Halloween Party and Halloween parade

We went to the Halloween party where my Grandmom lives yesterday.

They had lots of games, candy, and food. It's was really fun!

3 of the 4 generations.

Grandmom and I

Angela came in time to walk in the Halloween parade with us.

We saw one of Matthew's little friend and her family, while walking in the parade. If you look you'll see Matthew's frog costume from years past in the arms of the man. Sob, yes, I sold the frog costume...and it's so dirty now...sob...And when Matthew saw it he said, "I have that costume!" Well you did...

Our good friend and former coworker, Beverly.

Matthew and our neighbor girl. Dorothy was a VERY popular costume this year. I probably saw 20 in just our small town. And if I didn't mention it, Matthew's costume we made this year. I designed the wings and MaMaw sewed them for me.

Last day at school

Aren't they sweet?

Pumpkin Patch 2010

It's that time of year again to go to the Pumpkin Patch. We tried on the way home from KC, but this is as much as we saw. Apparently during the week, they close at the middle of the day.

Phil promised the crushed Bug, that he would take him another day. Well, finally Thursday night, Matthew called him on the fact that there was 2 more days left to go to the patch and he hadn't gone yet.

So the next day we loaded up and hit a different patch.

We checked our height. We've grown. He was 3 ft last year.

We rode horses.

Played in corn.

Phil marveled at their pumpkin cannon. I actually think he wanted to take it home.

We went batty. We walked around huge pumpkin fields. We bounced on bouncing pillows. We slide down huge slides in a hill. We played on all sorts of pedal things and tree forts.

We walked the corn maze and finally ate pumpkin chili, hot dogs, and pumpkin juice. After that, we hurried home so that we could make it to the Halloween party at school. Our last day at school.

It's a boy!

Well, back in 19...lets just say it was a few years ago.

He went from being so little...

To a beloved husband and dad.

And a few more years down the road, a very cherished Poppa. Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!

The Bat

He's standing with the pumpkins they decorated at story time today. You can't see much because Mallory got in on the action. :) He'll have 4 days of Halloween this year, lucky guy.


In other news, yesterday evening we discovered that our property management company has been banned from renting to the military by government action, because of unfair practices. Yikes! On top of that, they have an F rating by the Better Business Bureau. I guess we really picked the wrong house. So we are scrambling to get on with a different company and a different house. Wish us luck and maybe say lots of prayers.

Crayons

Yesterday Matthew went to work with me. During art time I was talking to Matthew's friend, when another kid suddenly said, "Miss Anne, he won't stop drawing on me." And sure enough Matthew had scribbled in yellow crayon all over this little boy's grey shirt. Ladies and gentlemen, regular crayons will draw on clothes. You can scrub it out with PineSol.

Fire!

When Matthew and I went to storytime this week, Matthew was thrilled to learn that there was a firetruck coming.

One quick book and it was off the explore the firetruck.



Nothing like looking at your best friend through a fireman's mask!

Pumpkins, Eureka!

As I bought the pumpkin in, the lady was like, "Oh no, what's wrong?" I was like, "Well Matthew touched the stem and it's now inside the pumpkin with water." She was so impressed with the strangeness of the pumpkin, she cut it open while I was there and I had to take a photo. Isn't it gross? But you can actually tell there is still an 1/2" of good flesh all around the outside. It literally is rotting from the inside out, not the normal way, outside in.

So for an extra 3 dollars, we got 3 pumpkins! A real sigh moment, turned into an happy ending.

Sigh

I had to go to the garden store to buy my Mom some mums, so I decided to buy a really cool Galeux d'Eysines pumpkin too. I got it home proudly (while my husband was telling me I pick the ugliest pumpkins). A little later, I noticed Matthew playing with the stem while I was on the phone. It seemed loose. I checked it out after I got off the phone and it came right off. The inside of the pumpkin is totally moldy green and it has water in it because you can hear it sloshing now. Sigh...

We are back from our scouting mission

On the way to TX, we stopped and visited a garden we've watched grow all summer.

In the process we made new friends. We also stopped and saw old friends.


After 3 grueling days of spinning wheels, searching lists, and driving all over neighborhoods again and again, we finally believe we've found a house.


It has an enormous backyard. This is just one section. But it has several snags. All of the houses down there did, due to the fact they are all managed by property management agencies. We have to find homes for some of our pets we've had over 10 years. And the agency that holds the house we want may decide not to rent to military anymore. We'll find out in the upcoming week if we'll get the house. Until then, we'll go back to the non-stop packing process we've been doing.

Show off

Obviously Phil is home and took the decorating to a whole new level. I love that man!

Homemade biscuits and apple butter

For awhile now Matthew has been wanting to help me cook. Normally it involves working over a stove with hot pans and liquids, but when I'm baking, I've been trying to let him help me.

So last month when we were knee deep in apples, we made homemade biscuits to go with our homemade apple butter.

Matthew got messy, made a mess, and some biscuits.

They turned out very yummy! Matthew gave it a thumbs up.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: 2010 award winners part 2

The peoples choice award was the last award up for grabs. It was very hard to pick one as all 5 of the blogs up for the award really deserved it. But a winner was picked and it was my bloggy friend Faith over at faith buss! Congrats! Your little ones are adorable.

And that wraps up the 2010 kinderGARDENS. Be sure to look for it to start again in the spring!

Homecoming

Jewel and Matthew

I have no idea if the home team won, but I do know that we had a good time watching the parade and wearing our "tattoos." In fact Matthew is still wearing his!

It's offical

We are a one household family again! It's the first time in 2 years and 5 months. Now the challenge will be to pare down our stuff as we have doubles of alot of items...

We're off to see the Wizard

At least the Munchkins.

We went to OztoberFest, just so I could get my picture with 3 of the 5 last surviving original Munchins from The Wizard of Oz. Here is Margaret Pellegrini with "munchkins" right after they arrived. She was a flowerpot girl and I believe the one who told Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road as well. (She played several parts.)

Jerry Maren, the Lollipop Munchkin, with wife Elizabeth.

Wife of the late Clarence Swenson (a solider) and Karl Slover, which I believe was a trumpeter.

While waiting to meet them, we posed with the cast members. Matthew with my old boss, Christy.

Matthew and I with the witches. I always wanted to be Glenda, as a child, for Halloween.

Matthew and Melissa with another Glenda.

It was so thrilling to meet them.

I've loved the movie for as long as I can remember. We had to watch every year when it was played on national tv. Our first VHS tape was The Wizard of Oz 50th anniversary edition, because I just had to have it. (We finally got a VCR so I could watch it!)

Think about it, they are movie stars! I finally got to meet and touch and pose with 3 movie stars and they were charming.

Afterwards we went through the museum. Matthew with Melissa and Michael.

We saw so much stuff it was amazing. I loved seeing the illustrations, I think they are the originals, but don't quote me.

But the most fun was seeing my Wizard of Oz lunchbox behind the glass and then to realize the troll I've had for years, and thought was just a princess, was instead Glenda. I'm sooooo glad I didn't donate her to the thrift store now!

We had such a great time! I'm still so excited! And of course, now the whole family has the movie on so we can see the people we saw today on the silver screen. Ahhhh...