Sandy

We survived our second hurricane.  Last year Lee blew up the coast and we had tons of rain but I do not remember any wind issues.  Sandy hit further north in NJ instead of the corner of PA, NJ and DE so I think we had it easier than we were expecting.  We left work early yesterday and were told to work from home on Tuesday.  The wind and rain picked up gradually until bedtime and then it was makin' down something fierce, as we say around here.  Lori checked the basement a few times to see if the drain was backing up into the basement.  Baylor woke up at 3:30 to pee and we looked out the window: it was blowing and raining like crazy!

 It was nice waking up as a family and going out to check the house and watch the news.   We were really spared the damage being done in NJ and NY.  I do not know how the people who live in hurricane and tornado areas do it.  I could not live where this happened every year!  I called Mom and they did not get any water in there basement.  They creek was out of its bank but not far enough to flood the houses there.  Unlike last year's hurricane.  They actually have an appointment this week to have the new flooring put in to replace the carpet that was ruined last year.  I am sure that will be rescheduled. Lori's parents were in the rain zone the last time we called but were doing well.

 

My babies cuddling on the couch!

 

I ran out to the garage to get something and took the camera with me.  We had 4.5 inches of rain at around 9:00 am.

 

Only one or two things were blown over or away from where they started.  But all the leaves are pretty much off the trees now. 

 

But they did not all blow away like I was hoping!  I guess I will have to mow them when they dry out.  I guess we did not use up all the praying mantis blessings but our hearts go out to those who lost their lives and families without power or are flooded out of their homes.  It could have easily been the fate of our home. 

 

Our First Halloween Party

My friend's daughter stayed over Friday night to help (mainly with Baylor) and they were a good team working together to move the hay bales and other small projects.

I was busy putting it all together and I really do not know where to start.  So here is the garage door opening with its spooky fringe.  I found most of the ideas on Pinterest. Shocking, I know.  The fringe is black garbage bags that are cut up to the bottom and then lightly stretched.  I am sure Martha Stewart used a heavier gauge trash bag than we did because they were more likely to tear than to stretch. 

The white cabinet that holds pool supplies and other stuff was covered in creepy cloth, paper jack-o-lanterns and a painting canvas. I had three guessing games: the weight of the pumpkin, how many gum balls and how many candy corns in the jars. 

Lori has two work benches in the garage that were perfect for the party.  One was the craft table with paint chip dot art, thumbprint pumpkins, and a few foam craft items. 

 

The other table was the main food table.  We had pulled pork, hot dogs, and mac and cheese made with Halloween shaped pasta I bought on my shopping trip to VA a few weeks back.  I was afraid the shapes would turn to mush in crock pot but when I cleaned out the dried stuff stuck to the sides the shapes were still identifiable. 

We had strawberry lemonade, sodas dressed in spooky labels, water and juice boxes. 

And Scarecrow Crunch snack mix and lots of yummy cupcakes made by Tara and my coworker Danielle. 

I love the eye balls.  They were awesome! 

And I made red velvet cake pops, some with sprinkles and some with eyes. I have never made cake pops before and I made them the old fashioned way with a baked red velvet cake and a can of frosting.  The candy coating cracked on nearly all the pops but there was nothing I could do about that.  The eyes were a gummy lifesaver with a mini chocolate chip pupil. 

 

I had two tables set up.   Both had goodies all down the center of the table.  This one had all kinds of gummy treats including chicken feet, eye balls, bones, snakes, and star fish.  We bought them at a really awesome candy store in Lancaster near my parent's house.  I am not a gummy fan myself but they were a hit with everyone else. 

The other table had cookies of all kinds.

Butter cream filled pumpkins and skulls.  They were Baylor's favorite.

Pumpkins, black cats, spider webs, skulls, bats, and candy corn. I also made small cut out cookies in vanilla, chocolate, gingerbread, and pumpkin pie spice.  The large cookies we made a few weeks ago and put in the freezer until we had time to frost them.

Mom learned how to use royal icing to outline and flood the cookies.  She was invaluable!  I would not have been able to do it all without her help.

There was a small table with the molded chocolates.  We made vampire, alien, and werewolf teeth.

And all kinds of lolly pops and some flat candy ghosts and a BOO!  Fortunately these keep really well so I was able to work on them for several weeks and keep them in a cool place until the party.

The games were pretty much all outside on the driveway.  I had labels and treats at everyone so everyone could play at their own pace.  If you did the trick, you earned a treat. I put candy and little toys inside the labeled cans. Thankfully my slight hoarding problem worked out in my favor.  My nephew buys whey powder in huge containers and I have been stashing them away for a few months because you never know when you will need a huge plastic bottle.  And I used them all plus the two he had downstairs that were empty.

We had the can toss that had bean bags to toss into the cans to earn the treat.

We had a bat bean bag toss and a pumpkin bean bag toss.. I made them both card board slip sheets from work.  They were just the right size for making the games.  I used boxes glued to the back to hold them up and catch some of the bean bags that did not get tossed into the garden.  

A bucket toss with light up eye ball bouncy balls that ended up all over the place.

We had ping pong balls on golf tees that we knocked down with a squirt gun. The guns were being used to squirt other kids too and it caused a few upset party goers.

This game used dart guns and painted plastic cups.  The guns were also a bit of a problem and I know I did not pick up all the darts in the yard. 

And I had an I Spy Corn bin with a list of things to find in the corn.  It was a big hit with all ages.   Tara has a really good photo of the boys playing in the bin.  I did not take as many photos as I thought I would but hosting a party, even a play as you want party, it still a lot of work and did not leave much time for photos.  Next year maybe I will hire my friend Mark to take the pictures!

There was a Witch Pitch which was a black witch's hat with small cauldrons sitting on it.  You had to toss candy corn into the cauldrons. 

There were several scavenger hunts.  One was a large jointed skeleton that I took apart and hid his bones around the yard.  By the end of the party he was all back together.  There was a witch hunt.  I made copies of three little witch images and Robin and I planted them all over the place.  The kids could turn them in for extra candy or toys from the treat cans. 

The first half of the party was for my friends with kids Baylor's age and then later Gavin's friends showed up and it was chaos after that.  Which was fine and exactly what I wanted.  And it gave me some time to sit and talk to my friends. 

Steph's whole family was there: her sister Ann, Nana Heidi,Pop pop Robin, Cheryl, Robin, and their three kids, and Kristia and Ethan.  I offered to start a fire for them but they did not want to be responsible for it.  It was a gorgeous fall day that was not too cool and certainly not hot.  But a fire would have been awesome. 

Ethan borrowed Baylor's first costume, a little monkey. 

Riley came over from next door.  She let Robin and Lily paint her whole face.  Most of the little kids got small things on their hands.  The girls set up their face painting shop in the playhouse. 

Cullen was a transformer, I think!  Lucas was a frog but you will have to check out Tara's blog again to see him.  Again, did not take enough photos. 

Brigid was her cute adorable self!  And I fed her lots of cookies and one cake ball.  And some mac and cheese and pork. 

Connor was there of course and had a good time with all the kids.

Danielle brought her daughter Addison and her nephew Darren.  They had fun with the kazoos!

Baylor was a farmer, super easy because he had thermal shirts and overalls.  And he was barefoot, as was I, for the entire time. It takes us a while to switch over to wearing shoes and socks!   

The bigger boys climbed the tree behind the playhouse.  I think there were 5 or 6 boys in there at one time.  They boys loved it and I am sure the tree did too.  Baylor is excited to learn how to climb trees and it is good to see they are good trees to climb. 

We, I, made these milk jug ghosts for the porch.  My neighbor was very kind and brought me her empty containers because we would never have been able to collect that many at our house.  We never buy milk in a gallon, it would go bad before it was a third gone.  We had the doorway to the basement decorated with the black fringe and the downstairs bathroom had a wood pumpkin with orange lights on it and a few other items to decorate it. 

Since the drive way was full of games and was roped off at the end, everyone parked in the field behind the house.  The wagon was useful in toting stuff to cars.  Tara was the last to leave, (thank you for staying and helping out!), and I hollered over for her to come in the driveway and afterward I remembered she had the wagon.  It did not take long for me to see she had that covered!  I was so proud of her! 

By 6 Baylor and I had picked up all the trash we could find, put away all the yard equipment that was parked behind the garage and gone inside to have some much needed quiet cuddle time. We watched Madagascar 3 (which I love!) and Baylor fell asleep at 6:30. I stayed up until the movie was over, got ready for bed and was asleep by 8.  Was it a lot of work? Yup. Was it worth is? Absolutely.  Will I do it again? See you next year! 

And the back yard, well the leaves are nearly all down.

Party Prep

I have been slowly getting ready for the Halloween Party and this week I was off on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to get ready. My parents came over and stayed to help me.  We found another praying mantis and that makes five we have seen in the last week.  We had five blessings from them.  

 

 

On Thursday, we used them all up.  I had been on the deck with Baylor looking over the side at a real spider and went inside to work on something.  He is outside often by himself because frankly nothing would ever get done if I just sat on the deck watching him or playing with him.  Lori's schedule is nice for somethings but bad in that we are often single parenting.  So the back yard is usually a safe place for him.  Until we heard screaming for Mommy.  I ran outside followed by Lori and my mom. Baylor was running/stumbling to the stairs as I was running down them.  He had fallen off the deck, from the top of the railing to the muddy ground 10 feet below.  The chairs were not there at the time, they were what he was standing on.  It really was only a matter of time until it happened because he was always leaning over the railing and we were always telling him to be careful or he would fall over.  Lori got rid of the chairs, it was her way of coping and we really never sat on them anyway.

 

 

This is where he fell.  It is pretty dangerous with rocks, bricks, toys and other sharp items. 

 

I put this blue toy where we think he landed on his right side, head between all the sharp items and legs in the muddy swamp.  I think his angles helped out on this one.

 

Anyway, back to the meeting at the bottom of the steps. He was screaming so hard he could not breath and was looking more panicked.  Thousands of thoughts were running through my head: he walked here so his legs are not broken, he is grabbing me so his arms are not broken but he says his right arm hurts, blood is not gushing anywhere so his brain is not broken.  Hold him and comfort him and figure out what to do next.  I picked him up and his right side was muddy and cupping his head with my hand to hold  him closer I felt a goose egg on the right side of his head.  Lori went inside to call the pediatrician and they tell us to bring him in at 3:50.  Oddly enough, we were there the week before for left side pain that turned out to be the painful passing of a way too big for a three year old poop.  I had to get some better clothes on, since I was sure he was going to be fine I did not panic.  The office is about 8 minutes away and we were 15 minutes early.   They took us to the room, checked the vitals and we waited for the Dr.  We told Baylor the Dr was going to check him out but he was not going to try to hurt him.  It was not our favorite Dr but in a pinch he will do.  He had us strip Baylor down to his underpants and did a thorough full body check.  My son may not like what is going on, may protest what we are doing but he is always compliant.  He can be screaming he does not want to go the the store as he helps me get him dressed.  I do love that it does not occur to him to fight against me.  Or the Dr in this case.  He did everything he was asked even walking around the room in his underpants handing out tongue depressors to everyone, which he was asked to.  He even hopped a bit just to show off.  The Dr asked him if he could pee for him and Baylor said, "well, yes, I think I could."  And he peed in a cup for the first time.  The goose egg was a surface bruise and not a thing to worry about. He told us we were very lucky, he appears to be fine and since Baylor was chatting away at the time, that there did not appear to be any damage.  If he felt sick, he was allowed one vomit and after that we needed to take him to the ER in Hershey.  After he feel asleep we had to wake him up every four hours, talk to him, get him to walk etc.  We left with his new sticker and he was happy as a clam. He told me on the way home he just leaned over too far.  I told Lori the reason why he was fine was because Meme prays for him and the praying manitis' have been also.  In the morning after waking him up twice to talk to him, but not making him walk, he woke up in the morning asking me what was going to hatch out of his goose egg and why did the nurse what to see his pee. 

 

Needless to say he is fine and was a super helper.  We made red velvet cake pops.  I dipped them in the white coating and they added the sprinkles.  I made the eye ball versions. 

 

 

 

And they were pretty good too.

 

Then we made deviled eggs with olive spiders and olive eyeballs. Baylor is really quite good at making the spiders. 

 

And we decorated cookies (this was even after the injury)

 

One spoonful for the cookie.

 

One spoonful for Baylor.

 

He learned how to use a glue gun to help make spider nests. 

 

He was quite an assistant.  Between him, my mom and my dad we were able to get a lot done in those three days.  I did not get photos of everything and was beat at the end of the day.  We were so busy!!!!