Happy Halloween from Connecticut

We did a trunk-or-treat at the church on Friday and got a nice stash of candy. At the last minute I took the kids to about 5 houses in our area. But it was cold, very dark (no street lights), and no husband. So we happily called it a night and came back to watch Scared Shrekless and go to bed. We got a total of 2 trick-or-treaters at our house tonight.

My Dino-Sawyer and Batman

My eleventh hour Dinosaur project got finished and turned out pretty cute. I helped Sawyer decide to be a Dinosaur. He suggested a red dinosaur, so I got a red sweatsuit and sewed on some spikes, a tail and some teeth. He looked adorable in the parade. He didn't appreciate the music from the high school band....he said it was too loud.
And whoever helped Sawyer put on his costume velcroed his tail upside down :(
After school we went to Kent's work for a little trick or treating. Sawyer refused to be the dinosaur again. He went to his old Nascar fall back. I'm not sure what all my hard work was for after all. Luckily I can unpick all the dinosaur parts and it's a regular hoodie he can wear this fall and probably next.

I like the little dino-sawyer.And here's my little batman. He has been so excited wearing his costume all week. He is really into the character and insists we call him Batman and not Hayden. He is in heaven when he's wearing his costume and saving the citizens.
I bought his costume in the 2-4 size (days before Halloween shopping is not good) for my 3 year old, and it was way too short. I had to improvise and add a little length. With all the wear this week I also had to repair an ear and a few of the velcro connections.

But he couldn't care less what it looks like. He's still Batman.

school parade

Today was the 2nd grade Halloween parade. They put on quite a little production. The middle school band comes and plays music while the kids parade up and down the bus lanes. It was a balmy 70+ degrees. McKinley's make-up had all but worn off by the time of the parade. So instead of a zombie ballerina she looked more like a tired ballerina. Still cute as a button though!

Hayden wanted to stay and play on the playground, but I've got a dino costume to put together for Sawyer. Besides Hayden is really grumpy today because he's missing nap time.

This is a view from our parade point looking onto the front playing field and the parking lot lane.

I'm excited to see my little Sawyer-saurus parading tomorrow. (Although I wish they would just do it all on the same day, the school is 15-20 minutes away after all.)

Our view

I was waiting for McKinley's bus to pull up in front of our house and looking through the front storm door and this is what I get to see. What pretty trees!

I decided to take a few pictures of the outdoors around here. I didn't venture out into the forest because it is rainy and wet. But here is the view from the front walkway by the front door looking to the driveway area. Nary a neighbor in sight. Here is the view from the mailbox looking back toward the driveway. And there are our lovely garbage cans. We have to contract out to have garbage collection. Apparently we moved to the country, and that's what they do.Right smack dab in front of us is this abandoned lovely. I imagine it's probably a little worse inside than this place was. I don't know if that's true, but I like to imagine it nonetheless. It's for sale for over 500 K!

This is our diagonal view. *Sigh* I always imagine it's clean and fresh inside this house that's for sale too.

Isn't it gorgeous? Doesn't the grass look greener over there?

It's for sale for around 3 million. Oh yeah, I guess that's why we don't live there.

Welcome to the Gold Coast!

Halloween is coming way too fast!

The kids have been lucky and received a few Halloween cards from grandparents and cousins. For FHE I decided we should make our own cards and mail them to family (once we find the stamps). McKinley made pop-up cards in art class so she taught us all how to do them. McKinley's is the orange pop-up on the left. Sawyer colored a little on his black pop-up then wrote names on the white paper instead and then wanted to take a shower and told me to finish it (which I didn't). Hayden wanted every sticker he could get his hands on put on his card...both sides. At the end of the activity, McKinley wanted to give hers to her teacher at school. Sawyer never finished, despite his orders that I do it for him. And Hayden had a breakdown when I told him we were going to put it in an envelope and mail it to grandma and grandpa. He clutched it to him tightly and emphatically told me "No! I will miss it so much!"

So sorry grandmas and grandpas and cousins. We will apparently not be mailing you our cards.

Here is a practice run of McKinley's costume. She has not waivered in wanting to be a dead ballerina, thanks to her friend Savannah who planted the idea in her head. So that's what she's doing. I'm not sure if I should deaden-up the actual ballet costume (or how) so I've just painted her face so far.And here is my front door. I just bought the little wreath so it doesn't look so sterile. And every house around here has pumpkins on their porch posts, fence posts, etc., so I joined the club :) I'm not sure if the carving thing is going to happen this year. I am just barely getting around to putting costumes together, and let me tell you the stores are definitely running out. We are in a pickle with Sawyer who wanted to be Earnhardt Jr. for Halloween. I guess this isn't Nascar country because there are NO Nascar costumes!!! Plan B is Indiana Jones. Why can't he just be something easy to find/improvise?!

Sleepy Hollow

A friend recommended visiting the Sleepy Hollow cemetery. It turns out it's only about 22 miles from our house so we made the trip out after church today. This is the Sleepy Hollow of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving fame.

We started at the Old Dutch Church, after all we are Dutch :) It was established in 1697.

Inside there were a bunch of wooden pews, pretty organ pipes, and a classic preaching pew that had a nice vantage point over the congregation.

This was a happy tree in the cemetery...

There were medallions like this all over the cemetery. They mark the graves of soldiers who served in the Revolutionary War.

The author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving, was buried here.

Maybe a little twisted to pose this shot, but I love it!

I really like all the old iron gate work.

Outside one of the many beautiful mausoleums. Isn't everything so romantically beautiful, even if it is a cemetery?

We checked out a few of the more famous patrons of the cemetery. Rockefeller's mausoleum is under renovation, but you can certainly tell it is very grandiose.

On the other hand, Andrew Carnegie's resting place was down a little rock path into a circle of trees and marked by this ornate marker and surrounded by other graves (presumably family). I like Carnegie's idea of a resting place better.

The Headless Horseman Bridge (although not the original that the story talks about).

It was a beautiful cemetery. I can't wait to visit more old cemeteries. I have a few ancestors who died out East here. I'm hoping to visit at least one of them while I'm here.

Another first day of school....and pumpkins!

Today was another first day of school for the kids. This time in CT. McKinley was sooo nervous. She kept asking Sawyer if he was nervous too. He kept saying "no", then finally told her "maybe a little". We walked to their classrooms together. Sawyer is in the "ladybug cottage". After school he said he had a good day and met new friends today. We'll see how it goes tomorrow because he has full day kindergarten on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He already thinks the day is "so long". McKinley got in the car after school and said it was the "best day ever!" She got to meet a new friend and they had art today (which she loves). Now she is not so nervous to go back tomorrow. Next week we'll start riding the bus. Oh, and I only cried a little when I had to walk away and leave them behind. The good and bad news is Hayden will be my little preschool buddy at home. Once things are settled that is. The preschool we were thinking of doing is $2500 a year! WHAT?!

first day of school in CT

Tonight we went to a pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. There was a good one in Newtown called the Castle Hill Farm. It had perfect pumpkins all over. Some were even still on the vine and you cut them off yourself. Look at the beautiful trees in the background. It really is pretty here right now.

Kent is very serious about getting the perfect pumpkin...he really is.

Hayden just wanted a little pumpkin. He told me not to "fire it because that would make me sad." Apparently the carving and lighting of the pumpkins is not for this kid.

Sawyer just wanted every pumpkin he could get his hands on. We had to limit him. Kent also had to direct his choices because Sawyer did not inherit the perfect pumpkin gene apparently.

It was a beautiful pumpkin patch in a beautiful setting with beautiful children.

Our first outing

Today we took our first family outing to see some of this place and the leaves. We had stake conference this morning in New York. People in my ward said it takes about an hour to get to the stake center :( We left about 30 minutes before it started despite our best efforts. Luckily we live in the northern part of the ward and it only took us half an hour to get there. And amazingly our kids lasted almost the whole 2 hours!

After church we changed our clothes and grabbed some snacks and headed out. We traveled a scenic highway to see the leaves and stopped by some cute covered bridges.

Here is a pumpkin tree... These pumpkin people were so funny to me!

And here's an Amish buggy parked to the side of one of their furniture stores :)

A quick drive by Bull's Bridge, and then we got out and walked around by Cornwall Bridge.

We also kept passing these neat looking cemeteries so I made us stop and I took some pictures.

We stopped at Kent Falls and got out to walk around and let the kids run. It was a fun first outing.

13 gallons and counting

Still painting. We're 13 gallons in and still have more to go.

Sawyer and Hayden were playing cars together and making up a little story about the cars lives. While I was painting I overheard Hayden's car tell Sawyer's car to "stay away from his paint!"

I think we're ALL sick of painting!!

My next house better be move in ready.

No pictures today. Been busy painting.

Silver lining?

Painting again today. Big surprise. It's good fall weather here today so the kids played outside this morning. I grabbed my camera this morning to snap a picture. It's a little fuzzy because it was taken through my oh-so-clean windows. It was so sweet to watch them playing games nicely together in a beautiful surrounding....my silver lining.

My little silver lined balloon was burst though as I sat next to Sawyer on the couch a few minutes later and noticed a tick in his neck! Panic set in. In retrospect I should have remained more calm so I didn't freak out the little one, but all I could think of was the impending doom of Lyme disease. I frantically called Kent to have him ask a local for advice on removal while I scoured for tweezers. Stupid boxes everywhere! Finally I found one and Kent finally called back. I pulled from the head and twisted the sucker out. Man was it clawing on to Sawyer's neck for dear life! So a few disturbing moments later I had the whole critter out. We had a talk about daily body searches for ticks now. McKinley keeps asking me if every scratch is a tick on her. I don' t blame her because I feel a bit creepy crawly now too and I haven't even been outside.

Missing you

We finally found our phones yesterday after searching for days. I had promised McKinley that when we found the phones she could call her grandparents. So when we found them last night I got her out of bed so she could call them. Immediately the water works started. She could barely pull herself together to talk, but she did. Then she went back to bed. Later that night we heard a thump from upstairs and Kent went to see if a child had fallen out of bed. It turns out it was a tissue box that fell off McKinley's bed. She had a nice pile of tear-filled tissues laying on her floor from crying to sleep :(

We miss you!

Grateful for...

The other day while I was still painting (no I'm still not done yet) and the kid's were in bed and Kent was on another Lowe's run that takes an hour round trip, I turned on the news for noise and company. Local stories ran about the other cities that were "affordable" in the area that we had been browsing back in July. The cities that Kent refused to have his children go outside in. And for good reason apparently. I had a thought, that I don't want to forget. Yes, this house is severely crappy and needs a LOT of work to get it liveable, but thank heavens it is, because if it weren't we never would have been able to afford to live in this specific area...an area that is safe for my children. So today I am grateful for a crappy house that no one wanted so that we could come and rent it and be safe. This is where we're supposed to be right now...no matter how hard it is right now.

Home sweet home?

Well, we have arrived in Connecticut. We have been busy trying to de-disgustify our house. I'm not exaggerating. Our work is cut our for us. We are feeling a bit overwhelmed and maybe a bit depressed about our new living conditions.
The wood floors are beat to heck...
I mean, all the floors are beat to heck...

Someone got PAID to paint over the nasty green paint. They did one coat (so you can still see the green through it) and were obviously super-inept and drunk when they did it...

The mud/tape jobs are coming apart in some places...

The place has water problems apparently (we're just painting over this--we're only renting after all). We've already found a few inept jobs done with the plumbing...

Besides the general stank of the house (it has apparently been closed up and vacant for a couple years), we are clearing it out of unwanted house guests. Mostly cobwebs and tiny spiders (thank heavens).

But just as I was thinking how lucky we are that no rodents were in the house I jinxed myself and found this in the light box.

It's still there because we're not sure how to get it out without electrocuting ourselves.

Oh heaven help us!

On a good note, my kids have been playing with each other outside on the beautiful property playing the "Guardians of Ga'hoole" for hours on end while Kent and I are working hard.

I've realized my kids will have a very different memory of this place than Kent and I will, and I'm grateful.

The good news is it's only up from here right?