and watch the neighborhood throughout the month to see how many homes get "ghosted." My kids went ballistic. For being sick they sure got excited. It was just adorable. So they're plotting who they can surprise (as soon as I get to the store for early Halloween candy - we always eat it if I buy it early and we have to get more.) It was such a silly little thing, but the kids were so animated for a "sick day." I wonder who did it to us.....