Pre-Halloween Halloween

Around this blog, we are all ready for Halloween.  Well "ready" is really a relative term.  The pumpkins have been bought, but not carved.  The decorations are mostly up but the weather has been so nice that we still have the screen in the door instead of the glass so all of the cool Halloween clingy things that Reina loves to rearrange are still in their packaging.  The costumes have been worn a few times now and trick-or-treating better hurry up and get here before something rips or gets boring.  

Last week, the costumes had their official unveiling at the annual Halloween carnival at school.  

Does this hair give you a hint for Reina's costume?  One video tutorial later and we have Rey from Star Wars, just a blond version.  

Will is Charlie Blackmon, one of the Rockies' outfielder who has a glorious beard.  Will's beard was knit by me and it turned out fantastically if I do say so myself.  Mr. Detail-Oriented wanted something a little more lifelike but when I pointed out that it would be tough to make something out of actual human hair, he conceded that his beard was good enough.  

I'm overwhelmed by their cuteness.  

Random days off

The kids didn't have school today because of a teacher planning day so I took the day off to spend time with them too.  State offices were technically open today but I have a feeling I wasn't the only one making a three-day weekend out of it.  Usually when I plan for these days, I try to cram too many 'fun' activities into the day and all of us end up being grumpy and tired.  So for today, I had a few errands in mind, picked an afternoon movie matinee and let the rest of the day work itself out.  The kids have some friends in the neighborhood and the weather was nice so I anticipated a few visits from kiddos.  Long boring story short, we had a really nice day.  We ran our errands, had a pizza-filled lunch, watched an entertaining movie, cleaned kids' rooms (!!), dehydrated a bunch of apples (I'm so middle-aged right now!), cooked a big pot of chili for dinner and dressed a cat.  

Coco the Jedi Master 

More thrilled than we thought she would be. 

We discovered that outfits from Build-a-Bear are perfectly sized for a medium-sized calico cat.  In related news, Coco is going to be a mermaid for Halloween.

The rest of our three-day weekend was nice too.  Will had his last football game on Saturday.  More on his first tackle football season soon.  On Sunday, we got to spend all day with Baby Boy Cousin and Toddler Cousin and it was delightful.  It's so fun having little people around the house and their presence kept me from yelling at the tv during the Broncos game which was appreciated by the rest of the family.  Toddler Cousin follows Reina around and when she's not doing that, she tells me funny things like "your chickens are beautiful!" and while looking at her brother "that's my boy" and "I want to watch Bob Bob Square Bob."

Will feeding BBC.  They were both equally unsure about that plan at first but it worked out just fine.

Finally, here's a picture of Reina looking cute.  She's much more interested in her hair lately and asks for a ponytail or braid every morning, about five minutes before it's time to walk about the door.  I think I need to teach her how to braid soon.

I tried pigtails - they are a little uneven but they don't detract from her cuteness.  

The week is off to a good start.

All About Reina

One of Reina's first 2nd-grade projects was to put together an "All About Me" poster.  Not surprisingly, she was all over this project.  She picked out the poster board color (orange!), grabbed a handful of markers, dug out some stickers from a book I bought years ago and got started. I found the photos from our trip to Virginia and a few other hard copies I had lying around.  It's amazing how infrequently I print photos these days.   In about a half hour, she's cranked out this delightful summary of 7-yr old Reina. 

subcategories:  Brother, family, mom, daddy, Coco

Stickers of chickens butterflies and a horse. 

Hates:  peppers, spiders, bullying, cold, spots, hurt sad

Likes:  cats, cook, Broncos, family, tarl (?) or travel, dogs, fishing, hunting, candy, erasers, dreams, bikes, shopping, Friday, and a bunch of other stuff. 

Mount Vernon and a cat with a halo.  Probably not Coco? 

My favorite part of the project, besides her lovely drawings, were the comments from fellow students.  She brought home her grade and feedback today.  Her classmates learned (misspelling included because at this age it is pretty darn cute)...

about the vet
has a cat
I didn't know she had dogs
you have a dog?
her cat is so cute
she play peano
she like cat!
she likes cat's.
I not no she like to do peyanow
she dus like boleing (ballet?)
she has a cat
she has animals in her backyard. 
that she likes ornge (orange)
she is funny

That about sums up our Reina!