Holiday Whiplash

"Mom, just how does Santa come down the chimney anyway?"

Note the flashlight in Ben's hand.  Photo taken less than 24 hours after trick-or-treating.

The Cape

Back in the lazy days of summer, I asked all the kids what they wanted to be for Halloween.  I did mention, much to their dismay, that the expenses of the Disney trip would preclude buying new Halloween costumes this year.

Caroline decided she would like to be a "Bat-erina" again (ballet dancer in bat costume), as long as I spray-painted her hair purple. Since the fully washable purple hair spray paint only costs $1.99, I approved her costume selection. We tried out the spray paint on Friday night prior to the Girl Scout Halloween dance.  Regretfully, I don't have a good photo of Caroline with her purple hair.  She really pulled off the look well!  Very rock star.  Here's a more traditional looking Caroline lounging on the sun porch eating some ice cream.

Ben has waffled on his costume decision on an hourly basis since August.  He's narrowed down his choices to Jedi Master, Astronaut, or Captain America (or some combination of those three costumes).  All these outfits currently reside in the dress-up bin, complements of the neighbors' hand-me-downs.  Ben opted for astronaut at this weekend's Octoberfest party, but it will be interesting to see what he picks for trick-or-treating tonight.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Astronaut again because Ben makes a pretty cute astronaut, right? He definitely has the Right Stuff.

Abby decided that she would re-use an ballet costume from last June's recital to become a Bavarian huntress/German peasant. She only needed a cape to complete the look.  Well, I (inaccurately) thought, I can use my newly found sewing skills to inexpensively create a cape for her.  I got that about half right.  I successfully followed the pattern (including pleating, gathering, AND understitching, I might add) to create a fancy hand made, fully-lined and hooded cape for Abby.  However, the cape ended up costing as much as a store-bought costume because the cool purple/brown shimmery fabric on the outside the cape was mis-filed at the fabric store, so my $3.99/yd material was actually more like $12.99/yd. (Boo!) But, on the plus side, the whole family loves the cape, so I think it will be put to good use in future dress-up adventures.  The cape is very swishy and silky, and has a cool "frog" closure at the top.

Speaking of capes, does anyone else miss the 2011 show called "The Cape" that aired on NBC for 10 episodes in 2011?  Probably not, since the show was pulled from the line-up for low ratings.  I must admit that it was a guilty pleasure for me. I don't miss "The Cape" nearly as much as as the 2010 Fox show "Human Target."  I know I am not the only person missing "Human Target" since our neighbors named their dog Chance in memory of that action-packed drama.

Here's a Halloween Family portrait, including Cousin S, the adorable owl.

Two reasons why Caroline is grounded until she is "OLD"

1)  Except from an actual conversation at dinner tonight.

Caroline:  "Mom, why do you have lines on your face?"
Mom (sighing):  "Those are my lines of wisdom.  See I have lines on my forehead and lines around my eyes."
Ben: "Right!  Grandma and Grandad and Pops have lots of lines."
Dad:  "See Caroline, I have wisdom lines too."
Caroline: "Well, Mom, you sure are a lot smarter than Dad."


2)  Too many telephone booth questions.

"Gosh, what is this red box over here?"  

"Hey Mom, did you know there a phone in here?"  

"Why is there a phone in here??!!!"

Seriously, I'm not THAT old yet, am I?????

(Please do not leave a comment with an affirmative answer to that question, or you will be grounded too.)

M-I-C-K-E-Y!!!

Last week I got to fulfill my lifelong dream of getting my picture taken with Mickey Mouse!!

Look!!! I'm with Mickey!!!

I will sheepishly admit that I was a wee bit teary when Mickey Mouse rode in on the Steam Engine to start the day at Magic Kingdom.  (Yes, I am a total sap.) I turned and looked at my kids, and they weren't crying at all.  Instead, they were all staring at me! I realized that they hadn't really grown up watching Mickey cartoons or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  So, that particular magical Mickey moment was mine to savor alone.

Fortunately, there were lots and lots of other wonderful moments on our trip (in between the less magical moments that happen when you travel with three kids).  Abby's favorites were meeting her favorite characters Pocahontas and Mulan, and getting to ride all the 'fast' rides, like Expedition Everest and Mission Space.

Caroline loved meeting all the princesses (Ariel, Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella), and she most  enjoyed dinner with the princesses in Norway at Epcot (Thank you free Disney dining plan!).  I should revise that a bit -- Caroline did not eat much dinner in Norway.  She was too busy helping Ben lead the princess dinner parade with his special friend Ariel.  Ariel told Ben he was "handsome," so he was completely smitten with her after that.  Hilarious!

 It was a fun but completely exhausting week.  I have another 548 photos from the trip (actual total), so let me know if you want to see those too!  Here are a few more highlights:

Cinderella's Castle

(We ate breakfast in the Magic Kingdom before the park opened one morning....it was so quiet!)

Fun Fall decorations

Animal Kingdom's Safari

Even More Toothless

Caroline lost yet another tooth last night.  Her smile is looking cuter than ever.

I didn't mention in my previous post about Caroline's smile that we had a little tooth fairy debacle.  Would you believe that the tooth fairy hadn't yet visited when Caroline woke up at 6:45a.m.?  You can imagine Caroline's disappointment when her tooth, her little note, and the very special castle sticker she had picked out for the tooth fairy were still sitting in her tooth fairy tin.  Oh the tears!

Fortunately, I remembered that the tooth fairy has come late to our house a few other times, and she's even left Abby a little note that we're one of her last stops on her route.  So, I told Caroline to go eat breakfast and stay out of her room until around 7:15, and sure enough, the tooth fairy was able to stop by.  Whew!  Our tooth fairy, named Liliana, is one tardy fairy.  She also always leaves a little glittery trail of fairy dust, so we like to follow the trail to see which window she used to sneak into our house. 

Liliana was on time for this most recent tooth loss (thank goodness). Caroline was so inspired by all these fairy interactions, and she decided to create a new little home for her fairy friends.  In perfect second grade form, she labeled the fairy house, "New Home".

(Note that the rest of things in the picture are other clay creations that Caroline has made in art class or art camp.)

Ben's First Day of Kindergarten

"I'm not going," Ben announced in my doorway before seven this morning.

Ben padded into my bedroom this morning, still warm in his footie pajamas.  He slid under the covers and cuddled up close to me.

"I don't want to go."

He pressed his warm little self all the way into me and wouldn't move so I could see even a peek of his face.

Then, he quietly confided to me, "I'm scared to go."

So, we talked about how fun it would be to ride the bus, to make new friends, to learn new things, and to play with the giant bin of Legos.  I pressed a kiss into his hand that he could carry with him all day. I told him my kiss would never wash off.

Ever so quietly, he whispered into my ear, "But, I'll miss you."

My heart melted and my eyes teared up because I will miss him too.

My littlest baby is off to kindergarten today.

All Smiles on the Bus

Off to Big Starts

#1. Soccer!

Caroline's soccer season started this morning with a swish, swish, swish, swish --  a whooping four goals!  I don't think I scored four goals in my entire sporting career, so I find this fairly impressive. Needless to say, she is pretty fired up for the rest of the season.

I even photographed one of her goals. (Note that Caroline's team is wearing gold; their opponents are wearing light yellow. The goalie is wearing a canary yellow pinny.)
 

Driving down the Field

 Shooting through the Defenders

 GOOOOOOAAAL!

#2.  Music Lessons!

Abby will soon be starting instrumental music lessons at school.  Since we already own a baritone horn from Scott's playing days, Abby will be taking up the baritone.  She initially had her heart set on drums, but we were able to convince her that the baritone would be just as fun to play.  (Cue Mom's sigh of relief.)

Our music teacher suggested taking a short video of the first time trying out the instrument to compare to her playing at the end of the school year.  You should make sure the sound is turned on to watch this video (but maybe don't turn on the sound up too loudly just yet).  Personally, I think Ben's sword fighting during the performance adds just the right touch of chaos.

Toothless (Practically)

Caroline lost another tooth last night, and three others are pretty loose.  I think that if those other three fall out before any others grow back in, I'll be forced to puree her food!

Unexpected

An unexpected vacation sighting occurred when we stumbled into watched a huge team of construction workers assembling scaffolding for the DEW tour right off of the Boardwalk. Now, I don't follow BMX bicycling or competitive skateboarding (shocking, I know), so I had never heard of the DEW tour.  We were surprised to see that the event was broadcast nationally on ESPN and NBC. We didn't stay to watch any of the events (no need to give Ben any stunt ideas, right?), but the construction was pretty cool.

I had control of the camera here. This reminded me of old photos of skyscraper construction from the 1940s and 1950s.

First Day of School!

Today is the first day of school for Abby (4th grade) and Caroline (2nd grade)! Ben will be enjoying two more weeks of summer vacation and will begin Kindergarten on September 10th.

This side view shows how stuffed their bookbags are with school supplies. There are 12 glue sticks and 36 pencils between the two of them (and more)!

Boardwalk Shots

We spent last week in Ocean City, Maryland, enjoying all the beach, family fun, and the end of summer vacation.  Now that we have been home for a week, all the beach memories are happy ones:  playing in the waves (no broken bones this year!), sand castles, beach combing, flying kites, playing frisbee, kayaking in the Bay, eating steamed crabs, riding Trimper's rides, slurping Dumser's milkshakes, and more.  I've almost forgotten about all the sunscreen and continuous bathing that the trip required.  Almost.

We went biking on the Boardwalk on three different mornings.  Abby and Caroline are able to pedal their two-wheelers on their own (with me constantly reminding Caroline -- STAY TO THE RIGHT, THE OTHER RIGHT!).  Ben isn't quite ready yet, so he rides along in the carrier attached to the back of my bike.  Although he's comfortable, in the past he has gotten bored with it after about 15 minutes and then starts putting his feet on the carrier wheels to make the fun zzzzzzzzzz noise which makes my bike ride significantly more challenging with all the drag.

This year I got creative and encouraged Ben to take pictures with our old digital camera while he rode along.  I had no idea how much fun this would turn out to be. Ben was totally occupied, either taking photos or previewing all the pictures on the memory card.  We were shocked -- seriously shocked -- to find out that Ben has very specific photographic interests.  He has an "aesthetic".  Who knew??

Check out these totally unaltered photos from BEN:

 
Those are cool, right??

Of course, Ben is a still only a 5-year old boy, so he also took a bunch of these:

Ben's Self Portrait
(I love how he smiled for his own picture)

My  Lower Half  

(oh yes, I'll be going on a diet)

I took this one of the photographer. 

Significant Stitches

This past spring, Scott got a great deal on some new khaki shorts from Eddie Bauer.  The only problem was that they were 1.5 inches too long.  I called the tailor to find out how much they would cost to hem.  I was expecting that it would be kind of pricey given my recent experience with a junior bridesmaid dress, but I was surprised to hear that the hemming would cost $20!  $20?!!!  That is more than the cost of the shorts.  My "great deal" was no longer looking so great.

I have been interested in learning to sew for a long time. Sewing is on my top secret life list of things I really want to do or learn and places I want to go, but these personal dreams seem absolutely impossible while the kids consume practically every minute of every day. Heartbreaking, but true.  How can one pursue dreams when constantly interrupted for snacks, questions, random requests, bickering, etc.  Even in the ten minutes I've typed these two paragraphs, Caroline and Ben have soaked the kitchen floor with water and poured hand soap on the floor.  I don't really know what they are doing, but I know that for every minute I type, it will take me at least 2.5 minutes per minute to clean up and require one load of laundry.  I am not exaggerating here.  They have just emptied the towel drawer. Sigh. Can't they just read a book?

Getting back to my sewing fantasy...In my ideal parenting reality, I would be able to pick a pattern, maybe even a Halloween costume, out of those pattern books at Jo Ann's Fabric store, while my children would sit patiently by my side.  Then we would quietly, politely,and pleasantly enjoy selecting fabric and notions together, while all the old ladies (who, I should add, are the only other people at Jo Ann's that seem to be buying fabric, except for the professional seamstress purchasing curtain material) smile at me, giving me that knowing nod that says, "Golly, what a beautiful and perfectly behaved family you have there. Well done."  Then, after soaking in all those positive feedback glances and nods, we'd come home and I would work un-interrupted for hours, and whip together whatever garment they had selected before dinner while everyone played nicely together.     

In order to make this dream a reality, I called the best seamstress I know who would give me lessons for completely free:  MOM.  Mom to the rescue again!  She agreed to my invitation to come to a "Sewing Camp" held at my house in June after school ended.  I promised to let her play with the grandchildren as much as she wanted (see how generous I am?) and she would walk me through sewing an apron from a Simplicity pattern step-by-step AND teach me how to hem shorts (those khaki shorts from Eddie Bauer).  

We had to start at the very, very beginning.  Unlike most other people (even Scott), I never had any kind of home economics class in high school.  I think it conflicted with my chemistry lab.  While I have some memories of watching my mom sew my Halloween costumes, mostly I only remember racing her metal weights down the hallway. I really had no idea where to start.  

After three full days of lessons and a whole lot of ironing (who knew there would be so much ironing in sewing???), check out the hem on these shorts -- see how straight the line is?  I hemmed them! The shorts are wrinkly because Scott actually wears the shorts!  I didn't ruin them -- even when I had to cut material off the bottom of the shorts!

And, look how well the aprons turned out!  Caroline and Abby picked out their own fabrics and trims, and their selections perfectly reflect their personalities right now.  The girls have absolutely no interest in wearing the aprons now that they are finished, but that is beside the point.

The sewing "experience" was nowhere,  I mean nowhere, as idyllic as I imagined.  The "easy sew" aprons and hemming took three full days to complete because lessons were crammed in between the regular amount of interruptions and parental duties.  But, even so, I can claim concrete and substantial progress towards a life goal; however, pedestrian it may be.  As the last month of summer vacation continues, I will be clinging dearly onto this little glimmer of hope for more future progress.

Burpee Wasn't Kidding -- Mammoth Sunflower

Stalks are 9 feet tall and still growing!

WINNER!

On Tuesday night, Scott and I went (alone, on an actual adult date) to watch the Reading Phillies play the Altoona Curve.  We had a wonderful relaxing evening at the minor league ballpark, watching the game, watching the people, and enjoying the fun atmosphere in "Baseballtown".  It is a terrific family ballpark that provides free scorecards when you walk in the door.  We even got free baseball hats because of the evening's promotional giveaway to the first 2000 adults.  So, all for the price of only $18 we received FREE parking (love it!), 2 great seats, a free scorecard and 2 baseball caps.  You cannot beat that, right?  

One of my favorite parts about visiting minor baseball games are the quirky games and races held in between the innings, like Dizzy Bats or giant inflatable things dancing/battling, and launching hot dogs into the stands.  It's all in good fun.  Well, GUESS WHAT???!!!!  I got picked to do one of the games!  The General Manager was walking around talking into a headset saying, "I need a female for this next game."  I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm female and I even am wearing my brand new Reading Phillies baseball cap."  So before I even realized it myself, I waved to him and said, "I'll do it!"  I must have looked either cute or incredibly desperate, so the GM picked me to play the HIGH-LOW game after one of the innings.  I was (and still am) completely thrilled!

I should note that this experience, believe it or not, is the second time I have been selected at a ballpark to play a game.  About 10 years ago when Scott and I were in San Diego, we went to a Padres game and I was selected to play a scoreboard game (I represented the yellow train) because whoever was picking the game participants happened to be friends with the people sitting behind me.  Although the yellow express was not victorious, I appeared on a major league scoreboard and won a free yellow Westfield Shoppingtown t-shirt and yellow bucket hat, which Scott still regulars wears.   

For the Reading Phillies game experience, I stayed at my seat and they brought over a camera and my picture was up on the ballpark scoreboard.  I had to answer 3 questions into a microphone, by picking either "HIGHER" or "LOWER". 

Question #1 -  Of fans polled coming into the ballpark, 65% said hot dogs were their favorite ballpark food when compared with french fries.  Higher or Lower?   (I picked higher, but the correct answer was lower, 58%!)

Question #2 - Of the baseball players that answered the poll, 50% had at some point had a manicure or pedicure.  (I picked lower, but the answer was HIGHER!  62% of ball players had either had a manicure or pedicure. WHAT??!!! 62%?  Nobody could have predicted that.)

Question #3 -- How old is the Reading Phillies ballpark relative to the next oldest ballpark in the league.  30 years?  Higher or Lower?  (I had absolutely no idea, so I guessed Higher, and I was right. Whew!) 

Even though I was only supposed to win 2 tickets for one correct answer, the GM gave me 4 free tickets to another Reading Phillies game, and we all had a good laugh about the ballplayers getting their nails done.  How exciting!!  Can you believe it?!  I am a WINNER!!!!

P.S.  Thank you to Mom, Dad, Doris, Pete, and the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania for making this evening possible!

Among the Lights at Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens is currently running an exhibit called "Light: Installations by Bruce Munro."  There are literally thousands upon thousands of fiber optic light installed into eight different areas within the gardens.  And, these light features are a-m-a-z-i-n-g.  The lights gradually shift through the color spectrum, adding to the dramatic effects. The Forest Walk exhibit is like walking through a fairy world. 

We took Abby, Ben, and Caroline to see the exhibition on Friday night.  After they finished singing our praises for letting them stay up so much past their bedtime, and additional praises for letting them play with flashlights after their bedtime, they spent the rest of the evening saying things like:

"This is the coolest thing EVER!"

"You are the best parents in the whole wide world!"

"This is the best thing I have ever seen!"

"Thank you so much for bringing us!"

(Yes, those are actual quotes from my actual children.)

Here are a few highlights to entice you to go too.  

(I took my tripod with me to the gardens so I could take longer exposure pictures.)