Trick-or-treating was today from 3- 7 p.m. L was out the whole time, ending the night at a bonfire at a friend's house. E went out with her friend A (dressed as a forest elf), and B was out with his friend L (dressed as a stoplight). They all came back with a lot of candy.
L met up with her friend J and we went around the neighborhood with her for a while. L also stopped by the house that gives out hotdogs for treats!
This morning, Andy brought home end-of-the-season doughnuts from the Farmers Market. The church made chocolate cake, a first ever, and chocolate-frosted cake doughnuts, which Andy made last year, too. The special doughnuts sold for $1 each and were sold out early in the morning. Andy mixed up the frosting last night - using eight sticks of butter, eight pounds of powdered sugar, two bottles of vanilla and cocoa powder. I was surprised the whole batch fit into the stock pot.
L's Halloween party and parade were in the afternoon. I went over to help with the party and to snag some of her class' pepperoni pizza. Mmmm. L was a Disney tourist. She wore her ears, her pins, crazy pink sunglasses, and carried her stuffed Minnie Mouse and a cool cup we got on our last trip. After the parade, the students watched a magician perform in the school gym, then went back to their individual classes. L's class munched on pumpkin-shaped Rice Krispie treats and decorated felt orange pumpkins.
Tonight was E's band concert at the high school. Her band was last of the six middle school bands to perform. After the middle school students were done, the Oak Park-River Forest High School marching band performed. They were great.
This morning when I opened the back door, this is what I saw. It was "dress crazy" day at Julian. E didn't want to participate, but her friend A sure did. B had his T-shirt on backward for a while but the tag was scratchy so he had to turn it back around. Crazy kids.
Aside from a branch that was blown out of one of my trees this morning, this picture shows the only storm damage I've seen. I went with a friend to the Economy Shop this morning to sort some clothes and came home to find a branch hanging in the neighbor's wires. Didn't take long before it was blown into their yard.
E and B had pajama day at school today. Here they are warming up this morning in front of the kitchen's heat register. It's where I can usually find them on a chilly morning. E is wearing her new Julian pajama pant we bought last night during the conferences. She's been wanting a piece of Julian spirit wear since sixth grade, but most of the items come in sizes way too large for her. These small pajama pants seem to fit OK after rolling over the waist a couple of times.
Busy night tonight. E and I took L over to Grandma's around 5 p.m. because E and B both had their parent/teacher conferences at the middle school tonight. Knowing we were heading over to Grandma's house, E quickly made a fleece tied lap-size blanket for Grandma's early birthday present.
We stopped by the El to pick Andy up around 6 p.m. and rushed over to the school for E's conference at 6:15 p.m. Did I mention her class is on the fourth floor? Ugh. After that, we walked E to her karate class that started at 7 p.m., then came back to the school for B's conference at 7:15 p.m. B's teacher was running a little behind which gave up time to breath and play some electronic Yahtzee.
Both kids had good conferences. At the middle school, the kids sit in on the conferences and go through their portfolio of work, discussing what they can do better. E's teacher put her on the hot seat, telling her she needs to slow down and check her work. B's teacher said he's doing great, but could slow down a bit too. Must be a family thing.
L's current math unit is on measuring. Today her homework assignment was to measure an adult. I volunteered Andy.
Two months after sitting in the heat at DisneyWorld getting a piece of her hair wrapped, E decided it was time to take it out today. It had started to fray in the middle so it was best to take the whole thing apart. E planned to save the string and beads and make it into a friendship bracelet, but the string came out super curly so she ditched that idea.
L called me from a friend's house after school. She wanted me to meet her at the school for its book fair. She found an iCarly poster she decided she had to have for her room - a new poster for a newly painted room. I owed her $4 of allowance so that's gone now. I let her pick out one chapter book and - surprise - she chose a book that has pink pages.
Here we are with Darla this morning. My scrapbooks were done so I did a little shopping. Darla had everything on sale so it was a good time to stock up. I bought an album for L, pages, protectors, lots of paper, a couple tape refills and some stickers. You can never have too many stickers!
Cindy and I left the crop this morning a little after noon. We noticed as we were leaving the parking lot her car was vibrating a bit. We weren't sure what it was, but by time we were on Route 140 west of Greenville but east of Alhambra we decided to call our brother to save us. He drove from Staunton to find us and checked her tire. Sure enough, a lugnut was loose. On further inspection, he found two of the bolts that hold the passenger side front tire on were broken off. He tightened up the bolts that remained and we drove to Staunton going about 35 mph. When I got to the farm, I gathered up L and we headed home.
We stopped in Normal to fill the car with gas and buy two gondolas from Avanti's for our dinner. We made it home around 6:30 p.m., in plenty of time to watch "Amazing Race." What's a gondola? Only the world's perfect sandwich with salami, ham, American cheese and lettuce. It may sound simple, but Avanti's makes the gondola with the tastiest bread ever. I think the secret to the gondola is in the bread.
Tonight Cindy and I went with Darla and two fellow croppers to Pizza Hut. We came back and continued scrapbooking. I was almost done with the three scrapbooks I brought, then looked into the photo case I had of L's photos. That's when I found the pictures from spring break. I had to pull out pages I already completed and slide in another page to keep everything in chronological order. Good thing I had enough pictures to do both sides of the page.
Cindy and I checked in to our room at the Carlyle Inn today for Darla's annual three-day scrapbooking crop. The woman at the front desk was so excited when she told us we had Room 321 "with a lake view." The view of Lake Carlyle was certainly better than a view of the hotel's parking lot. We had to keep the curtains closed because the morning sun was blindingly bright. Most of our time was spent across the parking lot in the banquet hall working on our scrapbook pages.
When L got home from school today, we packed up the car and headed south. L will spend the weekend with grandma at the farm, while Cindy and I drive to Carlyle for Darla's annual three-day scrapbooking crop. My BFF Darla is retiring as a Creative Memories consultant so this is her last crop ... as a consultant. She's looking forward to going back next year as a customer.
