Halloween

This Halloween started out sadly. This morning I got an email that one friend just died of cancer, and Wander also attended the funeral of another friend who died of cancer.

However, for the girls, it was still Halloween, and that meant dress-up, candy, and scary decorations. Sparkle enjoys spooky decorations, but is okay without them. Glitter, on the other hand, is terrified of Halloween decorations. She won't even walk past them and makes Wander carry her by them on their nightly walks. One day when riding her tricycle full steam ahead, she suddenly found herself in front of a mildly decorated yard and burst into tears. Not wanting to terrify his little girl, Wander chose to not decorate out house this year. Instead we just carved pumpkins a few days before the big day.



Then Wander set up the pumpkins in our driveway.


As for the dress-up, the girls had a hard time deciding what to be: ballerinas, or fairy princesses. The past few years they have been fairy princesses. However, this year Sparkle had her ballet costume from her spring recital. Glitter didn't have a tutu, but she was satisfied to simply wear her black leotard and pink tights from dance class.



A glow-stick fit nicely around each girl's bun, making them more visible as darkness fell.


Of course, the candy was the most important part of Halloween for the kids. Glitter asked, why couldn't we "have Halloween with candy spread all around, and we get to pick up the candy, and no skeletons?" I asked her if the candy should be spread out in little plastic eggs, to which she vigorously agreed. Wander burst out laughing. "Sure," he told her, "but we call that 'Easter' and it happens in the spring," he told her.


The trick-or-treating started early this year, and lasted longer than usual. We had superheros, soldiers, princesses, ninja, and storybook characters trooping through the neighborhood for three hours. Wander herded the girls through the neighbors and I stayed at home to pass out candy. After the girls had done their rounds, they hung out with me to help pass out candy. I think they liked that as much as getting their own candy. Glitter would grab two fistfuls of candy to drop in kids' bags, and then Sparkle would want to give them candy too. Good thing I had bought three really big bags of candy.

Renaissance Festival School Days

Wednesday we attended the Renaissance Festival School Days. Although we've attended RenFest for several years, this was our first time to go on school days.

At school days we found the grounds crowded as usual, but instead of mostly adults and some younger kids, this time it was crowds of middle and high school kids, sprinkled with family groups. Early elementary age kids were almost always parts of homeschooled families, often with toddlers and strollers along.

There were still people in costume, but far fewer than normal. We dressed Sparkle and Glitter in their RenFest princess dresses, and I braided their hair into "crowns." However, Wander and I wore "time traveler" clothes ourselves. The booth outside the festival for renting costumes was closed. The sparsity of people in costume was both a plus and a minus. On the minus side, there weren't as many neat costumes to see to put one in a festive mood. On the plus side, the eyes weren't affronted by things you'd really rather not see (or prefer your children to not see).



Most of the regular shows, especially the more bawdy ones, were missing. Some of them were still on, and we enjoyed seeing some magnificent birds in "Birds of Prey." The show was especially neat for Sparkle and Glitter as Wander is reading them "My Side of the Mountain," and the main character has a falcon. However, most of the stages were given over to school choirs, bands, and theatre troupes for a performing arts festival / competition. Some of these groups are really good.

In addition to shows, there were the usual demonstrations. Sparkle got to be an assistant at one booth. She donned a printer's smock and hat and got to run the printing press. It was really neat seeing the mechanics of how it worked. This was Sparkle's favorite part of the faire.


One of Wanders favorite parts of the faire is the shops. However, for obvious reasons, no knives or blades were sold during school days. Indeed, shops that specialize in those things were completely closed, and other shops set up tables of wares that blocked access deeper into the stores. Pretty smart, considering that kids have curious hands but not much money to spend.

The part of the faire that attracted kids' money the most was the games and rides. Glitter's favorite part of the fair was riding the carousel. She knew just the animal she wanted to ride - the green frog with a purple coat.


Surprisingly, the one aspect of the faire guaranteed to take your money was actually much cheaper on school days: the food. There were fewer choices (no beer!) but turkey legs and other such staples were brought down to $4 each so that all the "main dishes" were the same price. Plus, we were allowed to bring in our own food, which meant that we could snack the girls at will without tracking down a roaming pretzel or popcorn vendor.



All in all, we had a marvelous time, and are looking forward to returning next year.

All Saints Party

Last Sunday was our homeschool group's All Saints Party. A member family that lives on a not-too-distant farm hosts the party. This was our second year attending, and had a fabulous time again.

Sparkle dressed up as Saint Therese, the Little Flower, from her Little Flowers class. I gave Sparkle a short biography of Saint Therese to read, and she was entranced by the idea of Therese's older sister Pauline becoming Therese's "little mother" when their own mother died. Sparkle wanted me to dress up as Pauline, but I didn't have time to sew another costume for myself. Glitter, wanting to be like her big sister in all things, was also Saint Therese.



The party is out in the country.


Here are the girls with their roses. (The accessories are sometimes the best way to identify the saint.)


The highlight of the party is the parade of saints.


For the games that the families set up for the kids, I lucked out and another family asked us to join up with them. Working together with the other family was nice because that way we were able to take turns guiding the little ones through the various booths. Plus, the other family set up everything about the game, including some great prizes. I just had to print up some holy cards and help out with the booth. It was a cute St. Peter's fishing game, and the kids loved it. Several kids came back to play again and again, even though they only got a prize the first time.



One of the funnest parts of the party was the hay ride to feed the cows. Wander took the girls while I was working the game, but when I was free, I hopped on for a ride. Wander and the girls waved to me as we drove by. The cows were amazing. They had huge horns. I was still wary of the cow in our neighborhood that tried to eat Sparkle's dress a few years ago, so I kept my distance.



All too soon the sun set, and it was time to go home. We are truly blessed with some wonderful friends in our group to put in all the effort to make the party such a success.

homonyms

Sparkle has a new found passion for homonyms - words that sound the same, but mean different things and are spelled differently.

Here are some of her favorites:
pour / poor
hear / here
horse / hoarse
which / witch
write / right
hair / hare
night / knight
tail / tale

I think that her interest in homonyms comes from poetry and spelling.

Glitterism, Concert, Treasure

We're driving back from the Halloween concert and Glitter starts counting. She starts strong and makes it up into the thirties: 30, 31, 32, 33. But when she gets to the end of the decade, she gets stuck in a time warp: 39, 30, 31, 32. The cycle repeats a few times. She just can't seem to get to 40. Instead she starts skipping numbers, hoping that will get her to the next decade faster: 32, 35, 37. But a little pause for thought at 39 does her in, and she's back at 30 again. Finally, she just calmly gives up. "That's enough thirties," she proclaims, and stops counting. The rest of us in the car agree, "yup, that's enough thirties."

BTW, the Halloween concert was great but *crowded.* There were swarms of kids, many in costume. Some of the costumes were scary and Sparkle momentarily freaked out when a goblin walked between her and the rest of the family. We let the girls each get a piece of free candy but skipped the rest of the madness to find seats on the hill.

The biggest highlight of the night was the 14 karat gold, diamond ring that Sparkle found in the grass as we were packing up to go. People had been gradually leaving for the last half hour, and the hill was a mess of people moving in all different directions. No-one was frantically searching the grass, so we brought the ring to the information booth lost and found. At first Sparkle thought it was a toy and wanted to keep it, but when we explained that it was a really expensive ring and meant a lot to someone, she was proud of doing the right thing. I hope that the ring gets back to its rightful owner. It was gorgeous.

A very entertaining dentist visit

Today was one of the most entertaining visits I've ever had to the dentist. After I dropped Glitter off at school, Sparkle and I continued on to the dentist's office. I brought a bag of schoolwork for Sparkle, but she had barely sat down before it was time to go back to get my teeth cleaned.

At first Sparkle was shy, but I asked the hygienist's name and then introduced her to Sparkle. Sparkle started doing schoolwork, but the fascinating world of dentistry held far more allure than arithmetic. Soon Sparkle was standing next to the hygienist and talking away. Sparkle started by asking questions about everything she saw - from a little square of cotton, to how they cleaned the dental tools. The hygienist explained that she didn't have children yet, but often babysat her nephew. Eventually the hygienist and Sparkle were chattering away like old friends. They talked about x-rays, hair color, toy cars, favorite colors, fossils, mouth guards, homemade dresses, sisters, books, nuns, in-laws, and more than I could keep track of.

Meanwhile, I just laid back and listened, amazed at Sparkle's chattering and thankful for the hygienist's friendly nature. I couldn't do much else while my mouth was being worked on. During a lull in the conversation, Sparkle dug a clipboard out of my purse and she drew a picture of the hygienist cleaning my teeth. I could hear Sparkle humming the theme from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as shew drew.

Near the end, Sparkle started hinting about the red translucent toothbrush that she was given at my last dental visit, but the hygienist didn't pick up on it. Sparkle was a bit put-out that she wasn't given a toothbrush at this visit (even though the visit wasn't for her), and she pouted for a while. I left her alone for a while, at her request, and halfway through the drive home she was her cheerful self again.

WTW: Daily flossing pays off. My teeth were in good condition. The entire procedure could have taken a fraction of the time if it weren't for Sparkle's constant questions and the inevitable wait for the dentist himself.

Glitter likes teatime

Tuesday means teatime during our school year. After picking up Glitter from preschool and running to the store, we were ready for teatime. Both girl adore teatime, and they like the poetry as much as the yummy snacks.

Today Glitter barely touched her slice of marble loaf and ended up throwing out most of it when teatime was over. Instead Glitter kept wanting to recite "her" poem after every poem that Sparkle or I read. The poor girl wanted to be able to read poems from a book, like Sparkle and I do, but her decoding skills have a long ways to go first. Instead, she has to rely on the two poems she has memorized, and she can't keep the lines straight in either one.

Glitter learned one poem from listening to Sparkle recite it over and over when I wanted Sparkle to memorize it. Glitter can get through most of the first stanza before.

"As I was going out one day
My head fell off and rolled away.
And when I saw that it was gone,
I picked it up and put it on.

And when I got into the street,
A fellow cried, 'Look at your feet!'
I looked at them and sadly said,
'I've left them both asleep in bed.' "

The second poem that Glitter knows is much shorter - I picked it out for her. She has trouble remembering the second line, but usually remembers that the poem says something about being happy and kings.

"The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

Still, at three years old, Glitter is cute when she makes mistakes and I'm glad that she enjoys teatime.

Camping

We spent this past weekend with a canopy of stars, assorted wild critters, and some crazy friends. It was our second time camping with this particular group, and once again we had a blast.

Originally Wander was going to go by himself, but I badgered him into taking the family. The campsite was a six hour drive from home, and Wander was kind enough to delay our departure until after our homeschool Fine Arts Club. As soon as the club meeting was over, we rushed home and barely made it before the 1pm return time that I had promised. We had a rushed lunch and climbed into Wander's truck, which he had loaded while we were out. The bed of the truck was piled high and covered with a tarp. Assorted bags and jackets were stuffed into the back seat with the girls. (Glitter had to be lifted into and out of her seat so she wouldn't step on gear.) My foot area was filled with snacks for the trip and spare socks and shoes. Both girls were really good on the trip, and I had only a slight mishap as navigator- I made the mistake of directing us through San Antonio at 5pm on a Friday evening.

Wander raced the sun hoping to have a little light left when we arrived, but the sun was already tucked away when we pulled up to the campsite. Fortunately, friends spotted the truck as we pulled in. They directed us to a great spot and helped Wander pitch the tent in the darkness. Many hands make for quick work. In no time at all we were talking and laughing around the campfire. The sky was amazing - bucket-fulls of diamonds in every size thrown in the sky. There were so many stars that it was difficult to pick out constellations on the star-finder we brought. I was able to identify the Milky Way, Cassiopeia, and Vega, but not much else in the . The Little Dipper was hidden by the trees.

Sparkle got tired, and then Glitter, so Wander put them to bed. Then Sparkle said she was too lonely and begged me to stay in the tent, so I went to bed too. Wander stayed up jawing with the guys.

Wander set up a sweet campsite for us, with all the comforts of home. (When he camps by himself, it's just a tarp, a blanket, a knife, and a pot.) We had a huge two-room tent, complete with overhead lighting, ceiling fan, air mattresses, comfy sleeping bags, and lots of room. I can stand up in every part of the tent. We also had our own private, completely enclosed outhouse. Our kitchen was a nifty affair that Wander built himself. The dining room was a roll-top table and four folding chairs next to the cooler. The truck ended up being used as a closet as jackets were shed and bags swapped around.



Saturday morning started with a gorgeous sunrise over the lake. Wander got up early, and as soon as the girls were awake, I shooed them out of the tent. They found two little girls in a neighboring tent and became inseparable. A boy-scout leader that Sparkle affectionately nicknamed "Mr. Man" took them fishing, and Sparkle caught dozens of crickets to use as bait.



Just before lunch we had "trade blanket." Everyone who brought something to trade gathered around a tarp on the ground. One of the older hands led the trading as everyone took turns displaying his or her goods. He bellowed "fair trade" with each completed trade. Sparkle had brought a raccoon skull to trade, but was anxious that no-one would want to trade for it. She sat nervously as the trading worked its way around the circle. Most of the trades involved knives and other gear that didn't interest Sparkle much. Then the man just before her set a handmade bamboo flute on the blanket. She eyed it excitedly as he played a tune on it, but was still afraid that the skull wasn't very desirable. With a bit of prompting, Sparkle cautiously edged up to the blanket, set the skull down, and looked up, uncertain what to do next. The group is always very supportive of its junior members; no-one else offered a competing trade and the original owner of the flute pronounced it a handsome skull and accepted the trade. Sparkle's eye's lit up when she realized that she was now the proud owner of the flute and she clutched it to her chest. A few hours later the flute-maker came by our camp-site to give Sparkle a flute-lesson to go with the instrument. He showed her how to hold it to the side and how to blow into the hole and she was thrilled when she was able to get a sound out of it.



After lunch, other members of the group offered sessions on different camping/wilderness topics. I sat in on a session about do-it-yourself gear and another session about wound care. In the first session, we got to see all sorts of home sewn gear, from sleeping bags to coats to backpacks. I felt inspired to try sewing some gear for Wander. In the other session a nurse explained how to clean out a shallow wound and how to use those little butterfly band-aids that some in first-aid kits that seem too small to be of use.

While the grown-ups were talking together the kids ran around to their hearts' content. We were the only group in the field, and there was nothing but nature as far as the eye could see. Occasionally a cow in a neighboring pasture mooed. Crickets and grasshoppers were fun to catch. A wide hole filled with dirt provided endless play possibilities. A field mouse poked its head out. Caterpillars munched on leaves, and their spiny fur warned us not to touch. A black-widow spider sat silently inside a metal fire-ring. Blue dragonflies swarmed inches above the grass. The fish weren't biting, but turtles poked their heads up and munched on the bait. The coyotes that howled at dawn and dusk were quite during the day. Once a young runaway horse came thundering nearby.



The day ended with a communal meal. Each family in the group supplied a different dish, and we gorged ourselves on chili, potatoes, sausages, rice, a variety of meats, soup, salads, eggs, biscuits, watermelon, and more. I roasted a few marshmallows, slowly turning them near a perfect curve in the coals to make them toasty brown. Eventually the girls tired and we put them to bed. Once again, Sparkle whimpered and asked me to stay. This time I was really tired myself and was grateful for the excuse for an early bedtime.

Sunday morning dawned as beautifully as the last. Wander got a few pictures of Venus in the morning sky. Then it was time to break camp. My job was to tear down and pack up everything inside the tent, and Wander took care of everything outside the tent. The kids ran off and played with their friends, digging up chunks of rose quartz and hauling around little bags of it. Glitter would find a few choice pieces and gift them to Mr. Man, who ended up walking around with pockets bulging with rocks.



After lunch it was time to head out on the long drive home. This time we took a detour around San Antonio and got to see some very pretty countryside. The hours dragged on, and the girls got bored. At Sparkle's suggestion, I dug out the girl's clipboards and they drew. Sparkle filled her paper with scenes from the camping trip - the dirt pit, the mouse, a tree with a robin, etc. Eventually it got too dark to see, and I made the girls give back the clipboards and we drove on. When traffic started to get thick I was both glad an anxious. Although the traffic was bad, it also meant that we were nearing home. When we finally got home, I put the girls to bed and tumbled into my own. Wander stayed up to unload the truck.

The first non-edible plant

In the car Sparkle started asking me about edible plants. Edible plants are Wander's realm, but he wasn't available. She wanted to know how Wander knew which plants are edible and which aren't. I explained how he didn't personally test each plant, but rather read books and talked with other people. Those other people learned which plants are edible from other people, on back in time. Before books, people learned via word of mouth. Of course, if you go back far enough in time, people had to learn by eating the plants and seeing what happened. Perhaps someone plucked a berry and ate it, and then got sick. Other people would then know that those berries are poisonous and not eat them.

A lightbulb went on in Sparkle's mind. We had been talking about to Adam and Eve earlier this week. She reasoned that they were the first to discover that some plants are edible and others are not, and ever since their time, people have known not to eat certain plants.

whining about family

Random thoughts about the family ... mostly feeling depressed.

Wander caught some bug at his conference last week. After supper he fell asleep in the living room, and when I was putting the girls down he crawled into bed himself, hours early.

Sparkle has been having attitude problems. She's catching a bad vibe from me and reflecting it back at me.

Glitter is more of a numbers/spacial gal than a language gal. She was doing a mixed up version of "five little monkeys jumping on the bed" combined with "five little monkeys sitting on a tree." While she garbled the verses and started at ten instead of five, she did great subtracting one with each verse and displayed the correct number of fingers each time.

I just got the book "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell from Paperbackswap. The book helped me realize that I could tone down the girls' nightly shenanigans simply by taking away the lamp on their nightstand.

yuck

Cancer is reaching out its tendrils and grabbing people all around. A mom from the homeschool group has been fighting it since before I met her when she joined a playgroup I was in. Several other members of the homeschool group bring us updates from still other people with cancer. Wander tells me about his co-workers and adventure friends suffering from cancer. A friend from my quilting bee recently was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery earlier this week. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. I hate it. And why are so many of the victims mothers, and mothers with young children? I just can't deal with it as graciously as the ladies around me.

canceled

A local ballet company schedules a free performance at the local pavilion once every year. It's the only place where I can drag Wander out to see the ballet (other than when his kids are on stage).

The girls and I were looking forward to seeing the ballet last night. This year it was "Swan Lake." We played the music from the ballet at morning music every breakfast this week. We checked out books with the story for the ballet so that they would be familiar with it when we went to see the performance. We drove over to the pavilion early so that we could catch the pre-show performances.

It was raining, but I wasn't too concerned. We had umbrellas, and the pavilion had covered seats. The last time Sparkle and I went to the ballet, the two of us watched the ballet, huddled under the same umbrella that I was carrying.

It was raining and the show was canceled. Arg. This is becoming a habit. Once the ballet was canceled mid-season, but I didn't know because I had an old event listing from early in the season. Another year a hurricane put the pavilion temporarily out of business. Then this year - rain again.

The girls were cold. I was grumpy. Wander took us home and told me to make chocolate chip cookies.

National Night Out

Last night we went to National Night Out. We missed it last year but heard that it was so much fun that I decided to go this time. Wander was out of town, so it was just the three of us. I read online that there would be free hot dogs, chips, and drinks. Perfect, I wouldn't have to cook dinner or worry about after-supper entertainment.

My first mistake was deciding to walk to the party. The party was held in the parking lot of the local elementary school, so I figured that (1) it must be within walking distance, since the school buses for it don't pick up kids on our street, and (2) there would be no parking since the party was being held in the parking lot. We were okay for the first part of the trek, but when the sidewalk ended a couple of blocks away from the school, Glitter got tired. Then when we rounded the corner, I saw all these cars with families in them driving up to the side parking lot. D'oh. Oh well, too late now.



As soon as we got in, we joined the line for name tags and got tickets for the free food. Then the line fed directly into the food line. That seemed great, because I wouldn't have to worry about loosing the tickets. Unfortunately after we got three plates of food, turns out the girls weren't hungry. But I couldn't easily wander around carrying all the food, so I told the girls we couldn't do any of the activities until they had eaten.



Both girls ate really slowly, and Glitter ended up not even finishing her hot dog. Then Sparkle said she was going to throw her empty plate away. Okay. The garbage can was just behind us. Except that she didn't come right back as expected, so I freaked. The place was really crowded and I didn't know where she was! I called her several times, but she must not have heard over the loud music. Finally I spotted her wandering around but she still didn't hear me, so I told Glitter, who was still eating with a plate balanced on her knees, to sit still, and I got up and gathered Sparkle back to our spot.

When the girls didn't want to eat anymore, we got to see the fun stuff. The girls got to climb around a fire engine. One of the firefighters got geared up so they kids could see what they looked like. Glitter watched in awed fascination, but was too scared to do more than watch. The girls collected coloring books and they got their faces painted. I even won a door prize of a $20 gift card!



Then Sparkle started begging for cotton candy. The line was really, really long, and I told Glitter that she couldn't have any cotton candy since she didn't finish her hot dog. It didn't seem fair to make Glitter stand in the long line when she wouldn't get any cotton candy, so I left Sparkle in line and took Glitter to the nearby jumpy castle. Once she was safely inside, I checked on Sparkle, and she was fine, but had somehow slipped back in the line several places. Oh well, she's homeschooled and doesn't really know how to stand in line.


I returned to Glitter just before they made all the kids get out because it was dark and the kids were bumping into each other. Glitter got her shoes, and we went back to Sparkle. A Sparkle with blood pouring down her foot and leg.

What! I did a quick assessment. Other than the blood, she seemed fine. She wasn't crying. She was standing normally. I didn't see anything that she could have scraped against. What happened? She told me that she scratched it so much that it bled. Oh. The mosquitoes were having a party of their own. She must have scratched open a bug bite. Then she showed me where she got the dress bloody. It was a lot of blood for a bug bite, but maybe the mosquito had just fed. I asked if she wanted to leave, since I didn't bring my purse and didn't have any bandaids or such. But Sparkle wanted to stay in line to get cotton candy, so we did.

Then we had the long walk home. By then it was dark. Glitter was tired, but I couldn't carry her over the uneven dirt in the darkness. She was a trooper and walked all the way home. Once home, Sparkle wiped off the blood, and I put her dress in the washing machine. The girls took a shower and Sparkle got a band-aid for her boo-boo, which looked much better now that the blood was gone. Turns out it wasn't a bug bite, but rather Sparkle had scratched off a scab.



Finally I tucked both girls into bed, and collapsed myself. I'm really glad that Wander will be home tonight.