Scary

In Preparation

Our favorite holiday is almost here! Nate had a dress rehearsal of his costume this weekend. Though he decided against the beard in the end. He's loving the holster and gun though and is wearing them throughout the day. As you can see, Sheriff Nate's day starts early.












***UPDATE***
I apparently jinxed myself with this post. Not an hour after posting this Nate declared that he wants to be Han Solo for Halloween instead of a cowboy. At least we can work with that, AND it does mean that we can trick or treat as a family with a cohesive theme this year! Something I've been hoping for for a while. :) Now, obviously the theme is Star Wars but the big reveal of who is who or what won't happen until Saturday.

Now, back to the sewing machine!!!

Tuesday Tunes

Louie Louie Louie, Louie
Louie Louie Lou-I
Louie Louie Louie
Louie Louie you're gonna cry

Sometimes, Tuesday Tunes illustrate an emotion, or a theme that fits our week or mood around here. Today, it serves to prove a point to my husband, that this was an actual song before it was a theme song. Once again, my bizarre knowledge of songs written long before my time, comes in handy. I really need to find a quiz show to show off my full potential, and win some cash.


Brother Louie - Stories
She was black as the night
Louie was whiter than white
Danger, danger when you taste brown sugar
Louie fell in love overnight

Nothing bad, it was good
Louie had the best girl he could
When he took her home
To meet his mama and papa
Louie knew just where he stood

Louie Louie Louie, Louie
Louie Louie Lou-I
Louie Louie Louie
Louie Louie you're gonna cry

There he stood in the night
Knowing what's wrong from what's right
He took her home to meet his mama and papa
Man, he had a terrible fright

Louie nearly caused a scene
Wishin' it was a dream
Ain't no diff'rence if you're black or white
Brothers, you know what I mean

Louie Louie Louie, Louie
Louie Louie Lou-I
Louie Louie Louie
Louie Louie you're gonna cry

Louie Louie Louie, Louie
Louie Louie Lou-I
Louie Louie Louie
Louie Louie you're gonna cry

Louie Louie Louie, Louie
Louie Louie Louie Louie Lou-I
Louie Louie Louie
Louie Louie you're gonna cry

Casting On, Binding Off

I've managed to get quite a few projects completed in the last two months. The key to this sudden rise in productivity? Deadlines. The things I've finished were all time sensitive and I'll tell you, it seems to make a difference. It's funny to me how knitting, my leisurely, relaxing hobby can still be just as calming even under pressure. It really is versatile.

Two of my favorite projects were these hats for a friend of mine who is fighting Leukemia. It was hard to put these down while working on them, the patterns were fun and different and knowing they were going to add some cheer and comfort to a friend's day, well, what better motivation? The surprise personal benefit of working on these hats is that they forced me to learn how to use Double Pointed Needles or DPNs. I've always been terrified of them and thought they were for very advanced knitters and something I'd get around to when the kids are in college. Well, Ha DPNs! Ha I say! I managed these very well, with the kids in the house, including frequent nursing breaks for the toddler and mediation sessions with the 7 and 4 year old.

I see some cozy winter hats on my needles for this Yule! (Indeed, there is one already started now)

Tuesday Tunes

I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me

Just Like Heaven - The Cure

"Show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream" she said
"The one that makes me laugh" she said
And threw her arms around my neck
"Show me how you do it
And I promise you I promise that
I'll run away with you
I'll run away with you"

Spinning on that dizzy edge
I kissed her face and kissed her head
And dreamed of all the different ways I had
To make her glow
"Why are you so far away?" she said
"Why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you
That I'm in love with you"

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You're just like a dream

Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Just like heaven

BCM Or Bust!

We ventured to the Boston Children's Museum on Friday and had a fabulous time! I'll admit, I was really nervous about driving into Boston, on my own, with the kids. I'm not familiar with city driving at all.(shocking, I know, see how you learn little known facts thanks to a blog?) So I was worried about missing the turn for the parking garage, or an exit or any of the other mishaps that could easily happen to us on unknown, busy roads. We made it just fine though, and made it well worth our while. We spent a good 5 hours there, and still didn't make it to every exhibit. WELL worth the minor stress I had heading out, and made our Reciprocal Membership with the Children's Museum of NH a smart purchase for the third year in a row!





Exploring the three story climbing structure.



The Bubble Room was very popular!



Tied for first place with the Bubble Room is the Dance Floor. Check out Ben's excellent Dodgeball skills!


The beginning of the three story climbing structure.



Peep! (this thing is bigger than me, and yellow! I must have it!)

Saucy

We found apples! Hurrah, hurrah! I forgot to bring my camera along when we went picking though, so sadly there are no apple picking pics this year. It's sad to say 'this year' too because I like to go at least twice but there just aren't enough apples to be found this fall. Hopefully next year will be a better year for the trees. The apples we did find were lovely and delicious!

We used a few for an apple pie, because really, how do you NOT have apple pie in October? The rest, a whole 1/2 bushel of drops, was cooked down into applesauce and canned. This was my first attempt at canning anything ever. I was a little intimidated by it at first, even though I saw my mom can all sorts of jams and chutney as a kid, it's different when you're doing it yourself.

The applesauce seemed to turn out just fine though! The half bushel only made up 3 quarts of sauce, so next year I'll know to get at least a full bushel if not two. I canned the 3 quarts and put them up, but I couldn't wait long to open one. We each had some with dinner last night and I am very confident that it was a hit. I would have taken pictures of the boys enjoying theirs as well, but they devoured it so quickly there was no time to get proof.

Tuesday Tunes

When I catch the moon
I throw it to you
And you'd be happy too
I do that for you

Can You Catch The Moon? - Elizabeth Mitchell & Lisa Loeb
Can you catch the moon
And hold it in your hands
Cause I can catch the moon
And I do my moondance

I press my hands together
And slowly spin around
Tell my moonbird sister
To pick me up
And we'll go flying

Can you see what shines
When it's dark outside
Cause I can see the moonshine
When I look in your eyes

When I catch the moon
I throw it to you
And you'd be happy too
I do that for you

We can dance together
And slowly spin around
Cause you're my moonbird sister
I can see you, you're laughing

You can catch me
You'll be happy
I can see you
You're laughing

You can catch me
You'll be happy
I can see you
I'm so happy

You can catch me
I'm so happy
I can see you

Tuesday Tunes

Boy Falls From The Sky

Picking Time

We managed to hold the kids off until the first weekend of October. I think that's a pretty respectable start, especially considering that Ben has been wanting to pick a pumpkin since mid-September. He's been pushing to take out the Halloween decorations too - so it might be time to start digging out the boxes in the garage. Anyway, our first Halloween activity this year was a success.

We visited a local farm and had a decent crop of Pumpkins to choose from. They did not have any apples though, not many of the farms in the area do this year. I love apple picking each fall, I look forward to it every year. This year however, thanks to an early warm up in the spring and then a sudden frost in May, a huge percentage of the crops at all of our local farms did not make it through the growing season. In fact, at this farm that we visited on Saturday, they had to have their apples brought in from another farm so they had some to sell in the gift shop area.
We won't give up though, there is a farm about 40 minutes away with a great crop this year and tons of PYO. Now to get ourselves in the car and head over there when it's not raining!

The boys each picked out their own pumpkin, and Nate generously picked out a smallish one for Sydney. She thought the stem was very tasty. We'll hold off carving them for a few more weeks, and in that time focus on putting up decorations, narrowing down costumes for trick or treating and even pick some apples. I'm sure we'll probably end up with a few more pumpkins along the way too. Our favorite holiday is coming up!!!

The Present