Look! Kids with knives!

No, I'm not talking about gangs in middle schools. I'm talking about pumpkin carving with the Quigley kids! And I'm hardly talking at all--just posting pictures.

Getting started...


The final products


They did it!


My favorite pictures from the night:

My thoughtful boy...


And my sleepy girl...


Happy Halloween everyone!

Two more pictures from last night

These are two of Annie and Naomi that Snoa sent me. I couldn't resist sharing... :)

Pre-Halloween Party

One of Jake's classmates had a Halloween party tonight. That's right--Halloween starts almost a week early for us pagans. :) The party was fun, but of course I'm only writing about it because it was a photo op...

Here we are before going in. Jake was less than thrilled about getting his picture made...


Annie and her mommy. Me and my baby. My new favoritist picture.


The party had stations where kids played games or did crafts and got candy. I think Jake went through the bean bag toss 20 times to get all this candy...


Jake and Luke punching each other. Yes, they go to a Montessori school. And their principal was AT the party. But boys cannot stop themselves: they will be boys.


Our happy fairy Annabelle.

Annie talks...

...and oh, the things she says...

Annie has decided that wearing panties and peeing in the potty are not worth the effort after all. I have complete faith (most of the time) that she will eventually be interested again, so I'm (most of the time) not pushing it.

This morning, however, I put in the "Potty Power" movie that we love and asked her to sit on her little potty while she watched. She watched, sang along and sat. When the movie was over, she came running to me.

"Mommy! I pretend peed in the potty! Let's pour it in the big potty!"

That's right: she pretend peed. Nothing actually there. So I said, "Great, honey. Let's pour your pretend pee in the pretend big potty," and then turned over her potty bowl beside her little potty.

Annie gasped and stared at me horrorstruck.

"Mommmyyyy!!! You spilled it!!!"

But...okay, okay. Like a good mom would (I imagine), I scooped the pretend pee back into her potty and we "poured" it into the real potty. Weird.

.................

Later this afternoon, Ike laid down with Annie to get her to take a nap (a decision I'm regretting now that it's 9:30 and she's refusing to go to sleep). Annie, always thoughtful and observant, said, "Look, Daddy. I have hair and you don't!"

Nice. You mean she can pretend pee, but Ike doesn't get to have pretend hair??

..................

Most of you know that we are anti-Walmart as a family. Well, we all have a price, apparently, and the Quigley price is Bakugan. Jake is way, way, way into this Bakugan game with his friends. Never mind what Bakugan is, it would take too long to explain, but the point is that everyone sells out of Bakugan and Walmart had some in stock on Friday.

So...after a friend's birthday party (a friend who got about 1,000 Bakugan), we headed to Walmart to buy Jake a few more. Jake got two Bakugan, Annie got a princess diary (which she refuses to let me read and says, "It's a secret, Mommy.")

Walmart left quite an impression on Annie. Tonight at dinner she informed us that she wants, "the big doll from Walmart for Christmas. The one with a big head." For anyone wondering? That's a Bratz doll. (Yes, I am very aware that of course any girl who plays with a Bratz doll thinks she has to be all about looks and make-up and will become a whore. Just like all the girls I know who played with Barbies walk around on their tiptoes and marry guys named Ken... That's a ridiculous argument best saved for another time.)

Then Annie said, "Walmart is awesome. Walmart is AWESOME! They have lots of big toys!"

Ummm...Ike swears he didn't coach her to say that. Is this how a Baptist preacher feels when his child comes home with piercings and tattoos??

Goat Lady Dairy Open House

So today Nana, Annie and I ventured to Liberty for the Goat Lady Dairy open house. When Annie was a baby, we took her a similar open house type thing at Rising Meadow Farms, a sheep farm just down the road from the Goat Lady. At Rising Meadow, they had entertainment, food, crafts to purchase, etc.--things to entertain a small child. So I thought this might go the same way, only with Annie now big enough to run around and enjoy it.

Well...the goat cheese was AWESOME. Nana and I found the short talk about cheesemaking fascinating. The herb garden was inspiring. But Annie mostly liked the things she could climb...







The rest of the afternoon? Eh. Maybe not worth the trip with a little one again. But who cares? The important thing is that we got pictures (and cheese).

For some reason, the goats wouldn't come close enough to Annie for us to take a picture. Maybe it's some sort of instinct they have about the havoc a two-year-old could wreak were she to grab on, swing herself around and ride on a goat's back through the farmyard... So anyway, we settled for saying hi to a few cows.


At first Annie and Nana said, "Thanks but no thanks!" to this seeming bridge to nowhere...but then we noticed that it was a shortcut to the parking lot.

We Girls Can Do Anything, Right Annie?

Knights and swords? Ballerinas and princesses? Why choose??


Just don't drink too much [chocolate milk] before heading out to battle...

Second Grade Portrait

Jake's school picture came home yesterday. Best ever.

He's still loving second grade, although we had our first bus confusion today. His teacher called after school to say that Jake was almost on the bus when he remembered (incorrectly) that I was picking him up in the car line. It was only after the cars were all gone that he then remembered that he's going through the car line tomorrow.

Fortunately, a friend was able to pick him up for me, as I don't have the car today. Her kids stayed for a playdate, which means Jake learned a valuable lesson today: miss the bus, get a free playdate!

Thanks again, Snoa, for saving my child from spending the night at school!