FORTY-ONE

 

Baby Halloween Lana for your enjoyment. 

2021 week forty-one 

In one of our favorite Strega Nona books, they celebrate the Feast of the Animals. When St. Ann's Parish announced they were doing a blessing of the animals for the feast of St. Francis, the kids begged me for days to bring Salem. 

So we brought our traumatized cat to a church with dozens of dogs, and birds, and guinea pigs, and the priest sprinkled him with holy water. Poor Salem. The kids had the time of their lives. Even though he was #stressed, now Salem is #blessed. 

Theo and I have been perfecting our Halloween pumpkin arrangement. The spider lights are my favorite. Also the small picture of someone screaming that Theo drew when he was 3. 

The fat curl on his bacon looked like bun cheeks. He clearly did not find this at all funny. Nor did he continue to talk about it for the rest of the day and most of the following day. 

From spirit week last week when V and her teacher had matching hair. 

Friday was a half day for the kids so Matt came to pick them up and surprised them with McDonalds. They were so excited to tell me because they know they can never convince me to take them. Matthew is not quite so snotty as I am. 

While they were eating McDonalds, I was winning trivia prizes at our staff meeting. When the clue started with, "What cheese name..." I knew the prize was mine. Mr. Caros didn't like my idea of using this plaque as a cheeseboard. He seemed to think it was disrespectful. I, however, can think of few examples where cheese does not honor the surface upon which it is placed.

Friday evening we were the recipients of a providentially timed prank. Matt has been teasing (maybe meanly?) his mother for months for what a fan girl she is of The Chosen. And his cousin Erica and her husband Melvin sent him this objectionably large movie poster for the show that showed up at the exact instant when Joanie arrived to watch a movie with us. 

Then we dusted off our 90s Halloween nostalgia with Halloweentown. 

Theo went to a fun monster-themed birthday party on Saturday.

And I spent most of Sunday making lasagna from scratch (V and I love watching Pasta Grammar on Youtube, and we were inspired). I don't have the strength to roll this out by hand so I used my pasta machine. Even so, the sheets became unwieldy. 

I enlisted V's help. She loves cranking the pasta roller so she was happy to help. 

And Theo dusted himself from head to toe in the leftover flour. 

An interesting auction happened this weekend. The many possessions from the personal estate of Al Capone were up for auction. It was so fascinating to look through the lots. This humidor and pocket watch were some of my favorite things to see.