Lots of Fun on Halloween

This week, Rea sprained her ankle Monday afternoon, which was a definite drawback when it came to trick-or-treating that night. We pulled every item with wheels into the house before we finally decided that sitting side-saddle on Sara's bike with her hurt foot tucked up was the most comfortable. She managed to make it close to most doors, but someone had to carry her bag the last few steps for her. It never occurred to us how hard trick-or-treating would be if you couldn't climb stairs. Something to think about.

Halloween was fun anyway. Boo was a fairy, Gideon a blue dragon, Timmy a caveman, Sara a jellyfish, and Rea a naiad - the kids made their costumes themselves out of things from our dress-up bin. We met the Plastows at 6 at the park and did a couple of streets. We decided that 6-7:30 is about the perfect time to trick-or-treat. We also found out that our porch light turns off automatically, so that's why no one ever takes our candy. We'll have to fix that next year. This year, the kids got a good candy haul and donated a lot to the Halloween Cookie bowl. We haven't chopped it all up and made cookie dough yet, but soon! Our goal is to have enough cookies that we can have them every night that we want to until Easter. Since we very rarely make desserts, having cookies every night is a pretty big treat for us.

Alison started a new schedule for school, since it's staying dark later and it's harder to get up. She plays the kids' memory work when she first starts hearing them move around, between 7:30 and 8. Then they all bring their blankets into her room and do an hour of school that they can all do together: history, science, literature, etc. They cuddle up and read things and watch movies and have discussions. Then when Amy arrives, around 9, they all troop downstairs to get breakfast and walk the dog and do chores. School starts up again at 10, with math and spelling for everyone. Timmy and Gideon also do reading with Alison; the girls have twice as much math. Then at 11:30 they have lunch, and after lunch they have various activities (science experiments, nature study, project time, going to Grandma's house [where we do a history activity]). It's only been one week, but it's working rather well.

Friday night we went to see "The Frightmare Before Christmas" at the OBT. It was the kids' favorite! We knew almost all the songs they parodied, which always makes things more fun, and we'd just watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, so they knew the plot that was parodied, and it was really well done. Alison is almost tempted to go again before it closes; we went on opening night, so it would be possible, and the kids loved it that much.

Gideon's birthday was Saturday, and he got great presents. The one he was begging to open early all week was a stuffed frog as big as he is, which they've named Amazing Frog. (He let Alison borrow it to be the idol King Nebuchadnezzar wanted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego to worship in her Sunday School lesson; it was a big hit.) Amazing Frog is also the name of a video game, which he spent his birthday money from Grandma Julie to buy. The kids have had a ton of fun with it; apparently it's a sandbox-type world like Minecraft, so they can do whatever they want, and they really enjoy it.

November 1st was the first day of NaNoWriMo. Mike is writing a group of stories about a family that all have different fantastical adventures at the same time and try to hide them from each other. Rea is writing 500 words a day on her novel, which I can't remember the plot of at the moment so I'll have to talk about it next week. Alison decided to just write every day and see what came out, since she's felt really uninspired for months now. However, on day 3 her computer gave up and died. So she hasn't been writing very much this week and is now way behind. Mike and Rea are keeping up, though. And maybe we'll get a new computer tomorrow and Alison will catch up.