{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Jack “o” Lanterns and Trick or Treat!

By the time I remembered about carving pumpkins, it was after 4:00 and I kept my realization to myself. I admit it: I was personally getting tired of the go-go-go of birthday party/birthday/Halloween and just wasn’t “feeling” like dealing with the mess of pumpkin carving.

Of course, the kids remembered, and of course I hauled out the little saws etc and we got a’carving.

This year Cole got to use the saws himself, and he chose the design. I helped with the harder bits but only a little.

Carter intensely dislikes the ‘gutting’ of the pumpkin, but he loves carving. It’s like life, kid – you sometimes you gotta get up to your elbows in something unpleasant to get the rewards. :)

Bunny carved hers to look like an owl of her own design.

All of a sudden, the verrrrry long afternoon was over and it was dusk. As I was hurrying to get kids in costumes (and remembering a little too late that it’s a pretty awful idea to spray colored hair spray indoors… still finding green in spots in the bathroom), the doorbell started ringing, and it was “go time.”

Paul covered the kids in glowing stuff, as is his yearly ritual (I swear he’d really like them to all be Tron one year so they can glow head to toe: Safety First!!) and we almost forgot a photo.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Day

This year since Halloween fell on a modified day, students were allowed to wear their costumes to school. Cole had to join in on the fun, of course.





The teachers always dress in theme, usually a whole school theme, then each grade chooses a subset of matching costumes. Last year was the ocean. Kinder teachers were jellyfish, others were in scuba suits, and so forth. This year many in our area were a little excited about a sporting event of some sort, so their costumes were very timely.



School dismissed early that day, so the long afternoon waiting for the Big Show felt all the longer for it.

Carter received a box of break-your-own geodes for his birthday just the day before and was anxious to get crackin’. We placed them in an old sock to help prevent shards from flying in our faces.


Somewhere between 70-80% are crystal-filled, and the rest are duds. Carter liked the rusty insides of the duds a lot, though. It’s a fun little activity with some educational merit. It’s a good way to amuse antsy kids and less than even a trip to the ‘cheap movie theater.’
By then we’d gotten to all of 2:30 with roughly 4 hours to burn before sundown. Thankfully, staying up late the night before made everyone a little more interested in chilling out than they usually are.
::to be continued::

Birthday, The Real Deal

Carter’s 7th birthday feels like it was ages ago, but it has been less than two weeks. Time does fly.

Back in September, or maybe even late August, Carter fell madly in love with an enormous teddy bear. I hid that sucker away in the storage room of a kindly neighbor for weeks, then sneaked it back into the house the night before.

I think he was really happy about it when he woke the next morning.

That day at school I brought in treats to share with his class: chocolate chip blondies.

He also helped me make sure the bowl and spatula were clean enough to be washed when I was making his cake later.

 

He had a day almost as great as he is. Happy Birthday to my goofy, sweet, cuddly, feisty guy. We love you very much.