Halloween

I have a love-hate relationship with Halloween. The first year we lived here, we passed out candy (Carver was just a baby), and I was so bothered by the ungratefulness and greediness of the kids who came knocking that we quit for two years. At that point, a friend of ours said to us, "Why is it that on the holiday where most Americans open up their front doors and are friendly with their neighbors, we Christians hide upstairs with the lights turned off?" We found that pretty convincing, and have been doing Halloween ever since. I'm still frustrated when kids walk up to the door, mutter something about "trick-or-treat", grab an entire handful of candy (at which point I tell them "1 please!"), and walk away without saying thank you. But for the most part, it has been fun to get out and see what the neighbors are wearing and get to say hi to their kids as they come asking for candy.

Here are our three, just about to start out.

Actually, you'll notice that Laura looks a little under the weather. We gave her the award for scariest costume: H1N1 Dino. She and Rose and I stayed home to pass out candy and the swine flu to ungrateful Halloween-goers :)

We invited several church families to trick-or-treat again with us this year. We had 17 kids total. Pretty good, huh?


Here's our little pandemic dino:


Side note: We don't know if she actually has the swine flu. We're not going to get her tested unless she develops respiratory problems, at which point we'll be headed to the ER, stat! Please pray that she gets over it safely, and that none of the others get it!

Rose makes dinner

Firepit!

David dug a firepit for us in the backyard. Pretty fun! It would've been more fun if I thought to buy s'more stuff...

Sunday afternoon snack

First Sleepover

Awww...

Somthing I swore I'd never do and other assorted pictures...

Here's everybody at lunch today:


Here's what I swore I'd never do (besides never taking small children on airplanes, which I've been saying for years now and then recanting):

Potty train a 2-year old. Nuts, I know. Our other two potty training experiences have been something close to nightmares, so I've always said that I'm going to wait as long as possible with Laura and hope that she just figures it out somehow. But, yesterday I realized that we were almost out of her diapers, and instead of opting to take everybody to Sam's by myself, I decided to go this route. She likes the idea, likes the chocolate chips she's getting for having dry underwear, and generally doesn't mind sitting on the potty. However, yesterday was not a great success, as she had 6 accidents and 2 successes. For us, though, that's not that bad. I told David the stats after he got home, and his reply was: "Well, that's better than Carver was doing at 4." I would've said "last summer" instead of "4," but hey, what a couple years between friends? The good news? Today, she's had 4 successes and only 1 accident!

Here's happy Rosie:


And Rose sporting a cute baby gift handmade by a friend:

Chicago Weekend

We had a great weekend in Chicago this weekend, visiting Hillsdale friends. It was great to spend time with two other families who strongly believe, like we do, that large families are a blessing. We had many stimulating conversations, covering topics like "How should children play with dolls and what kinds?", "Is is possible to homeschool and not wear denim jumpers your whole life?", "At what age should children be responsible for chores?", and "How necessary is a college education?"
Highlights included: feeding children, staying up way too late playing games, navagating Chicago traffic, trying not to fall asleep in church (I failed miserably), and coralling 9 children, Carver the oldest, though Navy Pier on a Saturday morning. Not an activity for the faint of heart!

For a few more pictures, go check out Emily's blog! I really appreciate her willingness to host all of us and feed us all for 2 days!

Laura and Colored Glue

I got a new homeschooling book this week called Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready. It has an activity for every week of your child's life, up until their 5th birthday. The idea is that these activities will be right at their developmental level, and get them ready for kindergarten (we'll do the activities, and skip the kindergarten part :) Here's Laura's activity for the week: colored flour and water in a ziplock that she can play with. I'm supposed to show her how to make different kinds of lines and just enjoy the texture. For tomorrow, we put it in the fridge, and she can feel how cold it is. As you can see, she had to fight Ellie off!

Check It Out!!

Overheard on our walk

This was several weeks ago, but a conversation with David just reminded me of it...

Carver has been slighly worried lately about bad things happening to him. On our walk, he was wondering if we should be afraid of cars hitting us or somebody kidnapping him. I told him that while we need to be careful, we also need to remember that God is everywhere, watching over us.

Carver: And God can protect us from bad guys?
Mom: yep.
Ellie: God is everywhere?
Mom: yep.
Ellie: Even in California?

Applesauce Day

Today (and tomorrow, since everything takes twice as long with an infant :) was applesauce day!

Healthy Cookies?!?

As close as you can get, anyway...



They're also gluten-free, and Ellie had no problem downing several. Maybe I should've done this for her birthday :)

1/4 c butter, softened
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 c. GF flour
2/3 c. rolled oats
1/4 c. flax seed meal
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
3 oz. dark or sweet baking chocolate, chopped (I used choc. chips)
1/3 c. flaked coconut
1/3 c. chopped pecans (I left these out, but I always leave nuts out)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Beat until well combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in flour. Stir in rolled oats, flax seed meal, and cocoa powder. Stir in chopped chocolate, coconut, and chopped nuts (dough will be thick).
Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. If desired, sprinkle tops with additional chopped pecans and flaked coconut. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are just firm and tops are set. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool. Makes about 35 cookies.

Each cookie: 84 calories, 4 g. fat

Garage Sale Entryway

I think our small group has started to expect something to be different every time they come. It's actually a little embarassing, but I just can't help rearranging things until I find a solution that I love! Here's our new, improved entry-spot. It used to have a boring hall tree, but this is so much more interesting!

The dresser was a Craig's List find. I actually bought it for Rose, but it didn't fit well in our room and I wasn't using it for her clothes, anyway. I was always just throwing them on top and not in the drawers. So now her clothes just sit in a laundry basket, and that works for me. The picture is one that my Mom took of my hometown, and I absolutely love it. The mirror and lamp are garage sale finds last weekend-$13 for both! The lamp needs a new shade--this one is the wrong color for me, a little too small, and totally filled with dust. I was thinking this one at Target. Brown is my new favorite color, anyway. The curtains are my wonderful, accidental discovery. We've been needing new hardware for a while--something about small children pulling on it for 6 years. I decided to use burlap, which is a trendy option at the moment, but the only color Jo-Ann's had was an off-white. I brought it home and hung it from the new rod, and it was awful. Not only did the color blend into the wall, but the burlap left bits of stuff everywhere. I knew that was not going to be a long-term option for David. I had bought some brown corduroy to make baby carriers with, and threw that over the curtain rod instead. Isn't it wonderful? You'll notice that the curtains are short, and it's because I installed the rod way too high--it looks ridiculous. My handy husband will be fixing it for me over the weekend. Jo-Ann's will be putting their corduroy on sale next week, so I'll go back and buy enough to finish out the other windows in the living room. I love how grown-up the brown makes the room look. I've decided that brown is the new neutral :)

Ellie's 4!

Here are pics from Ellie's birthday on Tuesday!
We did presents right after breakfast, figuring it makes a birthday more fun to be able to play with the toys all day, right?



Of course, we had to have something for Laura to open, too.



We did Chipotle for dinner, and then came home and had birthday "cake." Since she doesn't eat wheat, I decided to try making an ice cream cake without the cake. It didn't really work. Maybe next year I'll try gluten-free apple crisp instead.