mommy guilt

i was feeling a little guilty about neglecting halloween. we bought the kids pumpkins, but i had decided not to take the kids trick or treating based on kate's reaction to seeing people dressed in costumes last year. it was ugly.

she pronounced the man dressed as a gorilla to be a terrible, tremendous, horrible, horrendous thing.

she grabbed me around the neck with a choke hold and refused to let me go.

it was like i had a barnacle attached to me.

i felt bad for scaring her to pieces.

so no trick or treat until she gets a better grip on real vs pretend.

therefore we skipped giving out candy today and i thought we were out of the woods.

wrong.

so some kids dressed up ignored all of our signals and rang our doorbell.

you'd a thought satan himself had stopped by.

kate thought they were clowns.

did i mention kate hates clowns? (she gets it from me.)

well we told the "clowns" (or satan) we had no candy and they left.

kate's now in therapy for post traumatic trick or treat disorder.

a little get-a-way...

runner boy & i got a way for a wonderful weekend retreat in tuscon, arizona.

hiking, talking, praying, laughing, reading, dreaming, planning...



more pics to follow...

busy processing reality now...

conversations...

at the dinner table last night...

setting: phrenetic conversations, constant stream of conciousness flowing from 4-year old mouth, occasional screams from 2-year old...

Mommy puts her head on the table and rocks back and forth...

Kate: Momma, what are you doing?

Momma: I'm coping, Kate.

Kate: Why are you coping, Momma?

******************

during our walk around the neighborhood tonight...

setting: Sam and Kate playing...

Kate: You stand there and I will tackle you please, Sam.

(We play p-o-l-i-t-e-l-y at our house.) Sam falls over just before Kate gets over to him...

Sam: Dah-dee, I play foooball! ha-ha. Tackle me!

momma 'n me

I love hugs 'n kisses...

fall adventures...

we've had some very, very busy days lately, so we've taken some time on the weekends to enjoy the fall (while still dreading winter!) crisp apples, crunchy leaves, orange pumpkins, hay rides, tractors and field corn made up the setting...



kate must have tried at least 6 apples during our time in the orchard...she loved them...

then it was on to the pumpkin farm...kate decided the straw pile was a "pool"--here she is "splashing" in the"water"...

next we headed into the corn maze...kate led the charge...sam was the caboose...as usual...

snackin'

sam could have cared less about he pumpkins...he stopped in his tracks every time he heard the tractor coming in from the field...john deere, international, case...loves them all...


we got six pumpkins out of our trip...i picked them...sam was on the tractor watch and kate was swimming in a pile of hay...steve was the lifeguard...memories for a lifetime...