Car Conversations

The child's mind is a baffling thing. I love the conversations that occur while we are in transit. Some days they are non-stop. Today, on the way to preschool, Oliver wondered aloud with questions that got us all the way to our destination without a lick of silence.

Oliver: "Mommy, why did God make germs and bad people and bad animals on Earth?"

Mommy: (trying to think quickly) "I don't know, honey. So that we would have to struggle a bit and develop character. And animals are not necessarily bad, lots of times they are just being animals.

Oliver: "Oh. I think brains are disgusting and gooey. I would never want to have to see blood or goo."

Mommy: "Yes, but brains are fascinating organs...they help us breathe, think, use our imagination. And everything inside our body is a little gooey but nothing is disgusting. Like, surgeons are doctors and they operate on our insides and as you get older you probably would get used to blood and goo."

Oliver: "I want to be an engineer. But do you know what number i want to be?"

Mommy: "No, what number?"

Oliver: "Engineer #8. You know why? Because an 8 is made with two circles, and yogos are circles, and i love yogos."

Oliver: "I wonder what clouds taste like? I wonder if they taste like creamy cotton candy, or coconut? I wonder how it feels to walk on a cloud?"

Baffling. But amazing.

Halloween 2009

This year we did not have much time to contemplate what Oliver would be for Halloween. His whirlwind of a birthday, combined with his preschool class having their party a week before Halloween, forced us to get moving on finding a costume. This was also the year where Halloween became what Oliver wanted it to be. No more loooking for cute Halloween costumes of my choice for my sweet son. Nope, Oliver was now FIVE, and he had his own mind. The ideas for costumes changed everyday. Transformer Optimus Prime. Darth Vader. Super Mario. Transformer BumbleBee. I was not about to go buy a costume (that I didn't care for, much less), only to have Oliver change his mind. But when we came across the Swamp Creature outfit he had to have it. It fit right into his love of creatures and monsters. And it wasn't a gory costume, so I let him have his choice. So much for the cute koala bear and Baby Draculas of the past...

Here's a picture of Oliver the Swamp monster and Maddie the Fairy Princess in their Preschool Class the day of their Halloween Party. Yep. Beauty and The Beast all over.

The parents were told to arrive 30 minutes before class was over to watch the kids enjoy their Halloween Festivities. The best part is ALWAYS the eating. They had a plateful of snacks that made all the Mothers cringe, no doubt.

Oliver shovels it in and licks his fingers clean.

Maddie follows suit.

Oliver shows me all the candy treats filling his Halloween folder.

Oh, yes, the excitement. Let the sugar buzzing begin.

So in the few days before Halloween we did a couple photoshoots to capture Oliver's personality within his costume. We headed for more watery parts of Las Vegas to bring the Swamp Creature feeling to life. Oliver refused to wear his Swamp Creature Mask because "it smelled funny." The mask is what made the costume what it was...but, oh, well. So much for scariness. We had to rely on Oliver's moaning sounds and dripping seaweed to bring our Creature of the Deep some character. Can't you just hear the moans here...?

Just like Creature from the Black Lagoon

Oooooohhh, scary.

Haunting the Swamp.

I managed to talk Oliver into slipping on his mask for a few moments to capture a snapshot of the Swamp Creature of Halloween 2009. A frightening vision. Notice that no Oliver eyeballs are in sight :)

This year I waited until the last minute to get a pumpkin to carve. I had seen pumpkins at Sam's Club ealy in October and decided to wait until Halloween was a bit closer. I did not want a pumpkin sitting in our foyer for a month. I refused to buy a pumpkin from the (fake) pumpkin patch since the prices were outrageous. So the day before Halloween I went out to get one, only to find that every place in the whole city had long since been sold out. I called place after place, and found a store that had 4 measly pumpkins left. I raced there to choose, and brought our pathetic, teeny pumpkin home. At least he was only $2.50. However, he was not large enough to carve the image I wanted. So I decided we'd go back to the (fake) pumpkin patch after all to buy an overpriced pumpkin. We chose one with lots of character, lots of warts. A fair bargain at $11. When we got home and started trying to carve, we found out it was not suitable for carving. Apparently it was a type of gourd, which are extremely hard, so hard I could not even breach the outer layer of skin! No big carving, and no seeds to roast, either! Lesson learned teh hard way...I will NOT wait to get a pumpkin next year! And so, we made do with what we had. We chose a different design, and this is what we ended up with this Halloween. Mr. Skull Head.

The Clines and DeSousas came over for a white bean chili dinner before trick-or-treating. After eating, the kidlets all got dressed out in their finest attire, and we headed out to raid our own neighborhood. The pack...

My deprived child still is ecstatic about all the candy (the candy that will slowly disappear into the back room closet until next year). Check out the excitement over a big piece of licorice. Gotta love the joy!

This simple picture is my favorite from the day. It speaks of childhood innocence...even in the swamp costume, Oliver's little puckered mouth, the sweet happiness in his eyes as he looks back at me, along with the simple pumpkin candy container, will always remind be of the preciousness of childhood and the excitement of Halloween.

After we load up on pounds of candy in our own neighborhood, we all regrouped then drove over to the Cline neighborhood for more fun. Why stop at 2 pounds of candy when you can have, say...4 pounds?! The decorations and lighting at this particular house created a photo that for me captures perfectly the feeling of Trick-or-Treat night.

Shadows...blur...grain...lights...all make for an interesting photo of us all heading back to the Cline's house for the night.

Back in the warmth, the kids all take to the floor and dump out their loot to survey. I seriously have never seen so much candy!

The next morning we get a picture of Oliver with all of his own treats. No tricks here.

A full-size Crunch bar makes Oliver an (extra) happy boy.

Halloween wouldn't be right if we didn't get a photo of our little ballerina pup all decked out. Skippie Lulu was not very happy about this. Oh, the humanity!

And in the end, heaps of candy will lurked on the kitchen table for days. You know those smells? Very certain ones that elicit memories? This plastic pumpkin, overflowing with candy is one of my smells. You know the one...a fabulously sweet mixture of chocolates, fruits, chews, bubblegum, lollipops, caramels, all the things candies are made of. I can take one deep whiff of this aroma and all the thrills and happiness of my childhood trick-or-treating years comes racing back, just like it was yesterday. This brings a smile to my face, as well as hopes that Oliver will remember these years with fondness just as I do!

To see more photos from Halloween 2009, click here.

See you next Halloween!

The (fake) Pumpkin Patch

We neglected to make it to this commercial "pumpkin patch" last year, and we told Oliver we would come for sure the next year. So this year, with all the business of daily activities, next thing we know it is the day before Halloween and we haven't been to the patch. It sits along the road next to Sam's Club, and on the way to a grocery run, Oliver reminds me that we promised to take him there this year. Uh. Talk about an excellent memory. Oliver's main desire at the patch is not necessarily to look for a pumpkin (not that I'd buy one here), but rather the giant puffy slide, and the petting zoo. I turn in. A nice man leaving the patch offers to us his last ticket to ride the slide. We accept with thanks. We walk around and check out the gourds and pumpkins and get a few pictures.

We stopped and bought some tickets to the "petting zoo" and the puffy slide. We hit the petting zoo first. Oliver cooed over the fluffy animals, and marvelled as he watched a goat poop (no, I don't have a picture of this).

Next stop: Puffy Slide. The last time we were here Oliver couldn't climb by himself, much less go down the slide, but this year he did everything himself...climbing and all. A big step for a boy that does not carry the "NO FEAR" gene. He was so proud.

And HE'S OFF! Check out the mouth. Wide open and screeches of delight pouring forth, non-stop.

Don't believe me about the screeches? Check out the video. It was like this all 6 times he rode it! You might want to pause the music so the screams can be heard :)

Here's the happy boy after cruising to his heart's delight...

As we buckle up, Oliver is perfectly content. It does not take much to please a 5-year old. It makes me so happy we squeezed in this trip to the "Pumpkin Patch!" To see more pictures from our trip to the patch click here.

King's Faire 2009

We enjoyed our first visit to King's Faire at Canyon Ridge Church this year. Just one more way to enjoy the Halloween/Fall Festivities, have fun, and acquire more candy. Oliver never contains his excitement for all things new!

First stop was to pick up a bag of candy. Let's see what we have...

On to the bouncer. Oliver just turned 5 and it was his first time inside one of these bouncy houses. I think of them as giant GermBoxes, but it was time I loosened up. The kids don't pay much attention to what they're doing, so I was waiting for an arm to be broken, but we managed to get through this unscathed.

On to some games. Win or lose, the reward is always the same...candy or some little trinket. Having never been to any festival, all the games were fabulous fun for Oliver. Truly simple pleasures where each game ended in screams of happiness. Oliver tries his hand at fishing.

Pure JOY at winning a lollipop.

On to more carnival rides/bouncy house things. This one included a maze which ended up in a slide. Oh, the thrills!

The Obstacle Course. IN.....THROUGH....and OUT.

We all take a break, deciding what to do next. Oliver gives his best girl and hug and kiss.

The kidlets are so sweet!

Maddie

Oliver

Oliver starts pouting when things don't go his way. Is this pathetic, or what?

Oh...the torture of being 5.

When all else fails...grab hold of the hand of mommy's friend :)

We head off to the preschool area where more Bouncy House Things awaited to be filled with scads of youngsters crawling with germs :0 Oliver loved all but one, where he refused to enter because "there was too much air." I told him the houses were filled with air so they would be fluffy, all he had to do was plow through the wall of air coming through the door to get inside. But, it just wasn't gonna happen. All-in-all it was a great time. The kids ran through the bouncy houses several times with such concentration. Notice the tongue...

The little ones didn't want leave, but the Faire was getting packed and the adults were ready to head home. On the way out, the kids got to pet the security horses.

Back at home, Oliver dumps his candy bags out on the kitchen table and scours the contents.

Happy. Boy.

His head lifts to the sky and a smile a mile-wide comes across his face. And this smile is what fills my dreams at night!

To see all the photos from the evening at King's Faire, click here.