Trick or Treat!! We Got a Trick from Mother Nature!

I should explain that last post. .  .the kids in our area have a little fun superstition that if they flush ice down the toilet and wear their pj's inside out, we will get a lot of snow. . .enough that they won't have to go to school.  When we were having our huge snow storms in early 2010, my father in law jokingly told Aidan that he wasn't allowed to flush anymore ice down the toilet.  We did get over four feet in two really big whopping storms, plus several inches in various "smaller" storms.  So, Grandpa's concern was valid! 

Last night we really didn't think we would get snow.  It is only October, afterall, and we live in Virginia.  A place that will maybe see some snow in January, February and possibly early March.  Sometimes in late December, but not usually until January.  Here we are, the 29th of October and I am here to tell you that yes, indeed, there is snow coming down.  The grass and trees are coated. . .as are the pumpkins!

It is supposed to snow all day and into the evening.  It is pretty, just very early!  And, I have a feeling that Grandpa will forgive Aidan. . .  : )

Meanwhile, we're still getting ready for Halloween.  Some friends are supposed to come over this evening for dinner. . .provided they don't get snowed in. . . they do live at the top of the mountain up by Mount Washington along the Appalachians.  I'm making some homemade Jambalaya with chicken and Louisiana spicy sausage and garlic bread on the side.  The children will have chicken tenders (one has reached a saturation point on mac and cheese, and the other reached a limit on hot dogs!)  We will have lemonade punch with a green ice hand floating in the bowl and devil's food cupcakes decorated with spider webs, sprinkles and pumpkins.  Fun!  Then we'll do some Wii bowling.  Fun times at the Harrison's!

Aidan has his Hockey Skills class and Mini Mites this afternoon as usual.  He's doing really well.  He has gotten the stop down pretty good and is learning now how to do power turns and how to defend the goal better.  He was exhausted by the end of Mini Mites last week (2 1/2 hours on the ice!), but look how well he was doing regardless!  Ignore my blathering in the background.  I was bragging about my son's educational achievements and kept getting distracted by his playing!  : )

We went to Free Skate on Thursday after work and saw Coach Joe.  He's really an awesome coach for these little guys.  He spent a good 30 minutes (FREE!!) with a group of the boys just working on stopping, power turns, and how to turn around while skating forward and then going on backwards.  And then playing tag!  He's very encouraging with the boys, always praising every little thing.  It's nice.

And so, on to our day!  Happy Halloween Snowy Saturday everyone!!

Snow? A Message for Grandpa. . .

Film At 11:00

Don't you just hate it when you're watching the news and they tantalize you with a big story but say they will tell you all about it at a later time????  Well, that's what I'm doing to you!  Stay with me and you'll see Aidan later doing something amazing!

Yesterday was an awesome day.  Aidan got up in the most amazing mood.  He came down to breakfast without any grumbles and ate quite a lot.  Then he proceeded to work on his sight words for school instead of watching TV. . .totally uncoerced by me, too!  He did so well with his sight words that he even created a couple of sentences. . .we're going to show Daddy tonight!  "I"  "Can" "Go" "And" "See" "The" and Mommy added "Caps".  I didn't even have to tell him what Caps said. . .he knew!  : )

I did have to coerce him on wearing a jacket though.  He's still coughing and so I really wanted him to wear something warm.  Incredibly, I had to brow beat him into wearing his hoody with his jean jacket.  Kid doesn't like his jean jacket!  What's up with that???  Aren't I raising him to be an all American kid???  Okay. . .film at 11:00. . .

Typically Friday is Blue and White spirit day at Leesburg Elementary.  But, Aidan's long sleeved LES shirt has not arrived yet and I felt it was too chilly to wear just a short sleeved shirt so I sent him to school in his long sleeved Mickey Mouse shirt.  It's cool looking.   And, because it was Crazy Hat Day (so Aidan told us on Thursday night) I sent him wearing his Mickey Mouse ears that have Lighting McQueen and Mator on them.  Of course, when I dropped him off, he was wearing his ears and I did not see another single child wearing any kind of hat. . .so then I worried all day that I had opened my baby up to ridicule. . .what if it was Crazy Hat Day at Winwood????  Pat wasn't sure either so I did not get any relief until he picked Aidan up around 4:00 and found out that, yes, it had been at Leesburg Elementary. . .I'll be glad when we only have one school to worry about keeping up with! 

Yesterday morning, we followed our neighbor to the school who was dropping off her son who is in the third grade.  Logan is awesome and always likes playing with Aidan.  Aidan really looks up to Logan so when he saw Logan hop out of his Mom's SUV he said to me, "Mama, you can drop me off at the curb today."  Really sweetie?  Are you sure?  "Oh yeah.  I can do it."  Okay. . .And then he followed that up at dinner last night with a "You can drop me off at the curb from now on, Mama."  Okay, if you're sure. . .I've been waiting for this to happen--it does cut about 5 minutes off my time on getting to work--but now that it has, I feel kinda sad!  : (  My baby is really growing up.

Public School is changing him in so many ways. . .good and bad.  But, now for that film, and this is a good thing!!

And there you have it.  He is being Americanized as I thought.

A Friendly, but Weighty, Wager

I am an underwriter for an insurance company in Western Loudoun County.  I have agents all over Virginia whom I work with on a daily basis.  They are all a great group of people.  One, however, who is located in Richmond, happens to be a Penguins fan. . .boo hiss!!  : )  I think it's because he's from Pittsburgh or something (I have a taunting voice here).  He knows I am a Caps fan and he tries to give me a hard time about it all the time.  Says I'm brainwashing my son--really Aidan loves the Caps all on his own!!  He says he wants to be one one day! 

So, this agent and I entered into a friendly wager.  The best of the Caps v. Pens series:  the loser has to wear the jersey of the other team to work one day.  Doesn't seem like much, so I decided to add a twist to the wager.  For every point scored by both teams, I will donate 10 pounds of food to our local food pantry--Interfaith Relief.  He will do the same for his local food pantry.  So far, the teams have played one game and we're already up to 50 pounds of food!!  (Caps won 3-2 (sing songy voice : } ) ).

They play again on 12/1 and then twice in January 1/11 and then 1/22.  So, the food will then be donated near the end of January. . .at a time when most people will have moved on from the holidays and won't be giving as much.  This is a really hard month for charities and especially the food pantries.

So, this got me to thinking: what if Aidan and I gathered ten pounds of food for each goal the Capitals score each month and then take it to the food pantry at the end of each month for the entire season?  Not so much per month, but that could end up being about a 1000 pounds of food or more in total!  So far for October, the Caps have scored 23 points with 3 games to go. . .that is already 230 pounds of food!!!  Aidan and I are going shopping tomorrow to get on this thing. 

Go Caps!!

Do You Decorate for Halloween?

A few years ago, my mom told me that now that I have a little one in my home, I was going to have to have to decorate for all of the holidays.  Sure, I said.  I do that.  I go all out at Christmas with the lights outside and beautiful tree, wreaths, greenery.  I even do elves and a Rudolph.  AND I have a Nativity scene.

No no no, said my mom.  I mean ALL of the holidays.  In horror, it dawned on me that she was talking about Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, the Sun God of all creation Day. . .you get my drift.

These past couple of years, I have decorated as usual.  Tasteful Fall decorations that can easily go with Halloween or Thanksgiving:

Beautiful Fall Leaf wreath on my front door--see how it contrasts nicely with my black front door??

And I have a beautiful center piece made out of colored material that looks like fall leaves on my dining room table on which the cool ceramic pumpkin sits that Pat grew up with.

In other areas, I have nice orangy cinnamon candles, and even a couple of other cloth pumpkins.  With the exception of the ceramic pumpkin which I can exchange for the nice glass turkey, everything can stay as it is through Thanksgiving. 

Meanwhile, I have gotten Aidan's costume ready and bought the candy and all we have to do is get the Rocket ship going--this weekend. . .We even have this really cool pumpkin that Aidan's friend Catherine made for us out of a paperbag!  Cool!

So imagine my feeling of horror when my wonderful beautiful son said to me, "Mama, when are we going to decorate for Halloween???  Look, see Scotty and Logan have skeletons, witches, and ghosts out in their yard.  Where's ours???"  sigh. . .it was good while it lasted. . .

So, on Sunday, after church, we headed to the store.  Thinking I could get away with a Scarecrow, I snatched up this little baby:

It looks really cute on the front porch with our SEVEN pumpkins that we now have!

Thinking we were done, I then saw the look on Aidan's face and grabbed the clingy things for the windows, which are now all over the house windows. . .

Still not satisfied, I realized that I was going to have to go all out.  And so, I did it.  I bought the witch, which is now hanging from the tree out front!

I think he is finally satisfied, especially since I have hung pumpkin and spider streamers on his bed and ceiling fan in his bedroom. . .

But. . .

I have a new fear that I will be buying one of those deer that lights up and moves for the front yard for Christmas this year!  As long as I don't have to put a snowman on my roof. . .