An Eyeball or a Tattoo?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Small went off to school armed with his costume for the afternoon, a tin of yummy decorated gingerbread, a hat to cover his cast (can't get wet and it's raining AGAIN!), waterproof coat and Wellies.

Smallest and I sat in the basement after breakfast and played Super Mario Bros (in our pyjamas - don't tell Small he will be very jealous. Don't tell Huffle!). I left Smallest playing Wii I went and got ready, tidied up breakfast things and then we went out. Today we needed to get cheese (not a thing we normally run out of but we haven't had any since the weekend), and ginger to make more gingerbread (for us this time). Smallest bought himself a double ended lightsaber with his money. (Which i actually have to take back because i cant get the batteries in because the scrw is unscrewable). We were going to have lunch out but Smallest said he preferred to go home. We had lunch and then went out again to the school and watched the Halloween Parade through the Hamlet.

The Principal and the Secretary

The kids crossing the four corners

While we were waiting for them to appear again we watched this zombie play the organ. It moved and there was music coming from it. This house belongs to the crossing lady.

Smallest patiently waiting

Smallest's teacher and her class

Santa asked Smallest if he and been good, he said yes, I said No, he said he would keep an eye on him. Small said to me "I know he's not real but I don't know who he is!"

Smallest favourite costume of the day was the person in red with colourful hair. What is he?

There were a few dressed in their TaeKwonDo costumes, had they forgotten or couldn't be bothered?

Fred and Wally (or Waldo as they call him here!).

...and right at the back is Small.

Smallest and I came home. He watched TV for a while. I emptied the dishwasher and tried to Skype LizzieDotDot but she was out trick or treating. I wanted to see her boys in their costumes. It doesn't seem five minutes ago that we were trick or treating with her, around the village, bumping into Everett and all our friends. The kids had a great time.

Smallest and I made some more gingerbread biscuits and then we had a quick game together on the Wii. I left the kitchen in a big mess and then Smallest and I went back to school for TaeKwonDo. Most of the kids were still wearing their costumes and The Master asked them each to come up to the front and tell everyone their name and what they were dressed as and then show a move that their character does. He spent a long time explaining to them that they should make eye contact with people and not fidget and speak clearly.

At the end they all had a dance and the Master gave them some sweets.

We came home. I made dinner for the boys. Cleared up the kitchen. Huffle came home. Smallest was horrible and ended up in his room to think about whether he deserved to go out trick or treating, then came down and finished his dinner. It was still raining. Neither Huffle or I wanted to go out but we did.

We started with Drew's house because we knew she was going out. She gave them a monkey each and a bag of goodies.

Then we went to see Garfunkel who also gave the boys a bag of goodies. (You seem to get much more here than we did in Engalnd). We got in the car and parked in the middle of the Hamlet as it was raining and we thought it would be quicker. There were some amazingly decorated houses.

Some houses had music playing, scary sounds, moving displays.

We think this was the best decorated house overall

The DayCare place was brilliant. A ghost hiding behind a car. A scary clown going down the slide. Pumpkins lit up, scary sounds and dry ice everywhere. Spooky. The boys favourite one although Smallest did say to the Ghost - "you're not real I can see your neck!"

My two favourite pumpkin carvings above and below

We were tired, wet, and our bag was full so we decided to come home.

We had a big stash.

The boys went straight to bed. We sat in front of the TV, put the fire on to get warm, had tea. No visitors to our house - we are too far I think for the kids to walk here. Oh well, we have to eat our Chocolate as well as the stuff we got tonight!

(The eyeball or tattoo comment was made by a lady at one of the houses. She opened the door, told the boys they looked scary and then said "eyeball or tattoo?" Fabulous. She won comment of the night.

 

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Clean it up!

The winds were bad last night. Over 50kmph. The power kept going off and we went to bed with a candle, mobile phones, wind up torches and IPad. The vents in the bathrooms kept whirring round sounding like the old football rattles. The power went off properly just before 11:00pm. We knew this would mean the sump pump wouldn't work and as the rain was still coming fast, we went to the basement and moved everything off the floor. Most of it was Lego of course. Boots, summer clothes in bags, cricket bats (well they couldn't get wet could they?). All clear. Then the power came on again but better to be safe than sorry!

Huffle set his alarm on his mobile as well as on his digital alarm clock. The boys slept peacefully. Once I was asleep, I slept soundly. The power was off and on all night but at least the sump was working well when we got up. No damage. In fact it was calm and it wasn't raining, so I decided to go to work. As I was waving the boys off to school, it started raining heavily. oh No work then!

So instead, I stayed home, cleaned up, and started painting the cupboards in the kitchen again. I felt like Tommy Two Days with my borrowed electric screwdriver (Thanks Mr Royal). How easy is that to unscrew many many screws. Brilliant. All the cupboard doors are off now. It looks strange. Got to finish it now eh!

I got the bread machine out (of which I have only used once in nearly one year - whoops - used to use it all the time in England). I made a normal white loaf. it worked well (not tasted it yet though). Called Drew to see if she was okay and whether she wanted me to help check the Royals house. We both went over. The door in top of their barn was swinging open. I volunteered to climb the wooden ladder (not sure it was meant for my weight) and closed it.

You can't tell from this but I was quite high up! Quick call the firemen fire brigade, I can't get down!

Then we realised they had left their parasol attached to the table outside and it had tried to fly away. The whole umbrella was ruined (snapped off and all the spokes broken).

Oh dear, Drew moving the umbrella.

We went into the house and everything was in order. The sump was working and there wasn't any water where it shouldn't be. Then as we were opening some of the blinds we noticed one of the shutters was hanging off. We walked around the outside and took the shutter off completely to stop it causing any more damage. They have tons of branches down but luckily none of them have fallen on anything else. Drew and I are going to clear the leaves and branches before they get home. I haven't found any news items for the cruise they are on today. It docked to avoid the storm a few days ago.

When I came back I carried on painting. All the painting around the door surrounds are done. It makes it easier to put things away without doors. (Small's words).

At lunchtime I went to school and watched Smallest's class parade through the school corridors in their Halloween costumes. (The rest of the school will be doing this tomorrow but his class isn't there). They all looked so cute. I spoke to a Dad and when I told him who my child was he said "oh yes, I've heard a lot about him, my daughter talks about him all the time, I asked her if he was her boyfriend". He would not be too pleased to hear that I can tell you! I pointed out which one he was (with his mask on) and I said "handsome eh?".

In case you can't tell, Smallest is on the left.

He has a great tee-shirt on today that says "Grumpy, keep clear!" Very apt.

As I walked into the school, Small approached me and said "I have just rung you, my thumb hurts and I want to go home!" Apparently someone had pushed another boy onto Small and it bent his thumb. (It wasnt an accident as the boy who pushed was laughing and didn't say sorry). The secretary said she would get the teacher to talk to him. Unfortunately it was supply teacher so I couldn't go and have a word. Hopefully they will sort it. I'm not sure he was bad enough to come home but he was very upset so I did take him. I gave him some pain relief and made him do his homework.

While I tidied the paint splattered kitchen and made my lunch, we skyped Moo. We gave her more orders, showed her the kitchen and updated her on the weather here.

Then I went upstairs to the craft room and did a bit of crafting. I helped Small with his homework too and then he went on the computer until Smallest came home.

The boys played together, on the computer, table football, something very loud with a teddy called Dave and a football in the basement (I didn't dare look!). Then I called them for dinner. I made them a monster dinner for Halloween as we are out trick or treating tomorrow and I have no idea what we can eat in the short time between TaeKwonDo and Trick or Treating.

Monster food

I read them a couple of books while they had their dinner but I felt a bit rough. Headachey, sicky. Huffle came home and we had our dinner. Then we all went down in the basement and played table football, Lego,exercise bike and punchbag.

The boys came up and watched TV before bed.

Huffle would like to thank those people that were concerned about us and sent their kind thoughts. The storm seems to be moving away now and will be heading towards Montreal.

I finished my book Theodore Boone yesterday. I have to say I was very disappointing. It ended abruptly and didn't really finish. Oh well, next book.




 

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Windy Pumpkins

Last night Huffle and I changed everyone's quilts to the winter ones. We were all snugly warm - it was lovely. We even slept with a blanket as well. Have forgotten how horrible the cold is!

Heard on the news this morning that Hurricane Sandy is about to hit the US (11:30am here). I just noticed that our next door neighbour has removed all her pumpkins and Fall decorations and Chrysanthemums. Are they expecting really bad weather?

Smallest had a bath, I had a shower. I got washing done and Smallest played on the computer and we read books.

Smallest has been full of temper tantrums today. One minute he is being loving and helpful and the next he turns and is horrible and nasty. One hurtful comment from him today was "and I won't want a kiss and a cuddle tonight from you!" I knew he was just trying to hurt me. I have a cold that seems to come and go, and Huffle does to so maybe he is not 100%.

We went out to the shop and bought a few things (including Halloween cookie cutters).

The weather has been horrible today. Small came home and said "bad news, hurricane has 60% chance of coming here". Then Drew rang today and told me what happens if we get a power cut and it stays off, apparently it stops the sump pump working which means there is no water. She suggested we filled water bottles up for drinking and filled the bath to flush the toilet. Just checked on the web and it doesn't seem to have hit New York too badly yet although it is getting nearer. Will definitely be keeping an eye on it.

Smallest and I made gingerbread biscuits and then decorated them for Halloween. When Small came home he helped. He also told me that he would like something nice to take into school on Wednesday. Might let him take all these biscuits and make some more for us.

 

I think we did a good job. I got on with dinner and tidying the mess we had all made. The kids cleared all the decorations (and ate a lot of them!).

Huffle came home and insisted we cleared the porch of anything that moves. So after we had all eaten, Huffle and I went out and brought in the four chairs, two tables, two pumpkins, Halloween decorations, plant pots. Then we moved to the pool area and brought in all the chairs, Airbeds, noodles, nets etc that was hanging around. It was really cold and very very windy. The storm shouldn't come here now, it is on course to completely bypass us but we are getting fast winds from somewhere.

Smallest got changed into his Halloween costume and I took him to Beavers. I was told that if there was a power cut I was to come and get him immediately. They have torches there for emergencies. I suggested they just hold Smallest up at the door and let him go, if the wind is in the right direction, he'll be home in no time (especially as he is wearing his dragon cape tonight!

When I got home Huffle had. tidied and cleaned up the dinner stuff and Smallest was waiting for me to help him carve his pumpkin.

We started to get all the seeds out but Small didn't like putting his hands in.

 

Eeugggh it's horrible, can you do it?

Ahhh that's better

Pure concentration

....turn the lights out.....

Ooooh scary

Huffle went and fetched Smallest back from Beavers. He too had carved a pumpkin.

....and with the lights off

If the light was on you would see how proud he looks!

Huffle and I are sitting with our tea and gingerbread biscuit, listening to the wind whip around our house, about to watch Breaking Amish.

 

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