Happy Halloween

Pumpkin carving on Friday night:

Rebecca's pumpkin

Steve's pumpkin

My pumpkin

Another creation of Rebecca's

Group photo

Some may think I'm nuts for planning the kids' Halloween costumes months in advance, but every year I take great satisfaction in how well their costumes turn out. We just got back from trick-or-treating at Alderwood Mall, and I say without an ounce of prejudice: My kids were the cutest and had the best costumes. Okay, maybe I'm a smidge biased, but judge for yourselves:

Cheerleader

Harry Potter

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween Prep Week

Things to do before Halloween:

• Carve pumpkins - for some reason I got five this year.

• Buy thermal underwear so the kids will be warm and won't have to wear coats under their costumes. Is anything sadder than Superman wearing a jacket?

• Hopefully find costume-compatible shoes at a really good clearance sale. Did Harry Potter wear hiking boots or converse? No, he did not. We need black oxfords! (We are talking Hogwarts uniform here, not after hours hoodie and jeans wearing Harry)

• Decide best afternoon kiddie trick-or-treat place to hit. Usually we go to University Village, but we might try Alderwood Mall this year. If you do an afternoon mall type place AND neighborhood trick or treating, you really maximize your candy haul.

Luckily I found time last weekend to put together my treat bags. Yep, all kids that come to my door get sweet treat bags filled with candy (chocolate and sugar types), spider rings, and vampire teeth. We don't get a ton of trick-or-treaters, and I like to give out good stuff. There's nothing worse than hiking up someones stupid flight of stairs for one measly piece of candy. Why even bother participating if you are going to only give out ONE piece of candy?! There should be an ap that maps all the houses in your neighborhood and tells you what they hand out at Halloween. What a time saver that would be!

Treat bag ingredients



Finished treat bags

Hello Kitty, Goodbye Money

I always loved Hello Kitty when I was a kid. And I seem to have passed that love onto Lucy, who wants Hello Kitty EVERYTHING.

I don't remember Hello Kitty being all over the place when I was a kid. It was always a special treat to go to a Sanrio store and spend whatever money I'd saved up on Hello Kitty items (my favorite was always the grab bag of mystery).

But today, Hello Kitty is all over the place. And she is not cheap.

It's easy for Lucy to talk me into buying Hello Kitty stuff, because I like it, too. And if we find things that are on clearance, it's even easier to talk me into buying them.

Here's a sampling of Hello Kitty items recently purchased:

Lunchbox

Trick or treat bucket

Winter hat

Halloween skirt (shirt was purchased at last year's clearance sale!)

Macy's has Hello Kitty party dresses in stores now, but they cost about $60. So there's no way I'm buying one of these, unless I find them on a 75% off clearance rack, of course.

Lucy may never grow out of her costly Hello Kitty addiction. Clearly, I didn't. I have a feeling that if she grows up and has a little girl that the two of us will be continuing this vicious cycle.

Hopefully it won't get to the point of being married in a Hello Kitty wedding dress.

Although it is pretty cute....

Me vs. Legos

I have come to hate Legos.

Colin is obsessed with them, and has been for years now. Every birthday, every Christmas, the only thing he wants is more Legos.

And here's the kicker: You spend $50 on some Star Wars spaceship set, and you know what gets played with? The little figurines. The ship never even gets put together! The ship is in 50 thousand pieces all over the bedroom floor. Then you step on them in your bare feet.

And if that weren't bad enough, there are Lego conventions to attend. I actually spent an entire afternoon driving to Seattle Center, shelling out parking money, and standing in a line hundreds of people long, to get into a huge room which mostly contained more Legos for sale.

Colin had done chores over the weekend to earn spending money at this convention. He did enough work for me to pay him $15. (Kind of a lot, but I knew he could never buy anything good for less). I explained to him that he had to do all the chores, and couldn't complain or cry about it. He took notes.



You know what he bought with his money? ONE Stormtrooper mini figure for $10. One stupid, rip-off, tiny Lego guy. I'm telling you, this Lego thing is a huge scam. And there were kids 5-deep at each table just waiting to buy this overpriced crap. It was like a feeding frenzy.

Here's some pics from BrickCon. (Some neat things, but I'd recommend skipping it next year)













I told Colin I was never buying another Lego again.

I'm a Gleek

I never watch new TV shows. I've blogged before about how DVD's have completey ruined me for network television shows. My thinking is that everything good on TV eventually comes out on DVD, and then you can watch it at your own pace without any commercials. So, I haven't watched a new TV show in years.

But all that changed with Glee.

True to form, I didn't watch Glee until the first part of season one came out on DVD. And I was hooked! Luckily, soon after I saw those first DVD's the other half of the season was released. I was able to catch up with the show completely and I've been tuning in at 8:00 each Tuesday ever since.

How can you not love a show which features lines like, "That's the most disturbing thing I've seen in my 20 years as a professional educator. And that includes a grade school production of Hair".

I love Sue Sylvester.

Sure, it's totally unbelievable that a high school teacher would form a glee club and just happen to stumble upon a variety of students with awesome singing voices. But the songs are so good, it just doesn't matter. I'm pretty sure Glee has done more for the band Journey than Journey ever did for themselves.

I was going to add a youtube clip here, but apparently there are none, as it violates copyright law. You'll have to check out clips on hulu.com/glee.

Have you jumped on the Glee bandwagon?

Universal Studios

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade Village

Hogwarts Castle

Honeydukes Sweet Shoppe

Jaws

Fake surfing photo op

Krusty Land

Kwik-E-Mart gift shop joke

Captain America

The Lost Continent (Voyages of Sinbad)

Caro-Suess-el

Jurassic Park

Ahh! T-Rex!

Spiderman!

My Florida Life, Part 3

Technically, I am back home now, but there's still so many Florida related things to talk about!

We decided to take a day trip while we were in Orlando, and headed over to Daytona Beach. I've heard of Daytona- I think it's a big Spring Break locale for East Coast rich kids, and of course, a big spot for car racing. It sounded like a good place to visit for the day.

I'd never seen the Atlantic Ocean before. It's awesome! Here on the Pacific side, you have to wear water shoes and wade through sharp rocks and dead seaweed if you want to wade in the water. Oh, and the water is freezing cold and the rough waves will easily wash a small child away if you go out too far.

But the Atlantic has soft, white sand. All over! You can walk right into the water and there's only more soft sand. No sharp rocks! No disgusting sea foam covered seaweed! And the water was so warm. It was amazing. I could have stayed all day.

The kids LOVED it. They've never been to a real beach, either.

Daytona Beach seems to attract a lot of "colorful" folk. Actually, Florida itself seems to attract lots of interesting people. Lots of interesting, toothless people.

And LOTS of bikers. Maybe that's because Florida doesn't have any helmet laws.

You all know that I ride a scooter. A maximum 45mph, local street only, scooter. And I-only riding this small engine, low-traffic road motor vehicle- always ride with the following items on: padded riding jacket, gloves, eye protection, and HELMET.

How anyone can ride a huge, fast Harley on the highway going 70mph WITHOUT a helmet on is totally beyond me.

Almost no one on a bike wore a helmet. I couldn't get over it. It's nuts!

We also saw this turkey travelling down the highway in the back of a pickup. Why would someone need to drive around a live turkey?

Florida is a very interesting place.

My Florida Life, Part 2

For two days in a row now, I've made everyone eat breakfast at my new favorite Florida restaurant: Cracker Barrel!



It's a store, and a restaurant!

But what's most awesome about Cracker Barrel is breakfast. They know how to eat breakfast right in the South. No namby pamby veggie omelets or granola parfaits. We are talking biscuits n' gravy, grits, and a fine selection of breakfast meats.

I got the Old Timer's breakfast. Smoked sausage patties, 2 eggs over medium, and hashbrown casserole. At Cracker Barrel it goes without saying that your meal comes with biscuits 'n gravy AND grits.



When you are done eating you can go shop in the store. Mostly it's homey crap- like candles and kitchy salt and pepper shakers. But they also have some neat vintage style toys. Colin got a fake knife that retracts when you stab. Classic.

Best of all though is the vintage candies. I had to purchase a selection of wax bottles, paper dots and Fruit Stripe gum and more.



There's just no Seattle area equivalent of Cracker Barrel. I'll miss it.

My Florida Life, Part 1

I've been in Florida for a few days now, and many things are strange and foreign to me.

First of all, it's October, but the sun is blazing away in the mid-80's-90's. I have been in the sun! Not a common occurrence in Lynnwood, let alone in October.

Next is that there are lizards everywhere. Like all over sidewalks and walls. Lizards! The kind you can buy in the pet store. I told Colin if he caught one he could keep it. I only said that because I'm fairly certain he cannot catch one. He's been trying, though.

Lizard

But the most bizarre thing I've encountered about Florida so far are the highways. Well, specifically, the Florida Turnpike, which we've been driving up and down every day. There are tolls everywhere. You have to pay a big $2.50 toll right outside Orlando, and then another 50 cent toll to take any of the exits. A round trip costs you $6! It's crazy. But at least there's no one on the roads, so traffic is no problem.

Toll both

And even more bizarre on the highways are the billboards. Like every half mile or more. Florida really wants you to NOT have an abortion. And to eat a lot of oranges.

No abortion!

Oranges!

No abortion!

Oranges!

No abortion!

I'm pretty glad Washington isn't full of these billboards.