Corny Cornbellys

On one of the warmer minimal Mondays in October, we hit Cornbellys corn maze and pumpkin fest, much to the delight of H, as he had been sleeping with the Cornbellys flier by his bed for over a week. It was a lot of corny fun. We spent so much time on the random activities that we didn't leave much time for the maze. And we underestimated how cold it would get once the sun went down. We were hot in the afternoon and freezing in the evening. Numerous expensive hot chocolates didn't do much for the situation. So we tried some pumpkin donuts just in case that would help. They did have some bonfires going, which was nice. In the end, we did a cursory walk through the maze, took an unauthorized shortcut, and emerged victorious. Maybe next year we'll conquer the maze. H kept on his Cornbellys wrist band until I made him take it off on Halloween. He was determined that if he kept it on, we would return. He even prayed about it a few times.

  

Watching the pig races

It Would Be a Grave Mistake . . .

not to post about our Halloween activities. And we did have a lot of them. I think I'll give each one their own post so this one isn't a novel.

First, Mister and Sweetie wanted to have Halloween parties for their friends, and I thought it was a good idea so we could get to know more of the neighborhood kids and school friends. So Mister took one weekend and Sweetie another. It was a little crazy, but worth it.

Mister wanted no dressing up, marshmallow roasting (and, by the way, is marshmallow really spelled marshmallow and not marshmellow? so weird), lots of Halloween treats, and a movie--Monster House. So that's what we did. (Oh, and we tested out the glow-in-the-dark stick on mustaches.)



Sweetie, on the other had, was all about dressing up, doing crafts, decorating cookies, and then watching Monster House.

Tricks and Treats

A couple of Halloween related tricks for my many many readers :)  First, I have my kids choose 24 pieces of candy from their bags to give me for Christmas advent calendars.  Saves me money, spreads out the overabundance of candy.  Second, if you have yet to go visiting teaching this month. Here's a totally cheesy, yet very handy, poem just for you to drop off with a treat, perhaps even with the treat below.

Since this is the time for goblins and bats,
Halloween spirits, ghosts, and black cats;
Weird happenings and witches brew,
These are the things we wish for you:

May the only ghost that comes to stay,

Be the Holy Ghost to guide your way. 

May the only spirits you chance to meet 

Be the spirits of love and the Savior sweet.

These are our Halloween wishes for you. 

May God bless you in all you do.

And, the treat. Here's our favorite pumpkin bread recipe. We use the disposable mini loaf pans.  For the past two years, we made over 80 of these little loaves for teacher appreciation at the kids' elementary school. But not this year, thank goodness.

Pumpkin Bread
makes 3 big loaves or 9 mini loaves (Spray the pans well with Pam)

Mix these all together:
3 1/3 c flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3 c sugar
1 c oil
2/3 c water
4 eggs
2 c canned pumpkin (I use 1 can)

Bake at 350 for an hour for big loaves or 40 min for small loaves.

Farewell to Fall Sports

H had his last soccer game yesterday, Mister finished up flag-football 2 weeks ago, and Sweetie's been done with soccer for most of October. So it's time to say a fond farewell to sports (for a few weeks anyway!)

Sayonara Sparkling Stingrays

This year Sweetie played goalie for a quarter to a half of each game. She did great!

Getting tripped . . . 

About to score!

 Bye-bye Black Mambas
Mister's flag football team was made up of mostly neighborhood kids, which was great.  Unfortunately, they didn't win a single game. But all of their games were close, and they had a good time. Mister made some great catches and had a few good runs.

 

Fighting my Elephantic Tendencies

I feel like I have very little mental freedom these days for one reason or another.  This on top of an already rotten long-term memory.  Of all the things I'm worried that I'll forget, one thing dominates the list:  I'm worried that I won't remember how happy I am with my life.  Although I end each day with regrets (that I shouldn't have yelled or snapped or rushed or hurried), I don't have regrets with my life in general, and I want to remember that, as I'm well aware that the days can be long but the years are short. So, let it be said, on my quick lunch break here, that I am happy and at peace.

(And, for the record, I'm only doing mediocre at fighting my elephantic tendencies when it comes to holiday food. Curse thy name, candy corns and Halloween sugar cookies!)

My Homeboy

If Little Zelly can get her own post, you'd better believe H can get his. When the older kids went back to school, I got my homeboy back--my funny little buddy who gets excited about everything and, now that his siblings are in school, doesn't have anyone to shout over and instead keeps me company with the best little observations and conversations. He's particularly good about suggesting what's being built around the town. Just today, he was sure that the furniture store going up was going to be a dungeon. And the house next to where he plays soccer will probably be a fire station. 

Except this year, my home boy is not always home (little Zelly is glad she gets a break from his constant attention!). He started Mrs. Bradshaw's preschool and loves every minute of it. 

We also decided to let him play on the neighborhood soccer team to let him use some of that energy and to help him make new friends in the neighborhood because he still regularly asks if we can move back to our old house "when this one gets dirty" so he can live next door to his buddy Charlotte. His soccer team is the Black Alligators.

And we never know exactly which version of H we're going to find around the house. Here he is as Monkey H, reading his scriptures in the voice of a monkey during family scripture time. 

 Wolf H showed up just in time to go to the zoo with cousins. H loved every minute of it.

 Little Zelly, on the other hand, didn't know what to think about the cold (the high was in the low 50s and we got there in the morning!). Mostly she sat like the blob she was since I'd put so many clothes on her that she could barely move her arms.

H the Hulk has helped me drive carpool plenty of times and may show up again for Halloween, or we may see SuperH, especially given H's current obsession with Superman's many powers. Today H was very sad that he wasn't really Superman because Superman has Supervision and can see inside his own body and H really wants to see what's inside himself. I got out the Human Body book and showed him some pictures of cells and bones and such. It distracted him but didn't make up for the fact that he has no Supervision.

I love my Homeboy H!