Trunk-or-Treat in the Land of Oz

Today was our Trunk-or-Treat at church. The yucky snow/sleet from yesterday was gone and we had a sunny, but cold day for our set up. It was a lot of fun and all the kids had fun, mostly I just enjoyed spending the afternoon with my parents in silly costumes. Our theme was the Wizard of Oz, our minivan was the Wicked Woods, and my parents car was the Emerald City. Cast of characters was as follows:

Dorothy: A
Wicked Witch: H
Cowardly Lion: R
The Wizard: my dad
Glinda: my mom
The Tin Woodsman/woman: me

I was not planning on being in costume, but then since I was the one who sort of signed us up for the trunking and roped my parents into trunking as well, I was getting a lot of grief for not dressing up. I made H and my costumes out of odds and ends, R's Lion costume was found by my mom for $1 at a yard sale, and A had a friend lend her the Dorothy costume. My parents did their own costumes, and I have to say, they rocked the Emerald City. They also created a little "Munchkinland" between our two cars. So cute. And there was candy, much candy, and there were no nap for our little lion, but a very fun afternoon for us all.

Here are picts!

We start in the Wicked Woods...


and travel along the yellow brick road through Munchkinland...


To The Emerald City!


My Dad rocked the wizard look.


Our Oz Crew. The Cowardly Lion was very into the plush Toto dog...


If I were king of the forest, there would be candy everyday!



-The Good Stepwitch

Halloween Family Night

So can you tell cabin fever has really struck home - 2 blog entries in one night!!

It's not often, especially in the fall, when all 6 of our family members are together for an entire evening. Usually one kid had a sleepover, a football game, a date, or if it's C or I, one of us is working late or at choir or something. BUT, last night all 6 of us were home together for a really nice Halloween festive night.

C made his chili, which we all love, especially on a chilly fall night. We also carved our pumpkin. The kids usually draw out their ideas on paper and then we leave it up to C to mash-up the ideas into one pumpkin design. He's really good at it! But this year A wanted to do the carving, and she took it very seriously. H did most of the design this year and A did all the carving, and our pumpkin came out great! Our little man wasn't really into the whole pumpkin thing, after he realized the pumpkin was not for eating, he sort of bailed on the whole experience and watched Micky Mouse on TV instead. I guess maybe next year he'll get it more. But he sure does get the candy aspect of Halloween: CANDY = HAPPINESS.

So H and A did a great job on the pumpkin. R went down to bed and the rest of us settled down with hot apple cider and I opened the halloween candy bags up (we have to test the candy to make sure it is OK to hand out to children) for everyone to have a couple treats. We watched Captain America, not exactly a Halloween-themed movie, but pretty good. We were all wrapped up in blankets and quilts and had some candles going and it was just NICE family time.

When we were going to bed, C and I both commented on how nice it is that HAP are at an age where we can all watch a movie we enjoy together. C said he kept waiting for one of the girls to say: this is boring, I'm going upstairs, or for P to go play video games or something, but they didn't. We had a great family night with lots of laughs and jokes and candy and we need to savor those nights, because it's becoming very real to C and I that P is leaving for college next year. How crazy is that?? We are all going to miss him so much, but I know C will miss him most. So I really pray we get more of these family nights over the next several months to enjoy together.

Here are some pumpkin picts:

Dad preps the pumpkin...



A goes to work



The finished masterpiece!


-The Good Stepwitch

Seriously?

So, I really DID jinx our good weather weekend streak. Today it is cloudy, 32 degrees and has been raining/sleeting/snowing all day!!! YUCK! Hellooooo, can someone say OCTOBER? In Southeastern PA we don't sign up for snow until mid-November. So this is not very appreciated. Though I have to say, I am already feeling like our siding project is going to worth the investment. It's 32 outside and 65 inside, and that's with the thermostat set at 65. It may sound weird, but that's a first for us in this house. Yay new siding!

Thankfully, R decided today (after several no-nap days) to take a 3+ hour nap. He is still going strong and it's almost 5:00! But that means, that I am house bound since C is out running H to her tennis lesson, going grocery shopping and to the library. I feel cabin fever creeping in.

I am very hopeful that the wet stuff is outta here by 3:00 tomorrow for our Trunk-or-Treat. Will post more about that tomorrow!


Just yucky.


-The Good Stepwitch

Busy Fall weekend!

It was a great fall weekend for our family! Beautiful weather...AGAIN (there, I officially jinxed our awesome weekend weather streak - sorry) and jammed-packed of activity! Primarily because it was homecoming weekend at P & A's school. P is a senior and A is a freshman, so A was SUPER excited to have her first homecoming experience. She embraced it from the start of "spirit week" right on through to the homecoming dance last night. It is cute to see such school spirit and see her have such a fun start to high school.

A and her gals


Since our house is right across from the school, A had some friends come over to watch the homecoming parade with her on the porch. R was excited to watch too, because some floats throw CANDY...actually one float threw candy and he got exactly 2 lollipops and 1 airhead. Which is fine - we didn't want him to get a ton of candy, but it was sort of sad seeing him by the street with his little yellow candy bucket waiting for candy to rain down on him. Oh well, he'll get his share on Halloween.

Who wants CANDY??


We went to the football game specifically to see the halftime show since P is in the band. It was a great show - I think the best one P has been part of, but it was COLD so we were glad to leave after the show. The kids got ready for the dance later at their mom's house. Chris had to run over there last minute to give P his wallet. He had left it at our house and it contained his license for driving he and his girlfriend to the dance as well as the actual tickets for the dance. That boy is definitely not a boy scout.... he is almost NEVER prepared...

P is right on the 30 yard line in the front.


They are supposed to be serious all the way through the routine...P's really good at that.


Dad and A before the dance - she looked lovely!


But it sounded like a great time was had by all! Today the hubby and I took Ryan to pick out some pumpkins and more apples, since he eats apples like he's a horse or something! He wasn't really into pumpkin hunting, but he did a little looking and when we asked him what kind of pumpkin he wanted, he said, "A little pumpkin - for me!" So that's what he got. It was a great fall weekend! Next weekend is our Trunk-or-treat display!!! I even roped my parents into parking next to us to be the Emerald City, can't wait to see everyone's costumes and take pictures, and, of course - give out CANDY!




-The Good Stepwitch

Saga of the Siding

Last month C and I decided (at long last) that it was time to have our house resided. It was a project I had been pushing for some time. Our house is over 100 years old. It has little to none in the way of insulation, so our house would be freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer. The insulation that we could actually see in one area of our cellar was NEWSPAPER! I think 100-year-old newspaper has a negative R rating when it comes to insulation.

So anyway, we decided to take the plunge and do it. We found a great company that specializes in insulated siding to make old homes greener and more energy-efficient. I was so excited!!!! In addition to making our home more energy efficient, it was going to look brand new!!! Whoever did the siding on our house originally (during a renovation in 2005), literally took siding off an existing house and pieced it together on our house. And the capping around the windows and doors was awful. Of course, I wasn't looking at that stuff when we bought the house - I was looking at the completely renovated, lovely interior. Learned my lesson for the next house we buy....

So this week the siding project started. To put it mildly, there have been some bumps along the way this week:

Bump #1: Water damage was discovered. This was no big surprise, we knew there would be some, but we did not think it would be structural. It was. It wasn't something the siding company could fix. We needed a contractor to do it. In 2 days. I freaked out a little.

Bump #2: When I got home the first day, I found that the siding guys had put THE WRONG SIDING on our house. They were about 1/3 of the way up 2 walls - with the wrong siding!! I freaked out a little more. OK, a LOT more...

Bump #3: The weather was not cooperating. ARGH. Go away rain!!!

Long story short, it really has worked out OK. The project will most likely be finished tomorrow. But I have come realize how much more easily I freak out over stuff now. I don't think I used to be this way. Not this bad, anyway. Maybe my dad will read this and say yes, you always freaked out way too easily. But I think having a life-altering freakout period in your life can alter the way you handle problems afterwards. I tend to think the worst thing will happen. Thank God for my parents and my amazing hubby who show me again and again that it's not the case.

So, I resolve to start working on mellowing out more. Because really, no matter what the outside of my house looks like, it's the people inside my house that are most important. Thanks Dad for reminding me of that this week. Also, my house IS going to look awesome, and be more energy efficient and easier to maintain.... as soon as it stops raining.

I'll post pictures soon!

-The Good Stepwitch

Apple Day

It's perfect weather again outside today, so C and I took the boy to Highland Orchards for some harvest fun. HAP was at their mom's house this weekend, so we'll have to see if we have another orchard day with all 4 kids, but Highland is a cute little orchard with stuff perfect for two-year-olds. There were goats to feed corn to, a hay bale maze, cut-outs for photoshoots ( I m such a sucker for these...) a fake cow for milking, a playground and of course food! Right now, Ryan is all about apples. He asks for them all the time. So when he saw the 3 huge bins of apples (golden, red and macintosh) for "picking" he was all about that! He reached right into the Golden delicious bin, grabbed an apple and started munching away. Nevermind washing it, paying for it, whatever, go apple boy go!

It was a nice short visit, we probably only stayed about an hour, but goats were fed, cows were milked, games were played, and apples were picked and eaten. Most importantly, to C at least, was that we picked up apple cider doughnuts. Sooooo yummy.

Here are some pictures:


Not too scared of the goats this time!

Showing daddy how strong I am, he only helped a little...

My little man

- The Good Stepwitch

Welcome Autumn - please stay awhile!!

This is my absolute favorite weather and favorite time of year. The only problem is every year I feel like it flies by and is over before I know it! I love to wear jeans and a sweater and not need anything more to feel cozy. I love being under a quilt watching TV with C. I love mums and pumpkins and gourds, or "gorks" as R calls them. And I love Halloween!

This year our church is holding a Trunk-or-Treat, which is when you park your car (at the church) and decorate it and kids can trick-or-treat by going from car to car. It's basically a Halloween Tailgate! It's nice for kids who live in rural areas with no huge neighborhoods, and it's GREAT for me because even though we live right in town on a fairly busy street, no one really comes to our door on Halloween. And I wanna give out candy!!!

So I have great plans for our setup this year. We are doing a Wizard of Oz theme, specifically, the Wicked Witch's Woods. I will take pictures as we start getting our props together, but A will be Dorthy, H will be the Wicked Witch (though, she has made it clear she is going to be a cute, funky-cool Witch - she will not be anything ugly) and R will be the cowardly lion. I am so excited!

On another note, this past weekend, my family participated with a lot of our extended family in the annual Multiple Myloma Foundation 5k Race. Four years ago we lost my hushand's dad to MM. Each year since we have done this race in his honor with many family and friends. This year I was so proud of C - he came 1st place for his age group, and finished the race in 4th place overall!! He was all like, "yeah, no big deal" but I know it meant something special to him, and I was so happy for him. He even got a medal, though he refused to pose for a picture wearing it (silly man, did you think I'd post it here? Well, yeah, I totally would...) but I did take a picture of the medal.

So welcome Autumn, and please don't go and turn into winter too quickly! Stick around and let's have apples and cider doughnuts and leaf piles and pumpkin hunting and hayrides first, OK? Deal!

-The Good Stepwitch