Costumes-WFMW

We use what we have for costumes at our house, and rarely buythem.  Occasionally we will buy pieces that can be used again.This past year, we were Princess Leia, Troy Palamalu (with wig), a basketball player, and a pumpkin.  Amy is really too old to dress up, but comes along for the candy.  Our neighborhood has no other children, so ours each get a bag of candy, gifts or money at each house!

In years past we have been:
smores
the statue of liberty
an ice cream cone
scarecrow
a multitude of sports characters
an indian
a nurse
a doctor(scrubs are cheap at goodwill)
lots of princesses
dinosaur
a knight
Harry Potter
Elastagirl from the incredibles

My favorite story of Halloween was when Andrew wanted to be an African American football player- I think it was Edgerrin James,a Colt.  He said, "I look just like him mom".  I replied that "you have different colored skin is all."  and He said "Oh mom, no one ever looks at that anyway!".  Ahh, the innocence!

How to have more peace in the backseat!

With 4 kids and often our neighbor in the backseat, it seems we were always having squabbles over who gets to sit where and by who.

To solve this we numbered popcicle sticks and assigned a number to a seat.  Whatever numbered stick they pull out is assigned to that seat.  It was amazing how they learned to work together to get to sit where they wanted too.  "I get car sick", "I don't mind sitting in the back" replaced the fighting, they traded around. 

Now we just have to say, "pull a stick" and they figure it out peacefully.  I still keep them in the glove box though.

We originated this on a trip to the Grand Canyon.  We had been driving a lot with 5 kids and the  fighting was horrible.  After a quick trip to the DQ, with each of them getting a dilly bar, we used their used sticks and created this system!
Good Luck!

Halloween

Here are pics of the kids before going trick or treating. Amy-hippie, Aaron-Alphonso Soriano(Cubs player), Annie-Statue of Liberty, Andrew- Bob Sanders(Colts Player). Andrew is sure that he looks "just like" Bob Sanders. Now, Bob Sanders has black skin and dreadlocks. He was upset with me for not letting his hair grow so he could look more like him. Joe finally stated the obvious and said"But Andrew, Bob Sanders is black." He replied "Dad, nobody looks at skin color, only their hair." Sweet innocence, I hope he stays that way. He also doesn't like us calling people black, because they are really brown, he says. Too cute. We had a fun time, only went to our neighborhood, the Estridges(we are their only trick or treaters!), and a few houses when we dropped Amy off at a friends house. Joe and I have successfully picked out our favorites, and they have hidden the rest. The dog got a couple Reese cups, not bad, compared to Easter!

A Blessing

To the left of this post Joe has started a list of 5 ways to Bless your child. At church this sunday the sermon was about this. We went to Andrews preschool recognition service at Hazel Dell Christian Church. Very nice church, the people there are great. It was a great reminder of the ways to bless your child. Our kids were in the service with us, which is unusual for us. The older 2 were funny listening. Blessing your kids is very "intentional". On our own we would be selfish pigs. We really have to be "intentional" about touch, praise, prayer etc. It gets busy at our house and I sometimes go to bed and think: "did I laugh today?, did I hug the kids today? " I tend to beat myself up a lot. I really need to remind myself regularly of Gods Grace. My kids will "turn out" fine without me. God has big plans for them- we tell them this often. I need to beleive it and get out of His way.