On Sunday we went to a haunted train ride with the Whitney’s. It was a wonderful experience for the little ones, as the train was haunted by 4H teens in costumes and braces, and was about as scary as a walk in the park.

The children were handed pieces of gold and told to guard them from thieving pirates.
Marlena and Mason were a little creeped out when one of the pirates just sat next to them and silently stared them down, but the rest of the time they maintained their deniability on the gold front.

Marlena triumphantly keeps her gold coin from thieving pirates:

Marlena even started blaming other people, happily throwing Mason to the pirates mercy with a casual “I think I saw him with some gold, go check him, or maybe some of the people down there.” Lee taught her to blame another pirate, so on the next circuit she calmly told the pirate queen that she was being cheated by a member of her own party, and she should check the other pirates for gold.

Marlena sells Mason out to the pirates in an attempt to deflect suspicion from herself:

Oliver was a little over stimulated during the train ride and after handing out a few golden smiles, he settled into the crook of my neck and snuggled for the rest of the ride.

Oliver thwarts pirates with a golden smile, successfully distracting them from their hunt for treasure:

After our haunted train ride we went to a roadside pumpkin patch. We had intended to go to a patch with Morgan and Amy, but there were a whole lot of wasps around that pumpkin patch (and I don’t mean White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, I mean yellow jackets!) so we chose to leave. We attempted the roadside stop after leaving to try and make up for the missed pumpkin patching.

It was magical. It was one of those moments when the “make up” treat is imminiently better than the real thing. There was no line, no itchy hay, no bugs to bite us or sun to beat down on our heads. The woman who ran the stand cheerfully offered pumpkin pie advice, treated Marlena’s search for the perfect pumpkin with the utmost seriousness, told us to “plant” the baby in the apples and gourds for pictures, and was so pleasant we didn’t miss the patching at all.

We show Oliver his first pumpkins:

Marlena takes her time choosing her pumpkin, only to lobby for two:

At the end of the day we left a happy family, with bright orange pumpkins for Jackety lanterns, cheese pumpkins for pie, and fresh picked apples and apple butter. Everyone was happy, everyone was pumpkined, all in all, I would call the day a success!

You know, this was a wonderful birthday, despite all it’s attempts to be rotten.

I went to dinner on Wednesday with the kids, my darling hubby, and my roomie, only to have the Oliver man cry through the whole meal and Marlena pull her best “I won’t be eating” madness. But the conversation was good, the food was good, and I got to have some pumpkin spice beer.

As the day of my party approached, I began to miss Nick again pretty badly, and got to a point a few hours before the party when all I really wanted to do was go lie down and cry. Then I managed to seriously injure myself with the combination of a fan and mop. I was emptying the bucket with the mop still in it when the fan hit the mop handle and smacked it into the side of my face. It hurt. It left a welt, began swelling immediately, and we contemplated canceling my party due to the huge and instant headache. I cried for a little bit, got gently patted by Marlena, and felt generally sorry for myself.

Then I sat with ice on it for a while and had some Ibuprofen. Once the party began I started feeling a little better and began to enjoy myself with good friends, yummy beer, and tasty treats.

I had a super rich chocolaty cake, pumpkin spice ale, brownie bites, cape cod chicken salad on buttery garlic herb crackers, fresh crisp snow peas, crunchy chips, spicy meatballs, and more. I got to talk with friends I don’t see very often and sit back and relax a little. I was showered in love and presents all week long.

I got cards snuck into diaper bags and sent in the mail, hugs and kisses in person and over the phone, a new hard drive to preserve my memories on, a new clicky button thing for my car to make life more convenient, a dinner with the family, a massage to relax my body, romantic candles sticks with lovely candles to be mellow with, mums to brighten my day and muffins for a yummy breakfast, chocolate to spoil myself with and a panda to support my cause, a cookie basket to cheer me and sweeten my day, special birthday earrings to add a little flair, and an amazing outpouring of love to fill my heart and raise my spirits!

Boy! There is nothing better than a birthday to make a girl feel special!

Thanks to all my friends and family who celebrated with me, and all my friends and family who couldn’t, but sent their love. Thanks for letting me know that I am special to you and loved by you!

My daughter is upstairs cleaning her room.
Happily, cheerfully, and well.
Oh, and I only had to ask her once.

Why is this miracle of motherhood occurring?

It is occurring because of Little Bill, a lovely cartoon created by Bill Cosby.

Little Bill is taught how to make cleaning fun by his great-grandma, Alice the Great. She teaches him how to Zippity Zoo his room, and they have fun putting the room to rights.

“1..2.. zippity zoo.” She says, as she places a shoe into the closet.

So now Marlena is upstairs, singing “Pillow… pillow… zippity zillow” as she zippity zoos her room to rights. I didn’t even have to borrow the idea from the show. I asked her to clean her room, and she said “I will zippity zoo it right now!”

Bless you Bill. Bless you.