A story by J-Mav...

J-Mav saved his money and bought a Nintendo DS last weekend. His favorite part of it seems to be that he can write and draw on it with the stylus. This morning he wrote a story...

Honted House 1

One day a wich came and bould [bought] a house - a honted one - and a honted car. Then on Halloween a boy and his dad came to her house and got scared away by the which. But they never went to that house again because they didn't want to be cursed by the which. The end.

Halloween with the Three Amigos

Trick-or-treat 2008 has come and gone, though the pumpkin is still aglow on the front porch as I type. :-)

J-Mav has been anticipating this evening for a few weeks now. He was excited about his pirate costume and the fact that he was going trick-or-treating with his two best buddies. Collectively, they are known (at least by their parents) as "the three amigos."

One of the amigos and his family came for dinner prior to heading out trick-or-treating. I made chili for the adults and mummy dogs for the kids. The mummy dogs were a hit! After dinner, the kids got into their costumes while we were waiting for the third amigo and his parents and grandparents (who are visiting from Florida) to arrive. Once he got to our house, we took pictures and got ready to head out.

Keeper-Boy decided he wasn't going to trick-or-treat this year. He voluntarily gave up a chance to get tons of free candy to stay home and hand out candy! Shocking? Yes! So we left him with instructions to not let anyone into the house and not let on that he was in the house by himself. We knew from past experience that there wouldn't be a whole lot of "business," and that our neighbor across the street was home and observant. :-) With instructions given to Keeper Boy, our entourage headed out into the beautiful, clear, and somewhat mild evening.

We had our pirate, a red Power Ranger, and a shadow Ninja -- along with six parents and two grandparents. They were well-chaperoned. :-) Things started getting interesting exactly two houses into our journey. J-Mav didn't want to carry his candy bag. But we were prepared with a back-up "overflow" bag, so even though he wasn't overflowing, he dumped his bag every few houses and that kept him happy as far as the weight of the candy bag went.

About a block into the journey, the Power Ranger shed his gloves and the Ninja gave his mask to his Poppy for safe keeping. A few houses later, the Power Ranger also shed his mask. Around that time, the pirate ditched his eye patch. We continued on... the boys got more candy, the parents and grandparents checked some of the candy to make sure it was edible, and the Power Ranger shed another piece of his costume.

Around this time, the Pirate shed his headband and the Ninja ditched his chestplate and arm spike band things. We were starting to wonder if the kids were going to have anything on by the time we got back to our house! The pirate was also moving slower and slower, complaining about his legs and feet hurting. They were still having a good time, so we decided to quit while we were somewhat ahead. We had been out for a little over an hour at this point. So we finished the street we were on and headed back toward the house.

Everyone left when we got home as all the amigos have a soccer game tomorrow morning (the Ninja's team is playing the team that both the pirate and the Power Ranger play for). Once inside, Hubby and I went through the loot and threw some away. The pirate went to bed and was asleep almost immediately. Argh! And, with J-Mav's blessing, I took some into my office already (the stuff no one will eat).

With the boys both in bed, the candy sorted, and the dishes from dinner cleaned up, we were left to ponder our first experience with what seemed to become strip trick-or-treating... hopefully not an idea that will catch on anytime soon!

Happy Pumpkin Day!

I don't have one particular topic to discuss today, but Happy Halloween to everyone! I am (mostly) off today. I did work on a white paper for a few hours this morning, but I'm not in the office. :-)

Random Topic #1 - Hockey
Keeper Boy had a rare, weeknight hockey game last night. It was his turn to be the door keeper, and, as usual, he did a fine job. Hubby was on penalty box duty. I'm sure he felt right at home as he spent many a minute there in the first several years he played hockey! But back to the kids... Keeper Boy's team won 3-2. The team is now 4-1 in league play. Next game tomorrow afternoon. Keeper Boy will be in net.

Random Topic #2 - Grandparents
We had a quick, somewhat last-minute visit from my parents last night. They used our place as a layover on their way to my brother's new house a little further west of here. They spent some time with the boys, Dad went with me to see Keeper Boy's hockey game while Mom stayed home with J-Mav (and got beat in a spirited game of Trouble). They ate breakfast with us this morning and headed out when I took the boys to school. A nice, but short, visit. We'll see them again soon for Thanksgiving!

Random Topic #3 - Pumpkin Math
I volunteered this morning for the Kindergarten Pumpkin Celebration at J-Mav's school. For two hours, I ran a center for four or five Kindergarteners at a time where we did "pumpkin math." The three activities were estimating how many plastic links it would take to go around the pumpkin (24), estimating how many blocks would need to be stacked to be as tall as the pumpkin (11), and estimating how much our pumpkin weighed (10.5 lbs.). Once we established what "estimate" means, the kids had fun tackling the activities, though the estimations were fairly outrageous. Nonetheless, it was good time, and I saw some of J-Mav's friends as they rotated through the classroom I was stationed in.

Random Topic #4 - Blogs
My brother-in-law (BIL) and sister-in-law (SIL) both have blogs... mostly to keep each other up-to-date on their goings on while he's in Iraq for the year. If any of you is interested, his is http://www.cavalryguy78.blogspot.com/ and hers is http://jenrie.blogspot.com/

There's another blog that I read daily, called Fat Cyclist. I stumbled across it a little more than six months ago, after clicking a link from my cousin's blog. Though I've never met him, I am amazed by the man who writes this blog. He is an avid cyclist, a fabulous writer, and an absolutely amazing father and husband. His wife has terminal cancer, and the end seems to be near. I have never met, and will never meet, Elden or any of the people he talks about in his blog. But I feel like I know them. And my heart breaks for all of them as they deal with the decining health of an amazing woman, wife, and mom.

Random Topic #5 - Politics
Is it over yet?!?!