Happy Halloween

It all started when Brita wanted to be a light switch...

Giants

Brita's been a little obsessed with giants lately. The kids are so good at pretending together--it's really quite funny.

A quote from just now:

Brita: Benton, you can't go in this room ever again; it's get giant's poop in it.
Benton: Giant's poop.
Brita: Yes. It's got giant's poop and giants in it.

With that settled they came to the computer room and started playing with the castle.

We hate Santa Claus

Yesterday we were in Lowe's looking at all the Christmas stuff. (Don't judge me--Peter's been working until about 2 in the morning the last couple days and accept anything that entertains my kids and makes the time pass.) We got to the end of it and there was a life-sized statue of Santa Claus who we accidentally bumped into. He started singing and dancing, so we watched him and then got the thing we went to Lowe's to get. Brita was asking the whole time to go back and see Santa again, so we made the rounds of all the Christmas stuff one more time. At the end as we were approaching the big Santa he started singing and dancing. Brita wasn't expecting it, so she yelped. Then Benton started howling and Brita started crying and we tried to get away from the big Santa as fast as we could. (Pushing a monster cart and stopping to tell someone that, yes, I like my baby wrap.) All the way to the other side of the store where the check out stands are kept trying to quiet the loud shouts of "I HATE SANTA CLAUS!" It wasn't very effective. In the car Brita accusingly asked me why I made them go back and see the Santa. Oh and by the way, SHE HATES SANTA. Oops, if only I'd known that the whole time she was asking to go back and see him we could have avoided this whole issue.

More than one can chew

So I might have mentioned a while back that I decided to make Brita dress-up clothes for Christmas. Or I might not have, I don't remember. I kind of went nuts at the fabric store. Here's the list of things to make:

Purple tutu
Orange tutu
Green tutu
White tutu
Turquoise skirt
Yellow skirt
Purple skirt
Green coin skirt
Blue coin skirt
Green jeweled skirt
Star skirt
Blue shirt
Blue shirt
Brown shirt
Red shirt
Pink shirt
Turquoise shirt
Purple shirt
Purple shirt
Silver dress
Pink dress
Tinkerbell dress
Wizard robes
Pirate pants
Veil

Here's hoping lots of people randomly show up at my house to hold Mima.

Camera

So I lost my camera. It makes me sad. Benton was using it one day and I took it away from him because the camera card wasn't in it and I put it somewhere. But I don't remember where.

If I did have it I'd take pictures of my trees. They're gorgeous right now. One is bright yellow and one is turning brilliant red. So, so pretty.

Also pretty is my baby girl. She smiles so much and she loves to jump. I also would have taken a picture of her with a giant silver spoon in her mouth. Well, at least she was using it as a chew toy. The older kids just love her. They're always asking to hold her and holding her and playing with her and bringing her toys. Not so fun is when Benton decides to haul her across the floor. He's not so good at picking her up. Probably because he's not supposed to do that.

I have good kids.

Better when they're not tired.

I started reading a book about Abraham Lincoln. It's pretty good. Therefore I tried to get my kids to take naps today. It worked on two out of three. Brita held strong, asking repeatedly to be able to leave her room. I finally told her that she was free to leave and could go watch a movie, so she laid down on her bed and read a book.Silly girl.

Good advice

Brita: Benton, hurry and stir up the grain before the horses eat us!

The big kids

Brita with her baby (dog) wearing doll.

Benton pulling a doll around in a wagon.

Third child

Don't I have a third child, you might ask? Why yes, I do. I think the reason there are less pictures of her is that I'm holding her when I take pictures of other things or I put her down to take care of other "situations" and am not exactly in the mood to take pictures. But here she is. Photographic evidence that she exists:
From today:
Look at those pretty blue eyes!

Here's when Benton decided that she needed to jump on him:


Here's her cute self in one of the cutest jackets in the world:

Thursdays

Thursdays are great at my house because Monica comes to visit. She plays with the kids and makes them happy and I try to get Christmas presents done. (And then Brita walks in and find her Christmas present and wants to wear it and help wrap it and models it and various other things.)

Anyways the weather was PERFECT here this last Thursday, so Monica and the big kids had a picnic.

It was really, really bright looking south, so they mostly didn't want to look at me when I tried to take a picture.

Then Brita walked into the house, slipped, and got a fat lip. Here she is a bedtime.

See? Fat lip.

Never forget

I hope I never forget all the times when at dinner, Benton looks at me and says, "Thank you, Mom, makin' it."

It's overwhelmingly nice to be appreciated sometimes.