Pre-trick-or-treating

Our neighbour Miss J recently got a job as a STEM teacher at an elementary school and this week she did a whole bunch of spooky science experiments. She texted me yesterday to say that she had some supplies left over and invited the kids to come hang out in her garage to do some of the experiments she did with her kids. Mostly she had some dry ice left over and wanted to do some carbon dioxide bubbles with the kids (since dry ice doesn't keep too well). 

So here are the kids making carbon dioxide bubbles:

Snuggle time with Phoebe

 

Phoebe has been ending up in our bed every night the last little while. She is a very aggressive snuggler with no concept of personal space, so...while she makes sure that she feels comfortable, she is much less concerned about the comfort of anyone else in the bed. 

This morning when she woke up, she didn't want to get out of bed right away (she never does). She wanted to stay and snuggle and to "keep scratching your beautiful pyjamas to make them even more beautiful!"

My pyjamas are velour (I think), so they feel very soft and velvety—fun to stroke. 

"Do you want to know a secret?" I asked. 

"Oh, yes!" Phoebe said in a hushed whisper. 

So I told her that these pyjamas were the ones I was wearing when my water broke before I left for the hospital to have her!

"Oh, yeah!" she said, with recognition in her voice. "I thought they looked familiar!"

They probably do look familiar because I have worn them several times since that fateful night my water broke. But she said it as if she recognized these pyjamas from her grand arrival in the world. 

Alas, I had to change before going to the hospital because when my waters broke they did so with gusto—not like springing a leak, more like a rushing torrent—and I was completely soaked. But that doesn't even matter because by the time Phoebe first saw me I was rocking a hospital gown, anyway. 

Miriam is 16!

Even though we spent most of Miriam's birthday being...busy...in general, and even though we knew we wouldn't be celebrating her with cake until Sunday, she still had presents to open on Saturday. Whereas Alexander had eight presents to open on his birthday, Miriam only had four, thus disproving the rapidly generating myth that children receive the number of presents equal to their age. They don't. It's random.

Miss Independent

First, here's a good shot of Phoebe in her 18 month Grogu pants, which she really wanted to wear today, but which I convinced her to change out of because it was quite chilly and, well, we're kind of refusing to turn on our heater at least until October November...out of principle. 

It's not like our house is freezing (it's not even freezing outside). It's simply not shorts-and-bare-feet temperature. So she agreed to put on socks and full-length pants.

This post isn't about cake

 

Miriam's cake isn't finished yet. There's a load of laundry sitting on the couch. And my mummy bandages are in the dryer. 

We're doing review for our primary program again tomorrow and Alexander is letting me borrow his "spooky vibes" kit that he got for his birthday a few years ago when he was bemoaning the fact that our house was low on "spooky vibes." It's a stuffed pumpkin that has a number of spooky things inside that I thought we could pull out and that would tell us how we'd sing one of our songs. 

He couldn't find all the spooky things that go in the pumpkin (we're missing the cat—the big kids often hide it because when Phoebe finds it she likes to squeeze it and it has a little voice box inside that starts yowling...so...I don't know where it is and whoever hid it last can't seem to remember where it is) but he found a good number of things.

We have Frankenstein's Monster, which I thought the kids could sing in low monster-y voices for, with their arms out zombie-style. We have a witch, which I thought I could get our rhythm sticks out for and we can cast spells or stir cauldrons (tin cans) or something. And there's a mummy...so I pulled out Rachel's halloween costume from 2014...which I have kept in case my kids ever wanted to, you know, repeat a costume (that has yet to happen except for babies who have no say). They've been sitting in a box for over a decade so they were a little musty, so into the wash they went.

While listening to the spin of the washer spin and crackle of garbanzo beans (Andrew is soaking garbanzo beans to make Miriam's birthday dinner—she wants falafel and hummus), I assembled Miriam's cake and I thought about stuff. 

Having time to think about stuff is important. 

Baptism Announcement, Service Activity, Birthdays, Lost Teeth...and more!

I just pulled Miriam's cake out of the oven. 

We did a horrendous singing to welcome her birthday this morning, but we'll sing to her properly over cake and candles tomorrow. 

We left for Athens early this morning so we could paint CASA's (Court Appointed Special Advocates) porch and shutters, clear their gutters, trim their bushes, and so forth. I'm the service chair for our graduate student organization, but honestly Bekah did most of the planning. Her sister is on the board at CASA and when she heard we were looking for volunteer opportunities she quickly came up with a list. It worked out very well. 

We had 22 people sign up and 19 people attend. We had doughnuts and chicken-biscuit

So we spent the morning cleaning and painting. Zoë was working the crowd, getting to know everybody. She lost a tooth and told everyone it was Miriam's birthday. There were congratulations and birthday wishes all around. It was a big day!

Then we went stopped by the botanical gardens to take some pictures of Alexander so I could make his baptism announcement...which I finished just a few minutes before pulling the cake out of the oven. 

He has paint on his arms and holes in his shoes and could hardly stay still for a picture, but I think that speaks volumes about his heart and direction. He's dirty from service and his soles have been worn out in following a good course.

At least, that's what I'll tell myself. 

New clothes and passports and lizards and things

My sister Josie sent a Grogu-themed sweatsuit for Phoebe. She was overjoyed when we finally opened the package and wanted to try it on right away. I asked Phoebe to strike a pose for Auntie Josie and this is what she did:

Rick Steves' Romania...or Steve Ricks?

Bram Stoker's Dracula is our current read-aloud, so our attention is shifting away from the Great Depression (which has been our focus for the last little while) towards...wherever it is we're heading in our social studies...studies. Alexander was having some trouble picturing the castle as described, so I thought we should take a little visit to Romania (something Bram Stoker never did). 

I called on the knowledge of Rick Steves, a travel writer/guru my Auntie Colleen recommended to me years and years ago. She raved about his guides to Europe. And I have to admit that they are, in fact, good. One year when I visited her she gave me an older copy of one of his guide to Europe after she got a revised edition for herself. He's very knowledgable.

And he now has a YouTube series as well!

Swimming and Organ Awards

Saturday, as mentioned earlier (I think), was a busy day, but the kids have come off conquerers!

Here's Benjamin with his ribbons from his swim meet:

Both his relay teams won first place (he swam a 50m leg of breaststroke in the medley relay and a 50m leg of freestyle in the freestyle relay, as one does). He got second place in the 200m IM (individual medly—so 50m each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle). He got third in 100m backstroke, and fourth in 50m freestyle. So not a bad day for him!

Halloween Twister

We pulled out our "spooky spin" game a while ago but didn't get around to playing until FHE yesterday. We played a little bit before FHE, then stopped playing to have a lesson on prayer (which Alexander had prepared), and then we played a bit more before getting ready for bed.