Halloween and other stories

I think the time around Halloween will just end up getting busier and busier as the years go by. Maybe this year there were more activities because Halloween was on a Sunday, but according to friends who have older children, there are just more opportunities for candy as the kids grow. We will probably need to pick and choose what our family attends in the future.

Anyway, we participated in a Trunk or Treat event at our church on Friday and then witnessed (purely by accident) the McFarland costume parade on Saturday afternoon, all before the actual trick-or-treating and potluck dinner at a neighbor's on Sunday. All were fun, but mostly because of the people we were with, not necessarily the events themselves. Kate's the ladybug and Anna is the butterfly in the picture below; the rest are neighbors.


About a week ago, the weather changed. Actually, we had a two day wind storm and then it's been pretty cool since then. For us, this means that our outdoor time is now mainly the time between naps and dinner; the mornings are simply too cold for much outside playing. Thus begins the long season of indoor activities in the Mischnick household. Right now it's all still pretty exciting since we've spent the last 6 months or so without most of the indoor toys, but I'm sure by February we'll be ready for spring :) This morning the piano was the toy of choice.


I realized last week that I haven't included many silly stories in this blog lately, so here's a few that may show how goofy our girls can be.

Anna was very interested in the wind storm last week; she especially enjoyed running around outside and pretending to be blown over. Of course, after the storm was over we had to explain that it's not really a "wind storm" every time the wind blows.

In preparation for the Trunk or Treat last week, we were blowing up some latex gloves (we didn't have any balloons at the time) to put into garbage bags and use as the heads of ghosts to decorate our ghost-themed truck. Long introduction, I know. Anyway, Anna thought the blown-up gloves were great, so I drew a face on one, we named it Galloon (glove + balloon), and she has been taking care of Galloon for four days now. Taking "care of" Galloon means putting him to sleep, feeding him, taking him around, etc. Galloon hasn't quite gotten the same treatment as Anna's baby, but it's pretty close.

I thought this might be the year we would have to explain the difference between ghosts and the Holy Ghost, but I think we dodged that bullet.

Anna has gotten into "knock, knock" jokes recently, although she tells the same three or four over and over and over again.

We've started a chore chart with Anna to, hopefully, get her motivated to help out around the house a little more. She can earn stickers for each task she does and one of the tasks is to help unload the dishwasher. One morning last week she was teaching Kate how to properly put away the dishes. It took them more than a half hour, but was very, very sweet to watch :)

Kate gives the best hugs right now. She puts her arms around your neck, squeezes, and says "hug" or simply "mmmm". Very cool.

When Kate is really hungry, she will climb into her chair and say "Dinner? Right here!" and point in front of her :)

Kate somehow got trapped in one of our kitchen stools the other day. We're not quite sure how it happened, but when we found her, the stool was lying on the ground and she was in the middle of all four legs. She must be going through a clumsy phase ... again!

Kate woke up from her nap before Anna yesterday and said "Anna? Anna sweeping? Anna? Wake up!" I think Kate likes being entertained by Anna :)

I can only imagine what the next week will bring!