Halloween Fun

I love Halloween. Seeing all the kiddos in the costumes, all revved up on sugar and driving their parents crazy. It's a wonderful sight.

We had our little Halloween party today and I have say, it was pretty successful! Although, if I am being totally honest, it's the last party I will ever plan at 7 months pregnant.

We had a dance party, played pass the pumpkin, went on a witch hunt, played hullabaloo, made some crafts, and made ice cream sundaes. We had rice, veggies and meatballs for supper, and there was cupcakes, cookies and timbits for snacking. We did a lot of snacking. The kids had a lot of fun with the games, and the adults had some adult conversation while they played in the playroom. They were all dressed so cute - Hailey was Cinderella, we had a rainbow witch, the Queen of Hearts, a green fairy, a witch, batman, a dragon, Buzz Lightyear, a vampire, Thomas the Train, and two baby girls - one was a butterfly and the other was a flower. Super cute.

I didn't take many pictures but my friend Lisa did so when she posts hers I will grab some and post them.

Today is Halloween, and we have some more fun planned. We are visiting some relatives and family friends during the afternoon, and then trick or treating in our subdivision tonight. Because Michael is away my neighbor said he would give away our candy, for which I am grateful. I am just going to rope off my front step and put up a sign. I wish I could take the dog trick or treating, but I don't trust him enough not to jump on the kids, and I have nightmares about him hurting one. Hopefully by next year he will be calmed down enough to some with us.

Actually this is the first year that Hailey and I will be trick or treating alone. Usually we are with my sister-in-law and her daughter, but they will be going around in their new subdivision this year. There are a couple of other friends I could convince to come out with us, but I wonder if Hailey and I wont have as much fun on our own. She rarely lasts very long, so our neighborhood is great in that the houses are really close together. We usually go as far as the stop sign and back and then she is kapput. I let her pick out her favorite candies, and then I steal a couple, and the rest goes to the scavengers at work! I mean really, who wants all that candy in their house anyways!

Here are some photos from Halloween:

                                                 This is Hailey getting ready to trick or treat

            Here is all her loot from the day - it would take more than a year for her to eat this much junk food!

Here are some of the party attendees - Hailey is Cinderella, my niece is a rainbow witch, and the little girls from our neighborhood were the Queen of Hearts, a witch and a green fairy.

Still waiting on some photos from friends who were at the party!

My saucy kid

I remember fondly when my daughter was sweet and kind, polite and generous. I remember how proud I was and how I looked down on other peoples children when they misbehaved, threw tantrums, or were less than pleasant to others. I thought I was the best mother of all.

Then, my daughter hit three and a half, or so. Gone, at least in public, is the sweet polite little princess I sometimes still see when we are alone. She has been replaced by a center-of-attention, selfish, ignorant mini-teen. She rolls her eyes, talks back, lies, ignores, sticks out her tongue, and whines (ALOT). She's ungrateful when people buy her things, she is sneaky when she wants something she can't have, and she never thinks about other peoples feelings.

Where did I go wrong?

When we are home alone, snuggling on the couch, watching a movie and eating popcorn, and she is telling me how much she loves me, I wish I could hide a camera and show the world that there really is a sweet little girl in there. She speaks clearly, is intelligent and inquisitive, and is sweet and kind.

And then someone comes over, or we go to someones house. People will say hello to her and ask her a question, and one of two things will happen - she will either dance around and make noises instead of speaking, or grunt and hide in my side. I nudge her and try to get her to be social, but I rarely can get her to snap out of it, and usually have to cringe and shrug. When it's time to go, she will refuse to give hugs and kisses, or throw a tantrum that we are leaving.

In the car, I try to tell her about her behavior, and I get "Mommy, you are mean to me", or "Mommy, I will do better next time", or "Mommy, I don't like when you are mad with me". I put her in time out, I put her to bed early, I have even taken away the 1/2 hour of TV she watches before bed, and her story and song, but nothing changes my little monster back into my little princess. Is this the way it is from now on? Will I not get her back until she is 23 and ready to stop hating me and be my friend again? Is this how my mother felt; did it really happen for almost 20 years? I thought I would have more time before the "pre-teen" came out in her.

I adore my mom and the relationship that we have, but I have to say I was into my twenty's before we became as close as we are, although she was always, always there for me when I needed her. I hope Hailey and I will share a similar bond, but I am disappointed at the thought that I have to wait so long to get there.

Driving on Auto-Pilot

Ever realize half way during your drive that you are going the wrong way?

The city of Halifax recently opened a new exit off of Highway 102. This exit leads directly to the street that Hailey's school is on, and saves me about ten minutes of driving time. I don't think many people realize that it is open, because it is still a pretty quiet street.

Two days in a row my intentions were to take this new exit, but I found myself going the old way, too late to turn around. It's funny how ingrained my old route is in my brain. I have to continue to remind myself on the drive of the route that I am taking, and this morning I literally had to stay in the left hand lane to prevent myself from taking the wrong exit.

Is this just preggo brain? I don't think. It's not the first time I planned to change my route in the morning and then found myself going the same old way. It's so easy to let your thoughts wander while you are driving, and your subconscious just takes over. I am hoping after a couple of weeks of taking the new exit, I wont have to concentrate so hard!

The Waiting Game

Is it January yet?

The old saying "Don't wish your life away" is lost on me. I hate waiting around for things. Currently I am impatient for Halloween parties, baby showers, Michael's return, Christmas and giving birth. Days that are normal seem excruciatingly long and boring. At work I long to go home, but once I am home I am longing for sleep, or fun. There is no relaxing and enjoying the empty time, or taking advantage of the relative peacefulness of my home, which is sure to change in two and a half months. Instead my brain is planning for all things that are coming, running in fast forward about all the things I need to do and buy and set up. It's exhausting.

Halloween is next weekend. Hailey has orange and black day at school tomorrow, so we have her outfit all laid out for that. Next Friday she has a Halloween party at school, and we are doing a costume contest at work. I am excited about my costume, as we are having a contest and I don't know if anyone else is planning to participate. I hope they do. It was not easy coming up with a costume at almost 7 months pregnant!

On Saturday we are having a Halloween party with our friends and some kids from the neighborhood. We started putting up decorations this week and I think I have all the contests and prizes under control. The other parents are bringing the food, which is a nice change. Nice on my pocketbook as well.

Oh I have an odd Hailey story to tell. My mom brought home some gifts for her from our shopping trip, and gave them to her the night we got home. At Khols there was a promotion to benefit needy kids in the area where they were selling stuffed characters from Dr Seuss books. Mom bought Hailey the "Grinch who stole Christmas", and one of the characters from the book "There's a Wocket in my Pocket". Hailey said thank you and played with both toys for a little while, and then all of the sudden, she looks at mom and says "Do I have to keep these?" I didn't know what to say. It turns out she didn't want the Grinch. She said he was scary. On one hand, I was angry that she would be so rude, and not use her manners when it comes to receiving gifts. There will be many times throughout her life when she will be given a gift that she doesn't necessary like, and she will need to learn how to be grateful to giver anyways. But on the other hand, I so rarely see her act assertively, it was nice to see her voice her own opinions and wants. Luckily, my mom was understanding, and said that she would give the toy to a child who would not be getting many gifts for Christmas. Hailey seemed happy with that.

There's no better shower than an after travel shower

*Before you read this entry - you need to know that I stayed in a motor inn. And while it was clean and cheap and fulfilled all the needs and requirements I had for my shopping trip, I could feel my heels clicking and may subconscious calling "there's no place like home.... there's no place like home...". I am sure that if I had stayed somewhere fancy and expensive, this entry would look a little different - and I would not have been able to get as much Christmas shopping done!*

My shower last night was one of the best showers I have ever had. When you shower in your own shower day after day, you don't take as much pleasure in your wonderful shower head that is set to the perfect height and pressure. You don't notice how easy it is to get the perfect blend of hot and cold. You forget how soft and fluffy your towels feel. When you go on a hard core shopping trip for four days, and you finally get home to your own shower, you finally appreciate how wonderful home is.
The same can be said for your bed. I didn't participate very much in the choosing of our mattress. I have to admit that my sister, and my husband, tried out every bed in the store before agreeing on one, and they all seemed the same to me. For a good month after we purchased our bedroom set, I felt like I was in a hotel, because the bed was so high off the ground and the mattress was so firm and soft. Add in new sheets and a duvet and it took months before I felt at home in that bed. But after three nights on the motel bed, my bed felt like paradise last night, and my sleep was one of the best ever.

Now that my complaining is done, there were lot's of great parts to my trip. The motel had a continental breakfast, which is really wonderful when you routinely wake up an hour before your travel partners, and want to get out of the room so as not to wake them up. There was a huge assortment of goodies - bagels and breads and english muffins, waffles and fruit and cereal and pastries. I generally brought the laptop with me and did a little surfing and eating while I waited for the rest of our party to wake up.
The shopping was really good this weekend, and I got 25 of 40 Christmas gifts bought. I like buying for people in the states, because I can get them items that are more unique - and I can make my money go a lot further! I was also able to replace some items my daughter had outgrown - sneakers and snowsuits and outfits. I picked up some prizes and decor for our Halloween party, and a couple of toys. Ooh - I got Nathan his very first pair of Nikes - some blue shocks. They are super cute.

I ate well on our trip as well. We went to the Texas roadhouse for supper, and I had the bbq chicken. The food was delish, except the chicken had three times the amount of bbq sauce that I would have liked. But I cleaned it off and all was well. I am sure I looked like a dork scraping the bbq sauce off my chicken and into a side dish. But they have the most delicious bread - and they serve it with a cinnamon spread. YUM. Hmmm, where else did we eat.... ooh - we had lunch at the Acorn restaurant near Fredericton. It's like a big stop attached to a shell station. The food was really good, and cheap! We all had a turkey dinner, since we wouldn't be getting one on Thanksgiving. Our last night in Bangor we brought a Papa John's pizza back to the motel - it was amazing. The only real downer food wise was our lunch stop on the way home yesterday. We saw an Irving sign at Sussex with a restaurant sign under it and thought - BIG STOP! But, it was this McCready's hotel and restaurant, and I have to say, it is an insult to Irving restaurants everywhere. The place was dirty, the service was terrible, and we couldn't wait to get out of there. We also almost paid too much for our food, since they wanted to charge us for platters when we only had sandwiches. It was an experience, and I don't think any of us will mistakenly stop there again!

All in all though - it was a very successful trip, but I am happy to be back home to my hubby and my girlie.

Party Planning

I love to plan parties. Kids parties, specifically. Themed parties.

This months obsession: a Halloween party. I threw a Halloween party for Hailey two years ago. It was about a 7/10. I rented a small meeting room at a local facility for the party, which was great for clean up and tear down, but not good for keeping kids occupied. Despite the fact that I had three activity stations plus two organized activities, we still did everything in an hour. If we'd been at home, the kids could have played with toys for the remainder of the time.

This year I think I am going to keep it a little simpler. I am going to have it here at our house, and the play room should be set up by then for the kids to play in. I have three organized activities planned, and my sister-in-law suggested a pot luck would be best, which suits me fine! My husband wont be home at the time so taking the food issue out of the equation means it will be a lot more manageable. I have to say though, it is a lot harder to invite people to a potluck than to a regular party. I prefer to say "Come to my party" rather than "Come and bring something!". But I think that for the most part, the parents are looking for another place for the kids to wear their costumes and have some fun, so they are down with helping with the food. 

If you have any ideas of fun Halloween party activities - post em up! After the party I will post pictures - and details. I don't want to ruin the surprise!

Baby blues

I think I have the colors picked. I bought a white blanket with blue and brown dots and my husband took it to Home Depot to match the colors with paint. They have this great tool that scans the material and matched the colors perfectly! I am still deciding between two browns, but if I was brutally honest with myself, they are so similar that it really doesn't matter which one we pick. They are Behr colors and you can actually go on their website and "paint" a virtual room, to see how the colors would go together. It's actually a really fun tool. http://www.behr.com/colorsmart4/colorsmart/main.jsp

Here are the colors:

The first one has an earthier brown, and the second has more beige to it. You see it, right? Let me know which one you like better. I like number one, myself. I think.

There is so much to do to get ready for Nathan's arrival. It's kind of exhausting, and I am not even the one doing the work! Today the hubby is finishing up the new playroom so we can move all the toys out of the old playroom, and get started painting the nursery. It's really nice knowing that the babies gender. Four years ago, when we were getting ready for baby #1, we didn't know, and we picked a Finding Nemo theme. It was really cute and all, but if I was really honest with myself, I would have loved to do pinks and purples for Hailey's room. I was so excited when we finally gave her a princess room in our new house for her third birthday. The blue and brown that we picked for Nathan's room should eventually transfer nicely into a little boy theme.  I'll be sure to post up some pictures when it is all complete.