Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween, folks! We actually did a lot of our celebrating last week, with class parties. Elizabeth's grade held a parade/sing-a-long for the parents. It was about the most darling thing ever. (I cried, just a little bit. Happy tears, of course. But seriously, crying? Over a Halloween parade? Sigh.)


Elizabeth, the cheerleader. Nonny contributed the skirt that she'd sewn for Aunt Kellie back in the day (Kel, wasn't that the year you wanted to be "a cheerleader who is Dracula's girlfriend and looks like Paula Abdul"?) . Elizabeth really wanted her costume to be in her school's colors (red AND blue), so I agreed to make a new shirt. Thank goodness for fusible webbing and ready-made bias tape.

Anna, the fairy-butterfly. Wings by JoAnn's, tutu and makeup by Mom, accessories by Anna.

Ben, the garden gnome. Tee hee. Sure, I had a couple of costumes already on hand that probably would've fit him. . .but I couldn't help myself.

Over the weekend, we carved pumpkins. . .




A happy moment for this mom: the girls are now (mostly) self-sufficient pumpkin-gutters.

Unlike last year, Elizabeth has more teeth than her jack-o-lantern this year. (For those keeping score at home, she's -7 baby teeth and +6 permanent teeth).

I really thought Anna would insist on a kitty face or a fairy face or something, but she ended up pretty traditional. . .although she made sure to tell me her jack-o-lantern was a girl. Even if she doesn't have eyelashes.

We also made play-dough monsters. I was in charge of the craft station at Elizabeth's classroom party, and this is what we did there as well. Here's what the girls created back at home:

(I'm convinced this is the Holy Grail of group Halloween crafts for the under-8s. Cheap and easy to prepare, minimal mess, open-ended, and the kids can spend anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes on it. Many, MANY thanks to the genius behind this blog for sharing the idea!)

On Halloween itself, we paid quick visits to the grandmas for a little costume fashion show. We got home just in time to eat a quick dinner of homemade mac & cheese with Halloween-shaped noodles. I should've taken a photo of the label; the ingredients included "1% cuttlefish". . .I'm assuming to give the black bat-shaped noodles their color?

After dinner, the girls got into their costumes, held still exactly long enough for me to take photos, and then we left the boys at home and went out for some trick-or-treating. Anna led the charge, while Elizabeth was more inclined to state that this or that house was "a little too creepy" and suggest that we skip it. One neighbor played a "trick" that just about did her in; as we walked up to a house we saw a scarecrow sitting on the front porch with a bowl of candy in its lap. As the girls and I discussed whether we thought it was a real person or just a dummy, the scarecrow MOVED and the girls let out an ear-splitting scream. Elizabeth was ready to run straight home, but to our relief, the scarecrow pulled off his mask and revealed himself to be their buddy Landon's big brother.

We managed to make it around the block and up one more street, to THE house. (I think every neighborhood has one, right? The house giving out the extra-cool goodies? In our neighborhood, it's stuffed animals.) For the girls, nothing could top this "treat"--they were so delighted with their little bears that they were more than happy to call it a night at that point.


At home they did the usual oohing and aahing, sorting and sampling, and then it was off to bed with their new bears. Since then I've been letting them each pick out three pieces each morning, to be eaten whenever and however they like. Elizabeth tends to pick a variety: some with chocolate, some without. Anna seems to go for the candy with the most artificial coloring and the highest sugar content; her picks for the first day included a full-sized bag of Skittles, which she ate on the way to preschool, and a triple packet of Fun Dip that, no lie, kept her quietly busy for well over an hour.


Ben also inadvertently got in on the candy action. While he and I were out running errands, a well-meaning cashier handed him a Dum-Dum. He had been fussing, and the (still wrapped) sucker held his interest, so I figured there was no harm in letting him play with it as I got him buckled up, loaded up the car, etc. Pretty soon, though, I noticed that the noises he'd been making had changed from grumbles to a cheerful, self-satisfied humming. When I checked on him, lo and behold: he'd pulled the wrapper off the Dum-Dum and was delightedly sucking away at the tasty treat, with bright blue syrupy smears all over his face. Let me tell you, whoever coined the phrase "like taking candy from a baby" obviously never tried to pry a baby's first sucker out of his sticky hands.

So, another Halloween is on the books. Before we know, Thanksgiving will be upon us--and then it's full steam ahead to Christmas, with a stop first for Elizabeth's birthday. For now, though, all I'm thinking about is whether there are any Reese's Peanut Butter Cups left.

Gratuitous Cuteness

I don't have much to say tonight, but I was browsing through our old photos and came across a few favorites that I don't think I've shared before:






Dang, our girls are cute!

And I can't leave out Ben. He's pretty adorable as well. . .


. . .despite the uncanny resemblance to a certain billionaire:

Fall Firsts

First day of preschool

First soccer game

First pinstripes

Summer 2011's Greatest Hits

As I was sifting through photos on the computer, I realized that there were a lot of things we did this summer that didn't make it into a blog post. And so I present to you, in no particular order, our summer's greatest hits:

Anna's Birthday Party

I finally did it; I remembered to take pictures of Anna's birthday! This was the first year she had a "friends" party. She helped me plan a fun butterfly-themed party, but then on the morning of the party she announced, "I changed my mind, Mommy. I want a ballerina party." Hence her sparkly leotard and tutu.





Treasure Hunt with Grandpa Pugh

This summer I learned about an old Pugh family tradition: Grandpa Pugh's treasure hunts. It seems that Grandpa Pugh used to stage a treasure hunt, complete with a hand-drawn map, for the kids each year in the ravine near his house. The last treasure (which I'm told includes a substantial amount of cold, hard cash) was never found, but the map has survived and Sarah and Skylar are determined to find the treasure. . .so, with shovels and map in hand, we headed to the park.

Shortly after we arrived, though, it started to rain. A lesser family may have called it quits and headed for the car, but we are Olsons: We weathered a whole day in the rain at Mt. Rushmore, and we weren't about to let a little rainstorm ruin this picnic. We covered up the food and huddled together under trees and blankets. And then it started to POUR. The blankets got soaked, and some of us took cover in the playground:


Eventually we decided to make a break for the car. The storm did little to darken Ben's sunny disposition:



Soon enough, the storm passed. We finished our food and headed out on the treasure hunt:

(Elizabeth got wetter than the rest of us;
while we were all hunkered down,
she was happily skipping around in the rain.)

The kids found the new treasure that Sarah and Skylar hid for them, and then we continued down the path to where the "lost treasure" is supposed to be. No luck finding it this year, but next year we'll be back. . .with a metal detector.

Red Butte Garden

Just last week we packed a picnic for dinner and went up to Red Butte Garden for FHE. I've been here numerous times: on field trips (as a student and as a teacher), for concerts at the amphitheater, with playgroups, and just on my own with a kid or two. But this is the first time I'd been there in the evening--it was wonderful! Cool, quiet, almost empty. . .and with great lighting.





Thanksgiving Point

Way back in June, while the Epperson cousins were here, we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It's far enough away that we don't get down there very often; in fact, I think this might have been the first time Anna's ever been.

(There was some terrifying prehistoric creature
hanging right above her head. . .)

Hogle Zoo

This summer the zoo had these fabulous animatronic dinosaurs on display throughout the park. I think the girls liked the dinos even more than the actual animals! These fellas gave me flashbacks to "Jurassic Park":

Aunt Kellie, the girls, and the babies posing in front of "Tommy the T Rex".

The carousel and train ride are always a favorite, too:




There was a new baby elephant, named Zuri, born at the zoo awhile back. Elizabeth has been eager to go see her, and finally this summer we did:


Our most recent visit actually happened to fall on Zuri's birthday, and there was a big birthday card on the plaza for people to sign. Kellie and I thought this inscription was particularly funny:

Now that's optimism.

Also funny was this road sign I saw on the way home from a zoo trip:

(Thankfully we escaped unharmed. I guess motherhood has so reduced my brain size that the zombies didn't feel I was worth the effort.)

Dog Days

When school first lets out, summer is a fresh promise of endless delights. June is beautiful. June is practically May, which is a fine month indeed. June is the rubbery smell of new flip flops, the smooth tightness of a brand-new swimsuit. the clean smell of freshly-turned garden soil.

In July, the summer fun reaches a fever pitch. July is gunpowder and freshly-cut grass. July is the invigorating sting of chlorine, the dazzle of fireworks, the explosion of flowers in your garden bed, the sticky juice of watermelon dribbling down your chin.

But August? There's a reason they call them the dog days of August. The novelty of summer has worn off, but temperatures (and tempers) are running high. Both the swimsuits and the morale are beginning to sag. A mother's patience wears as thin as the sole of her flip flops. Even the weeds give up and start looking a little rangy.

And then come September. The long morning shadows, the sweet inky smell of worksheets still warm from the copier, and the rustle of renewed good intentions that strike us all at the beginning of a new school year.

Well, that's almost right, anyway. School actually started on August 22nd for us this year. And Elizabeth goes to a school that is roughly as old as her grandparents, which means it's brimming with authentic retro charm but is also without air-conditioning. With the temperatures still climbing into the mid-90s, the classrooms are sweltering. I'm surprised the crayons haven't all melted. The PTA has gone all out, setting up fans and doling out Otter Pops, even putting out sprinklers at recess for the kids to cool off. Still, Elizabeth comes home each day with pink cheeks and hair plastered to her forehead. She's a trooper, though; she didn't even mention the heat until I asked her point-blank if her classroom was hot. "Yeah, even with two fans blowing it's still hot!" she brightly replied. Yup, this girl loves first grade, hot classroom and all.

Elizabeth, excited for the first day of school

Anna's preschool, on the other hand, doesn't start until after Labor Day. For the first week, she basked in the glory of having Mom and Ben all to herself--but it didn't last. Poor girl was so lonely today; she pulled out her dolls and set them up half-heartedly, then told me, "I'll wait till Nano comes home so we can play together."

Anna, all set to walk Elizabeth to school. By the time we reach home, she's already asking when first grade will be over so Nano can come home again.

Ben celebrated the start of the school year with his own new accomplishments: rolling over, sitting up, and cutting two new teeth.


For the most part he's been a happy little guy through it all, though he did have an exceptionally bad day this week: already crabby from cutting tooth #1, while he was sitting on my bed he tipped over, rolled off the edge, and face-planted in the carpet, giving himself a rug burn on the side of his nose. Ouch.

Ohhh, he's a handsome little devil, isn't he?

Despite the summer heat, Jared is plugging along in the backyard. Our original goal this summer was to put a lawn in the backyard. So far we've gotten a new fence, sprinklers in the front yard, and a beautiful new wet saw. But that's just how we roll around here. Our family motto is "Might as well", as in, "Well, since we've already got the trencher, we might as well dig up the front yard too. And since we've already got the yard dug up, we might as well put in a new patio. . ."

(Oops. Photos of the patio-in-progress are still on my camera. I'll post them later. Maybe.)

We've had to take a break from his projects this week, though; it seems like whenever we embark on a new home improvement project, something breaks on one of the cars. Along with the new sprinklers last month, I got a new radiator in my car. And Jared is getting a new fuel pump in his car along with the patio he's been working on this month.

And then there's me. Hmm, what did I do in August? Ran a 5K. Baked some really fabulous bread. Washed and folded an endless stream of laundry. Went swimming and to the zoo and to the park and to Red Butte Garden. Changed a few hundred diapers. Ate the sole cherry tomato that grew on the plant I stuck in a pot on our patio. Read two of my childhood favorite books to my girls (Little House in the Big Woods for Elizabeth; The Sleep Book for Anna). Squished Ben's chubby little thighs a couple thousand times.




Mmm, yeah. It was a good summer, dog days and all.