What They Were Wearing Monday Night

As is our custom, Monday night after piano lessons and a quick dinner, we spent the evening of October 31st going house to house down our street asking for candy…..dressed up in costumes.  And it would seem that the word is getting out that Kirby Woods is the place to go for the best Trick or Treating experience.  As has also become our custom, the kids went in themed costumes.  Mattie picks our theme every year (by that, I mean Mattie picks what she wants to be and I sometimes have to be very creative to come up with complimentary costumes for her brother and sister).  Every year, Reese says he wants to pick the theme, but he has yet to actually present an idea before it hits crunch time.  He did say he would like to go as a tornado and his sisters could go as a rainbow and sunshine (I thought this was being very generous of him considering neither of his sisters has ever been particularly sunny or whatever magical good fortune a rainbow represents), but he made his suggestion about a week before Halloween. I can be crafty, but I need at least 10 days to procrastinate and then a good solid three days of hard work to pull off three completely made-from-scratch Halloween costumes.  So we are tabling that idea for next year.

Can you guess their theme for this year?

Your first guess might be Egypt, and you are partly right.  They are actually going as Memphis.  Yeah, I probably lost you there.  Let me give you a little history lesson:

Memphis was the capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, it remained an important city throughout ancient Mediterranean history. It occupied a strategic position at the mouth of the Nile delta, and was home to feverish activity. Its principal port, Peru-nefer, harboured a high density of workshops, factories, and warehouses that distributed food and merchandise throughout the ancient kingdom. During its golden age, Memphis thrived as a regional centre for commerce, trade, and religion.

So now you know where Memphis, Tn got its name.  It too was a thriving city, home of feverish activity and known as a warehouse city do to all the commerce going up and down the Mississippi.  And it, too, is at a strategic position on the Mississippi delta.  We also have a gigantic pyramid erected on the banks of our important river (that houses the largest Bass Pro ever!). So there you go, the kids went dressed as Memphis, Egypt.  Reese was a Nile crocodile.

Lila was a mummy, though not a scary, haunting mummy.  Mattie instructed her to tell people that she was a historical portrayal of how the ancient Egyptian people buried their dead.  She usually got an extra piece of candy when she rattled that little tidbit off to people.

And Matilda, she was Cleopatra the Queen, of course.

And for the record, it would probably be easier to put eyeliner on Cybill than it was to make up Mattie’s eyes.  My word! I’ve never seen someone blink so much and I wasn’t even trying to get a nice thin line on her lids!!!! It’s nice to know that though it might match her attitude every other day, goth make-up is out of the question for now.

As they ran along in front of us, Lila fearless except for the demon house (you kind of have to see it to understand it….or maybe check back in the archives because I know I have mentioned it in Octobers of the past), Reese walking a little to comfortably in his reptile suit as though that is what he would prefer to be wearing on a more regular basis, and Mattie chatting about how they were going to split this all up and what she was going to trade for what…….I wondered how much longer we had of October 31st’s spent like this one. Not trying to get all sappy and sentimental as I so often do, but I know days our numbered.  Pretty soon, Mattie will prefer to just stay home and hand out the candy or will have something more interesting to go to by herself or just won’t want to dress up with her little brother and sister.  Reese won’t want to go without Mattie because social situations make him uncomfortable. I can see in my future just going to Target and buying him the $7.99 bag of mixed Mars miniature candy bars, which he will eat on the couch watching The World Series and wearing an Alligator costume because it just feels so right.

Lila will Trick or Treat forever, if given the opportunity, but will probably only need supervision for about another year. And Brandon and I will be those sweet married couples we see who both come to the door every time the bell rings, because I am a glutton for emotional punishment and I prefer him to be next to me when I am having a sad moment about my children growing up.

In the mean time, I will just spread out the mountain of candy that my three children procured for us (me) and stifle those sad thoughts with chocolate and sugar.  Happy Thursday everyone!

 

What We Do On the Weekends

Mattie went to a slumber party Saturday night.  As a little girl, when I used to go off on my Saturday night sleepovers usually to my friend Stephanie’s house, when my mom returned to get me the next morning I always wondered what in the world had they done without me. I guess I just assumed that they did absolutely nothing, that time just sort of stopped until morning and I needed to be picked up.  Well, Mattie girl, in case you were wondering what your family does with you away, it looked a lot like this:

These two had been inspired to do some alligator wrestling earlier in the afternoon and then were so cozy in their reptilian outfits, that they opted out of changing when I gave them the opportunity. We needed to take Mattie to her party and they decided they would just put on shoes….no need to change.  After delivering Mattie, we decided that maybe we needed donuts.  Our evening progressed from Gibson’s donuts to our couch where we spent the rest of the night switching between two games.  Reese told me they were going to go upstairs and change into the Grizzlies clothes, to be proper fans.  I guess I assumed my children would return in Memphis themed t-shirts sans the alligator suits.  I was wrong:

They wore these costumes all evening long, finally taking them off to go to bed.

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In other news, my days have once again been busy.  Last Friday I went on a field trip with Reese’s class to the Harvest Festival at the Botanic Gardens. That was the first and only day that it has been chilly all fall and I spent the better part of my time wearing small children to keep up all warm.  The kids had a great time, despite being cold, and even though I have been to this particular Festival about 6 times – they always find a way to make it fresh and new.  I know he has been there in the past, but this year there was a grandfatherly man roaming around with his guitar playing kids songs.  Well, I assumed they were kids songs, but when lunch time came and we took our spots amongst all the other kids picnicking by the giant outdoor stage,  it surprised me a little to hear that he had just started into a very intense version of Stairway to Heaven.  Nothing says children’s Harvest Festival quite like old Led Zeppelin.  He chased that with a little “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas.  Nothing like the greatest Rock n’ Roll hits from the 70’s and 80’s to get in you the spirit.

They made bat masks….yeah, I wouldn’t have guessed that either.

Reese walked around the whole garden with his arm hooked through his buddy’s in order to keep warm.

***

After our field trip, the girls and I went on a little field trip of our own to the Holiday Market (or something festive sounding like that).  It’s one of those big shopping events where lots of local vendors and artists bring their wares and you can do some Christmas shopping or at least get ideas.  I rarely buy anything, but like to go and look just the same.  I thought the girls were old enough to enjoy it and I remember doing things like this with my mom, so I thought it would be a fun little girls date.  Turns out it’s also a very expensive mommy/daughter date.  All the booths that I usually just walk right on by, they needed to check out.  And when your girls are standing in front of you, both holding cheer leading uniforms for your favorite teams for their dolls (which for one daughter, her days of caring about her dolls you know are numbered and none of us are ready for what comes after that!)…..how do you say no to that?  That is $50 I would have never spent had they not been with me.  I think they touched one of everything, took every business card and greedily sampled every dip, muffin mix and complimentary candy that was in reach of them.  We also left with Mattie carrying a rather hefty, paper bag of those German sugar and cinnamon almonds.  Again, something I would never have purchased had it not been for her.

Posing with her doll in their matching cheer uniforms.

They are excited to go again and I am excited that we had such a pleasant time, just us girls.  Next time, however, I will make them take their own money.

***

And because there is no better way to complete your weekend when it has started off with a field trip and shopping, Saturday after church, the family loaded up and headed off to the woods for our First Annual Adventurer Camping trip.  We headed off to the woods but barely got 5 miles down the road when we had to turn around and come back for something.  This trend continued 2 or 3 more times.  Let me just take a moment to say that I have never claimed to be a good planner and I have said many times that this whole leadership role thing that I have found myself in…..it’s not really in my wheelhouse.  I feel like I have done an adequate job of warning people and I shouldn’t be blamed for my shortcomings.  I am pretty proud of myself for figuring out a grocery list for 6+ families and all of my family had appropriate clothing for our night in the woods.  I’m not saying its not important or wasn’t there in the past, but I don’t think I am the only other person who wouldn’t immediately put extension cord on the list of things to take on the camping trip.  About 45 minutes later than we intended, we finally arrived at our camping spot.  We weren’t the first ones there, but certainly weren’t the last.

Everything seemed to go fine, tents were put up without any problem, hot dogs were roasted and the kids were appropriately sticky from s’mores.  Our first half of Operation take the kids to the woods seemed to have been a success.  But then what? It was pitch black outside and felt like it must be the middle of the night.  The boys decided to wrestle and play football and the girls felt like playing games that involved a lot of screaming.  Kids in the woods are 50 times louder than kids in a normal setting and we parents tried our best to keep them quiet, constantly reminding them that we had lots of neighbors and it was very late and people might be trying to sleep.  Turns out, it was only about 7:45 and all these kids had afternoon naps before they came.  We were crazy if we thought anyone would be sleeping.

The little girls preferred to play in the dirt…..oh Lila and your jeans….

That night ended up being the longest night ever.

The Nelson Men and their tent

I think we all eventually retired to our tents at about 9:45, the kids falling asleep, but we parents spending a restless night rolling in circles trying to find a point on our bodies that wouldn’t ache or lose circulation when we laid on it.  It also seemed that when we got our kids calm and quiet, the real noise picked up from the campsites around us.  It’s a special kind of miserable, lying wide awake because your whole right side is throbbing and you are tangled in a sleeping bag, listening to your wild neighbors and regretting your choice to set your tent up so close to the road.  It was probably around midnight that I just came to grips with the fact that a car was probably going to plow into our tent but it would hit me first and I would die fast, so I should probably just go to sleep so I wouldn’t know when it was about to happen.  And then promptly at 6:30, Reese woke up and announced he had to go to the bathroom.  They were all up then, our new day starting without a drop of caffeine in sight. I wouldn’t say that I am looking forward to or am even ready to think about our next Adventurers camping trip – but overall, I would consider our camping trip a success.

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Its been a fun October, but I am ready to move on to November.  My calendar isn’t nearly as full for the next 30 days.  I’m sure it will get that way, but for the moment, there are perfectly blank days that only have a number and the day of the week on their agenda.  Mattie just returned from Outdoor School and it seems like she has spent more days away from home than she has actually here. Have a great week ahead and make sure to pack an extension cord!