The Puddles

The girls are working hard to make enough SWAPS for the upcoming National Convention.  This is their first time. They are going to have so much fun.  The goal is to make as many SWAPS as possible in order to have enough to trade for the time they are there.  I think we will make it!

It was a great Halloween this year!  We invited a couple of Madie’s friends to join us this year.  Patricia and Madie have been wanting to be Girl Scout vampires for a couple of years, but they kept forgetting.  Finally her mom and I talked about a month prior and planned for the girls to be vampires.  Of course, Ainsley wanted to be vampire Dorothy.

The girls are Disney versions of vampires.  I had to beg Ainsley to put blood around her mouth.  Ben decided to be a ninja. It was not my idea to buy him swords, but Daddy said you can’t be a ninja without swords and bought them for Ben.  So now Ben has swords. Crazy.  But he is good with them, and so far hasn’t struck anyone.

After the fifth house, Ainsley was done and wanted to go home. She had enough candy she said.  After less than an hour of trick or treating the youngest two went home and helped Daddy pass out candy.  Then I took the older girls for another half and hour just by themselves.  They all had a good time.  By the time, we got home and settled I was tired.  At 8:30 we turned out the lights and locked the door.  We still had kids come up to 10:30 that night.  Where are their parents?  These weren’t high schoolers.  They were about middle school age.  I finally admonished the last set about trick or treating at houses whose lights are out.  Geez.

But in the end it was good.  We all had a great time including Daddy who didn’t have to walk and got to stay home and pass out candy!

I was lucky this year to go with Ainsley on her first grade field trip.  Of course, her homeroom had so many volunteers that we got two friends from other classrooms. Luckily one of the girls was from her class last year.  It was fun.  The girls loved the animals.  Especially the miniature horse.

At lunch time, it started pouring down rain.   It was awful.  The kids could hardly stay dry under the awning.  As soon as it stopped raining, they cancelled the field trip because the rain turned into everything into mud.  Gross!

So Ainsley and I headed out early and ran errands.  She and I had a “buddy day.” She and I enjoy spending time together.  It was a great day!

These times are fleeting so I certainly enjoy it while I can!

At the kids elementary school, parties are only allowed twice a year.  So officially this was a “celebration”.  But of course, in this school, with these parents, it was an all out party.  The kids had plenty of fruit and sugary goodies to choose from.   The kids had a really good time.  There are always so many parents in the room that it is almost a one to one ratio, but I went and sat with Ainsley and had a good time.  I love seeing her smile!

Halloween is over. It was a lot of fun, but I am ready for a day off to recuperate.  I don’t think I’ll get one. We are all starting to think about the holidays that are coming up.  Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Madie keeps reminding me that her birthday is in there too.  I would really like to not do things at the last minute this year.  I have started my list and I am planning my days carefully to try to fit everything in.  The sad reality so far is that I don’t think I’ll be able to fit everything into my schedule.  It is probably good that I come to this realization now on November 2 instead of December 24th.  There is less disappointment that way.

I just need to remind myself to keep checking the master calendar and use it efficiently so that I can get my list done by the end of this holiday rush.  One of my goals for this holiday is to get the kids to think about others.  This is hard.  I realized this at dinner a few nights ago when I talked to them about “making” presents for each other.  Madie thought that meant that she would “make” a trip to the store to buy a present.  No. You have to create something for each other.  The conversation was so difficult that I realized that I needed to have more discussions about this before I required them to complete the task.  But this is a good thing.  My kids care and want to do for others, but often they think that is going to the store and buying things with mommy and daddy’s money to give to the poor and needy.  This is good too, but there are no sacrifices on their part.  I’m not ready to give away all of their toys to teach the meaning of giving to others.  But I would like for them to begin to understand that true giving is giving of themselves too and it is not always easy.  I think that in our little “world” people are willing to give but not to the point that it affects their own comforts.  I don’t hear people talking about giving up their daily Starbucks so that they can give that money to the food bank or to the veterans or to the homeless.  They will give up their luxuries when forced to by financial circumstances, but that is it.  I am not cynical enough to believe that this never happens in my nice safe suburb.  I just wish that this was more a part of our culture.  I can’t fix others, but I can start with my own children.

I always admired my sister-in-law who makes her girls pick five toys from their rooms before Christmas to give away. The rule is that they can’t be broken and that they have to work. Very cool.  I like that.  I did try last year with my kids, but I didn’t make it to five things each.  And Madie kept trying to give away toys that Ainsley was still playing with. Well, this year is a new year and we’ll try again.

So I have two goals this holiday season: 1. Don’t procrastinate. 2. Make the emphasis of the holidays about caring for others and not about just ourselves.

I am starting on November 2nd. That’s plenty of time to get it all done. I feel like the Little Engine that Could . . . “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”  That story ends well and I’m sure that mine will too.  We’ll check back on December 26th and find out!

Ainsley is fixing my hair and so she holds a mirror behind my head and says, “Can you see behind your head?”

“No.”

“Too bad you’re not a teacher.  They all can see with the back of their head.”

Once upon a time, the puddles entered the storybook contest.  It was a disaster with many tears.  This year the school opened a new category for entering a pumpkin . . . the family pumpkin.  This meant that instead of three decorated pumpkins we could all work together and bring one.  And that leads us to today . . .

I told the kids last weekend that I would let them enter the  storybook pumpkin decorating contest in the library.  They were so thrilled since I banned it last year after the first years’ tears. So we brainstormed this weekend what character we would pick.  A couple of summers ago, all four of us spent a lot of time listening to the Magic Treehouse Stories in the car on cd.  It is still a set of books that we can all enjoy together.  It has something for all three in them.  So we decided to do Jack and Annie (the main characters).  Madie and I google pictures of the treehouse online.  We say a cake that someone had made of Jack and Annie’s treehouse.  She and I decided that this was a good example to follow.  We essentially followed the bones of the design.  Of course, we didn’t use cake and fondant and we had to include pumpkins in the design.  Ben was in charge of research using the books.  He figured out how many windows, what the ladder looked like, and how they got into the treehouse.  Ainsley and Ben painted the pumpkins and Ainsley was the cheerleader who kept everyone going.  Even Daddy got involved and help cut the foam board (exacto knives and I don’t get along) and made the glasses for Jack. At 7:30 (the night before the pumpkin was due) the younger two had helped to assemble the treehouse with hot glue (yes. I let Ainsley use hot glue, but her hand was so small that she could barely squeeze the trigger) so it was time that they went to bed.  They had been good helpers and creators but now it was time for Mom and Madie to keep it up and finish.  Madie and I played around with using a white wash method of painting a dark brown on the tan foam board to make it look like wood. It was very successful!! It really looks like wood grain!!  Madie painted the faces on the pumpkins while I glued the hair (I think I had a easiest job!).  Madie did awesome!!!!  She cut out almost all of the leaves that we glued on the tree.  That much cutting wears on you after awhile!!  She even came up with idea to put books on the walls of the clubhouse just like in the book.  She found and printed the image of the internet.  It was perfect. I finally sent her to bed at 10:30, but by that time it was almost done except the glueing of all of the leaves.  So a lot of hours later, I finally finished glueing the leaves, pulling off all of the hot glue strings and assembled the entire project. Finally Ainsley came down at 2:00am and told me that she couldn’t sleep.  So I took her to see the finished project and we took a picture.  Then it was time for bed.

It was so much fun doing this project. The kids worked really well together.  We all had fun doing it.  This is a contest though, so we had a lot of discussions about this being fun to do something together and not about winning something.  When it comes to contests like this, it is cut throat and hard at this school.  Nearly all of the pumpkins are near perfect. Besides the fact that there are a LOT of entries including two other Jack and Annie’s. I don’t care.  I had fun with the kids.

My only hope with the whole thing is that I hope it wins or that the librarian loves and wants to keep it, so that I don’t have to bring it home.  Cause where am I going to put that thing!!!

I took the Ainsley’s troop to the local Girl Scout camp for an event called “Love, Hug, and Groom”.  The girls get to learn about the barn and the horse.  They get to groom the horses, but not ride them.  That is something that they will get to do when they get a little older.  All of them had a great time.  Even Ainsley got up and pet the horse in the end.  Fun was had by all.

The girls spent one meeting picking out recipes with zucchini.  One field trip to a farm to pick the zucchini. One meeting to cook the recipes. It was fun.  Ainsley’s thumb says it all.  It was good.

Madie and I went to the Museum of Natural Science with the rest of the 4th grade.  I haven’t been to that museum in 20+++ years.  Not since the last time I went there with my elementary class for a field trip.  Madie even got to run down the hill at The Miller Outdoor theatre just like I did as a girl.  So much fun.  Of course, they didn’t have 3D imax when we were kids. It was really fun.  We all had a great time!