Happy Halloween

On our way to a Halloween Party.... Mr. Boy changed his mind at the last minute and decided to be a Knight... which meant they both abandoned their costumes to wear something else. On our way to Preschool... Here is the Flash costume that Mr. Boy has been hounded me to get him for a year.

Halloween Afternoon with the Dynamic Duo.

You spin me round, round, round...

Can you pick out Mr. Man? It was Mr. Man's 20th High School Reunion this past weekend. I am baffled that I married a guy who is old enough to go to his 20th Reunion. That means that Mr. Man graduated in 1988 (see how my mad accounting skills come in handy.) It was the height of the 80's and to get Mr. Man in the mood for his reunion, I was singing and dancing to 80's songs while he got ready. (Might I add, that I was dancing to songs, that I heard for the first time on those TimeLife Series, "Rock of the 80's" flashback CD's that they were promoting when I was in high school.)

Even the kids got into it as we danced in the driveway singing our hearts out to Tainted Love and rapping out some Beastie Boys as he drove (or possibly fled) from home. He stayed out until the wee hours of the morning, and when I asked him how it was he said, "Rad." When I asked him how everyone looked he said, "Great, every one's hair was ya know... straighter. "

I flipped through Mr. Man's Yearbook and saw his picture under this club. I swear I am NOT making this up. I laughed for about 3 hours solid, and Mr. Man claims he was NEVER a member of this club.... but he is in the picture... top row, far left. I bet it was the hottest club on campus. Even better, listed as their key achievement this year was handing out lollipops. I didn't go to his reunion for several reasons... One of them being his reunion was $160 bucks per person, and frankly I thought hmm... a new pair of fab shoes would last longer than rehashing the good times that were had in the Reconstruction Of The Social Science And Debate Club. And the second being it was the same night as the Annual Policeman's Rodeo (aka I make a donation and buy a ticket, and then casually mention how fabulous the rodeo was when I get pulled over) So, I took the kids and we went and watched people get maimed. Awesome.

Mr. Boy waving his cowboy hat and cheering for some guy who is being trampled by a giant angry bull.

The sunset was lovely, and it was actually a good time. The kids enjoyed watching the cowboys, and they never really noticed that people were getting injured. They just thought it was funny to watch the cowboys "fall down and go to sleep".We have gone for several years now, and never seen an injury, but this must have been an off year. We left after an hour, and on the way out Mr. Boy found "The Horse of My Dreams" a beautiful Paint Horse, which Mr. Boy proclaimed he would call "Palomino Pinkus".

He's not a fan...

He's not a fan of Hospitals... Poor guy. He's never been at the hospital for something positive that he can remember, and usually at the hospital he ends up getting a shot or an IV. We were there visiting our pal Auntie Cinnamon last week. (She could use some good thoughts! We LOVE you Aunt Cinnamon!) Poor guy was nervous, so he decided to sit outside the room the whole time. He waited there so patiently and never complained once. My friend snapped a pic of Mr. Boy to show Auntie Cinnamon and then showed Mr. Boy a pic she snapped of Auntie Cinnamon. Very Sweet.

A Snapshot into Last Night...

We decorated pumpkins.... Love this "Mr. Potato Head" inspired Pumpkin decorating kit. Last year I decided that carving at this age, wasn't all that fun for the wee ones, they just watched for the most part. So while Mom & Dad carve, the kiddos draw on other pumpkins with washable markers. The best part is, you can wipe it all off with water, and do it every day. I think we drew on pumpkins every day leading up until Halloween last year.
Then Mr. Man came home to be attacked by an army dressed in Jammies, lucky for him someone tipped him off and left a spare sword by the door.

A Field Trip for me... erm.. Mr. Boy

Mr. Boy's class takes a field trip every month, and this month they went to a place I've always wanted to go.... To the Pumpkin Patch. I've always wanted to pick out a pumpkin from a giant field, but the draw of Trader Joe's $3 pumpkins have lured me away. So I volunteered to drive and be a chaperone, plus it's the perfect outing for little Miss Cowgirl, AK. I took a carload of boys, which meant listening to tooting noises or talk of tooting the whole time. These guys are such goofballs, but I enjoy them immensely thanks to growing up with brothers.

We loved the petting zoo. Mr. Boy said, "Mom, we need a big farm, with a swimming pool.... by the ocean... and the mountains... with a white horse for me." Keep playing the lotto Mr. Boy... maybe one day!

And I was shocked to see this....

We picked vegetables... And she looked completely at home wandering around the farm. I have been yearning for a farm for the past year, even dreaming about it.

And to prove that I was actually there... here is a pic of the three of us!

Quirky, a Tag

A tag from my pal Booboo to list 5 Quirky things about myself. The challenge is narrowing them down... I'm an Aquarius, by nature we are Quirky people.



1. Somewhat stolen from Booboo. I'm not a big phone person, there are a handful of people I enjoy long chats on the phone with... I've come off as very rude to several hundred people in my life because I will end the conversation quickly after "hello". Booboo and I have a fabulous arrangement where we leave voicemails for each other. It's brilliant... we can rant, brag, boast, or whine uninterrupted. Plus, my children constantly badger me on the phone. I've even had pretend conversations so I can teach them manners. Total sidenote, I was talking to Bob today on the phone and her daughter was repeating everything she said, it was HILARIOUS, and had me in tears I was laughing so hard.



2. I cannot stand the sound of ice scraping, it makes me physically uncomfortable. That's why I just cannot live in the snow, and I use that as justification as to why I'm not an Ice Skating Gold Medalist. I'm positive, that is MY sport, the one that I was born with natural talents at, but alas cannot compete.



3. On the opposite end of the spectrum, in Hot or Dry Weather I get constant nosebleeds. There is a surgery to fix it, but I started to feel like I would pass out when they explained the procedure. Far too icky to consider.



4. I was terrified my whole childhood of being abducted by aliens and I still get a little spooked out at night. My family loved watching "The Twilight Zone" & "Unsolved Mysteries" and I remember asking my mother if there was such a thing as Aliens after watching an Alien Abduction episode. She said "Yes, absolutely." From that point on, I was terrified at night that I would be abducted by aliens and no one know what happened to me.



5. I can not Hula Hoop. I have tried... but completely lack the coordination and the ability to do so.

A flashback leading to Sunday Night Traditions

*Epic Flashback... bear with me...* On Friday as I sat with my client and watched our fortunes turn into pennies live on CNBC, we reminisced about days gone by of economic bliss. "Remember that one time, when you could invest in a company that believed in working hard, and watch your stock rise as they grew?" "Or remember the Tech Boom and how everyone worked at a company with a dot-com at the end. And every product had a dot-com on the label. Like.. Garbage.com, or SpaghettiO's.com" "Remember when you had to actually have income to qualify for a mortgage? "Remember when banks didn't collapse?"

It was good times...

And it reminded me of 1998-1999. *cue Waynes World style flashback effect* Mr. Man was a grad student attending what was the #2 Tech-MBA program in the nation. We lived in a darling duplex by the beach, and the Internet was opening doors left and right. Being economically challenged... was not so challenging... companies were giving money or products away to gain consumers. Remember HomeGrocer.com aka Webvan? Loved them, and they gave away tons of groceries. Best of all it was delivered to the house. I WISH something of that caliber returned for groceries. I miss it dearly, and remember vividly when they closed up shop and how my pal Steph and I had a moment of silence for Online Groceries. Albertsons.com is not the same. During the boom we got free or cheap movies, restaurant gift certificates, tons of computer equipment, gardening supplies, household cleaners, shampoo, and small appliances. My favorite site during that time was called ebates.com. They are still around, and I use them, but it's not as crazy awesome as it used to be. If you clicked through them to your retailer you got 50-90% of your purchase back through a monthly rebate. There was a week where there was a 90% ebate at Cooking.com. I went crazy nuts and bought everything Kitchen related I ever had wanted with my birthday money, including a Kitchen Aid Mixer and an ebelskiver pan. Mr. Man.com (hee!) stood there baffled when he saw stacks of boxes taller than him on our doorstep with the Cooking.com logo... especially considering at the time I was still somewhere in the range of a horrible to mediocre cook. Oh, and I barely cooked, in fact I was known to throw a box of Rice-a-Roni.com (compliments of Homegrocer.com) his way and say, "Here's dinner".

The addition of the Mixer to our family opened the door for me to stop being a lazy cook and experiment. Even better Mr. Man joined me in the teeny kitchen/laundry room to help with the experiments. One late night craving for something sweet led to us trying to recreate a dish that I had at my friends house after sleepovers... ebelskivers. Puffy round balls that are pancake-y. We perfected the homemade syrup and tweaked the recipe. They soon became a Sunday night tradition and we had them almost every Sunday night until AK was born. Then life caved in around us, and I went back to throwing the box of Rice-a-Roni at Mr. Man(although it was now the Whole Foods Organic variety). This past weekend, Mr. Man and I found ourselves in the kitchen experimenting trying to make Mashed Cauliflower (kind of like mashed potatoes, and we were unsuccessful!). Standing side by side, Mr. Man reminded me of those Sunday evenings making Ebelskivers, and said, "We need to do that again, I miss it!" So I pulled out the Ebelskiver Pan that evening, and we went to town cooking Ebelskivers for the family. Normally, we did this after we put the kids to bed, however they are getting older and are able to walk out of their rooms and find us scarfing down sugary substances and accuse us of not saving any for them. It was time to make this a family thing. It was a big hit, and we hope to do this weekly again. So, Internets I would like to thank you for the tech boom that gave me the ability to make something delicious for my family, that I hope will create lasting memories.

(The boys, who think it's beyond hilarious to make funny faces for the camera. So funny, I forgot to laugh. Also, that's a Batman tattoo on Mr. Boy's arm that he has had for 4 weeks, it will NOT come off!)

Psst... for those who are intrigued here is a link to an Ebelskiver video demo. Also, here is an official and open invitation to anyone who wants to come over for Sunday Night Ebelskivers. We will accommodate bedtimes, invite yourself, I'm not kidding!

Carnival

We are lucky to live in a town in the middle of OC, that has old roots. It's just the kind of place that Mr. Man and I love. We love being able to walk to dinner, to the park, etc. So imagine our surprise when we moved into this house, and found the streets were all closed because of a big giant Fall Carnival right in our neighborhood. It was perfect! I haven't been able to go for the last two years due to stupid health things, so I was excited to go with the family. It was a blast, check out these pics. Contemplating the next ride... AK was two inches too small to go on most rides, so I said... "Have your very own soda kid.. " to make it up to her.
Mr. Boy who won't ride ANYTHING other than the Monorail and Teacups at Disneyland RODE everything he could! This ride was one of those things where you think... I'm paying $6 bucks for my kids to sit in a plastic boat and go around in a circle. That is where I have to quiet my inner nerdy accountant with a funnel cake. Somewhere in this pic is my Mr. Boy's feet as he is spun around high in the air on this beautiful antique Carnival Swing. It was a GORGEOUS piece of art and the "carnie" told me the history of it. It was a work of art and was imported from Germany pre-war.

We walked AK home and Mr. Boy and I came back to indulge in some more rides. We stayed until closing time, which was hours after his bedtime, and walked home in the rain trying to catch raindrops on our tongues. I went to bed that night realizing, it's okay to bend the rules sometimes.... indulge the kids in some serious sugar, stay up way too late, and jump as hard as you can in the puddles.. for tommorrow the sun will come out and dry them up!

Imaginative Play

A few months ago, we were discussing AK's growth and development, and we both were concerned about whether or not she was given enough opportunities to develop an imagination. Mr. Boy, a born leader, is usually leading playtime....

With Mr. Boy in school 5 days a week, along with a social calendar with playdates and birthday parties, AK has had some much needed time at home to play with her toys uninterrupted. Mr. Man and I were in our home office staring at our hard hit stock portfolio trying to will it back to life, while AK happily played at our feet. We both turned our attention away from finances, and watched our little girl narrate the most elaborate story, through song and words. Apparently, the cow& sheep are driving cars to see their friends in the Wizard of Oz. After watching her for some time, our fears have subsided... and again we are amazed at how far she has come.

Sandy's Late Night Escapades

As we become acutely aware of the sun setting on Sandy's long and robust life, we tend to let more and more things slide with her behavior. I turn my head the other way when I see sandwich crusts being slipped under the table or notice that while I went to grab a spoon the evil, vile broccoli has disappeared from Mr. Boys plate at lightening speed, and later that evening Sandy will emit some noxious fumes that will let me know that Mr. Boy did not eat his broccoli.

Sandy has never wandered far from home, however lately she seems to try and slip out at night to roam the neighbors yards. Tonight, I tried to hurry the wee ones inside barking orders of "Brush your teeth, put on jammies" while I unloaded the groceries. I never even noticed Sandy had slipped out. She doesn't get up to greet us at the door anymore, it's too hard on the hips.

After the wee ones were tucked in bed and the groceries were put away... I sat down to read and noticed my footrest aka Sandy was missing. I wandered around looking for her, when I heard a bark from the front yard. I peeked out the window to find Sandy looking very guilty. Her look says, "Crap, I missed curfew and they locked me out." I let her in, and said, "You're a little too old to be slinking around the neighborhood at these late hours." Then I started to sing "Roxanne" to her. I'm confident making Sandy endure my singing was punishment enough.

He loves her... from a distance.

We love to visit and meet the Characters at Disneyland, well most of us do. Mr. Boy from an early early age has been fearful of people dressed up in costumes. I've have been at several birthday parties where Characters have made an appearance and watched Mr. Boy run... run FAST in the opposite direction. He even has a scar from a mishap that occured while running from Santa Claus.

I was curious as to what would happen if he met Mary Poppins, who he loves more than anyone on the planet. We LOVE Mary Poppins in this house, and she is often quoted around here. We often ask, "What Would Mary Poppins Do?"when faced with tough situations.

First, he spots Mary Poppins and takes his position
Then he convinces AK to go and meet them... which she does happily. Then he grills AK, "What was she like? Did she smell like Marshmallows?" He stays hiding in the same spot for 30 minutes, quietly watching her.... totally smitten.

Mary Poppins is a smart cookie... she knows he's watching her, and she sings while staring right at him. She blew him a kiss, which I swear I saw his knees go weak. When I tossed a coin in the wishing well that day... I wished for him to find a lovely British Bride one day, who sings and travels by floating umbrella.