What Happens in Neverland...

We spent the day in Neverland today.

In Neverland, it's cool to spend the morning in your pajamas, watching classic Halloween cartoons on YouTube and listening to the Neverland anthem, also on YouTube. The video is kind of fun for little Neverland kids. And for some reason, they both love the song. Someday I should treat you to Nathan's version. Anyway...

In Neverland, sometimes the mom gets her act together too late and purchases pumpkins on the very last night. When she does that, there are no orange pumpkins left. So, in Neverland, it's cool to *carve ghost pumpkins.

*Not, of course, that any child did any actual carving or any actual helping with the pumpkins.

In Neverland, pumpkins have names. May I introduce you to...

Smeechin and Josh. I'll let you go ahead and figure out who named which pumpkin. And frankly, you could probably also guess which parent carved which pumpkin. One was carefully mapped out and planned and sketched out before any cutting commenced. One just whacked the top off and started carving.

Smeechin and Josh at night. Spooooooooooooooky!

In Neverland, you meet many unsavory characters. First and foremost, Captain Hook!



A small video of the Captain in action.





If you hang around Captain Hook very long, you will probably also hear the faint ticking of a clock. Soon, a crocodile will appear.

A very ferocious crocodile with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth...

And hungry, beady eyes...

But don't worry, he's not after you! He's after the Captain, of course!

If you stick around long enough in Neverland, you'll see these two fight. It's inevitable. In fact, that's the whole reason behind the costume choices this year. Cody was set on being Captain Hook. That was it. That was the decision since the moment I asked him. Firm. Captain Hook. Nathan wavered. Nathan wasn't sure/didn't care and so he kept giving me random non-ideas. "Um.... maybe I'll be a... car." "Maybe I'll be a... Lego." But then, when he realized that if he was the crocodile who chases Captain Hook, then they'd have a reason to fight. Cody also wanted Daddy and I to get in on the action. Incidentally, he wanted Daddy to be Wendy and Mommy to be Smee. I'm going to go with a safe "no comment" on that matter.


But there are nice characters here in Neverland, too. Like that little pixie Tinkerbell.

I made this.

No, seriously, everything you see here, I made. Tutu, skirt, bodice, flower hair thingie, sockies with little flower bobbies. (And cute baby!) I made it. All of it. With the exception of the baby, I spent less than $5 on it and I made it up as I went. And I am pretty cotton pickin' proud of it.


The only darn dumb thing? I also made her cute little tiny white wings but forgot to put them on. I might update this post tomorrow, with more pictures. For some unknown reason, the camera ate some of the pictures of the boys. You didn't know digital pictures could do that, but they can! However, I am still putting this post up now, though it may be edited later, because in Neverland, apparently certain grandmothers and certain aunties give certain mommies a hard time about getting Halloween posts up. In Neverland, those certain aunties and grandmas call at about 8:30 on Halloween night, expecting that the post be up already. Those certain aunties and grandmas are dreaming and don't know how good they have it! And if those aunties and grandmas don't give certain mommies a break, certain mommies might just turn into...

Hey. Sometimes, it happens in Neverland.

Post It Note: I have never had so many compliments on costumes before. Okay, Cody's we borrowed from a friend who got it at the Disney store, I'm pretty sure. But Nathan's, we started off by following this tutorial, and then added as we saw fit and made more up as we went. I'll try to get better pictures tomorrow-the full body pictures were some that the camera ate. We could hardly get any trick or treating done, everyone wanted to stop us and talk to us about it and I am telling you, people gave Nathan loads more candy because they liked his costume so well. At one point, people on the streets were applauding us and crowning us the winners of the Halloween night costume contest. And Cody filled his out with such gusto, we had all kinds of people stopping us to love on him. I'm telling you. These costumes brought home the bacon.

Nathan R. Weed

Let it be known that Nathan R. Weed has been named Citizen of the Month at his school for modeling the virtue....

responsibility.

If you had ever wondered what his middle initial stood for, now you know.

We were invited to a spirit assembly where they (among other things) honored the responsible children throughout the grades. His picture hangs proudly on the wall near the cafeteria. A paragon of responsible living.

So proud of you, Mr. Responsible.

Happy Halloweed!

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The Patch

One of the agreements you sign when you set up a blog is that every fall, you will go to the pumpkin patch, take pictures, and blog about it. Here's our yearly installment:


One of the clauses in the contract is that you will put your baby in the "My First Pumpkin Patch" cauldron.

However, if it rained like a beast the whole day and night before, provisions are made that you can place your baby neatly to the side of the still soggy cauldron and it still counts.

You must also make your kids stick their head through holes in plywood painted like pumpkins. This you must do if you wish to fulfill the obligations of your contract.

You must take some alone shots with the pumpkins.

And one by the wagon...

And a together shot, if you can manage it.

Except that picture taking gets really old really fast. So we did less of what mom wanted to do and more of what they wanted to do. Play:









Exact conversation here: "Do you want to go fast, really fast or really really fast?"

They had a great time. Didn't take that many "nice" posed pictures of them, but they had a great, great time.

But the baby lets me take as many pictures as I want.

"Sure mom. You want to take pictures of me? Sure."

"It's the least I can do in return for giving me life. And thanks for that, by the way. I am lovin' it here!"

"You want a profile of my roundy little cheeks? Sure, mom. Whatever you want. I'm your girl."
(Admit it. You wish you could reach through the computer screen and squeeze those cheeks that are just dripping with chub.)

"Except, of course, I will need to eat some hay. Those are my conditions. Take 'em or leave 'em."

I left 'em.

The boys had a b-last jumping off a giant haystack.

The child is fearless. Absolutely fearless. A little insane also, and completely without fear.

Nathan, not quite as fearless, but still had a great time (carefully) bombing off the haystack.

I call this one "Fly."

And how about we end up this picture happy post with a small modern miracle:

What's the miracle?? What's the miracle??? Do you see 3 sets of eyes? All looking in the general direction of the camera? All with some semblance of a smile? No fingers obscuring the facial features of a sibling? No obvious bogeys or crossed eyes?

A Pumpkin Patch Miracle.

When should you get worried?

When should you get worried about your child?

Should you get worried if they always identify with the bad guy in the movie?

Should you get worried if they don't like cotton candy like all red blooded American children do?

And finally, should you get worried if, given a whole pile of candy gleaned from a Trunk or Treat, this is what they eat first:




The pretzels??? Pretzels. Pretzels. Are you kidding me? He eagerly traded chocolate away for pretzels.

It's time to take him to the doctor, isn't it?

A most glorious and beautiful sight

You can see it, can't you? I mean, I don't have to point out the glaringly obvious UNDERPANTS in this shot, do I??




You know, it's stuff like potty training that really makes me realize that I have no idea what I'm doing as a mom. Somehow, I knew more when I only had one child. Maybe it was because I spent time reading and researching and learning how to do the parenting things that I needed to do. Now, I just rip off a diaper and hope that we can figure things out from there! So that's what we did. Monday, we took off that diaper and committed to leave it off for good. And even though I had no plan other than overload him with sugar and praise, he's done GREAT!

Here, he offers his first interview as a potty trained big boy:





Did you like how he concluded his interview? "Thank you, bye." "Thank you for your interest in my unders and my potty training abilities, now I really must go on to more important things, so bye."

You might have noticed that I told him how proud I am of him a couple of times in this video. I confess, I was trying to get a certain reaction. Usually, when I tell him how proud I am of him for going to the big boy potty, he responds,

"Mama, I am so proud of you for going to the big boy potty!"

You know, I may not be good at many things, but I am pretty good at going to the big boy potty. Hey, I'll take a little encouragement wherever I can get it.


HOOOOOOOOORAY for only having to change one bum!

Said (version 2.0)

Says Cody to mom, often: "Say your prayers, mama!" (And not in a religious way, that's meant to be completely menacing.)

Said Nathan as he attempted to recite the fourth Article of Faith: "we believe in ... baptism by immersion for the re-gift of the holy sins." (Um? The correct wording should be, "baptism by immersion for the remission of sins," but then the next line is, "(we believe in) laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost." A little melding of the two... :)

Said Cody to mom out of the complete random blue, "Well mom, you're pretty fast. But. Sorry. You'll never be fast as me."

Said Cody when asked what the speaker was talking about, "Nudity!" (For the record, the speaker was actually talking about charity.)

Said Nathan while reading his book: "Mom, I want to build an igloo. Do we have igloo instructions?" (Hm. Yeah, no, we don't. Somehow the igloo instructions didn't get included in my Intro to Parenting booklet.)

Said Cody to mom after she requested that he come for a bum change, "Oh no, you don't have to change my bum! Daddy changed me last week!" (Would that we were on a weekly bum change schedule!)

Said Nathan on a Sunday evening as he contemplated going back to school after a long weekend: "I can't wait to go back to school because I have so much air in my body. When I run on the playground, it helps me get my air out." (That's great, son. Keep letting your "air" out on the playground. We all appreciate it.)

Said Cody as he dug into a fresh pack of fruit snacks, "Fruit snacks are so so so tasty. And 'lightful."

Said Nate to mom, upon sitting down to a fresh piece of paper, "I'm going to draw a picture because I'm quite an artist." (Healthy sense of self esteem, never hurt anybody.)

Says Cody to mom, quoting a line from the Living Scriptures movies, "You'll pay for that, Nephite!"

Also inspired by the Living Scriptures, said Cody, "I want to watch the Strippin' Warriors." (StripLING Warriors, my son, StripLING.)

Said Nate to mom, "I should be on TV because I'm a genius." (We'll work on humility later, I guess.)

Said Cody to mom before she began changing his little tush, "Mama, will you be so careful and gentle with me?" Then, later, in the course of that same bum change, "Mama, are you being so kind to me?" (I'm glad our teaching is sinking in somehow, even if it's being applied to his bum and not to his siblings, as we had intended.)

Said Nathan as he ate Cheerios in front of Leah, "Mom, why can't she have Cheerios? Doesn't she have high cholesterol?"

Sometimes, _________ Happens

Over any given weekend, stuff happens around here.

Sometimes, happy happens.

Actually, a lot of times happy happens.

Sometimes, sick happens. Sometimes, so sick that you have to miss one birthday party plus the Oak Fest happens. It stinks when that happens.

Sometimes, handsome happens.

Can't help it, it just does!



Yup, sometimes stuff just happens.

Pleased

Have you ever seen a baby who looks more pleased with herself?

Classic Blunder

He fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The old "Come here and rest your eyes with mom" trick!

Let's Get It Started

Behold. It is time. Time to start thinking about your Christmas gifting.

Now, I am not saying that it's time to start decorating for Christmas or playing Christmas music as I am the President of the Respect Thanksgiving Club, but time to start thinking about gifts? Yes. It is time.

It is time particularly if you had any wild inkling that you might gift someone a little Weed's Beads. {A mother, a sister, a sister-in-law, a friend, a wife, or a visiting teach-ee? Just getting your wheels turning, as I know it's October and you haven't even started your lists yet. Unless you're Julie Young, that is. In which case, you've been done with your Christmas shopping for months.}

I've been prepping for the Christmas season, my dears, so check the new wares. Please note, I MUST cut off Christmas orders by December 1st this year. I know. It's early. But I'm moving again, you see. And that'll give me enough time to get your stuff made and sent before my beads get packed.

So, go on! Take a look! Let me know what you think and what you like! And send in those orders as soon as you can!

Life as I Know It...

...is about to change.

(Because she's like seconds away from crawling. Spoke to someone who was in confusion over why my life was about to change. It's because she's going to crawl, get into stuff and force me to keep all of my little bits and pieces off of the floor, that's why!)

Every Once In A While

Every once in awhile, it seems like a good idea to pay a fortune to take your family to a place where they can eat terrible food, stay up way past bedtime, and get overstimulated with noise, lights, and sounds for hours until they cry. Oh yeah and did I mention you pay a fortune to do it? Today was that day. Also known as the State Fair of Texas. (*Warning-picture heavy!)



One thing I like about the State Fair is that you can break your thing down and no one cares. Two white boys can get jiggy with it (say that as white-ly as you can) in the middle of the walkway and nary a passerby even notices. I like that.




And there's no shortage of unknown Texas bands playing their version of live music. Please appreciate this dance. Nathan really laid it all out there for you, even wounding himself at the end in an effort to offer you some great dance moves. (Someone tell me-will the child ever get control of his long, lanky body??)

We (happily) watched trick dogs. Sadly missed the pig races. Darn.

We had animal encounters.

I think Nathan is making the appropriate face for being photographed with the backside of a very large sow. Ew, Daddy! Gross! What were you thinking when you took this shot??

We gonged. I don't know if you can tell by Cody's face, but he's really releasing some aggression. That gong was never the same after Cody was through with it.

We stopped by the booth where daddy works at the fair. (Anyone need a good chiropractor??? 'Cause I know one...)

They dined at the Dollar Dog. The Dollar Dog. Holla for the Dolla! There, we can eat terrible food for less! Not like the fried butter or fried guacamole or fried peaches and cream or chicken fried bacon, where you pay much more to eat terrible foods! I suppose we could have gone for grilled gator, though. Something tells me that Oregon State Fairs will be sadly lacking in the grilled alligator department and we will have missed our chance.

While the boys dined at the Dollar Dog, Daddy sampled something much sweeter.

C-ute.

And you know, all throughout this State Fair experience, I kept being shocked at what our time here in Texas has done for us. We went to the fair the first year we lived here, and haven't been back until today. When we got here, we had one kid. Uno. Just one. This:

That cute be-dimpled little elf was the sum total of our offspring. And now?

Geez! Look at 'em all!

This was it! This was our family! (Plus me, taking the picture.)

Now this whole herd is it! (Plus me, still taking the picture.)

(But I was there, too.)

Anyway, I digress. They tried cotton candy for the first time. Cody didn't like it. We're checking his citizenship right now, just to make sure he's American. But Nathan liked it...

...and I even caught the daddy licking his fingers a little bit...

Rode some rides.

Before the ride started, other kids got in Cody's car. Happiness. Joy. Joy of joys.

He had an amazing time. Look at the child's face! Now let me link you up to the online illustrated dictionary entry for the word "jubilant." Yeah. This is it.

Nater had a great time too. :)

Until finally, we got to the requisite point of overstimulation-to-tears. We had to get there eventually. I mean, that's half of why we go.

Goodbye, State Fair. Tearful, weepy, dramatic goodbye. (And, come to think of it, that daddy's looking a little overstimulated, too.)

But, wait! What's this??? (A flourescent light breaks forth!!)

Simple bubbles blowing off of a ride.

The equilibrium of happiness and joy was restored and all was well again.

Yup, just every once in awhile, it seems like a really good idea. :) Thanks for your hospitality, Big Tex!