Halloween in all its Glory!

Keeping Sylvia happy during the day was tricky - she was going to die before evening came. We did several crafts throughout the day. One project was to put together this adorable witch, and pose it on the wall.

We have gone trick-or-treating every year with our neighbors, two houses up. Here is a shot of the mixed families, before the pre-trick-or-treating party got rolling.

Sylvia adores our neighbor's baby, Teome.

The McMullins had a pair of medieval archers, and a pink butterfly-princess-angel ready to take the streets by storm.

Noel had a friend, Dorie, come over to help her pass out candy. For some reason, high school girls think they are too cool to trick-or-treat. Or, maybe they just have the right idea. Instead of walking around for 2 hours, getting one candy at a time, they just sit on the porch with a full bowl of candy between them, and laugh at everybody else.

Maritza even took time to paint my face as a clown. I think she is a very talented face paint artist. She may be an addict though. For days after Halloween, Sylvia and Evan would get their faces painted every time they played together.



We had some fun Halloween fare, like grilled cheese sandwiches with Jack-o-Lantern faces cut into the bread. The boys enjoyed hanging out together feeling mature since they got to eat in the living room, while the younger crowd had to eat in the dining room.

Orange punch, deviled eggs that looked like eyeballs, and a vegi plate rounded out the meal.

Evan had a rough time stopping laughing long enough to bob for apples.

Sylvia finally got one, although I think there was some cheating going on.

A favorite game for years has been to tie mini-donuts onto a strings, and race to see who eats their donut first. (Hands kept behind the backs.)

Asher had an amazingly huge mouth, and was able to devour it in one chomp. It was pretty shocking.

This is a fun game to watch, as well as to play. Noel had a good time being the donut stick holder with Dorie.

Everyone wanted to keep playing, but the town siren sounded, and the countdown had begun.
Stoughton is an unusual town, in that they have the town tornado siren sound at 6 pm to signal the start of door to door trick-or-treating. They sound it again at 8 pm. They don't allow kids to be banging on people's door outside those hours.

At first, I thought it was crazy... but I've gotten to appreciate it. You don't have knocks on your door late at night, and everybody in town is out on the sidewalks during those 2 hours. It is great to pass friends and neighbors traveling in huge packs along the sidewalks.

Sylvia and Evan had a great night trick or treating together. The older boys ran off together to cover as much ground as possible.

One of the best parts of Halloween is the "Great Trade" of the next day. In the McMullin house, it has become tradition for the each child to line up all their candies by type, and start a trading session that rivals Wall Street.




They spend hours behind a bedroom door, taking turns as they rotate around the circle. "I'll give you a Snickers Bar plus a bag of pretzels. for your Reese's Peanut Butter cup," is the sort of comment you will hear if you enter. It was a little sad to have only 3 of the 4 kids in trading, since Noel didn't go out. I guess I will have to get used to them growing up eventually.

Still, I love our neighborhood in the autumn, and the traditions our family has around this fun holiday. It was a great Halloween!

Halloween Preparations

Halloween of course, starts several weeks before Oct 31. Here is a sampling of our scary October festivities.

My sister, Lisa, has started a great new blog. She posts fun ideas to do with pre-schoolers.

http://totsmarts.wordpress.com/

It has great links to videos, print-outs, and craft projects. Making "monster masks" out of brown paper bags from the grocery store, was one of her ideas. Sylvia and I had a blast decorating the monsters, giving them extra eyes, and wild hair made out of pipe cleaners.

When the mask was done, we clicked on the you tube link to the song Monster Mash, and danced around. Below is the link to a fun cartoon animated version of the classic Halloween song.




We even got the older kids to dance a bit. I must say though, that the dancing is more monsterly and fun with a mask over your head.

Since we only had two masks, we shared them around. Sean was at home working that day, and was lucky enough to Monster Mash with us.

Sean's talents were also called upon for pumpkin decorating...

...and cookie baking! Always good to have a versatile husband around for holiday fun.

Sprinkles are a must whenever Sylvia decorates sugar cookies. They are her signature item.

The older kids also had fun with the frosting.

Noel decorated a Deathly Hallows cookie (from the seventh Harry Potter book).

I think Asher's cookies looked the scariest... although they all tasted very good - escpecially with hot chocolate!

Field Trip to Babcock Hall

One day in this fall, we went on a fieldtrip to the famouse Babcock Hall, up on the University of Wisconsin's campus. We took a short tour of their dairy plant. Here Noel is taking shots of the dairy production floor below.

At the time we were there, they were making chocolate milk. -Giant vats of chocolate milk. This is probably what set off Asher's current chocolate milk cravings. The most difficult part to watch, was a guy dumping bottle, after bottle of chocolate milk onto the floor, to run down a drain. Apparently the do a first run, when they are squirting it into the plastic bottles. If they are not filling to the proper level, they reset the machine, and just dump those bottles out onto the floor.

My favorite memory of the day, was kicking back with the kids in the ice-cream shop on the first floor. I am so glad everyone is old enough to eat their own ice cream without spills and drips everywhere. The best flavor (or so I thought) was a pumpkin pie scoop that Sylvia ordered. It was creamy, and perfectly spiced! We are going to try to make some of our own pumpkin pie flavored ice cream at home.

Noel's photos at Devil's Lake

My daughter, Noel, has a great eye for beauty. I am amazed that she can capture the feeling of a moment with color as well as black and white. Here is an example of a shot she took at Devil's Lake in color.

While I was trying to get Brad and Liz to pose on top of a boulder, Noel shot a great series in black and white of them from the side. I love how content and happy they are in this series. This is the kind of joy I want to have in 30 more years.

Devil's Lake with Grandparents

I knew the trees would be a beautiful backdrop for a family photo. Still, with the perfect background, it was difficult to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time. This is the best we could do.

The trail was steep, and required frequent stops by the adult hikers in the group. Somehow those kids just trotted along up the trail, sword fighting with sticks as they went.

Hiker Brad was in fine form, and let the kids experiment with his camera. We got lots of fun action shots.



The view from the top was great. Sylvia and Liz looked especially photogenic together.

We found a really odd insect crawling around on the boulders at the top. I had heard of stick-bugs, and seen them in books about animals that can camouflage themselves, but actually seeing one outdoors was pretty amazing.





Noel is our familes artistic photographer... here is a nice one she did of Sylvia while we were climbing around on the rocks along the trail. Sometimes Sylvia would lay down, and have a boulder bed, covered in leaves.


After we hiked back down, the kids found a bunch of cat- tails by the road. They taught Sylvia how to explode them into clouds of white puff.



Asher demonstrated how to jog, and leave a trail of white puffs behind you.



We watched the sun set on a sandy beach area along the lake. The kids had a "who can make the biggest splash with giant rocks" contest.



It was a great day. I can't believe we almost missed all the fun because it was a little drizzly at the start.


Here is a shot of the handsome man I am married to, as we watched our offspring toss boulders into the lake.

Nauvoo with grandparents

Brad and Liz came to visit this October. We all (except for Noel, who stayed home with the dog) took a trip down to Nauvoo, Illinois. The weather was beautiful.

My favorite part was being together in the temple.

We also had a nice walk down Parley Street, with beautiful views of the temple and the Mississippi River.

We got a good shot of Brad and Liz, sitting by an old well.


I think Sylvia's favorite part of the trip was taking an hour long wagon tour through the countryside. We bumped up and down a dirt road, being pulled by two big draft horses.
Getting to pet the horses after the ride was the best thing ever.



On Sunday, before we drove home, we visited Carthage Jail. The kids were impressed with seeing the bullet hole that went through the door. The tour wasn't as croweded as the one we went on when we visited 3 years ago, so we got to see more of the inside of the jail.


A fun memory, which we don't have pictures of, is waiting in a little garden, sitting on benches, waiting to go into an evening play about the history of Nauvoo. The kids had a great time, sneaking through the bushes, and playing night tag through the paths and behind the bushes. The evening rang with laughter. I love our family.

The Trip - Day 18

July 27, 2011

At least it was a beautiful place to wake up to. I got up early, and took Maya for a run on a trail by our campsite. I let her off leash once we got into the back country. She loved it. She dashed up and down the hillsides, leaping down into the dry-washs, and then scrambling back up after me as I went down the trail. It was fun to run with her.

We explored farther up the trail than the kids had gone. At the top was a partially excavated Hadrosaur. Sorry, I didn't run with my camera, so no pictures of it.



Later we went on another nature trail, deeper in the park. We spent a long time exploring the bluffs, and digging in the dirt.


Sylvia loved it. She held my hand tightly as we edged along some thin trails along steep slopes.

The boys had a good time digging chunks out of a vein of coal. Mattias took it back to the campsite, and tried to start a fire with it... but to no avail. We will have to figure out how to burn coal another time.



There were lots of neat rocks, chunks of iron, and fossils. Asher said this was his favorite part of the trip. He said playing in the coulie next to our campsite was like playing in a playground. Maybe we'll make a geologist out of him yet.



After a couple hours of exploration, we climbed in the van and headed home. People were traveling well, so I just kept on driving. We had planned to split this drive into 2 days, but I was ready to be done driving. After 17 hours, we pulled into Stoughton at 3AM and surprised a very sleepy Sean.

This trip was worth every cent, and every exhausted moment as a single parent. I loved seeing our families, and the beautiful areas we stayed in. It was basically the perfect trip. The kids were excellent, the dog traveled well. If Sean had been with us, it would have been like heaven. - Well...there is always next time.