Spooktacular Weekend

Our Spooktacular weekend started off with a community harvest/Halloween carnival.

This is one thing I love about living on a small camp. We can hold real community events and enjoy each others' cultural diversity. At Ramadan, a Muslim holiday, they invite us to celebrate with them. In turn, we have Americans, Latins, Saudis, Arabs from other nations, and Indians all gathering to join in our fun.

I set up two games, the t-ball game above and the golf toss shown below. Both of mine were a hit with the kids, but it may have been the prizes of kool-aid and popcorn balls more than the games.

Kids and adults dressed up.

Some just wore their Abayas and masks... that was freaky. Does that count as keeping your face covered?

All the proceeds of the night went to Sock it to 'Em, a charity run by our friend Kirk that buys socks for workers here on camp.

Finally, after months and months of waiting, Halloween was here.

The boys have begged and begged to wear these costumes for months. But this momma knows all too well that they would be sick of the costumes by October if I let them wear them too soon.

Graham was the cutest Baby Vader with the perfect evil laugh to go with it. He is very good at copying sounds so Chris would pretend to laugh and Graham would copy.

You can trick or treat here but we did very little of that. Instead we went to the youth center for some fun. After a parade of costumes they provided pizza, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets for all the kids, followed by an outside movie.

Ethan LOVES to battle with the lightsabers, but weapons and groups of small children don't mix. Shortly after this picture the lightsabers had to take a time out due to unintentional face contact with a curious toddler.

While the kids did their thing, some of the parents pot-lucked it outside in our friend's driveway.

Ethan is using "THE FORCE" on something... maybe to keep Mom away from the car. He didn't want to go home. Instead of talk to the hand he sometimes tries to use the Force to keep me from giving him a consequence.

Mr. Mischief Update

So we had to go on a treasure hunt after church today.

Our keyless friend sent her boys a diggin' in their flower beds this week with no luck. Upon arrival Ethan jumps from the car asks for a shovel and runs to the marked spot... which happened to be their NEIGHBOR'S yard. As the digging commenced, seven of us gathered around, eagerly waiting for the silver glint to appear. After what seemed like a long time, but what was probably only a minute, Zach spotted something that looked like a piece of glass but turned up to be... THE KEYS! Our friend quickly ran in to get the boys a treat as a reward for finding the keys. I hope that doesn't backfire on us in the future, as Mr. Mischief might take that as license to bury more things just to be rewarded for their retrieval.

Mr. Mischief Strikes Again

No sooner do I sit down, trying to decide what to blog about, then I receive this email:

Michelle,

I need a favor - would you mind asking Ethan and Zach if they know where the keys to my front glass door might be? I noticed the other day they were gone and I'm a bit creeped out not knowing who took them out of the lock. I usually keep the door open so our dog can see out the front but I lock the door when I'm here alone.

I'm not sure when they disappeared so I'm asking everyone who's been here in the past week.

It was nice having you and your family over.

Thanks,
Martha

I knew immediately who to ask.

M- Ethan, do you remember the family we ate with after church last week.

E- No.

M- They have the boys and the dog and the fun costumes.

E- Oh yeah.

M- Do you remember their glass front door and some keys? The keys are missing. Do you know where they might be?

E - Oh yeah. I buried them.

M- You buried them! Where?

E - In the dirt, and I put a letter on top of them, but not an "X". But if it's rained I'm sure it's washed away.

M- Was it the side or front of the house?

After this, the exact spot kept varying and I am not sure exactly where they are buried. I immediately called Martha to share the news and thank goodness she just laughed and laughed and was glad that they were just buried and that no one had taken them. She said she would send her boys out to dig for them later and I told her if they couldn't find them we would stop by on Friday when we are in town and have Ethan show us.

I told her she was actually lucky he only buried them in dirt because during the summer he buried my sister's house keys in a dirt mound full of cat poo.

So much for a little kindness! We probably won't be invited back to their house for lunch.

A "One"derful Year!

Yesterday was a "one-derful" day but... today I'm a bit emotional. It's probably the hormones because I stopped nursing today. He kept wanting to play with my breasts instead of nurse. I just keep thinking, what if he's my last? Will these be the last little clothes, little shoes, last little... every-things? We've often talked of having four, but some days are so tough there just aren't enough adult hands to go around.

Why is is it that the days are long but the years short?

Graham has been the sweetest addition to our family. Sometimes I think... I'll just end on a good note.

After a year of watching me feed Graham, Ethan decided to give it a go.

Graham was totally okay with that. Ethan was so meticulous. If he felt that there was too big of a bite on the spoon he would dump it back and start over.

Now for the party!

I DO NOT enjoy decorating cakes... that is generally Chris' department. However, Chris' schedule did not allow for it this time, so Graham got the cutest mini car cakes, sadly decorated by Mom. At least they tasted good.

Graham was our first one year old to even be interested in his birthday cake. Zach and Ethan just sat there with blank stares. It may be that Dad was sneaking him little tastes of things on the do-not-eat list.

The ever helpful older brothers!

At Graham's appointment he was just perfect in weight but off the charts in length... so far below average he almost was on the head circumference section. I was told not to be concerned about it yet... so of course that's all I could think about. Not that there is much you can do about it.

Ethan and Zach wrapped, decorated, and then opened the gift... again so helpful.

I'm not sure but I think the big brothers enjoyed the new "baby" toy more than he did. I'll let you know if he likes-- it if he ever gets a chance to play with it. So much for age appropriateness. Graham loves to play with his brothers' lightsabers any chance he can get.

New skills: copying sounds (coughs and growls), waving, and saying, "UH OH"!

Snow Fall In UDH

Have you ever accidentally left a tissue in your pocket and then washed it?

How about half a roll of toilet paper?

The previous day Ethan had been playing with about a half roll of TP. I told myself to remember to check his pockets that night and I completely forgot...

until I went to change the loads. I had to shake everything out and hope the dryer could get the rest. By the end a soft snow had fallen everywhere-- my hair, the floor, the entire room.

Ethan was a big help in cleaning it up as his affection for the vacuum has not diminished.

Spooky Treats

The dilemma: three half days of school because of parent teacher conferences. Zach-- the King of Kindergarten, as his teacher calls him-- was very upset about this half day stuff. School and friends are way more fun than being at home.

The solution: sugar cookies, frosting, and sprinkles!

I secretly made sugar cookies the day before...

and surprised the boys with the idea after lunch.

I had prearranged for some neighbors to drop by to share in the fun.

We had pumpkins, bats, and ghosts galore...

but mostly...

we just had fun!

Zach's PT conference went extremely well. Ms. Eleby agreed with us his behavior has improved dramatically since school started. His reading and math are right where they should be. She also said he is a LEADER. Which is great, as long as he is following instructions. Sometimes he likes to jump ahead on a project and others like to follow his lead.

Just A Little Off The Top

Graham's first haircut! I just wanted to get the hair out of his eyes. So I trimmed his bangs.

Then I decided to try and help the little wave of hair on his crown by making it a bit more even.

BIG MISTAKE!

The pictures don't show it, but now he's got this fluffy fringe that sticks up. Hope we can get this grown out for December's family pictures.

If not, at least there's enough hair left for a faux hawk! ;)

Tip Of The Day

When using an ATM, cover your PIN number as you punch it in!

We live in a cash-preferred society here. You can use credit cards in some establishments, but they take eons to process, are frequently declined for no reason, or just don't work. So we have kept our bank in America and just use our ATM card... until it suddenly stopped working! 

Is it the machine or the card? You think okay, I'll try again in a few days, but it still doesn't work. When you're down to your last 50 dollars it's time to call the bank and see what's going on.

Apparently there were some suspicious withdrawals in Great Britain to the tune of $6K and our account is frozen. We have not been to Great Britain in years, but we have been to Budapest, where we and some others from our trip improperly exposed our pin numbers when withdrawing cash and now are "paying" the consequences.

But get this, we have only one outstanding check in the mail and it's on its way to church headquarters. There is just enough money left in the account to cover that check. How embarrassing would that be? Nobody wants to bounce a tithing check.

It's "T" Time

Last week was all about "T" for Zach. In Kindergarten he studied the letter "T". They also had a Tea Party (apple juice) with their Teddy Bears.

T-Ball finally started. Ethan just barely missed the age cut-off for T-ball but it's just as well. After seeing the first practice I don't think he's quite ready.

I love this picture. I had no idea that when I took it that it would show a perfect throw.

Notice the man in green.

Yes, Chris is one of the assistant coaches. Chris has always wanted to help out with these types of things and with everything so close here it's finally possible.

Usually the moms are in charge of the activities and run the show, so it was fun for all of us to just sit on the sidelines and watch the dads try to keep the kids in line for a change. Next practice we will distance ourselves even further... like at the cafe across the street.

These awesome ladies are some of my closest friends and neighbors here.

What The?!

Graham loves to bang things around. Anything remotely stick shaped gets beaten against all surfaces at his level. The other morning while I was on the computer he was banging his red maraca on stuff as he moved around the room. Also, he is now at the age of "potty fascination"! He loves to lift the lid, flush, and will splash in the water if not caught in time. Can you see where this is going?

Much later in the day, after I had used the toilet, I stood up and was surprised to see this!

He quickly crawled over to see what I was laughing about and smiled as if to say, "oh yeah, I put that there. Do you like it?" Then quickly he tried to retrieve it for me.

After a good hand washing Chris and I decided that we must now keep the bathroom door closed.

Our First Visitors......Almost

Last week Grandpa Jenkins had a business trip to the Middle East. So of course they planned to hop on over for a short visit. But, as per usual, even the best laid plans can quickly turn to dust. We prepared for Visas well in advance so all that was necessary was for them to make a quick visit the Saudi Embassy.

Yeah right, nothing is simple when it comes to living here. After a full day of getting this paper signed and another paper stamped and "come back later maybe I can help," it was determined that they could indeed enter the country in five days time. Not so good when that's the day you will be on a plane heading home.

So instead we hopped in the car and drove the four hours to Doha, Qatar to visit them.

After a warm reunion, our first stop of the day was, of course, Toys-R-Us, so that the boys could be spoiled by their Grandparents. They all have birthdays coming up, so Grandparents decided instead of the shipping cost and hassle the boys could all pick out one thing... that turned into two things. We now have another Lego set, a Thomas the Tank Engine game, a contraption that has lots of hinges and makes a plethora of sounds, and matching Indiana Jones costumes.

Zach said, "I really want this but maybe we should see the movie first." He loves Indiana Jones, not because of the movie, but through the Lego Indiana Jones stories. As for Ethan, whatever Zach likes he too must like.

After putting on the costumes the boys embraced the spirit of adventure and took a Gondola ride through the Villagio mall while Mom shopped for some essentials.

After, Ethan insisted that we all ride the train he made from cafe chairs in the food court. Later he knocked over displays, scaled walls, and threw merchandise, all in the spirit of fun. The adventure did not end soon enough for us as parents. 

Why is it that we can take him on a ten day trip to Europe and have very little trouble, but can't take him on a weekend getaway without repeated tantrums and episodes of horrible behavior. Overall, it ended up being one of those trips where as parents you feel like you need a vacation just to recover from your vacation.