Why shouldn't life be a little magical?

While watching this video, I was thinking to myself: What absolute joy would someone have to feel to burst into song during normal life like they do in musicals? Or Dance?

This video was so surprising and so profound to me. We could all use a little bit of magic in our lives.

Note: Watch closely. It looks as though a few onlookers might have joined in the fun... either that, or they weren't as coordinated as some.. :)

Halloween Crafties!

I love Halloween! It's been a good holiday for me for many, many years. Those of you who don't know, Ben and I met on Halloween night at a costume party. Our makeup was thick enough that when we agreed to meet at church the following day, we weren't sure we were looking at the right person at first. I think the mutual confusion on our faces is what clued us in. (Of course, there is always the possibility that I met a completely different guy at church that day and he was just really good at playing along.)

Anyhoo. Halloween is fun! It's even more fun with kids! So, I've been somewhat busy this month with decorations and whatnot.

Here are some fruits of my labor:

Snowy-glittery glamor pumpkin!

Blue-glittery glamor pumpkin!

And these, I just finished today:

Candy & toy-filled party poppers! Aren't they darling?! (You can also see my cute "B O O" candles behind them.)

These party poppers are super easy. It took me a couple of weeks to collect the tubes and another hour or two to get them put together. (I have done 13 so far.) If you want to make some, you still have nearly two weeks before Halloween!!

Supplies:

Empty cardboard tubes (from paper towels or toilet paper)

Tissue paper

Transparent tape

Pipe cleaners

Fillers: Candy, toys, stickers, etc.

Note: The tissue paper I used already had a halloween theme, but you can use any color you like and decorate with halloween stickers and markers or pens.

Just wrap the tube in tissue paper and secure with tape. Tie off one end with a pipe cleaner. Fill the tube with candy, etc and tie off other end with another pipe cleaner. Decorate as desired!! You're done!!!!

Corn maze Fun

Audrey and Henry's first corn maze experience was pretty fun. Aside from trying to find the "secret room" that was a secret to everyone, including the creators, we all had a good time and enjoyed the awesome outdoor fall feeling!


Tree - Emily, Scarecrow - Joshua (or his eyes, anyway) and Pumpkin, er.. Hugger - Audrey


Pumpkin People!


Peekaboo!


Ava's daddy helping her with her shoe.


Ears are a convenient handle when you're way up high on daddy's shoulders!


Too cool to be cute?


Mommy and Ava on our 2nd trip back to the start of the maze to see if we could find the elusive "secret room"


Ava's not scared of the scarecrow...


Joshua's not scared of the scarecrow...


This little clown was scared of the scarecrow...


This is what people look like BEFORE the realize they're being photographed...


Aaaaaand... here's the after...


As always, Daddy's pictures of Audrey always turn out fantastic.


I'd like to say that Audrey left the corn maze just like this and not, in fact, tired, screaming, crying and whining... I'd LIKE to say that...

Grow, grow, grow.

Audrey and Henry just can't seem to get it in their heads that they're growing up far too fast. Just when I somewhat get the hang of the stage their in, they change it up, learn something new and snicker under their breath as they flummox me.

Audrey has started sassing: "Eat your food, Audrey." "Eat YOUR food, Mom!"

"Audrey, stop doing that to your brother." "YOU stop it!"

There doesn't seem to be any point in bringing to her attention that I eat my food just fine and that I hadn't even touched Henry at the moment of offense.

However, her understanding what we want and how things work has grown and it's much easier to reason with her. I may kick myself for saying this, but as a "why child" myself, I almost can't wait for Audrey to start that curious "why?" stage.

Henry is growing more active by the day. He's no longer the baloney loaf, or even a wiggly sack of flour. He's an inquisitive baby boy who constantly changes and challenges me. It's easier to get him to smile and laugh these days, but he's fairly choosy about when he'll crack that cute grin. More often than not, he'll give Papa the serious "what is YOUR problem?" stare, while almost always smiling at Grammy.

We got Henry a doorway jumper a few weeks ago, when I discovered that it's getting harder to make him sit down when he just doesn't feel like it. His legs are getting pretty muscular!

Ben is still job hunting. It's been very challenging to find anything available, and when he does find something that works with his school schedule, we've found that he's competing with massive numbers of other applicants. School is going well, though, so that's a plus.

I've started writing again. It's slow going, but the progress is positive. Dialog, though it's my favorite part of writing, it's also the most difficult. Maybe I'll finally pull out of this rut and actually get a draft out.

Batten Down the Hatches, Baking, Skis and Squash

Ben and I have been fairly impressed with the weather people/meteorologists since we moved to Utah. They actually report on the weather! What a concept!

In New Mexico we were often aggravated into making fun of the horrid excuses for weather reports and the people responsible for them. We had our favorite personalities that did their best, but their co-workers and, unfortunately, superiors were often lacking. As a result, the two main weather people we would watch ended up being called "Tepature Girl" and "The Weather Salesman". Yes, I know it's spelled temperature. That's how SHE said it. The Weather Salesman was relatively new to the station when we moved and his predictions must have drawn some flak because he ended up selling his weather reports. Hence the name. He even came close to saying "I told you so" once when his prediction ended up being surprisingly accurate.

As I was saying, the Utah weather people have been fairly impressive to us. To actually get a substantial weather report has been refreshing, even to me. That's saying something.

The reason why I mention all this is because for the past week we've been eagerly anticipating the season's first snow storm. It is supposed to hit the area within a few hours. The wind and rain has been visiting off and on since 2am or so. We may not get snow where we are, but the cold is on it's way.

I am unusually excited for the change in weather for two reasons. The cold weather, for me, signals the real end of summer and fall taking hold. I love autumn as it brings out a festive mood in me that carries me through the rest of the year. The second reason I am enthused is because cold weather means that I can bake with impunity. (Normally, baking is discouraged during the warm months because Mom's bedroom becomes a dry sauna.) To give you the idea about the upstairs room getting so hot, even during the coldest months, Mom opens her windows wide while baking is going on in the kitchen.

Visions of homemade bread, apple pie, cookies, cakes, crisps, and other such goodies are dancing in my head. I picked up a couple of cheaters packages of cookie dough the last time I went to the store.

In other news, Audrey is steadily growing out of her clothes. Her feet are huge. Ben says that she's walking on skis. Henry is also growing well and fast. He has added some solid foods to his diet. This has provided some amusement for anyone watching his face while he tries new flavors. Squash was my personal favorite in the funny face promotion.

Audrey-isms

Some funny things that Audrey said this week:

After Ben brought his bowl of Grape Nuts to the breakfast table:

"Daddy, what's that? ...... Pinecones?"

While watching me nurse Henry:

"Mama? Henry eating yours... um... Henry sucking... er... Henry is eating.. sucking....... poop."

Audrey ate the whipped topping and peaches on her Peach Shortcake, but upon getting down to the peach-soaked angel food cake:

"It's isgusting..."

In between shows on PBS, they listed the town translators against a nice landscape scene:

"That's weird..."

I'm a sucker for my kids...

Okay, so I'm a sucker when it comes to my kids. I try, try, try to be restrained and not overspend... this does not always work. Yeah, we went to Kiddie Kandids today. It was a fairly fun (if a little stressful) experience. Our normally selectively smiley Henry was downright dour today and it took the whole session for him to crack a small, but sweet, smile.

Audrey was all about herself (of course) and wanted to dance on the stage-like photo area.

Of course we spent waaaay too much on the prints. Of course I'll not divulge how much. Too much.

However, the pictures are pretty cute and I have attached them here for your viewing pleasure.

This picture was taken about 5.2 seconds before Henry started getting teary and his bottom lip tried to precede him into next week.

This was actually the last photo of the session. It took that long to get him to crack this tiny smile which is nowhere near what he will do for me when I really get him going.


Audrey - Our Little Diva




I ADORE this picture of Audrey. So much of her personality comes out in this very candid shot. (She was very concerned about the pop of the flash bulbs.)


They both got tired of this pose very quickly.




I imagine that Henry will always be a bit bemused when Audrey is coaxed into giving him a little kiss.