Amen to That ...

As the little man and I were driving home in the cold, wet weather on Monday, we were having our usual chat about how his day went - what he did at preschool, who he played with, etc.

"Mommy?" Little man asked from the backseat. "What day is today?"

"Today is Monday," I told him. We had been working on learning the days of the week, so I was happy that he was showing some interest.

"Oh," he said quietly. "Momma, I don't like Monday."

"No?" I replied. "I don't like Monday's either, buddy."

"I like Halloween, Christmas, cake days and Friday," he said matter-of-factly.

I paused and went over the list in my mind.

"So ... you like Halloween, Christmas, cake days and Friday?" I asked.

"Yes, momma," little man said. "But those are a lot of days."

I smiled and turned the corner into our neighborhood.

"I like those days, too."

Halloween

This year the little man made it very well known that he was a big boy.

And big boys took Halloween very seriously.

Another year older and wiser, the little man eagerly anticipated Halloween this year. For weeks leading up to the big day, all we heard about was how he was going to go trick-or-treating and get lots and lots of candy.

All the years prior, little man has enjoyed getting dressed up, but still somewhat confused when we would take him from house to house in his little red wagon. Sure, he liked getting candy, but was still thoroughly confused.

However, this year was different. He knew what Halloween meant.

And it meant lots and lots of candy.

And a very special costume.

Of course it didn't help any that he had three Halloweens: a Halloween party at his preschool, a family Halloween party at mommy's office and of course the real deal, which the little man affectionately refers to as "Dark Halloween" since he is allowed to venture out at night to get heaps of sugary goodness.

And this year he was very specific that he wanted to walk, rather than ride in his wagon, for that was for babies.

And he was a big boy.

{That is, until we made our way 3 blocks down and daddy had to carry both the little man and his overflowing bag of candy.}

But what should he be for Halloween?

That answer was easy this year ....

Happy Halloween from Our Little Fireman!

The Ghosts of Halloween Past ...

{Halloween 2008}

{Halloween 2007}

{Halloween 2006}

Sugar

"I'm going to regret this."

The words ran through my mind as I took the pen and scribed my name on the sign-up sheet.

It had been a normal day for our family. As I was picking up the little man from preschool that evening the teacher had just finished taping the treat sign-up sheet for the school Halloween party to the door of his classroom.

We were the first ones to sign up, so the choice was ours.

"Look buddy, what do you want to bring to your party?" I asked the little man.

I began to go down the list one at a time out loud.

"Apples?"

"No," little man quickly interjected.

"Cheese?"

"Nooooo."

"Crackers?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Sugar cookies?"

As I read the words aloud, I tried to stop myself, but it was too late.

"YEAH!" Little man exclaimed. "I wanna bring swugar coooookies!"

It was too late. I tried to talk him into something easier, but his mind was already made up.

"Are you sure you don't want to bring juice boxes?" I asked, trying in vain to make juice boxes sound exciting.

But the little man was on to me. And he was sure of his decision.

"Noooo mommmmmaaaa," he said. "I wanna bring swugar coooookies!"

His blue eyes looked up at me, pleading.

I sighed as I took the pen and put my name next to the sugar cookies category.

My history of making cut-out sugar cookies is not a good one and I was fearful of what I had just gotten myself in to.

But the smile that beamed across the little man's face as I signed us up for cookies gave my some courage to attempt a feat that I had only tried a few times before.

{With disastrous results.}

When I got home that night, I informed the husband of what I had just done. In a flash of instant relief I told him that I could just buy the take-apart sugar cookies at the store and bake them. I remembered I had just seen fun ones the weekend before that had cute ghost images in them.

"That's lame," he said, as my bubble of relief quickly burst. "We need to make cut-out cookies, that's way more fun."

I was stuck.

As the week drug on, the little man asked each day if it was time to make sugar cookies. Even while laying on the couch, fever raging and fighting the flu, he asked me nearly every day if today was sugar cookie day.

A few days before the party little man's fever finally broke and he was on the mend (although mommy was still fighting a particularly nasty bought of bronchitis). I took sugar cookie dough from the refrigerator, got out the menagerie of cookie cutters, icing and decorative tips and took a deep, deep breath.

After a few tries and a bought of high frustration, I quickly learned that there was definitely someone looking over me as I lifted my first successful ghost cut-out and placed it on the cookie sheet.

Now, only 39 more to go.

One by one the little man and I rolled out the dough and made an assortment of bats, ghosts and pumpkins. While some definitely came out better than others, I had at least enough recognizable cookies for the little man's Halloween party.

With my kitchen covered in cookie dough, frosting and sprinkles, I looked over my successful mound of cut-out cookies.

Victory was mine.

And as we walked into the preschool the next morning carrying our cookies, the little man proudly exclaimed to everyone that we had brought cookies for the party.

And that he had made them.

As I walked out the door I smiled to myself, thinking of how proud the little man was of his cookies.

And I reminded myself that next year, we are so signing up for apples.

Flu Bug

So sorry for our extended absence ... the flu bug visited our house, knocking the little man down for a week straight.

Then mommy caught a horrible head cold.

{Of course all while daddy was in Canada on business}

Hoping to get caught up on posts soon!!!!

Huzzah!

I love Fall. It is my favorite season and I look forward to it every year. Fall is also a very busy time for our family - but it's a fun busy time.

Last weekend Grammy Jo and Papa came to visit. First, my husband, Papa and the little man ventured out to the speedway on Friday afternoon to watch the qualifying for the big race that weekend. Little man was napping when they arrived to pick him up from preschool, but managed to rub the sleep out his eyes once he realized Papa was there to pick him up.

While the boys were watching cars go zooom, Grammy Jo and I managed to entertain ourselves at the local shops and enjoy a nice grown-up lunch sans sippy cups, messy faces and toys.

I almost didn't know what to do with myself.

Almost.

The next day we again loaded up the car for an adventure. We decided to take advantage of the great Fall weather and venture out to the local Renaissance Festival. Grammy Jo and I took the little man last year, which ended up mostly in disaster. The Renaissance Festival is definitely no fun with a grumpy 2-year-old who insists on walking everywhere ... and in whatever direction mommy isn't going.

But, another year older and with daddy and Papa as reinforcements, we decided to give it another try this year.

And oh, what a difference another year makes.

While the Renaissance Festival is something fun and different for the family to do on a nice fall day, we forget the magic such places can hold for little ones.

The little man was amazed at all of the costumes, animals and games. He looked on with wide blue eyes at the juggler on the street, smiled in amazement when the "Queen of England" stopped to say "hello" to him and cheered on his favorite horse and Knight (Sir Mitri and his horse, Guinevere) at the joust.

{Not only did Sir Mitri and Guinevere win, but we also got to meet them after the joust.}

The day was also full of bright colored lollipops, animals rides of all sizes and shapes, fairies, dragons and pure magic.

And smiles as far as the eye could see.

Touch-A-Truck

The husband and I both love to cook. We are definitely "foodies" and not only love to cook new and fun things in our own kitchen, but get more enjoyment out of going to a fancy dinner for a night out and spending 2-3 hours dining and enjoying ourselves than we do from going out to a club, bar or show.

So, when the little man came into our lives and it became apparent that our cute - and small- little ranch house in an older neighborhood just didn't fit our life any more, we decided it was time to find a bigger, more family friendly home in a neighborhood that was full of other children to play with and not so many busy streets.

As our house hunt ensued, we finally narrowed it down to two homes : one with an amazing gourmet kitchen complete with state-of-the-art appliances and granite, and one that - although still had a decent kitchen - was in a neighborhood full of other children, in community very family oriented and in one of the best school districts in the nation.

Although it was hard to say good-bye to our dream kitchen, we chose to keep our eye on the bigger prize and chose the house that would be better for the entire family.

And we haven't regretted it since.

The great thing about the community we chose is not only does it offer outstanding schools for the little man, but the community as a whole is very family oriented. There are many, many families and the community is always hosting family fun events that offer good old-fashioned wholesome fun.

Such as the case two weekends ago, when we ventured out to quite possibly little man's most amazing day yet.

I had heard that our local Recreation Department was offering an event called Touch-A-Truck, which was entirely geared for little kids ages 3-6. In short, the city arranges for a parking lot full of all kinds of vehicles that are open and available to kids to touch, crawl on, get in and explore. They also arranged for the operators of those vehicles to be available so they could answer any questions the kids had about that particular vehicle and what it did.

The morning was beautiful and as we rounded the corner and approached the event, the little man immediately began to squeal and point.

Before him was what I could best describe as a little 3-year-old boy's Mecca. There were skid loaders, excavators, dump trucks, military vehicles, a fire truck, police car, limousine, a Smart car ... the list went on and on.

Together we smiled and laughed as the little man explored each vehicle, asking questions of the operators and simply having pure fun. I couldn't help but to smile as the little man ran from truck to truck, exploring, climbing and jumping in and out.

He loved every second of that morning.

And for mommy, no amount of granite, stainless steel or culinary luxury was worth more than the smile that was permanently plastered on my son's face that day.

Fair Fun

Last weekend we hit up an American staple of growing up ... especially in Kansas.

The Kansas State Fair.

The Kansas State Fair is much more than livestock judging and tractors. It's a wonderland of rides, all things fried and gooey, and just good old fashioned family fun.

However, the State Fair is so much more than that to our family. My husband's grandfather served on the State Fair Board for many years. My mother-in-law (which I am very blessed to be able to say I get along with wonderfully and have a very dear friendship with) spent her childhood summers at the State Fair with her family. Later, as she began her own family, she then took her children to the State Fair each year. My husband has many, many memories of exploring the State Fair with his grandfather as he served his duties on the Fair Board.

Sadly, I never met my husband's grandfather, for he passed before I even met my husband. But his memory lives on in the family, and we did not think twice about loading up the car and taking the little man to the fair.

While not as interested in the animals as I thought he would be, little man spent the day laughing and riding all of the kiddie rides, eating ice cream and batting his little blue eyes and Nana and Grandpa when he saw a toy for sale he thought he needed.

{Which, of course, worked wonderfully.}

And at the end of the day, when we had had our fill of ice cream and funnel cakes, we loaded up the car and made the trek home.

And with that, the love the State Fair was instilled in the fourth generation of our family.