Finally! Halloween!

Meghan has been waiting for about two months for this day to get here. She was awake at 6:30 AM this morning. When I told her Happy Halloween as she got up, she said, "It's today? Really? Can I get my costume on and go trick or treating NOW?" HA! As tempted as I was to go start knocking on doors and waking up everyone else I could I resisted and told her we had to wait until the boys got home from school.

Our first visits were out to see the family. We visited Parker's first, then Mamaw and Papaw's and finally Grandpa's. The boys were totally amazed at the "jackpots" they kept hitting! Grandpa had a trick of his own for the kids. He had a small bowl of candy that had about 6 pieces of candy in it. He told them they could pick either one or two pieces. They looked back at us, like "Do you think it would be ok if we took two?" I knew he had waaaaay more than that for them, so I just smiled at them. Then he got up and grabbed another huge bowl that was full and said, I meant one or two handfuls! They immediately started shoveling candy into their bags.

We grabbed pizza for dinner, then went out for more trick or treating in our own neighborhood, like we really needed more candy! (In case you care....I was curious how much candy she really did get this week, so I got on the scales without it, then back on with the bag of candy. I was exactly 5.2 lbs heavier with the bag of candy. That's A LOT of candy!!!!!)

Meg was full of funny comments tonight too. Here are just a few:

*As we left home, "You don't need to worry about my name tonight Mom, just call me Dorothy all night."

*"This is definitely my favorite night!"

*After being asked by an older man, "Are you Heidi?" She came back to me and said, "Mom, why did that guy think I was hiding?" HA! She has no clue who Heidi even is!

*"Mom, look I got my favorite candy. It's the stick kind with stuff in it. You know pissy sticks? Is that it?"

As promised...

Cupcake pics...here we are in all of our cupcake glory.

And the Children's Museum update. Meg and I headed out first thing Thursday AM to kick off our Fall Break celebration. She was up at 7AM anyways, so I figured we might as well get going! When we first got there we went through the Haunted Train...never fear though, it was "friendly hours" so we were not frightened at all. The people were all very nice and the lights were on. They actually had us count the Eerie Express stickers in each room as we went through and Meg really enjoyed that game. In each room, she'd search around until she found the sticker then yell out the number. By the end, when we were up in the teens, she'd actually count all the way up to the number we had last counted out quietly to herself then yell out the next number. Her interesting way to keep track! :) At the end they had a little trinket gift shop set up and she spent her Halloween money from Grandma Bodell by purchasing a light up tiara that she insisted on wearing the rest of the day.

After the Haunted Train, we rode the carousel, then I convinced her to visit the Science Works area. She was very intrigued with a special magnet exhibit for a while, but soon asked to go back and play in some play houses she had seen near the carousel. **Sigh** I was looking forward to playing the Fall Creek Watershed area, but she just wasn't interested. I need to resign myself to the fact that she is a girly girl, whether I am or not! HA! We spent a little more time singing songs at the Playscape and then looking at a few more exhibits, then we decided to head for home, with a quick lunch detour to Chik-Fil-A. (She got a free kids' meal coupon in the Eerie Express that we thought sounded good!) All in all, it was a very fun morning/afternoon!!!

What princess doesn't love a good dig in the dirt?

Princess Meg completing a Princess puzzle

Having tea and porridge with the three bears, her favorite story to tell!
Cheese!!!!

Cupcakes and Pumpkins

We've been feeling a little artsy-fartsy around here lately. We carved pumpkins last Wednesday night. Well....the boys and I carved pumpkins. Princess Meghan was waaaay too grossed out to put her hand in the pumpkin and pull out pumpkin guts. She just looked at me and shook her head no. I told her it would be fun, but she replied, "Ewwwwwww, I'm not doing that, it's slimy!" Can you say, DIVA???? Oh well! She did pick out a not-so-easy castle scene for me to carve out for her. I managed and it actually turned out kind of neat. Of course, why wouldn't a princess want a castle scene on her pumpkin?

And, last night, I had baked cupcakes so we decorated them with frosting and any kind of Halloween sprinkle you can imagine. She was much more into that since it involved being able to lick icing off of utensils and fingers for clean up. I had a houseful of future pastry chefs, but they definitely will require quite a clean up crew if they ever get their own television show on The Food Network. I have pics of cupcake decorating too, but they haven't been uploaded yet! I'll get them on here with an update of today's events. Meg and I had a fun filled day at the Children's Museum! :) Will update soon....

A Whole Night!

Meg had a big announcement for me tonight. She has figured out how long one night is. It's one huuuuuuundredddd minutes long, isn't it? Thank goodness it's a little longer than that or I'd be one tired mommy! So funny the concept of time is for a 4 year old! Gotta love it!

Just a little fib

This last Tuesday I had to go to school for a musical....what fun!?!? (Not!) Greg took Meg to gymnastics by himself and she was ever so excited for that. I told her that I could talk him into taking my place at the musical and that I would take her to gymnastics, but she didn't like that idea, later I found out why.
When I got home close to 8:00, she was still awake. Bed time is 7:30, so victory #1 for her, she suckered him into letting her stay up juuuuuuust a liiiiittle bit later! First thing I noticed was a balloon creation. I asked her what it was and she told me it was a flower...a pretty flower just for me that she got from.....gymnastics. (Yep, she paused for just a moment) Here's the rest of the conversation:

Me: Gymnastics? Was there a clown there tonight or something?

Meg: No, Miss Wobin made it.

Me: Miss Robin makes balloons animals? I never knew that!

Meg: Uh huh! (smirk on her face)

Me: Are you sure?

Meg: Uh huh!

Me: I noticed on the Culvers sign on the way home that they had kids night tonight from 6-8 pm, you didn't your balloon there did you?

Meg: Whaaaat? How did you guess that Mommy?

She's not so good at keeping things from me! HA HA! She did tell me that she got chocolate ice cream with brownies on top and that while she ate most all of the brownies, the rest of her ice cream was in the freezer for me. How sweet of them, huh? No wonder it's better when Greg takes her by himself to gymnastics!

Tech Junkie to be...

I was getting logged onto the computer to get some school work done and Meghan asked, "Who's dot com are you going on Mommy?" HA HA! I guess she has a concept of the internet now thanks to http://www.starfall.com and http://www.pbskids.org.

Time for Fall!

Finally....cool, crisp fall air found it's way to us! I must admit, I'm glad. I love fall. Meg, not so much. Dressing in long sleeves and wearing a jacket is causing some battles right now between us, but I keep insisting and soon enough she'll realize it's a battle she won't win. It's a long cold winter so tee shirts and flip flops are gone for now!

We had a great weekend though. Friday night we headed to Rural King with some special Mamaw and Papaw time. We had a talk about how we'd see lots of toys and she wasn't going to get anything, but she could point out some things that she might like to have for Christmas. She was very well behaved and announced while strolling through the toys that she found just what she wanted....."ALL of the girl toys they had!" HA HA HA! That's should be easy shopping this year. Actually, the Christmas "I wants" have already started. She's always seeing things on tv that she's just dying to have and I've been saving the catalogs for her to start circling items.

Saturday, we headed out to Grandpa's in the morning. I was busy doing some work and she got to play in the barn with him and the horses. Papaw picked her up there after a little while and she headed off to see the Chihuahua movie with him and Claire and Kate and Aunt Lisa. After the movie, they dropped her back off at home and we headed to the boys' last football game. We even got to eat at "The Pizza Place" (aka Chicago's) for dinner. Saturday night was filled with fun in the woods with Greg and the boys showing off their skills and our ever burning campfire.

Sunday, we were treated to a yummy Sunday dinner at Mamaw's and some play time there too. It'd been a while with our crazy schedules so we sure enjoyed the food! After we left there, we headed to a nearby pumpkin patch. We spent some time lost in the corn maze and enjoyed a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins. After we got back home, we did a bit of fall decorating, then retreated inside for some quality Mommy and Meg time. She wanted to practice reading and do her new Barbie puzzle....again! The boys also taught her how to spell Mississippi this weekend, so I think she spelled that for me about 300 times just to make sure she had it right. I have a feeling that Miss Beth the babysitter, and all of her preschool teachers will find out that she knows how to spell it too tomorrow! HA HA!

Homework was a breeze this week by the way....just some straight lines and drawing some E's. She insisted on doing it herself after I explained it to her and she did quite well! :) That's my girl! Here are some pics from today's pumpkin patch adventure.

Homework

Yep...even Preschool has homework these days. Meg brought the first paper home last week. I must admit, I was a little excited about it. She's excited about learning and I thought it would be fun. Just picture this....I got us all set up at the table so we could focus, she picked a purple crayon, I read the directions carefully and found out I was supposed to read the directions on how to draw the rectangle as she drew it. I instructed her to put her crayon on the arrow. Just as I'm ready to say, "Draw a big line across," she quickly draws this (for lack of better terms) half-assed circle where the rectangle lines are that she's supposed to have traced over. I was shocked! Of course though, since she's a teacher's kid, I just thought she didn't understand.

Sooooo...I explained, again, more slowly in my most patient "teacher voice." This time, she puts her crayon down, looks up at me with a smirk, looks back down at the paper and does it again. Now, I'm even more shocked. Ummmmm...does she not know that my child will NEVER act that like???? I will never have a kid like that. You know apples never fall far. (All those things us teachers blame parents for!) Apparently, she doesn't. She proceeds, even though I calmly tried to read the directions for how to draw each rectangle to draw the rest of them the same way. A bunch of half-hearted purple circles that were supposed to be the most perfect pre-school "wectangles" ever. :( My dreams of the perfect student are ruined! HA!

On to the back side. I change my strategy. I told her I didn't think she did her best on the front. I know she's better at writing than that and that she can draw very good "H's." (the assignment on the back) I went ahead and started making dinner. She worked very hard and did make very good H's and even traced the house neatly. :) Then, she asked for the rest of her crayons so she could color the rest of the house and decorate it. Atta girl! Whew...maybe she was just testing the waters.

Who knew how trying preschool homework would be?!?!?

Exactly what is normal?

When we were camping last weekend I realized last weekend that Meg has adapted to our "normal" life pretty well. This conversation proves it! It took place between her and the other little girl she was playing with while we camped (she was also 4, and lives with her mom and dad, so doesn't quite understand our kind of "normal")

Alexis (pointing to Greg and Cody)- There goes your dadddy.

Meghan (very matter of factly)- That's not my daddy.

A- Really? Where is your daddy?

M- Not here.

A- Where is he?

M- I don't know. Not here.

A- Oh. OK.

Off they go. After a few minutes, they walk up to me, Meg points to me and says, "That's my mommy!"

A (puzzled look on her face. Obviously confused that Greg and I are together, but that he is not Meghan's dad)- Oooohhhh.

Next day....

A- Your brothers scared me this morning!

M (Very matter of factly)- They aren't my brothers.

A- They aren't?????

M- No.

A- They don't live in your house with you?

M- No. They just live in my backyard.

A- (with a VERY puzzled look on her face)- Ooooohhh.

At this point, the other little girl stopped asking questions. I can only imagine what she thinks of our "family!" HA HA HA!

Meghan obviously thinks nothing of having the boys living in her backyard! It's just "normal" to her and she loves it! :)

The Good and the Bad

The Good: Meg loves sign language. It comes from Miss Devon at Pre-school. There is a little girl who is non-verbal. One of the teachers uses signs with her and Meg just thinks it's really cool and has learned several. She told me about some neat videos we could check out at the libray. We checked one out last week and Meg does love them. She learned a whole bunch of Outdoor Themed words and even told me yesterday that she taught this little girl the sign for "play" and the little girl went up to Miss Devon and told her she wanted to "play." How sweet! She now knows signs for deer (of course, it's hunting season!), spider, camping, tent, play, porcupine, bug, backyard, and I"m sure a few others I can't think of! Pretty neat, huh?

The Bad: Another time out at Beth's. :( Yep...this one for pushing. Apparently, the sitter's daughter got in her face and Meg just pushed her away. Temper, temper! They were both in trouble...again. The punishment at home? We were going to go to the library to pick up a new movie to replace the belove Eloise she'd been watching, but instead we just returned it and she'll have to wait untile next week to get a new one. That is, if she can manage without any time outs the rest of this week. Stinker!

Fall Fun!

I love Fall! It's always been my favorite time of year and this weekend's weather was PERFECT! Sunny and warm enough for light sweatshirt in the afternoon, but chilly in the evenings, which is perfect for a big campfire. We had a weekend camping trip planned back to Versailles State Park with some friends and their families, so it was just right. The fall colors were just beginning to pop through too, which made even better.

Greg picked Meg up from Mamaw and Papaw's on Friday in the afternoon, so they were anxiously waiting on me when I got home from school. I rushed out with the students, so we could leave in time to pick up the boys from school when they were dismissed. We stopped for dinner on the way down and arrived at our not-so-level campsite around 6:30. Greg, of course, made it work for us and even convinced the people next to us to trade sites with the Cage's so they could get their RV level. ATTA BOY Greggie!

Saturday morning we all chipped in a fixed a huge breakfast feast (pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, etc...) then headed down to the lake to listen to the bluegrass festival music and let play in the kayak on the water. The kids had a blast (so did the big kids, I love our kayak!) Meg even spent some time in the afternoon practicing riding her bike without training wheels. GO GIRL! The Sutton's joined us a little later in the afternoon and they have a daughter who is just a couple months younger than Meg. They were like two peas in a pod the rest of the weekend, even had matching pj's, which was a huge coincidence. So cute! We spent the rest of the day playing Corn Hole (yes, we did win) and sitting around the fire visiting and chasing kids. We made another feast for dinner (see pic below) then settled down for the evening.

The next morning the Sutton's fixed some delicious sausage gravy over the fire (Can you say YUM!) we also had biscuits, more eggs, and some other yummy breakfast stuff. I think I gained 5 pounds from all the eating we did. All in all it was a great time. The Cage's bring a motorcycle with them (They have extra money for toys, since they don't have kids!) so of course after the boys all had a ride, so did Princess Meg. Her trip was cut quite short by Overprotective Mother Hen Kim, but she still had fun. She's still telling me today that it was one of the best parts of the trip. The other part was the kayaking. The sad thing about coming home was that it's time to winterize the camper. :( Camping season is about over for this year. We'll be itching for next spring before you know it!

My Not-so-Perfect Angel

Well...it happened. I knew it would. Meg had a time out today at Beth's. Unlike many of the parents I've been dealing with, I can admit that she deserved it. I know that she's no angel, but I want to believe (and I'm often told) that she's "so well behaved and so sweeeeeeet" especially so when I'm not around.

She woke up in a mood today. Her mouth was sassy. She was insistent upon wearing a short sleeve shirt (the high was supposed to be in the 50's or 60's today) so I vetoed that one pretty quickly. That really ticked her off and it was just the beginning. I guess it continued from there. The final straw for Beth, the sitter, was when she and another girl were laughing at and making fun of another boy. She ended up in time-out. I asked if she cried and she didn't. I guess she just bowed her head and moped for a bit afterwards, in her true drama queen style.

I made her tell me all about it when we got home. At first, Ms. I-forget-no-little-detail-ever forgot ALL about it, but it quickly came back when I threatened to cancel the camping trip for the weekend unless she remembered. She admitted it and told me she apologized to him. Good enough for me! :)