This is Love...

With 24 hours notice, my Relief Society (women's organization in my church) and neighbors filled my van to the gills with winter clothing to be trucked up to New York and New Jersey. And hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards were slipped through my mail slot for the full-time LDS missionaries in New York, who need nourishment while out helping people. It has been a truly touching day. 

And then my mom, who has taken the girls for the night so I can get into work early tomorrow. Kids are off tomorrow with election day. 

I left my parents tonight at 9:30, and children were still not asleep. So it might be a long night. Good luck, Mom--I'm headed to bed. :)

Brownies

Ella was in charge of dessert for family home evening tonight. 

Like most things, she makes it into a production.  

And the best part is that she is her own entertainment--she amuses herself in the process. Here is a glimpse of the Ella show.

Bed time Ritual

Like I said, my posts may be bed time oriented until I get into a better habit of taking pictures throughout the day. We have always read to our kids individually before bed time. It makes for a rather long bedtime ritual to get through reading to all three kids, but of all the mistakes we'll make in our parenting, this is one thing I know we're doing right. I remember my stepdad reading the Adventures of Tom Sawyer with me and my two brothers. 

Brian reads to Ella every night unless he is working late. He sits in the chair in Ella's room and she sits on her bed, usually playing with her Cat's Cradle string. They have been working their way through the Narnia books--and are now on their fourth, which is The Horse and his Boy. Brian missed a couple of days this past week, which meant I filled in, which frustrates Ella because I have no clue what the book is about--she asks me questions and I'm useless. And it was sweet to see Brian in bed last night reading the book in order to catch up to where I left off with Ella. There is nothing like sharing a good book together.

This is not the picture I planned on posting today.

Ella and I ran (and walked) a 5K this afternoon. I thought it would be a prime photo opportunity to capture her smiling, proud of her accomplishment, just as she did last week (she is participating in a Girls on the Run program after school). However, this week there was a whole lot of complaining, which led to an increasingly frustrated mother. A cattle prod would have come in handy. Granted it was cold, and 3.1 miles is a long ways for a 3rd grader, but here her devoted mother had taken the afternoon to come encourage and run with her. Couldn't she have dug a little deeper to find joy in the experience? Sigh. I was not feeling particularly keen on pulling out the camera to capture the grumpiness that consumed us both.

So here I resort to the picture of Lucy I took this morning. I promised her "under dogs" on the swing set after she had been so patient to run errands with me. And you can see all the leaves in our backyard that the hurricane brought down this past weekend. Fortunately it was just the leaves that came down--we feared much worse.

Oh and one more random thing. So the girls like to watch shows off our "On Demand" cable feature. Which I don't totally like because they show previews of movies that are not particularly appropriate for young children while the girls are trying to make their selection. I try and shield it as much as possible--but Samantha has now seen the preview for Snow White and the Huntsman a couple of times, and has decided that that is a movie she needs to add to her repertoire. Ella, expresses no interest, as she has not surpassed covering her eyes and ears in the stressful parts of Barbie movies. So as I am putting Sam to bed tonight, she says, "Mom, I would like to see the Snow White movie." I say-- "No Samantha, that is a movie for mostly Moms and Dads." She says, "Well, how old do I have to be to see it?" Me--"13". She says--"Why? Mom, I already know the story. I have read the book." Smart girl. I'm hoping if I dig up the Disney version that might hold her off for a bit.

My timer is up--Good Night.

Bowcut Bath Time

"Just one or two sentences," Brian said to me as I headed to the computer to post my picture(s) of the day. He knows I have a hard time restraining myself when I start typing. And look at that I've already used my quota before I even post anything. 

I'm thinking that most of my pictures might fall at the end of the day, as I remember that I was supposed to take a picture today. This evening I grabbed my phone during bath time. Samantha and Lucy have found themselves to be compatible bath mates. There are plenty of giggles as they douse each other with the bucket, splash their mom and dump half the bath water on the bathroom floor. 

Ella was feeling jilted about not being included in the pictures tonight, so I promised that tomorrow she would be the feature picture. I have a great one in mind. Stay tuned. 

Halloween, of course!

A year ago, I went back to work part-time (I have to fill in all the blogging gaps!). I took the day off of "work" today to do Halloween in the most devoted motherly way I know how. I did Halloween for 12 hours straight today. It started at 9:30 am for Pumpkin Math in 3rd Grade, followed by Halloween party set-ups in Kindergarten and 3rd Grade, a Halloween parade, 2 classroom parties, after school pumpkin carving, getting children fed with real food before the candy infusion began, outfitting children, and a night filled with trick or treating. When Brian told Ella tonight that "Mom was tired", Ella in all seriousness said, "From what?"

Samantha was mummified at her party:

Ella had a costume known only to Percy Jackson fans. She was the female heroine, AnnaBeth. While trick-or-treating tonight, only 2 people understood her costume. The rest thought she was a weird looking Yankees fan. One man even threatened not to give candy to a Yankees fan. 

She knew the costume was a risk. 

Our last stop of the evening is always a short drive away to Grandma and Grandpa's. It's our favorite trick-or-treating stop of Halloween. They are always generous with their candy.

At 9:30 pm after the last child was tucked into bed, I breathed a sigh of relief that tomorrow I could relax and go back to the office.

A Picture A Day...

I'm not one to keep my blogging goals. You know that by now. 

But I have a new one. I've even asked Brian for his support.

A picture a day. At least. 

I think it's all I can handle right now. Maybe more than I can handle. But this is serious.

I'm sad that I don't document our family more. 

So here is today's gem:

Bedtime silliness on the top bunk.

And as a bonus picture for my first day of my new goal, this is my most favorite October 2012 picture. Entitled:

Belly Itch at the Pumpkin Patch