Wednesday, October 31, 2007

halloween 2

Happy Halloween to all, and a Happy Halloween it was!

We had pizza, hummus, and donuts at the girlfriend's house. Good times! Dave took Malcolm out trick-or-treating to a few neighbors. I put on some haunting Bach, lit candles, and dispersed some treats. When Malcolm came home he seemed a little stunned, like "We have never done this before, isn't it bath time?". It was nice outside so the three of us sat on the porch steps to continue our duty of passing out the goods. That's when Malcolm really go into it. He busied himself by putting all the treats from the bowl into his pumpkin bucket and then back again. When the t-o-t'ers would come by he would put a candy in their bags/buckets/pillowcases. When he would see them coming he would say "boo". We ended up running out of candy and giving away most of his (better that way, I'm trying to not get a sugar head). By the end of the night he was giving kids high fives. He thought it was great. We came inside, the lights were still low and we took the Bach off repeat and let the rest of the CD play through. Malcolm was feeling pretty silly by then. We were all on the floor playing "chase the dog" and singing "one little, two little, three little pumpkins". It doesn't get better than that. Bath, bed, our little dog was pooped!

Leave it to me to wait until Halloween day to decorate for Halloween. So it won't last long, but it's cool that it even happened. I must say I was inspired by this. I gathered some sticks and dried out black eyed susans and did some dead flower arranging. I pulled together candles from around the house and the most haunting of books from our shelf: Bram Stoker's DRACULA, GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES (these are chilling accounts, really), and Roy Porter's BLOOD & GUTS.

With the lights out it feels like someone is looming over the girl in the painting.

The mantel even got some attention. Spooky!

Friday, October 26, 2007

halloween 1


Tonight was the Halloween party at the church.
Malcolm was a little dog. I was a big dog.
He thought it was funny that we both got doggie noses, thanks to my liquid eye liner.

Malcolm really went at it with the markers. I love the concentration in his face. He loves to draw. He has been mastering his circles this week. Some times he calls them "buntins", pumpkins. Oh, and they had donuts and a witches broom (he loves brooms) so he was really happy.

Dave was over night at the hospital so we stopped by to spread some of the Halloween cheer and candy. This is a good shot of the waggly tail.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Happy Sweetest Day!

On our drive to the pumpkin patch we were so confused by signs announcing "Sweetest Day baskets for sale!" or "Sweetest Day roses!" in parking lots. Thanks Wikipedia for setting us straight. I did make chocolate chip cookies yesterday, so I guess we celebrated in our own little way. Next year we will be better prepared. Who knew this region has it's own holiday for sweets and all our sweeties? Not a bad idea. I love sweets and I love my sweeties, but let's not get out of hand. I do not want a basket.

Sweetest Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sweetest Day is an observance celebrated primarily in the Great Lakes region and parts of the Northeast United States on the third Saturday in October[1]. It is described by Retail Confectioners International, as "much more important for candymakers in some regions than in others (Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo being the biggest Sweetest Day cities)" and an "occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed."[2] Sweetest Day has also been referred to as a "concocted promotion"[3] created by the candy industry solely to increase sales of candy.

PUMPKIN time


Saturday we went to Patterson Fruit Farm. It was a lovely day and Malcolm was in heaven. He has been quite fond of pumpkins ever since I picked up a plastic pumpkin bucket for him last week. There were pumpkins everywhere, he was delighted.

We picked out a few to take home and he chanted "buntin! buntin!" all the way home.
We also had donuts.

It was a good day.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

This morning I was getting Malcolm situated in his highchair and I asked him "would you like an egg?"
He looked at me and said "no-nut".
Donut.
Sorry Malcolm, no donuts this morning.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

The day the wall came down



Here's the new view from the dining room looking into the kitchen. Things feel more open already--now we just need a beam, a finished floor, a new peninsula, a finished ceiling, some drywall, some trim, some tile, some paint...

Monday, October 08, 2007

a walk


The stroller stayed home.
We didn't go as far,

but we took in so much more.

finger painting...


arm painting
shirt painting
mom painting
head painting...

bath.

Dave's week off

was a productive one.

Malcolm helped whenever he could.

September

September was the month of visitors.

The Sallay's came from Pittsburgh. We took a tour of the A Christmas Story house and went out for some Hungarian food. Yum, Yum Balaton. Thanks for showing us the cool things in our town David Sallay.

Annie and company made a special stop to see us on their move from South Carolina to Utah. It was wonderful. Since it was getting close to her birthday, I made an apple pie. YUM. Our first pie in this house. Why aren't we neighbors Annie? We could have pie all the time.

The Sorensen's came out from Utah. They stayed with the Palfreyman's and we all got together for pizza and fondue among other things. So after more than 12 years of friendship, Natalie and I realized that before our families moved to SoJo we lived about a block away from each other and even went to the same elementary school for kindergarten.
What a great time to reconnect. Anybody else want to come visit? Cleveland is where it's at!