Tent

My tent is in my dining room.



Does this sound strange to you? If you know me, it should. A tent is something I never thought I'd own, let alone set up inside my house.

Last year, my first as a Girl Scout leader, I dreaded the camping trip I knew would be coming in spring. As the leader and our first-aider I would be required to attend.

I'd never been camping in my life. This was a choice. I'm not someone who roughs it or likes bugs or likes to meet new people on my vacation. At least, I didn't think I was.

However, it turned out that I liked camping very much and thought it would be even better to do it with my own family. Within a couple of months I had bought us a tent and scheduled a trip to camp near Busch Gardens in Williamsburg.

You could spot us as newbies from a mile away. We didn't cook dinner until it got dark out and only then realized that our dinky lantern threw very little light. I planned on mac and cheese but forgot a strainer--luckily, as newbies, I knew not to camp in the wilderness, there was a Walmart a mile away.

So--this year's Girl Scout trip. Gorgeous weather Friday and Saturday. Saturday night, a bit of rain, Sunday morning a LOT of rain. And more rain. And lightening. And thunder. I'm the mean leader and didn't let my girls eat or leave the tent for any reason until they packed up their gear and got dressed. So, we were able to take down my tent in drizzle.

The Brownie leader is nice. He cooked breakfast for his girls and let them sit in their tents while the food, etc got cleaned up and we waited around to see if the rain tapered off. No luck. The brownie tents came down in a gale with lightening so close we needed to stop and run for shelter.


Me not loving the rain


Katie getting wet

Live and learn. I was much more experienced this time. Packed much better and got the tent down pretty ably with help. I learned to delegate the hard way (due to having to attend a funeral the two days prior to the trip) and it turns out, as always, that people are happy to pitch in.

The girls had a great time. The smiles and hugs --yes hugs from the 9-13 year old set--were well worth getting wet and muddy.

And now I have a tent up and drying in my dining room. How cool is that?!

Michael

Our dear friend Michael died last night after fighting very hard against the rejection of his bone marrow graft. He had been living with Leukemia/Lymphoma for many months.

We worked with Michael on the Synergy workshops way back when and he has been a great friend, mentor, teacher and listener. We saw him in December and he looked good and was, as always, living life to the fullest. He and his wife, Carolyn, were full of hope and plans for the future.

Carolyn is mourning the loss of a friend and soul-mate. Send up a little prayer for her. She will need to head toward a different future than she envisioned at the beginning of this journey. It's been such a blessing to know them both and to see what real vision-holding can be.

Here's a picture of them at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's run, in which Carolyn participated.



If you are so moved, donations may be made in honor of Michael Goldstein to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society HERE.

Take a Picture

I habitually forget to bring my camera when we go out. Here's a collection of photos off my phone from recent outings:

At the Zoo. We have a picture of them sticking their heads through the dinosaur head at almost every age.





At the small Art Museum of the Americas Festival of Toys exhibit. There were some giant Papalote--Day of the Dead statues.





One very warm, sunny, pre-spring day we played hooky and went to the Alexandria riverside and the Torpedo Factory.




Our Friday group saw a K-9 demonstration. You've never seen such well-trained dogs!




Cherry Blossoms! One year I'll bring my real camera and get some decent shots!



Today Katie's art class was canceled so we are spending a lazy morning. I'm updating this page and doing work for WGBH. The kids are doing something in the basement. Later we start long division. Looks like we'll be able to test for the year starting next week. Tomorrow we'll head out to Claude Moore Colonial Farm for their Farm Skills program--assuming the weather turns out to be as nice as forecast.

The end of the "official" school year is almost here.

Cookie Monster

Remember this ABC song?

HERE

Pete was showing a bunch of old Sesame Street and Muppet Show clips to the kids. All just as funny now as then.

HERE's another good Muppet Show one.

Skating, Cali and whatever else

Looking back to figure out what I haven't mentioned here yet.

First, Katie is taking skating lessons and doing great. She went from hanging on the walls and falling all over the place to skating backwards in three lessons!

Katie on the ice
Zack has been playing more with his Heroscape set and recently built a set up using all of his pieces, including the Marvel comics set he got from the Ebel's for Christmas. It included a waterfall, lake, icecaps, rocks and grasslands. He and Pete played the "Ultimate Battle" using all the pieces and...Zack won!

Zack and the "Ultimate" battlefield

We all got our eyes checked. Pete has super-cool new specs. Zack is waiting for new specs, still just for reading but it looks like he will need them full-time at some point. Katie's eyes have actually improved, so she will stick with the same glasses until she grows out of them or needs a change. I am fine. Looks like my eyes have gone down to normal, which looks incredibly blurry to me, but is normal for everyone else. I still don't understand how people stumble around with this vision! But, even at my advanced age, no glasses for me yet.

Girl Scouts is still kicking my butt. A lot to keep track of so I can set the girls up well for getting a bronze award. I feel like it's my job to do that, but the older girls aren't especially interested and I wonder why some of them are coming sometimes. Then, on other occasions they get very excited to be there. Life with tweens!

The RV trip plans are a bit stalled (no pun intended). Pete is in the midst of helping plan the band's summer tour and I think it's too overwhelming to take on RV plans at the same time. But I'm moving along getting rid of more things on ebay, craigslist and freecycle. There's always something in the depths of a closet that needs to go!

Pete (and the band) are getting great reviews on their new album. Pete has been called "Herculean" and "Keith Moonesque" wow!

I just got back from a site visit to Palm Desert for an event I'm doing in May. It was very nice, VERY dry and an exhausting trip to round trip in three days.

View from my room in Palm Desert

We went bowling at the Fort Myer bowling alley. Had SO much fun! And cheap too. Even though it's on base, it's open to the public. I had no idea. Hoping this will become a regular rainy day activity for our Friday group. We do have to stop for a car search on the way in, but no biggie.

Gma and Gpa are on their cross country trip and we have been pinning their postcards to the wall map as we get them. Looking forward to seeing their pictures when they get back.

The kids are blowing through division in their math books, putting my advice to take time to memorize the multiplication tables or it would be hard to shame. No complaints here. Looks like we can can the CAT test next month at this rate.

Katie is going to Girl Scout sleep away camp this summer. She's nervous, but is going with a friend so agreed to give it a try. Zack will go to Boy Scout camp at the end of the summer and several boys from his troop are going. He doesn't seem nervous but I am. It's farther away than Katie's camp and boys can be tough on each other.

Going to send him to the next camp-out along and see how that goes first.

Buds are on the tree and crocuses and daffodils are blooming! Hope there is spring in the air for you too.

Katie Skating movie

Anonymous

I had a comment yesterday on a post I did about homeschooling at Disney. I just think it's so funny that the commenter is "sad" for me. I'm not sad that he or she chose to stop reading and move on to read folks they do agree with. I guess they were mistaking this blog for a travel advice service (where I wouldn't expect to hear personal opinions about other subjects either). Or they are one of the many who believe they have a right to never be offended.

However, I do feel I should take responsibility to say that this site did start out as fully about what we were doing around homeschooling. Mostly to relieve my anxiety that family and friends would believe we sat around all day doing nothing.

It has changed to include whatever I'm feeling or want to talk about, such as our planned RV trip, things that piss me off, child rearing, things I find funny or interesting and, yes, a lot about homeschooling, since it is at the core of many of the things we do as a family.

I wish Anonymous had said how they found the blog, since I don't get a lot of feedback on that. But, I assume they have moved on to safe places where they will only see safe subjects taken one at a time. Okay by me.

I may not like the current administration, but I love living in a country where we don't all have to agree, or pretend to agree, with each other. I'm hoping the damage to the protections in the constitution can be mended with the next administration before we lose that right.

I hope more people will comment. But don't be "sad" for me (feel free to be honest about your anger, offense, or disagreement though, since that's far more honest). And if you don't like what you see here, I invite you to find one of the many blogs out there that will be more appealing to you. Feel free not to invite me back onto your screen. I'll be all right without you. ;-)

NCLB Quote I Like

From The Washington Post 2/16

"The sure road to adequate progress in reading is
adequate progress in knowledge"

Schools need to learn that educating is not about teaching kids to take tests. That's why my kids don't go to school.

You can see the whole article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021503008.html


More later.

The New Math

books, that is. We just got the new curriculum today and will start in on it next week. Because of the testing at the end of the year, we always need to skip ahead a bit eliminating the review at the end of our current books and the beginning of the next books so I'm sure we cover everything by June. I was worried we weren't far enough into division but it looks like we will cover it in plenty of time.

I am spending my usual Monday, running around trying to get things organized for Girl Scouts tonight. I am finding it a huge effort to lead the group this year. Part of it is that the girls aren't as interested in scouts. I had hoped they would take the lead more and I could follow their interests. They are much more interested in just hanging out with each other.

So, I've decided to stop fighting it and not bother to do badges that they don't seem interested in earning. They want field trips, so that's what we'll do. --As soon as this International Bazaar for the Service Unit is over next week. It's been like pulling teeth to get the girls to do the stuff for it but I felt like we had to make a showing. Whatever, it will all be someone else's problem in a few months :-D

Pete is working nearby on Mondays, so we have been joining him for lunch. Nice to see him when we are both awake.

I'm off to grade today's math.

13?

I just looked at my Cluster Map and there were 13 visits to this blog yesterday. I didn't open the blog, so none of those are me.

Who are you?

I am always stunned that even friends want to look at this more than once but complete strangers floor me completely!

Anyway, I'd love for you to comment and let me know how you found this and, if you plan to come back, why that is?

In other news, we are in NC today to see my folks before they head off on a lengthy trip cross-country. Nice of them to do the scout work on my trip, heh heh.

Katie has decided to take ice skating lessons.

Zack is growing like a weed.

I am sleeping again--thank goodness!

Pete is liking his new job more and more ;-), but we miss him a lot :-(

It's 75 degree here today. Hope you are warm today too, one way or another.

I'm sleeping lousy

For at least the past 3 days I have been waking up btw 3-4am and not really getting back to sleep. It used to be that Pete was awake every day at 4am but that stopped when he left Novell and he's been sleeping much better. Now I'm waking up and generally bothering him by shifting around trying to get back to sleep.

Now I'm sitting here wishing I could go back to bed and know that If I do that, I'll screw up my internal clock.

So, another day of functioning at half wits, trying to keep my temper and get some stuff done. Blech!

It's so hard to get any work done with the kids and even harder to stay present and have any fun with them. Yesterday I pretty much checked out when we got home at 3pm and we didn't crack a book open.

Well, that's not really true. We had stopped off after hitting the ice rink (the kids skated, I felt too crappy) at a used book store I knew was closing in a day or so. Katie and Zack each got 5 books and I got one all for under $8. So, they basically read when we got home.

I am sick of feeling slightly sick. This has been going on since we were at Disney in December. I've only been really layed out for one day but have never really shaken it completely either. I'm not the only one, so that helps in that I feel like it's not just random insomnia but it's wearing pretty thin. Like my nerves.

Cups and Cars

Some cute cup dolls that Katie made:



Don't you just love the purple hair on the "mommy" doll?!

Pete and Zack went to the Auto show last weekend. The Scouts had their pinewood derby track set up as an exhibitor space--right btw Lamborghini and Rolls Royce no less. Zack got to try out his new car before the official race this coming weekend and it flies! Here's some vid, his is the red car--you can't miss it.

RV Show

Pete donned a baseball cap and I pulled on my mom jeans and off the family went to the Dulles Expo center to the RV show. (Well, really a computer company hat for Pete and Levi's for me, but you get the drift)

To anyone who may have missed me talking about it, we are researching living and traveling in an RV for a year. But we couldn't get very serious until we got tall Pete into some real live RVs to see if his head scraped the ceiling and if he fit in the shower enough to wash all over.

It looks like my dream of a 32' rig is out of the question. But we liked many of the 5th Wheels we saw (that's the kind you hitch up to a pickup truck to haul around) and decided that what works best for us is the master bedroom in the rear and a bunkhouse up front. More privacy, more headroom for Pete in our bedroom, bunk beds for the kids, and a place for them to keep all their junk where I don't have to trip over it at every turn. A win for everyone!

Now we have to find more rigs with this set up than the ONE that was at the show.

Anyone in the know, we are going to look at:

Coachman Chaparral 340 QBDS
Keystone Cougar 316 QBS
Keystone Laredo 32 RS

Feel free to comment on your experience with these brands.

Do

Before:
























After:




I suspect that he will suffer the hair in his eyes when the time for attracting girls comes upon him. ;-)

Math...again

I had success with math yesterday and today.

After using the teacher's directions that come with our curriculum, and seeing Zack sink deeper and deeper into confusion, I suddenly remembered how I was taught to do it way back when.

I like our curriculum and it's more or less working for the kids. I like that it integrates algebra and geometry along with learning plus, minus, times and divide. I even like that the author likes kids to know the WHY behind the solutions. But sometimes, they just want to know how to get the problems done.

So, back to yesterday, there I am with place values, zeros, blocks and a confused child exclaiming "this is so much to remember!" When it hit me that the way to remember to move it over a place value is to draw a set of steps that would automatically shove the next number over a place. And Zack didn't care WHY it worked, he just liked that it worked.

I completely skipped all the blocks and zeroes for Katie and lo and behold, skipping the ultra confusing place value issue (a big challenge for Katie since the beginning of math) WORKED!

Yes, I'll go back and re-cover the whys, but today they just wanted to learn the hows and that's really fine even if Mr. Math-U-See doesn't agree.

Zack just now exclaimed "You know mom, this is easier than I thought!"

Heaven.

Happy 2008!

The holidays have come and gone and so has 2007.

A hectic holiday season.

Spent Thanksgiving in NC with my parents. Dad was still pretty under the weather and was having a hard time taking it easy. He had been taking it easy for several weeks already and it was BORING to sit still more. But it was a nice day, good to see aunt Gloria and good to see my dad, who really was doing better just wasn't springing back like the rubberband he would like to be :-)

Then the run-up to Christmas. Hanukkah got short shrift from us this year. I was totally unprepared for it to come so early!

All shopping was done online, starting with 4am the day after Thanksgiving. Yes, there are early bird sales even online and I wanted those cheapo prices. I feel fine about doing it all that way. I rarely paid shipping, we saved on gas money and pollution, I didn't have to fight for parking and items on shelves and I got good prices. Nothing wrong with that, especially because the Disney trip came right when I'm usually doing the bulk of the shopping. This way, I did it latenight or early morning, or whenever I had the time.

Off to Disney! (see below) Back from Disney and to boxes from the Nuwaysers! Christmas is almost here. After lots of begging, I let the kids open some smaller presents early but didn't let that happen until after we got the tree up. It was nice to have gifts to put under it right away.

Pete started his new job on 12/18 and it was strange having him out of the house during the day. It will take some getting used to. He will be working out of the house most days and we've had him working from home for a few years now. One thing will be to clear as many evenings as we can so we can get some time together during the week.

Mom and dad came in the Saturday before Christmas, so we spent a day getting the basement in shape and clearing out more stuff. I've been on a big Freecycle kick and it was nice to hear that my mother noticed a marked decline in the clutter around the house. Wow!

I did get a shock when I got an email Saturday morning telling me they were leaving their house at 6am--yikes! That meant they'd arrive at noon instead of the expected 4pm--that triggered a morning of straightening, vacuuming and barking from me.

Pete and I took advantage of the grandparents/babysitters to do some shopping at brick and mortar stores and to grab dinner together. Then, once wrapping started on Sunday night, I felt like the stacks looked a little light and so we ran out again on Christmas eve morning (we were up at 6am anyway, so why not get it done?) to pick up a few more items.

Christmas eve, we went to UUCA to see Katie in her speaking role as an angel in the church pageant. This is her last year in the pageant, she'll be too old next year. She did a great job and we enjoyed the cookie reception afterwards before heading home to a lamb dinner.

Christmas day came early--Zack woke at 5:15am but we held him off until we woke Katie at 6:30-ish. The early start suited grandma and grandpa because they headed up to NY after breakfast. Santa came :-) (see video below) Grandma and Grandpa left :-(

We lazed around the rest of the day, playing with new toys and trying on new clothes. Then it was off to Mark's Duck House for a Chinese dinner. We were hoping for Dim Sum, but settled on many entrees instead. The duck was great.

A deep breath and a return-trip visit from Grandma and Grandpa bearing gifts from the Ebel's which were met with screams from Katie and Zack.

Off to IKEA just for fun and to Costco for New Year's Day prep.

Goodbye Grandma and Grandpa--why didn't we take any pictures?

Hello Christine and Bruce!

Pete's sister and her husband came in for our 15th and final New Year's Day party. I had hoped that other Bostonians would drop in too but alas, no interest.

Have to admit I was pretty cranky about this last party coming too, feeling like we should have stopped last year. (PMS didn't help much either.) But once we got cooking I cheered up and had a nice New Year's Eve.. We had Barbecue for dinner, played a new board game Carcassonne and then watched the 100th time Dick Clark has hosted the ball drop--what happened to his teeth?

Guest began arriving around 12:30 on Tuesday and we were all wrapped up by 6pm. It was a nice party and a good way to end the tradition. It was also clear why I was ready to be done with it. It was just too big. I'd rather spend 45 minutes with 5 ppl than 5 minutes each with 45 ppl. I also realized the next day that several people had been left off the guest list (no wonder I never heard from them...) , more proof that it was getting out of hand.

And so the new year is here. No resolutions, but wishes for peace, serenity, time together and laughter.

Happy New Year.

Disney is homeschooling?

Well, surprisingly, it sometimes was.

Animal Kingdom--the least surprising place to learn. The kids were given little books with animal facts and a place to get stamps from different stations. Katie and I went to the survival center (or something like that) and learned about habitats. Kate and Zack were given a ton of time by two cast members to discover which animal left a certain kind of scat, footprint and teeth marks on the plants (turned out to be a white Rhino--a personal favorite). They were given a lesson in recognizing animal calls and walked around the aviary with a chart to help identify the birds. Plus the whole place has zoo exhibits all around.

Epcot--We went to Paris! Pete wanted to see an ancient movie on France, which the kids loved and now Katie wants to learn more about the country. We went to Mexico and talked about the Day of the Dead and Aztecs. We Soared over California on the hang glider ride and talked about the crops they grow there. They also have a KidCraft program where they collected paper cut outs all over the park, which had info on different countries or technologies. Plus, We got lucky and the closed for renovation Space Ship Earth was open for testing for a couple of hours and we traveled through the history of humankind.

MGM Studios--A stretch, but we did learn about some great old movies, which I love and want them to appreciate.

Magic Kingdom--We went to the Hall of Presidents and learned a bit about past presidents. Unfortunately, we mostly heard a long, boring and insipid speech by the idiot currently in office--but it was a chance to teach by example a lesson in decorum as I sat politely and waited until the end instead of standing up to exclaim "What an IDIOT" and blow raspberries over and over as the GW Bush robot addressed the crowd.

We talked a bit about Mark Twain--although we never did make it over to Tom Sawyer Island :-(

We also went to the Carousel of Progress ride in Tomorrowland. Very corny, but a sweet walk through the history of technology.

So, no, not a master class at an ivy league school for sure but here and there and everywhere, opportunities abounded.


Spotting the White Rhino

Disney Surprise

I had always planned to bring the kids back to Disney before they turned 10 (and become adults in Disney pricing) and that was even more settled when we received vouchers from Jet Blue last year for sitting at the airport for 12 hours. We had done a quick and cheap(er) two days at the Magic Kingdom when they were 6 years old.

Originally, we planned to go in April, but I got a brainstorm when Pete took off an extra few weeks before starting his new job--which he started today, BTW. Let's surprise the kids and go to Disney now!

So, I sneaked their clothes into the suitcase and we sneaked the suitcases into the car, woke them at 5am last Sunday and off we went to Orlando. They were very suspicious when we got to the airport and had completely figured out our destination when we landed. They were thrilled but subdued due to the early rise.

This was the big trip, staying on Disney property, using their meal plan and seeing all the parks, except the water parks. It was very fun and the only challenge is not to spend gobbs of money once you get there. Lots of rides empty out into the gift shop, there is something called the Bippity Boppity Boo shop where little girls can get a bun in their hair for a mere $50 (yikes!). I was stunned by how many we saw who had gotten the whole hair, costume and sash for $200. Crazy!

Katie was longing for the princess treatment, so I appeased her by letting her buy some hair do-dads and putting it in a bun myself. I am very proud of them, though, they played and ogled everything in the shops but didn't whine or beg for anything. I decided to get them some Disney trading pins and lanyards and they had fun trading with cast members and other kids for the last two days of the trip. And, of course, we squished pennies at all the parks.

The trip was great, the weather was sunny and warm, the waits were short and the food was good. Zack was tall enough to go on all of the roller coasters with Pete. Katie and I prefer milder thrills, like the Peter Pan ride :-) Zack and I both nursed colds the entire trip, which meant early bed times, but otherwise we had a lot of fun and did most of what we wanted in each park.

There were other nice surprises--we ended up with a corner room with more space and light and with a trundle bed, so K&Z didn't need to share. Pete and Zack won all day fast passes at Disney MGM and they gave Pete two extra for Katie and me. The kids got free pins from a cast member. We saw lots of costumes characters with little to no wait and Katie scored a free bag of cotton candy for being nice to our food server one day.

The trip home was BUMPY! The flight attendants were not allowed to stand and that always makes me crazy. As it turned out, it was not as bad as I had expected, so I kept my cool for the most part and Katie and Zack were preoccupied with the TVs in their seats to worry too much.

Here are some of the pictures we took (mostly Pete and the whole reel is 430 pictures).

Snow and Cookies

It snowed last night and Zack headed out to enjoy it first thing this morning. Katie took a bit longer to wake up, but then she, too, headed out to enjoy it before it melted. Actually, more of it lasted out the day than I expected but certainly not enough to explain the HORRENDOUS DRIVING in Virginia starting with the first snowflakes yesterday afternoon! Unbelievable!

Today I braved the idiots on the road to head to Lorraine's in MD to bake many batches of cookies with her and Nanci. We had a great time and ended the day with a mountain of baked wonders. Snow and baking--Christmas is coming!

The start of the holiday season

Zack's latest Bionicle creation


Planting trees in Arlington with church


Pete and Zack planted trees too.


Wasn't it just Halloween?!

I had a busy start to November and now, just as we are getting our schedule back to "normal," the holidays are here and we're all messed up again.

We started the month with a trip to Mt. Vernon with a homeschool group for colonial days. We had just been to Mt. Vernon alone at the end of the summer and had only signed on to this trip because of the extra activities that were listed for colonial days. Sadly, many of those activities didn't end up materializing but it was a gorgeous day out and everyone got along well so it was fun.

Next day, off to Stafford for haircuts by our stylist extraordinaire Selena. Well--I got a real haircut, Katie got a trim and Zack got his shaped for growing it long. She suggested he use styling wax to keep it out of his eyes until it's long enough to tuck behind an ear. I'm not sure he'll put up with it long enough to really grow it out.

I had an event in Tucson and Pete was home to handle the schedule at home, which, I'm told, went fairly smoothly.

One week of normalcy
Scouts, TKD, Nature Class, dance, yoga, art, friends, movies, books, library and all the rest.

Pete accompanied Katie to the Girl Scout dance and she was over the moon to dance with daddy.

One icky thing--the next day, Katie was the only one from her troop to go to a Hip Hop workshop. She was teamed with other girls her age and overheard them call her weird. I think I was more sad and angry than she was. She seems to take these things in stride and reports having had a good time overall. I'm hoping that speaks to her feeling good about herself and not looking for validation from everyone else. That would be nice.

And here we are, three days from Thanksgiving. We'll head to Mom and Dad's in NC on Tuesday night and stay through the weekend. It will be nice to see dad, who is feeling more himself after surgery. I saw him in the hospital but Pete and the kids have been anxious to see him F2F.

The absolute best thing about November has been having Pete home and I will miss him being around 24/7 when he starts work again next month. He has been his old self again and has been getting some much-needed relaxation and time with us.

So much to be grateful for in the past year. And so much to look forward to in the year to come. Enjoy the Turkey and whoever you're with.

Halloween

Sacagawea


Batman


We had a great Halloween season this year. As most of you know, Halloween is my favorite holiday so we start early and wear costumes as many times as we can.

Started with Cox Farm on what I thought would be the last warm day. It did get colder in the following week but then got warm again. Kate and Zack had a good time, but I think they would have had a better time if we had arranged to go with friends.

Two weekends ago we went to a friend's pumpkin carving party. Pete was very nice and scooped all the pumpkins and they had special little saws to cut the designs which made it very easy for them to carve on their own. Sadly, Zack's pumpkin went soft and fell apart late last week so we had to toss it out and get him a new one :-(

Boo at the Zoo was last Friday--in the pouring rain. I confess, I was cranky about going but the kids were set on it so off we went. We had a great time. Even Pete and I got trick or treat bags for braving the elements. I think it was much more fun in the rain this year than it was with fine weather last year. I was kind of bored last year.

Saturday our HS group had a party at one family's house. They were nice enough to do up their basement as a haunted house. Others brought crafts to do--goop and popcorn balls--another brought a bucket for apple bobbing and we all brought food. Kate, Zack and I made mummy dogs. Pigs in a blanket basically but wrapped up to look like mummies.

Katie's GS troop had a big party on Monday. Not an official Halloween party, the founder of GS was born on Halloween, but costumes were worn anyway and we made gourd spiders. (stick 8 pipe cleaners in the sides and glue on some googly eyes and you're done!

Today we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!" and "Witch's Night Out," an ancient cartoon made back when Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd were still doing SNL. Unfortunately, it looks like that vid is about to go. It's very static-y.

Then we watched Ghost Hunters on the Sci Fi channel, had dinner and got into costumes.

It was my turn to walk the neighborhood with the kids and we headed out at 6:45pm too excited to wait any longer. Pete stayed home to hand out candy.

Katie and Zack had it by 8:30pm with full buckets and about $7 each in UNICEF collections. It was a great night.

Now it's time to hit the stores and stock up on more decorations for next year!

##