Toast, Friends, Halloween Party

Sometimes I think the hardest part of doing this blog is coming up with the titles. Anyway, off we go.

1. Toast – Quinny made her own toast this week, then buttered it all by herself. Awesome! And none of it ended up in the fish tank! ; )
As an update to our snail saga, the snail is still alive but we had to move it out of the goldfish bowl since Goldie kept nipping at it. Poor thing.
2. Friends – We had buddy Cianan over this week and had lots of fun playing, baking apple crisp, and making lip balm from one of those cool http://www.creativityforkids.com/ kits. I love getting to know my friends’ kids, and having known many of them since they were infants, I feel privileged to witness them growing and changing, as they learn to walk, talk, and lose first teeth! Having them over for long playdates is a great way for us to spend the day.
3. Halloween Party – We had a great time hosting a Halloween Party this weekend, and the weather was gorgeous! Some of my friends ribbed me about it being too early in the month for coming up with costumes for the kids, but everyone was in the Halloween spirit anyway.
We had tons of play-doh and tools/accessories, a juicer for the kids to make fresh homemade cider, yummy snacks, including the popular Mummy Thumbs (“Pigs In A Blanket” any other time of year!), and Mike got the huge harness/swing up and running for the kids.

I also set up some gross things for them to touch: Eyes of Newt (2 peeled grapes); Monster Egg (kiwi fruit); Witch’s Hair (cold molded spaghetti); and Ghostly Guts (purple, red, and blue jello mixed together). Declan really wanted us to offer this in concept, but it seems our group was a little young for this. The kids don’t like to be blindfolded yet, and they don’t want to stick their hands in a box where they can’t see the contents. So it was all very intentional, I talked to kids individually as they came over to see what it all was. I had open boxes with the contents visible, with a little sign on top of each one. I showed a kid the gross thing, told them what it was, they’d look at it and say something like, “That’s just spaghetti.” I said, “I know, but close your eyes and feel it now!” and they all thought it was disgusting. Perfect! 🙂

Q makes breakfast for herself.

Declan and Ci prep for making apple crisp.

The Michelin Girl improvises a costume during the Halloween party.

D makes his bat craft fly away!

This year I decided to be a wood fairy.

And Mike is a lumberjack, complete with axe (he didn’t carry it around during the party, but it’s all painted and the edge is taped, looks great!), ostensibly to cut down my fairy tree. He’s going “method” this week and not shaving, so he’ll have some beard to complete the look for the Halloween party we’re attending next weekend. Here he’s standing with D (a Power Ranger) in the harness for the big tree swing.