Guest Blogger: Rose #1

I am Rose #1. I am eating my Cheetos right now. I love my mommy right now because she lets us have three treats. Isn't that amazing? Anyways, at school I am learning about air and weather. My favorite type of weather is rainy because we can play in the rain and it is so much fun. I like to play with my neighbors.

Treat bags

When I saw these lovely sights, I had to take a picture.  Because of my chronic unpreparedness with things like cute Halloween bags, we used pillowcases.  They are actually working out quite well!  Here is Rose #3 with her head only partially inside her pillowcase:

Rose #2 is a very serious treat monster.  She is extremely focused on retrieving just the right kind of candy.
And here she is opening it.  Note the extreme concentration on her face:
And here is Rose #1, valiantly searching for a piece of candy that has no peanuts or tree nuts in it:
All I do is referee the number of candy items that are actually consumed.  If left to their own devices the Roses would devour the entire treat bag in one sitting.

Election Day Cuties

Here are the Election Day Cuties at our house.  First is Rose #1, who had to borrow my I Voted sticker.  She voted twice today - once at school, then again at the polls after I voted.  She was very enthusiastic about marking her ballot.Election Day Cutie #2 is Rose #3!  She voted too.  She had a ballot at the Kids Voting booth and managed to eke out "Barack Obama."  She selected the Libertarian candidate for Senate, however, lest you think she is brainwashed.
Election Day Cutie #3 is Rose #2, who enjoyed marking her Kids Voting ballot too.  She LOVES to say the words "Barack Obama."  I think it is the way it rolls off her tongue that she likes.
In all our polling place was very orderly.  I thought for sure we would have a long wait, but we had no wait at all!  It was great.  I felt so proud to vote today.  I was thinking a lot today about how voting is the great equalizer.  As long as you are 18 years old and a citizen (right?) your vote counts as much as the next person's. 

Guppy's Birthday and a Second Halloween

We celebrated Guppy's birthday at MND tonight.  We had a delicious collection of food - Aunt Heidi made beef stroganoff (which I am told was delicious), Missy and Bill brought bread and cheese, Aunt Boo brough mango pineapple salsa, I brought the chicken dish, Eli and Brenna brought green beans, and Tonya and Andy brought spaghetti for the kids.  Charity brought the cake, of course. And, we all went in together to buy Guppy a big sign for the B&B.  It says Cathedral Hill Bed & Breakfast and in the middle it says 488.  It was Andy's idea.  Great idea Andy!

We also had the BECHAMP Halloween.  It was a little bit crazy having both the birthday and the Halloween celebration, and in fact the Roses came home and absolutely PASSED OUT from exhaustion.   Here is Aunt Missy reading the annual collection of Halloween stories to the cousins who were still standing by the end of the night:

A fabulous time was had by all.  

A day of chores and rest

Yesterday was a day to have fun (sort of) and get things done.  We pulled out the large sectional in the living room and found, you guessed it, 3 ancient jellybeans from Easter (YUCK), approximately 6 ancient raisins (I HOPE they were raisins anyway), $0.48 in change, and a lot of sand.  Oh yes, dirty socks, toys, crayons, paper, books, and other "missing items."  I am always amazed at how the kids can fight about toys that have been living under the couch for at least 3 months.  They spring forth from under the couch in all their sandy glory and are immediately the subject of great envy by whomever is not holding them at that moment.

Yesterday the kids became involved in a complex candy trading game with the neighbor kids.  Rose #1, of course, cannot eat anything with peanuts or tree nuts in it.  To anyone who thinks that nut allergies are not "real," I invite you to witness Rose #1 vomiting, swelling and wheezing if she eats a "fun" size Snickers bar.  I never posted about the horrible peanut butter incident - in my defense, Rose #1 had been TESTED for peanut allergies and came out negative.  Rule #1 of allergy testing - it is not always right.  Anyway, there was a lot of elaborate negotiation about how much a Snickers was worth in Smarties (i.e., 3 Smarties for a Snickers?  4?  Who can know the math.)

Rose #2 was so strung out from sugar that she was basically a howling mess all day.  With any luck she will be sleeping until 8:30 this morning.  Oh yes - HA!  HA!  HA!  My kids NEVER EVER sleep past 6:00.  Especially on "fall back" morning.  Who thought up fall back anyway?  Might have made more sense when people actually went to bed when it gets dark.  Not anymore!  Now the kids schedules will be all messed up for a week or two or three.  Sigh.

Rose #3 is my only nosepicker and fingernail biter.  (I guess if you have to have a combination that's a good one to have.)  But she woke up from her nap yesterday with a very bloody nose and a bloody pillowcase.  Blecky.  Straight into the bath with Rose #3!

H bought a contraption yesterday that replaces plastic garbage bags for leaves in the fall.  It is a big tarp that ties up into a makeshift bag.  It is pretty neat and it saves us from having to throw away a bunch of plastic bags each year.  We have more raking and trips to the compost pile in our future for today.  Is it a little bit weird that I really like to trim branches?  We have a TON of branches in our backyard, waiting to go to the special compost place that takes tree trimmings.

Halloween 2008

It was a gorgeous night for Halloween in Minnesota.  It was about 55 degrees when we went out at 6:00.   Rose #1 went as Luke Skywalker.  She saved up for her own lightsaber!  Lest you think that I am a terrible mean mommy that makes her children buy their own costumes, it should be noted that we actually already have three lightsabers, but none of them was the right color.  So, Rose #1 was required to buy her own blue lightsaber:
Rose #2 was Pikachu.  This is a Pokemon character, in case you didn't know.  We were SUPER lucky to find the costume at a thrift store.  Actually, I have thrift store shoppers that shop on my behalf (thanks Katie!!) and she found it.  $5!!!!!  We bought the face paints and Tam made the ears.  Yay!  Note the side view of the tail:
And Rose #3, of course, was a giraffe!  This is the same costume that Rose #2 wore when she was 2.  I thought the face painting turned out really well (if I do say so myself).
And I wanted at least one of me and Rose #3:
And here is the group photo for Halloween 08:
Gosh, we have a lot of candy in our house today.  Rule #1 of the day after Halloween:  NO CANDY BEFORE LUNCH!! 

Menus 11-1 through 11-7

Saturday 11-1:  Casserole Tam made that we didn't eat last night, frozen veggies, corn muffins

Sunday 11-2:  Pork chops and chicken breast on the grill, homemade bread, broccoli

Monday 11-3:  MND!  We have to bring a chicken dish.

Tuesday 11-4:  Election Night!  Crockpot chicken, frozen veggies, homemade bread

Wednesday 11-5:  Class Night!  Bean and noodle soup, homemade bread

Thursday 11-6:  Breakfast dinner (eggs, pancakes, fruit salad)

Friday 11-7:  Make your own pizza night