Curses to Judy Blume

Last night while I was in the middle of a presidency meeting and John was at choir practice, Ali decided she wanted to try something she'd read about in a book. So, after she wrote a letter to Santa, she went into my bathroom, found the supplies she needed and went to work. Here is what John found when he got home and went to give her a kiss goodnight: Don't you love the look on her face? She KNOWS she did something wrong and is just waiting to see how mad we are.
So, after my presidency meeting ended, John told me I needed to look at the pictures he took. He gave no information other than, "They're not good pictures." By this point he'd already washed her face and she was waiting for me to go up and talk to her. (BTW- it's after 10 PM) Here's how the conversation went: Me- "Ali, is there something you need to tell me?"
Ali- "About what?"
Me- "About what happened to my lipstick."
Ali- "OH. [long pause] Well, um... will you forgive me for using your lipstick, I'll try not to do that anymore." (Before you get too impressed, she says this line for everything she does wrong. It's not like she just came up with it. It's a memorized speech.)
Me- "Why did you use my lipstick?"
Ali- "Because I wanted to have freckles."
Me- (Slightly moved thinking she wanted freckles to be more like me)"Why did you want to have freckles?"
Ali- "To be like Andrew in 'Freckle Juice'. I was going to draw them on with a blue pen but then I decided to use lipstick instead. Then I wanted to see what it would look like with blood coming out of my face- but not for real."
I can see that we are going to have to screen her books a lot more closely from here on. What's next? Worms for an after school snack??

Fall on the Farm

This year we tried visiting a different farm to get our pumpkin. So instead of driving for 45 minutes, we drove for 10 and found ourselves at Baggenstos Farm. It was pretty cool. We got to go on a tractor hayride out to a little field with a ton of pumpkins just waiting to be chosen. Ali was excited to show "Bubba" all about picking the best pumpkins.
Here was his response:
As usual, Andy slept the whole time in the sling. This made it a little trickier to get a cute picture of the kids at the pumpkin patch.
It didn't take too long for Ali to find the perfect pumpkin.
It was just a little too heavy for her to carry by herself...
so Dad saved the day and carried it for her.
After a quick round of pumpkin bowling the kids insisted on posing as farm animals.

Halloween Fun

We had a great Halloween this year. Ali got to attend her first elementary school festival and was on cloud 9. For the festival she dressed as a clown. Inspired by a knitted hat that John's coworker gave Andrew, he decided to be a pumpkin. Originally it was going to be a jack-o-lantern but Mom never got around to "carving" him. Andy slept the whole time.

Ali posing as a clown.

Ali and Andy after the school party.

There is nothing to say about the following pictures except that John was responsible.

On Halloween, Ali decided she no longer wanted to be a clown saying she was afraid people would laugh at her. I asked why she thought they would laugh at her and she said it was because clowns are funny. I guess she didn't want any more attention than any other kid would get. Anyway, we went through several options (Cheryl Crow, rock star, roadie, rock star's manager, princess, chinese girl, witch, doctor, nurse, knight, hula girl...) and FINALLY settled on chef. Her restaurant was called "Ze Bananas" (said with a thick French accent).




Andy didn't go out for candy but I had to have a picture of him in his costume on his first Halloween. So, just before we left to go home, I put him in the pumpkin suit. Obviously he wasn't pleased and no amount of discussion would persuade him of the need to document this special occasion.

John and I went to a costume birthday party. We spent weeks trying to decide what to wear and five minutes before the party started John received inspiration. OK, maybe I exaggerated a little bit but I think his idea worked out really well.
Meet John Halpert and Sarah Beesley:
(from the TV show "The Office") I had a hard time keeping a straight face with John doing his impressions.

For all those 'Dora' fans

I love this clip from Brian Regan. If you have kids, you probably will too.