Monday, November 12, 2018

11-12-2018 Monday- 3:30pm

Late start again.  I finally made it through all those pictures Leah  sent before and the new ones from Halloween I got last night--whoohoo!  Lots of pics and videos today--so grab a cuppa and here we go!
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I love this picture of the boys waiting for the cupcakes to be done.
Mama made some really special Halloween cupcakes!
Ian helped scoop out pumpkin innards.
Blink was helping, too, I see--LOL!
Don't ask me what that wild one is in the middle.  No clue--LOL!
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I love the rotating colored lights they put inside of them.

The friendly skeleton greeted people on the steps.
Leah always puts out a turquoise pumpkin to let parents and kids know there are alternatives to candy at this house.
I LOVE the matching dragon outfits!!
A couple of very short videos.

What a haul between them!
Of course, Liam won't get much of it and the candy will be parceled out sparingly.
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What I did find in the old pics and videos--OMG!  This was back in July.  Ian did know what a pottery wheel was!  Even if he didn't remember the name of it.  He never said a word when we were talking about pottery wheels and watching youtube videos.  Did he forget?  I am going to show him this video next time he is over.
I have to ask Leah where they were and if he got to come back and get his bowl or they just used the clay for the next child's demo?
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Anyways, been cold.  It's 13 degrees right now as I am typing.  The birds are all flocked up--about 25-40 in a visit. 
The Girls are here several times a day now that it's been in the 20s for highs. 
We have had scattered light snow. 
Look at what I found one morning.  Somebody walked right up to my patio and then walked back to the sidewalk.  ??  How strange.  I hope they don't complain about me feeding the birds! 
Saturday was Gramma Day!  (Yes, I am probably the only person who has a summer and a winter shower curtain--LOL!)  
BTW--the bowl with the orange specks in it--those are actually from the paper punching we did for Mama's card.
Leah sends bento boxes for meals and snacks. 
Ian was fascinated by the mummy eyes. 
Insisted Gramma eat one with him.
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 We've had more snow since then.

I love a fresh blanket of sparkly snow!! 
Annie is loving all the Cat TV activity. 
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Well, yesterday I FINALLY got going on the Christmas card assembly line!  Cutting down all the white shimmer-sprayed card stock Ian and I sprayed a long time ago. 
I use washi tape to guide me for where to cut when I have to cut so many sheets. 
Saves a lot of time. 
Then I just move it to the next measurement spot. 
That piece of flowered washi I leave alone because that's our marker for cutting down card stock for card bases.
Anyways, I got them all cut!  Step one done.  Next is using the trees die to cut all of these white pieces and all the green plaid pieces that were already cut last winter.  Yup--been that kind of a year.
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The Girls are so glad to have some snow.  This afternoon they were digging spots to snuggle down into for a bit of protection against the wind while they warmed up in the sunshine as best they could.
I just love having them outside my window.  How lucky am I?
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Let's see...what else this week?  Oh, Katy (Caroline's supervisor) came by for a home visit on Friday afternoon.  The democrats took back the house.  It's Veterans Day here in the US today.  More mass shootings.  Wildfires raging in California.  I hope people are safe and hurt for those who are not.  May we find more love, kindness, and compassion.  Be what you want in the world, right?
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Love and hugs from Fargo.  :)
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"I have decided to stick to love.  
Hate is too great a burden to bear."
Martin Luther King Jr.

18 comments:

Rita said...

Comment to get comments. :)

Janie Junebug said...

The boys' costumes are adorable. Are they homemade? I don't think I've ever seen anything that cute in a store. I would have joined Ian and Liam for the cupcake watch. I don't want weather as cold as yours but I sure would like it to be a bit cooler. I wonder if I'll ever see snow again. I've met so many people here who have never seen snow and are very curious about it. I don't want to shovel, but I think I'd like to see it.

Love,
Janie

My name is Erika. said...

OK, those Halloween photos were just plain FUN! What cute little dragons. :) Take care of yourself this week. Hugs-Erika

Far Side of Fifty said...

What great Halloween photos! Cute kids and cookies! Glad your birds are back for Annie TV. It was so cold here today, the wind was just bitter, I felt well enough to do some errands today. Hope you have a good week:)

Serena Lewis said...

I'll bet the boys were so excited to try those Halloween cupcakes. They make really cute dragons! Goodness, they got heaps of treats!

I enjoyed the video of Ian at the pottery wheel. Too cute!

Lovely to see all the birds visiting. Will you expect to see the Jack Rabbits soon? I sure hope you don't get any complaints. It's a little unnerving to see the footsteps in the snow all the way to your patio and back.

I never hear of shower curtains any more. We tend to have glass cubicles with sliding doors. It's a nice idea to have a summer and a winter curtain.

The California fires are devastating and they remind me of our Black Friday fires in Victoria some years back. I pray for the people and the animals...heartbreaking stuff.

This world could sure use a lot more kindness, compassion and empathy.

Love and hugs xo

Jon said...

I especially enjoyed the Halloween photos because it's my favorite time of year. I'm still in a Halloween mood. Those cupcakes are really great! And when I saw that big haul of candy that the kid's got, I regret not going out trick or treating....

Strange footprints in the snow?? That's weird.

Lady Fi said...

Those boys are just delightful!

DJan said...

I fell asleep last night before I got around to reading all the posts, Rita. I am glad I found this one first thing today, since I loved all the pictures and videos. Oh, and those were the most adorable dragon costumes! :-)

Divers and Sundry said...

Dragon is a great costume pick for Halloween! I'd have had my nose in front of the oven, too, if those cupcakes were close to ready yummmm. That's a lot of candy! I'm wondering about those footsteps, too. Maybe they wonder what you have planted in your patio pots? I'm sure you'll find out soon enough... I hope it's not related to the bird feeding. They are so much fun to watch. We've got snow predicted, but I'm not holding my breath. If we get flurries it'll surprise me, and I'm certainly not expecting anything that would stick and last. Your snow is so pretty!

IntenseGuy said...

Your grands are so precious. :)

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Loved the darling costumes for the boys. I have never had a turquoise pumpkin, but I always pass out pencils, glow-sticks, or little composition books for the older children. I handed out candy several years in a row, and I was shocked at how greedy kids were. Instead of taking one tootsie pop (big ones), they took a handful. That was when I decided to only pass out non-edibles. Looks like the boys made a haul.

Snow here, too. 2" as of last night. More predicted. What happened to autumn?

Anonymous said...

The boy's dragon costumes are adorable!! Did you have a costume, too?

TammyVitale said...

Wow - those cupcakes are the BEST. So good to have a creative Momma! and Gramma too. I love the pumpkins - they outdid themselves. We don't have trick or treaters in this area anymore. Went to trunk or treat and that went away and nothing has taken its place. Makes me sad. I loved halloween as a child and always bought full size candy for anyone who came to our house. These days it's an excuse to have candy in the house. Only mygkids came.

13 degrees. You can have that! I like snow but not that much and I definitely don't like that much cold! Your birdies are lucky lucky!

Our new feeders are swamped already: gold and house finches, titmouses and chickadees, a hairy and a flicker woodpeckers, red and white breasted nuthatches, wrens and sparrow so far. We are delighted.

Jo-Anne's Ramblings said...

Awesome photos as per usual great costumes

Leah said...

The dragon costumes were certainly NOT homemade! I grew up with homemade costumes, and hoped I could do the same, but I have resorted to buying or borrowing store bought costumes for the convenience of it. Anyway, initially I found the little red dragon costume 3 years ago in a local temporary Halloween Shop. This year, Ian started with wanting to be a dinosaur, he went through a few options, and then said that he wanted to be the same exact dragon costume so that he could match Liam. So, I went to Amazon and searched "red dragon costume toddler" and they were the first ones that came up, I linked them below.

https://smile.amazon.com/California-Costumes-Adorable-Dragon-Infant/dp/B00CA6FE9O/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1542239711&sr=8-10&keywords=red+dragon+costume

https://smile.amazon.com/California-Costumes-Breathing-Toddler-Costume/dp/B007O3T74Q/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1542239711&sr=8-8&keywords=red+dragon+costume

The clay, it was just, help make it for a few seconds and they put it on that table and that was it for us. I would guess that they wouldn't have a purpose for them and would not fire them and would just "recycle" the clay, meaning, squish them back up and put them through the pug(unsure of spelling) machine and make it back into usable clay again to use wherever they were from, probably NDSU or something.

The cupcakes went to Ian's preschool for snack day, I felt really happy that we were lucky enough to get Halloween for our snack day in October! They were pumpkin muffins with just enough frosting to decorate them.

Ian really liked pulling the "guts" out of the pumpkins and sorting the seeds, he specifically requested the Batman carvings, he wanted his to be "Batman everywhere!" The odd one was Aaron's (my brother), it was a dragon, maybe a little too elaborate of a design for a pumpkin...

It's called the Teal Pumpkin Project, it means that we offer non food items for those with allergies. This year it was glow sticks, I have also done temporary tattoos. I don't think there are actually any children in our area that have allergies and Trick-Or-Treat, as no one has ever mentioned it, but the kids always like the other options, we get almost as many choosing the non food item as we get ones choosing the candy. This was the first year that Target was selling Teal Pumpkin supplies, so maybe it will become more popular in future years. The Teal Pumpkin that I have was just a regular orange foam one from Joann's that I spray painted, because there really wasn't anything but a sign I could hang in my window. The first year though I spray painted a real pumpkin in case there wasn't a want for non candy/food items. That first year and every year after has always gone well as I said, with many choosing the non food items so the next year I bought the foam one that I could use over and over, which I do. Link to more info is below.

https://www.foodallergy.org/education-awareness/teal-pumpkin-project

Liam has had and will have none of the candy, once he's 2 next year, I think I'll allow it. Liam just went out for the fun of it and doesn't yet understand the concept, but had a blast running around! Same as Ian did his first year out, I figure there's no need to rush them into knowing what all that candy is about, they'll have plenty of it as they get older. ;)

Sorry, I'm so long winded, and sorry, I don't always get pictures to Gramma in time for her blog. :)

Serena Lewis said...

Thanks for dropping in and clarifying some things, Leah. What a great idea the Teal Pumpkin program is!

I love the pics and videos of the boys that Rita sometimes shares here. They have both grown so much.

All the best to you and beautiful family. xo

Joy@aVintageGreen said...

Hi to Leah - thank you for expanding on the costumes and treats and how and whys.

Great visit today (I know, 4 days late) Rita. I love seeing the birds outside eating. Annie is happy with the outside activity to entertain her. Great pictures of the boys - growing all the time. Hugs.
Joy

pearshapedcrafting said...

I loved this post! Great videos of the two little dragons and then Ian at Gramma's house! The teal pukin project sounds like such good idea! I am so pleased we don't get so much snow - but it does look so nice! Take care, Chrisx