schickHouse

This N That

so, this is going to be a hodgepodge of a post, a smattering of this n that. we've been in lancaster for about five days now, about halfway through our stay. we've been enjoying ourselves. nothing much on the agenda, so we've been hither and yon just relaxing and having fun, maybe even getting a couple things done that need it.

last week, i scooped up the children & headed to town to impulsively buy clearance halloween costumes. the desire is always there, but me following through on it was somewhat uncharacteristic. had some buyer's remorse, but nothing too extreme. love the fun we'll have with these pretend clothes though.

         

we spent our (probable) last temperate saturday at home cleaning up from the early blizzard.

first (and pretty much only) on our schedule in lancaster was uncle jon's birthday party. his candles were of the sparkling variety! too much fun.

we've spent our fair share of time at ye ol' pizza shop. shelby always wants to make bread sticks. she had a couple helpers.

other than that, we've just been takin' it easy...

... angela has chosen this at least three times as her leisure activity. she is turning into quite the poppop's girl. she'll just lay, so still & quiet, til she (or they) nod off. fun snugglin'.

Candy Clarification

just wanted to point out that the candy pictured below is basically only TWO children's worth of loot. the choleric parent was charged with two children who averaged 2 of every 3 houses we stopped at (we were a little slow). the phlegmatic parent was charged with two children, 1 collecting zero candy, 1 hitting only one house per stop. i bagged the candy this morning. 4 FULL ziploc gallon bags. pretty impressive. good thing we're going to lancaster soon (to redistribute).

oh, and i forgot to get pictures, but i did dress myself up, too. i was the door keeper to the wizard (think fuzzy green oven-mitt gloves). you can search back to my 9/28/08 post to see that excitement, if you want to. it struck me as funny that the wizard of oz theme is "there's no place like home," and we are in such a transition state right now. i didn't think about that when i chose the theme.

Trick-or-Treat Snafu

mama felt crafty. she made trick-or-treat bags for the three eldest from pants that were headed for the trash.

how cute. how homemade. but... mama's childhood trick-or-treats were NOT in a neighborhood. so... the bags were just a teensy bit too small.

the solution? friend's pillowcase to the rescue!

o yea. daddy made it home just in time. we had pizza at the clubhouse, then headed out with about 20 children and a whole lotta parents, all [[[packed]]] into two trucks (complete with lights!).

it was SO much fun! mama was COMPLETELY amazed. it was like MY first halloween. lol. picture my trick-or-treats: hop in the car, go to gramma's & grampa's, hop in the car, go to grammy's & pappy's, hop in the car, go to 3 or 4 aunts' and uncles', hop in the car, go home, warm, tired, with a nice TINY bucket of candy. this was crazy.

we did venture to get fotos taken at penney's today. i wasn't sure i wanted to, but i thought i'd regret not. so we went. and mama was happy. the pictures got GREAT. and we were THE hit of the store. it was too much fun. people were saying we should've entered a contest, that they were so pleased that the costumes were homemade, that shelby was the best scarecrow ever. just a big upper for mama.

         

we finally remembered the tail...

here's one of the most decked out houses on the block.

one of our best buds, C., aka Buzz Lightyear.

and the funny story of the night.

mama: "ok, shelb. i'm gonna carry elle. careful now. there's a BIG puddle up here. just stay to the side. follow m---" ***SPLASH***

..."good job not whining, shelb. flip flops doin' ok?"

Picture Time: Baby Parade

a few shots of the wizard of oz festivities...

   

mama had SO much fun making these costumes. i loved the way angela's turned out, just some ribbon on a sweatsuit. shelby's was very convincing and sturdier than i originally imagined. cyrus' needed a trim, but he was such a good sport. for halloween, i will need to cut a few inches off the torso of the costume, so he can actually sit down. (he couldn't reach his face either, but i helped with any itches.) i didn't get a good individual shot of elle mae, but i will aim to get lots more pix (of all) when we dress up again. it was a little rushed on baby parade/pig chase night.

      

it was good to see i wasn't THE craziest. the fish float even had a music and a moving mechanism.

      

this was... incredible? look closely at the ducks. see the standing duck? see the one that the standing duck is touching? that's a REAL baby! dressed up, strapped on, and flailing with fuzz in its mouth!

Another Blue Ribbon & A Piggie

had another wonderful night at the fair. a little damp & chilly, but fun nonetheless. the baby parade went on without a hitch (except i forgot angela lion's tail). we won blue ribbon for best group. (thanks, dad, for the foto!) if there was a prize for biggest fan club, we would've won that, too. thanks to all the family (grammy s, aunt sue, alec, alena, aunt sandy, uncle dan, steven, andrew, poppop, aunt chrissy, uncle jon, aunt audie, uncle arnie) who came out to see us. we had so much fun.

then we tromped on over to the arena for the pig chasing. wow, what a turnout! 5 & younger girls went first. shelby got close, and it was so much fun to watch her running around after that pig. steve got some video of that chase. next was the 5 & younger boys. i was cheering and cheering. then i saw cy just standing to the side. i thought he must've got tired or bored or disgruntled. but no, he had already caught a pig! he was in the midst of a BIG group of kiddos down at the other end of the arena, so steve & i didn't actually see him catch it. but when he came out (ahead of most of the other boys), he said, "i the winner!" wow. way to go, cy. no ribbon, but he did win $15. used to be you could choose money or piggie, but i don't think there was that choice tonite. we would've taken the piggie. it would've been our first animal on our new farm. but that's ok. cy will have fun with his prize money.

Costumery

little lion. check.

pint-sized dorothy. check.

oz-accurate scarecrow. check.

tin man that can't get up when he falls over. pretty close to check.

the costumes are pretty much finished. now we just need the forecast to clear up. i'm really looking forward to the baby parade, but if it's cancelled, at least we can use the costumes for halloween. (they are TOO cute.)

Pumpkins & Costumes

apparently i've fallen behind in posting pics. here are some from halloweenish. ~bec.
...having issues with how the copy & pics layout. here's some captions that i can't get to flow well. :o)
1 - can you tell who elle mae idolizes these days?
2 - cheese! (facelift complete with stickers)
3 - shelby created this outfil herself (of course) from the bag of play clothes i re-found. she calls it "Christmas girl."
4 - elle mae is style.
5 - won the mega chocolate bar for best costume at cubbies.

Happy Halloween!

although we didn't go trick or treating this year, we did get to dress up for the library (snow white, clown, king, & ice cream cone) and for awana (Jesus' mommy mary & king cyrus). mommy wasn't very inspired til the day arrived. maybe next year we'll go all out. ~bec.