It's more important to give than to recieve

A Death Star Story

Matt came home with this story and I wanted to share it. Happy reading.

"The Death Star Is"

"A powerful space station"

"It can destroy one planet"

"The Empire is going to attack the Rebel base"

"Rebel Attack!"

"The Rebels are protecting their base"

"The Rebels are going to destroy the Death Star"

"When they try to fire, it explodes"

I wonder if Matt's teachers ever get tired f hearing about Star Wars. I know we don't.

Halloween 2009

I thought I'd put up a picture of our Halloween costumes this year. I wanted to do Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, and 3 little pigs. Except that I mentioned to the boys about cute pink curly tails and then they instantly vetoed that idea. Mental note: never mention cute and pink in the same sentence and tell boys you want them to wear something like that. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Instead they all wanted to be ninjas. So I had to go search for something for me. What goes with ninjas? Well, a geisha. (a modest one!). Here we are at our ward Halloween party.

I hope you all had a great Halloween. I look forward again to next year. Granted, we'll be in Paris and I'm not entirely sure they celebrate Halloween. I do know that the Paris Embassy does activities. And I'm sure that we can find someone who will appreciate our annual Halloween dinner. ( I think I might have to have someone mail me the Halloween cookbooks next year when they are at the checkstands. I'll deal with that next year.)

Halloween dinner

We had our annual Halloween dinner with friends last night. (Check here to see last year's menu). Here is what was on the menu this year.

Tostada faces. We let the kids decorate their tostada's with silly faces.

Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures. This one is mine.

Spider Fajita Pizza. The spider is made with breadsticks from a tube.

Taco Tarts. These "pumpkins" had taco meat and cheese inside.

They are painted with an egg yolk wash.

Crunchy Mummies. These tasty appetizers are made with celery, Boursin cheese,

strips of ham, and tiny Craisin eyes. Doug made these all by himself.

Tortilla/vegetable dip. This is a cream cheese/salsa mixture layered with

guacamole and a piped sour cream web.

Spider cookies. These were a pain to make so I only made a few. The boys really liked them. They are Double Stuff Oreos with licorice legs, sprinkles and Nerds for eyes

We also had our peach smoothies with pumpkin faces drawn on the cups and the always child friendly Jello Jigglers. This year I actually put black food coloring in my jello to make it black. I made some Cream Puffs with a pumpkin filling. I also didn't get a picture of that, but they weren't as good as I thought they would be. I'll have to experiement with cream puffs and get better at it.

Have I mentioned that I love Halloween? Later this week I'll get out my sewing machine to make some last minute costume additions. I'm so excited.

Miniature golfing on Tattooine

Today we celebrated Doug's birthday. (Because he had the day off). We went miniature golfing. At the 18th hole after the balls disappeared out of sight, the boys raised their golf clubs above their heads and started making weird noises...just like the Tusken Raiders. I wish I got a picture. They were raising their clubs up and down just like the Tusken Raider did when he was going to attack Luke. Pretty good imitations. Of course the more Doug and I laughed, the more they did it.

Arise and Walk

Yesterday Timmy took his first solo steps. It's about time. Maybe now he'll slow down while walking because that little boy is so fast when it comes to crawling. On more than one occasion I had to round up the troops to locate him. The last time he headed downstairs. At least he's pretty good about going down the correct way.

I wanted to get some footage of him walking but he is not cooperating. Maybe later.

My eating machine

Timmy is an eating machine. That boy will eat anything I put in front of him. (well, except sweet potatoes. He won't even eat the canned ones that have been sitting in corn syrup). He loves being able to feed himself. He loves cottage cheese. He shovels that in by the handfuls. He'll even eat avacado and tofu. His favorite, by far, is spaghetti and meatballs. The boy gets red sauce up to his eyebrows. It's very entertaining to watch.

Change is good

The membership for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is growing around the world. And in No VA. Apparently in the past few years the Stake has grown by 400 members...enough for a whole new ward. So, yesterday a new ward was created. And that meant changes for existing wards. So, we're going back to where we started 3 years ago. I'm grateful that we already know people in the Oakton ward, but I'm sad that the changes also took away other friends. (not to mention other friends who were in the ward but moved away. Yeah, you know who you are).

So, here's to new changes and old friends.

Meesa baaack...

Why did I title this with the annoying Jar Jar Binks quote? Guess I'm tired.

Where have I been, you might wonder. Yeah, me too. This summer went so fast and everything I wanted to do (well almost everything) didn't happen. It seemed like the majority of my summer involved making doctor appointments (and setting up babysitting) so we could all be medically cleared to go to Paris. As of today, we have all received our medical clearance. Now we just have to wait for the funds to be available for the move.

So there's nothing really new to report. I have daily blogs going on in my head. They just never make it to the computer. I'll try to be better.

Matt started 1st grade on Sept 8th. He is taking the bus this year. He loves it. He always has a smile on his face when he gets off. In fact there are two of his classmates at our bus stop. He enjoys doing his homework every night and exclaims, "this is toooo easy!". In a couple weeks he will start a French class after school. It's sad that we're spending money to do this when we could do it at home, but I want him to feel excited and prepared.

Thomas is in his second year of coop preschool. He is in a group with 7 boys! (thank goodness I only have to host every 7 weeks!). The boys all think it's cool, but one of the boys was concerned that there weren't any girls to chase. He's having fun getting to know new kids.

Family prayer: Matt and Thomas style

The conversation of this evening's bedtime activities were quite, um... well should we say a little weird. After reading the scriptures and having a conversation about missionaries Matt says, "I'm not a good missionary because I'm a Star Wars Fan"

Then it was time for family prayers before bed. Doug asked Thomas and Thomas said, "I can't because I (hic) have the hic- (hic) cups". So Thomas was off the hook and Matt was asked. Well an argument started because Matt didn't want to. So the bickering started and Doug said, "Just say it Matt, it's your turn!" To which Matt replied, "Only if you bawk like a chicken!" (Of course I can't keep a straight face at this point, but it's a good thing I was reverently folding my arms and bowing my head so no one could see my giggles.)

Then all of a sudden next to me I hear, "Bawk- bawk- bawk! BAWK BAWK!"

Yes, Thomas started bawking like a chicken, and once he was done he immediately (with the hiccups) started in his prayer. (At lightning speed I might add). When he was done, they were off to bed. Doug looked at me and mouthed, "Where did that come from?!"

So, if you're having a problem getting your kids to say their prayers, just bawk like a chicken.