A day out with Elijah

On Monday, I surprised Elijah by pulling him out of school in the morning to spend the day with me.

We started off by making our living room into a "movie theater", making hot tea, popcorn and chocolate, and renting a The Pirates! Band of Misfits.



I let him pick out a restaurant for lunch.  ("I want Mama Fu's!  Because the brown shiny rice is my favorite.")




Yes, my inner-twelve-year-old was snickering wildly when we cracked this fortune open....if you've never put "in bed" at the end of a cookie fortune....please forgive me for sullying your mind -- move along, nothing to see here.

After lunch we went to pick out some yarn for Elijah's hat and mitten set that I'm going to knit him this winter, and he also picked out these cheap foam sun-visors for himself and everyone else.  Those visors + a whole heck of a lot of stickers produced hours of fun that afternoon after we picked up Jonah from school, so I was glad he thought of it!


The last stop before going to get Jonah from school was to hang out at Starbucks for a little bit.  It was really special to get some time to really listen to Elijah.  I love having a whole pack of children, but it's a special treat to get the chance to have such a good chunk of one-on-one time too.

All Hallows Eve

Our family doesn't really celebrate Halloween -- Greg is completely opposed to it, but I say "yay!!  An excuse to wear costumes!! Not like we need one, but it's fun!!"  So our compromise is to just celebrate....costume day-ish.  And get lots of candy at a local Fall Festival.  (Our children are almost never allowed to eat candy, so Halloween is pretty much just CANDY DAY HOORAY in our house.)

In the morning, the children participated in the Halloween/Scare Away Drugs parade at their school:

Harry Potter

A Ninja

A Pink Princess Barbie Cowgirl Cat (obviously) (haha, oh my!)

I, of course, was ALSO a Pink Cowgirl Cat.  I didn't realize we were doing the whole Princess Barbie thing on top of that.  Next time.  Jonah had been a Ninja too, but decided that his "costume" (bandana) was just way too hot. (Thank you Alex for this pic!)

(This is actually a daily costume around our house at the moment)

After the parade, I painted my friend Jenny's face before she left for work.

We're pretty sure this gives her super powers as some sort of a Fire Angel Supervillan.  Not entirely sure what those superpowers are, so LOOKOUT!

So much fun!  We decided that we should do this more often.

Since I was already painted up as a pink kitty, we decided to go do a little shopping before work.

We like to dress in costume and go out together anyway, so this wasn't really all that different for us...but people finally thought it was normal.  Since it was Halloween.  We decided not to correct anyone ("OH! Yeah, this is just the way we are.")  :-)

Later that night, we met up with my best friend Angela and her little girl, and exhausted the children at the Fall Festival.

A Ninja transforming into a Power Ranger

TWO face painters for the Pink Princess Barbie Cowgirl Cat!

Sugar high!!

In a fluffy Princess dress, sweet blond curls, and a finger up her nose -- she kills me!!

The Fireman Ninja (these hybrid costumes are my favorite...because these are actually his "normal clothes" for trips to the grocery store and such.)

Fun!!

But even more exciting....GREG IS COMING HOME TONIGHT!!  These weekend visits are a beautiful thing.   Just a little over a month until he lives with us "for real" again....

The perpetual countdown.....

Lately, my entire life has become a countdown.  As we draw closer to the end of Greg's year of school in Kansas City, I find myself caring less and less about anything else at all, and my entire being is leaning forward, waiting with bated breath, willing time to tick by just a little faster.... distracting myself with friends, movies, tv shows, children's playdates, parties -- but in the end, all I want is Greg: home with me, right now.

Here's some pics from the last time he was here for the weekend (Roller Derby + East Side King food truck with friends):








Our BFF's, Josh and Angela

We threw a big party with friends to smoke meat, drink beer, and make a huge batch of Poutine (gravy fries with cheese curds -- devilish and delicious):


Greg, Glenn, Josh




Drying the soaked potatoes on the tailgate of Glenn's truck before putting them in the deep fryer



In two days, we get to see Greg again!!  And the countdown continues....