Spooky House

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween around our house.  The decorations are up, costumes are purchased {I can't believe I'm saying 'purchased' instead of made this year}, and the candy bowl is full.  There was only one thing missing, according to Jack, ...a "spooky house".

Yes, my cautious, "I'm too scared" kiddo, is really into the spookiness of the season this year.  I am amazed at what intrigues Jack this Halloween, as opposed to scaring him.  He is so in to the gross, creepy, and scary of it all!  He checks the mail with me daily to see if there is a "spooky" magazine in the mailbox for him {i.e., a catalog full of junk from one of those ridiculous vendors like Oriental Trading}.  And if one does arrive, he can entertain himself for a good hour flipping through every page and finding the grossest stuff and oohing and gooing over it.

Okay, so back to our missing Halloween 'must have', again, according to Jack.  He has been asking, repeatedly, for a "Spooky House".  Not knowing exactly what this meant, Clay took the reins.  And ta da...

Okay, so maybe you are thinking what I was..."really?".  But, it was exactly what our Halloween boy wanted.  I was thinking more of...painting a big box, decorating it, cutting, glueing, etc. etc.  Obviously Mommy is not well versed on creating forts spooky houses.  Thank goodness for Daddy.  He saved me a lot of wasted energy.  Throw a sheet up in the bedroom and call it spooky, there you go!

However, it was not complete until Jack added a few "characters" of his own.  On his wish list--a witch, a ghost, and a vampire.  After scouring the house, this is what we got...

The ghost being a homemade little guy from a pillowcase {thanks Daddy} and the witch being a stolen kitchen decoration.  So, we are still missing the vampire.  But, no fear, Jack's favorite "tween" ager neighbor promised to come over next week and help him make one from a black garbage bag.  Which means I have to leave this make shift "spooky house" up for at least another week.  You should see me climbing over furniture to get to the other side of his room.  All in the name of Halloween love, I keep telling myself.

And to end this "spooky house" post,  I will leave you with a spooky BOO! from our little Halloween pre-schooler.  How could something so precious ever be spooky?

The Fall Festival Divide & Conquer Style

The kid's Pre-School held its annual Fall Festival this weekend.  It was Clay and I 's our first official 'divide and conquer' day {the first of many I'm sure}.  Jack had a t-ball game at 10:30 on the fields directly behind the festival, so Mags and I hit the festival while the boys played ball.  At the completion of the ball game, Jack sprinted {cleats and all} to the festivities.

It actually worked out well. Maggie had a good hour to make festival choices for herself and I got a little one on one time, {at an actual event}, with my darling baby girl.  However, I must confess, we were both elated when Jack ran in to spice up the fun--sometimes it's just too quiet without him around!

The only down fall of this 'divide and conquer' morning, and yes this is a down fall, was Jack joined us in Sand Gnats uniform.  This was the first year that he wasn't able to debut his seasonal Halloween tee at the Fall Festival.  And to make matters worse, Maggie was able to.  So my photo op dreams were crushed by t-ball get up.  And worse than that, because of the 'divide and conquer' style of the day, I pretty much gave up on any photos of them together at all.  Again, the first of many photo dreams crushed, I'm sure.

Regardless of attire, the kids had a blast kicking off Fall, festival style.  Each in their own way, of course.   Maggie took her time deciding where and what to do and Jack dove head first into the first bounce house he could find.  Maggie picked necklaces from the prize jars and Jack picked sugar.  Maggie had her face painted and chose the orange pumpkin and Jack didn't want to stop long enough to even see what the choices were.  They did, however, both agree on one thing...the train ride...go figure.  Maggie "choo chooed" her away around the track parking lot and Jack actually sat still with his boyish grin {which, by the way melts my heart}.

So, I can officially put a check mark by Fall Festival 2011and now it's time for the rest of our fall fun.  I'm thinking a  Pumpkin Patch visit is on the horizon!

Six Years

Six years ago today Clay and I said, "I do" to a beautiful marriage.  I wish I had beautiful pictures to show you of the joyous occasion, but they look about like this...

and this...

If you weren't there, I'm sure you've heard...Clay and I got married in hurricane gust winds...outside...literally.  Rita was her name, Hurricane Rita, that is.  We don't have amazing pictures to show for six years ago, but I have amazing memories in my heart of the day I married a wonderful man.

Since then, Clay and I have weathered our fair share of windy days, maybe not literally, but certainly figuratively.  And the reason I have taken this approach to the celebration of our sixth wedding anniversary is because today, September 24th, 2011, could be considered one of those "windy days".

It started in the late night hours of  September 23rd, 2011.  Maggie and I both came down with terrible fevers.  No one else, just us girls.  By Saturday morning, {my anniversary}, I had a throbbing headache and an extremely sore throat to pair with the fever.  I can't speak for Maggie, but she didn't look much better than I was feeling.

To make a very loooong day short, I spent the morning taking Mags and I to urgent care, finding a neighborhood "tween"ager to watch Jack, dropping prescriptions off for us girls, racing home to get Jack dressed and ready for a t-ball game, exchanging Maggie for Jack with the sitter, watching a humorous ball game while feeling on the verge of death, picking up prescriptions, and then spending the rest of our anniversary in bed fighting chills and hot flashes.

While I was supposed to be at a romantic dinner with my hubby, I was laid up in bed.  Basically from the kid's nap time until the next morning.  I had a lot of time to think between dosages of medicine and painful sips of water.  And I questioned, 'what would the 28 year old Paula have thought 6 years ago, on my wedding day, if someone had shown me a snapshot of a day in my life exactly 6 years later?'.  Two kids later?, Twice as much chaos later? and a genuinely "windy" day later?

And the answer was so easy, I would have loved it!  I would have smiled one of those big wide open mouth smiles that photographers always seem to catch of me.  I would have thought it was Absolutely Perfect.  Exactly what I signed up for when I married Clay Cibula six years ago to the day.

I love my life, I love the man I am married to, and I love the family God has made for us.  And yes!, there are a lot of windy days, some of them hurricane force {actually a lot of them}, but I wouldn't change it for all the sunny days in the world.  I would certainly take some more of those sunny days if they were offered to me, but I would never change that beautiful union, and all that has come with it, that took place on September 24, 2005.  Today was just another simple reminder of that.  Reminders are good. {although, I could use a little break until the next one}

So from the deepest, most honest part of my heart--Happy Six Years Clay!  I adore you and all the windy days we weather!

Art Barn Rant

The kids have been on Fall Break this past week.  We've taken it pretty easy, but did plan a few activities.  One of which was our visit to the Art Barn.  The Art Barn offers a petting farm, tractor rides, chicken egg collection, bunny visits, and of course, an art project in the barn.  Sounds fun, huh?  Our dear friend Kristen, organized around 8 Mommies and twice as many kids for this event. {reservations, confirmation emails and all} It was the one thing I was really looking forward to for the week leading up to our break.

Well, as I'm sure you can tell from my preface above, as well, as the title to the post, we were greatly disappointed. And it was not because the Art Barn didn't live up to all it promised.  It was because we didn't even have a chance to find out.

I woke up well before the kids on our Art Barn day, got myself ready, made breakfast, packed the car for the 40+ minute drive to the place where farms are {which is not close to me}.  Then I grabbed the kids...rushed, rushed, rushed them to eat and get dressed.  We were in the car and pulling out of the driveway at 9:00 a.m.  I was feeling pretty proud.  We talked on the way up about what we would see, what we would do.  Maggie got excited about the bunnies {buns} and Jack wanted to check out the tractor ride.

We arrived a couple minutes early {woo hoo, I was thinking} and also assuming that is why the farm house looked so quiet.  We were greeted with a boisterous cock-a-doodle-do which elicited giggles from Maggie.  This was going to be a good day.  Slowly, our party started arriving, the kids walked around in front of the farm house peering through the gates, and we all waited for Farmer Sue to come on out and greet her 10:00 a.m. reservations.

And then we saw it...the note.  It said...

Dear Friends, 
At the Doctor with a sinus infection.  Will make it up to you next time with a free pony ride.  
xoxo
Farmer Sue


Please tell me your jaw just dropped as mine did when I read this note for the first time.  Except when I read it, I had two anxious kids under my feet ready to "see the animals".  Now, doesn't this woman work with kids on a regular basis and understand a pre-schoolers level of disappointment?  I ask that rhetorically.  Could she not have called or emailed?, at least Kristen who made the reservations for our group, so she could pass the news on to us.  And really? A sinus infection?  How 'bout go to the doctor at 12:30 when our visit was over?  And I hate to say it, but a pony ride is not going to fix this wound.

Okay, so I could rant and rant.  But, it's pretty obvious we were disappointed.  Jack got over it rather quickly when he found out we were going with plan B, a trip to a bounce house place {gag} to meet some of his classmates.  Maggie, not so much.  She is not a bounce house fan {as you may remember from previous posts} and would have much rather spent her day on a farm.

So what could I do, but leave Farmer Sue a very stern note and help myself {and my kids} into the gate so they could see a few animals.  We spent about 20 illegal minutes on the farm and then loaded up {with very stinky shoes} to head to plan B.

I would like to say with a firm voice while stamping my foot, "I am never going back there again!".  But unfortunately, I just can't do that to Jack and Mags.  Jack already asked this morning, "Are we going to get our free pony ride today?".  See what I mean?  Impossible to follow through with the boycott.

I did, however, get a few illegal pictures {hope Farmer Sue doesn't read my blog}.  Maybe next time, I'll get some legal shots.  Until then...