FORTY-FOUR

 

Pickolas Ridicolas

2024 week forty-four

Miss honor roll got her celebratory ice cream this week on our date. 

Happy Halloween from a family of zombies and a Charlie Brown ghost, and another family of Dalmatians. 

The only cousin who was not afraid of Matt's face paint. 

This dress is really something from *behind*. 

On Friday our school had our Fall Fun Fair. My student bid the most tickets to win the ability to pie me. 

He was a little nervous, so he was very gentle. 

V felt like it wasn't nearly good enough, so she jumped in to show him how it's done. 

Pure delight. 

I got him back a little. 

Cudgel fighting. 

After the fun fair, Matt took the kids to a local haunted house. 

Movie and dinner date with Grandma and some cousins. 

Sunday afternoon was really rainy. Matt took the kids to In-N-Out for lunch and they got some free hot chocolate. That sounds so nice, but *I* got a quiet clean house for an hour and a half. Mine was better. 

Quotes

V- "Ooh. I just had shivers up my spine. I like to call those love echoes."

FORTY-THREE

 

Before school with some critters. 

2024 week forty-three

We've had some really hot weather lately- rather hotter than normal. But because we had that surprise wet and cool week back in September, my garden never quite died this year. And now we're being rewarded with plants absolutely dripping in peppers and tomatoes! 

 I have never had my tomato plants survive August, let alone September, and here they are with more tomatoes on them than I had in June! I am desperately ready for the weather to cool down, but if it wont, I hope it stays long enough to ripen our tomatoes. 

The Halloween festivities have begun. First was the Spooky Cake Contest for Scouts. Theo helped me make the "Exploding Spider Cake." It was rather creative, and may have won a prize if four other people hadn't brought very similar cakes. Oh well. We had fun making it, and I'm sure the little boy who got to take it home was thrilled with all the fake spiders. 

Then we were invited to a Trunk-or-Treat with friends. V had been sick all week with a low fever and coughing like crazy. She missed the whole week of school. She was finally feeling well enough to leave the house for a bit to get some candy and see some friends. Theo decided to forego the mask and just be an army soldier, and V was the Charlie Brown Ghost. Luckily, she didn't get a single rock. 

After dinner on Saturday, Grandma painted and carved pumpkins with us. 

The final pumpkins. 

Quotes:

V- "Can you pick your license plate numbers?"

Matt- "Yes. For a fee."

V- "Mine would be FIZZ666"

FORTY-TWO

 

Kippy in her "Too Cute to Spook" dress from our neighbor. The kids love it. She tolerates it. 

2024 week forty-two

Theo turned nine this week. In the spring we saw a video about a sushi cake, he has reminded me weekly since then that that is what he wants for his birthday dinner. It was easier to make than we thought and really tasty. 

Birthday boy. 

The dessert he wanted was meringue with custard, whipped cream, and raspberries. 

Oma sent money so he could get a new bike. This is the one he chose. He's eagerly anticipating daylight savings time, so it's light enough in the mornings for us to ride to school. 

Instead of a birthday party, Theo just wanted to go to Six Flags Fright Fest. He wanted Grandpa to join us for all the rides and spooks. 

Before their first real roller coaster. 

There was a lot of waiting in line and chatting. The kids loved every ride we took them on. I was probably the most scared of the bunch, though after 10 hours of amusement park fun, Theo was so exhausted that he just sobbed during the last ride. 

They also got to go through their first haunted house. We went to the Stranger Things house, which was just the right level of spooky for them. They immediately fell asleep as soon as we got back in the car. 

On Sunday, my very oldest friend in the world brought her family over to have dinner with us. I have known her since I was 6 years old, but I hadn't seen her in years. It was such a pleasure to meet her husband and son. 

He can totally be an honorary Texas cousin. We will take him. 

Quotes

V, to Theo who was talking about sea monsters and cruise ships -"I'm so proud of you Theo! You live in a fantasy world. Just like me!"

Theo's teacher, to me - "Did Theo tell you what he did to me last week?"

Me, prepared to hear anything at this point-"No."

Teacher- "He walked up to me at recess, opened his mouth, and a moth flew out!"

Me, definitely not prepared for that- ...

FORTY-ONE

 

State Fair of Texas 2024 

2024 week forty-one

On Thursday afternoon we took the train down to the State Fair. Butter sculpture. 

Free-standing card sculptures

The half man. 

The Ferris Wheel. 

The kids' first haunted house. Theo said it was so scary. But he asked to go to Six Flags Fright Fest for his birthday, so I don't know what he's going to do when he encounters a real haunted house. 

It was great that the kids were old enough to ride all the rides they wanted and we could just watch. 

The swings. Theo is holding his yellow bandana out. 

The kids were so excited to see the chickens hatching, like they've never seen this before...

The prize pig. 

An absolutely horrifying condiment display... 

The craft building was a big hit. The kids were so inspired by the amount of "scale model dioramas" that they've been doing nothing but building their own lego scale models all weekend. 

We each got to pick the treat we wanted to try and then share it with everyone. I picked the corn dog -classic.

Matt picked the flavor winner: burnt end bombs. 

Theo asked for a mango. Anything in the world you could get deep fried, and he picked a fresh mango on a stick. It was probably the best mango any of us had ever had though. 

V picked a chocolate covered frozen banana. 

We had a few tickets left on our way out so we wanted to try the wackiest thing we could. We settled on Sushi bombs. They were odd -mostly just crispy batter with lots of sauces. 

Train ride home. V isn't sad - just tired. 

Quotes

I really hate the Ferris Wheel. But my family insists that I *must* ride it with them.

Me- "I don't want to go. You all do want to go. You go without me, save the tickets and have a good time."

Theo- "But if you don't go we WONT have a good time."

Me -"But if I go then I WONT have a good time."

V- "That's ok!"

Me- "So you can only have a good time if I'm miserable?"

V and T together - "YES!"