Halloween '08

More exciting than the upcoming election (at least, for our kids) was the promise of costumes and candy for Halloween! The girls got all dressed up this afternoon and we headed over to Phil's squadron to trick-or-treat there. They both gathered lots of candy and then ate a hotdog dinner (or at least the chips on their plates) and made a little time to play with their friends. Then we brought them back to the house for the big neighborhood trick-or-treat event.

While we got things organized a few trick-or-treaters started trickling in and I let Claire give them their candy. She quickly found that candy-hander-outer was her calling and refused to reliquish her bowl of treats to go around and get more for herself. Her call to duty was so strong, in fact, that she was virtually unable to set down her bowl o' treats to do just about anything - get bug spray, smile for a photo, you name it. Maddie was happy to go get some candy, so Phil took her while I stayed with Claire.

After TWO HOURS of handing out candy, we finally convinced Claire that there were no more trick-or-treaters coming down our street in need of candy and she grudgingly agreed to go to the neighbor's house to get some candy for herself. We then found two more houses for her to stop at (we were out after hours, so we went to Phil's boss' house and saw another house open for business along the way). Both girls managed to get enough loot to keep themselves busy for quite awhile and they both went to sleep without a peep last night. I think, though, that they were a little disappointed to find out that they wouldn't get to go out and do it all again tomorrow!

Carving our pumpkins

It was a beautiful day today and Phil got home at a decent hour from work so we took the girls outside to carve their pumpkins. Claire hated the 'goo' inside the pumpkins and put herself to work supervising and keeping track of the pumpkins seeds (to be roasted later). Maddie had a great time pulling out pumpkin goo and moving it from here to there. Daddy got stuck doing most of the work.

*Grandparent note: Click photo if you'd like to see a few more !*

pumpkins!

There isn't a pumpkin patch within an hour and a half's drive of here, so we planted our own this summer. The darned thing took a REAL long time to set pumpkins, but it finally did and most of them turned orange this week (much better for carving than a green pumpkin!). What timing! Here are the girls with a couple of them that we picked today.

And one of them in their Halloween dresses:

This Place 10/19/2008

I'm guessing the "This Place" blog is going to be a recurring one. At least twice a week either Phil or I utter in exasperation, "Argh! This place!" generally when something has occurred that wouldn't have happened anywhere else that we've ever been. It usually is the result of living very far away from civilization and resources, where our only options are what's available here in town or on base. Here's what the situation was today:

The Bears are playing the Vikings. Phil's boss is a Vikings fan. We've discussed getting together for the game for quite awhile. As it drew closer it became evident that it wouldn't be broadcast on our TV (no SportsTicket or whatever it is that you have to subscribe to in order to get every football game ever played anywhere). There aren't any sports bar/restaurant places here, but it's not a big deal because The Club on base shows football games and they would have it. So we stopped by after church to make sure that there would be room for us; several people from the squadron planned on going. Phil left early to secure seats and a TV and I got the girls ready to go. Here's what it took to get the girls ready to go today:

*Lured them into the house from outside with promises of going to do something fun
*Fed them b/c they probably wouldn't eat "game food"
*Printed up Halloween coloring sheets for them to keep them busy at The Club (found with the powers of Google)
*Found two packages of crayons that included the colors orange, purple, black, and green, one set of which was washable crayons for Maddie (for the aforementioned Halloween coloring sheets)
*Found 6 board books that would interest them and take them awhile to read but were small enough to be portable
*Packed all of that - plus some princess figurines and some notebooks - into a bag
*Attempted various forms of mind control and eventually reverse psychology to convince Claire to put on her Bears cheerleader outfit
*Wrestled each girl into her cheerleader outfit
*Redid their hair because the turtlenecks messed up their pigtails
*Fixed my make-up and put on a presentable outfit that successfully combined the "casual" and "put-together" looks
*Made both girls go potty and wash hands (this is way more difficult than it sounds)
*Prepared Bears-colored sippy cups - juice for Maddie and milk for Claire
*Cleaned up a juice spill from an over-excited Maddie
*Put shoes on all of us
*Put sweaters on the girls

Then the phone rang. (No, I didn't have them strapped into their carseats yet, but I swear I was in the process of opening the garage door.) It was Phil, saying that there was no room outside of the bar area for the football game because the Sunday brunch was still going on. No kids are allowed in the bar area, so the girls can't be there. Soooo... I get the wonderful job of explaining to the girls that we're NOT going anywhere fun and they CAN'T wear their cheerleader outfits anymore (can't wear 'em outside or they'll get unfixably dirty in the Oklahoma dirt and at this point Claire was very excited to be wearing hers) AND I miss the Bears game.

This place...

PS - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Phil's sister Nikki today! Hope you have a wonderful day!

The fire department open house

The fire department on base had an open house today to commemorate fire prevention week. I took the kids, not knowing quite what to expect. Turns out they had: fire hats, raffles, trucks to climb in, a bouncy castle, a real fire hose that kids could spray, real firemen, and Sparky the fire dog. If you don't think that's fun then you're clearly not a 3 year-old. Maddie thought it was all great, except Sparky the fire dog. The mere sight of him sent her into hysterics. She cheered up when she got behind the wheel of a fire truck, though.

Fall party

Claire had her Fall party at school this week. The kids have been practicing their songs for weeks now. I was a little busy with the party because I apparently lost the capacity for logical thought during the first day of school and accidentally volunteered to be the "room mom", which means I organize the treats and snacks for the parties. After all was said and done we still had cookies on the list, so Claire and Maddie honed their art skills by helping decorate cookies for the party. They seemed to think it was fun. Anyway, the kids preformed their songs wonderfully and were very cute.

The gratuitous photos and video:

Click for more!

Happy Fall, ya'll!

Great- Grandpa Dermody

It was 90 years ago on October 9th that my great-grandfather was captured by the Germans in France during The Great War. His story is an amazing one, and my uncle has put Grandpa's journal online so that it can be read by those who are interested. It helps keep his memory alive and also gives us all a glimpse of what those soldiers experienced.

And here are a few photos that we took during a trip to the battlefields with my parents when Phil and I lived in Germany:

Bois de Chaume

Same shot, 90 years ago:

craters made from shelling

Photo credits to Uncle Dave for the photo of Great-Grandpa D and to my dad for finding the old photo of the Bois de Chaume

Oklahoma wildlife

As the girls and I were getting ready to go for a walk this morning my neighbor came over to show us the "wildlife" that their 5 year-old found in their backyard. Here it is:

Yes that's a tarantula. I'm a tad freaked out that it was just hanging around in their backyard, a mere 30 feet or so away from my own backyard. These guys are native to this area of Oklahoma. Who knew? Certainly not me, when I agreed that we should come here!