Aliens and Snow

Aliens are new to snow. They love it. They are fascinated by it. They love how the snow topples off cars and makes cool patterns of water on the windows. They love to watch it fall. They love to wake up in the morning and check to see if it snowed. They are always dying to get out in the snow. Its been quite entertaining to watch the alien relationship with snow...extreme love to extreme hate..."When is going to snow again?" to "When will it STOP"?. All-in-all, its mostly still a novelty and many discoveries are being made. So far, aliens do love snow.

They think all snow "tasks" are fun - they fight over who gets to clean off my cars...Nice!

They think that shoveling is good fun - they even want to shovel the walks of the vacant house next door...

They sure do think its a great idea to launch snow at grown ups, until...

The littlest alien realizes cold can be painful...

Even the strongest alien - has a breaking point with the cold - and can give up

The after-snow ritual: Blanket-sharing snuggle

Conversation overheard at my house today...

Flower: Want to know something interesting about when Jesus lived here?
Bear: When Jesus lived here? at this house?
Flower: No...when he lived on earth a looooong time ago.
Bear: Okay.
Flower: When Jesus lived here boys wore dresses.
Bear: (shocked and surprised) WHEN JESUS LIVED HERE BOYS WORE DRESSES?
Flower: Yes, long flowy dresses, with just a belt, let me show you.
Bear: Yup. Boys wore dresses.

Learning the Man Jobs

Bear got his first lesson in lawn mowing - because he is a boy. Grandpa helped him learn the ropes. Lawn mowing is definitely manly - and definitely a man's job - right? Then I thought of the 2 summers that I mowed my lawn - before I found that I could pay the neighbor kid next to nothing to do it for me. I wondered if lawn mowing really was one of the "man jobs". One year ago - the man jobs in my world just didn't get done - it was too much of a pain to have to find someone to take the time or to trouble themselves with my list of "fix its" - so if I couldn't figure it out - it just didn't happen. Several years removed from the days of a large group of single guy friends I could call on for "man job" duties - and having no "dating pool" of men that I could flirt with or kiss to get my "fix its" taken care of...I resented the fact that there are man jobs and woman jobs. But, there are. There just are. And the lists are different for every couple - for every person really. A woman in my ward fights her husband for mowing priviledges. One of my closest friends is the techno person in her marriage - her husband can't work the DVD remote. Let alone hook up the player. She's the one with the tool box. But, she is a really bad cook - and he does all the cooking and cleaning. My friend Kendi (and if I knew how to post a link and make it show up - I would link to her blog right now - but, I'm a little stunted in my blog knowledge - help me please!) just posted a blog about finding a 4 foot gopher snake in her yard - and needing to find the closest male at home in the neighborhood...I would definitely agree that snakes would be a man job on my list. Regardless, the man job list and the woman job list are constantly changing and being defined on an individual basis. Its been so nice to have my Dad around to assign these tasks to. When he leaves, I'll go back to my world of "unfinished fix its" - because for me there are just some man jobs - I can't manage. What are the man jobs that you can't manage?

Bear thought he was so tough and strong to be able to pull and push the mower. Grandpa was very encouraging.

He showed him ALL the ropes. How to do it ALL the way.

They even bagged the clippings! Good job Bear!!

Once there was a snowman...

Do you know this song?

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman.
Once there was a snowman tall, tall, tall.
In the sun he melted, melted, melted.
In the sun he melted small, small, small.

Bear learned it in kindergarten...or primary...I'm not sure. Whomever taught it to him - is NOT my friend. He sings it NON-STOP. This little ditty is constantly swirling in my head and all the aliens end up singing it. I'm beginning to dream about a snowman melting "small, small, small..." There are moments when I think this song is worse than "Its a Small World" --which sometimes I sing in my head to get rid of the snowman song. Please, please help me.

Halloween Wars

There's a parade at school, a pirate party, a corn maze, a haunted house, a flashlight scavenger hunt, a school party, trunk-or-treat, visits to the great-grandmas to show off the costumes, and a few birthday parties mixed in and finally it all culminates with tonight the big Trick-or-Treat affair. Well, it seems like a fight to determine which is better, most fun -what would you do again. Here is what I learned.

All of the parties are fun. In fact, I should be brave and throw one. However, it is just more days of sugar, sugar, sugar..
The corn maze and the haunted house don't necessarily have sugar (unless you have to buy a treat on the way home to cheer up or calm down a frightened or frustrated alien)
Trunk-or-Treat is for little, little kids the ones you can't let walk up the stairs to someones door alone. They can collect a whole bucket full of candy in 15 minutes and be done for the year. However, for any kid that can go trick-or-treating...trunk-or-treat is a lot of preparation - dressing up for a dip in a big candy bowl...so, if I want the aliens to just have more candy - this is a must, but since I don't...wouldn't do it again.
Visits to the Great-Grandma's to show off the costumes - now this was fun - after the 15 minute burst of trunk-or-treating we made our visits - already made up, it was a nice visit. And the aliens got the biggest fright of the whole season at Granny's house with her handmade Halloween scary man on her front porch.
Trick-or-Treating is where its at. Socializing - running...so much running. Littlest witch, who is 3...just kept chanting "faster, faster, faster...more candy, more candy, more candy!" It was quite entertaining. We have town homes across the street from us - and they were fun because there are a lot of houses close together. Buckets got very heavy by nights end and everyone was exhausted.

Here are the hi-lights of the season...


Visiting with family and friends definitely tops the list...here is great-aunt Susan who came trick-or-treating - and gave birthday boy Grandpa a night at home with Grandma passing out candy.

It was definitely the year of the witch...we had 3 witches at our house and here is another from the neighborhood, this witch and the oldest witch at our house got to trick-or-treat by themselves one street away from the rest of us...oooh!

Here is the scary man on Granny's porch - the scariest fright for the gang of the whole season - he's not real - but he seems eerily creepy and almost real!




On the way to one of the many parties - means getting ready in the broad daylight...and putting your sass on. Parties were definitely fun.

The witch costumes made cool shadows and we played with shadows while waiting for their ride to the flashlight scavenger hunt!


Passing out candy was as popular as trick-or-treating..everyone wanted to hold that bowl and look out the window for looming trick-or-treaters.




The parade at school was kind of fun...at least you get to see how your costumes rank among the kids peers. I'd say we did pretty good. Though, it really was the year of the witch.

And Trunk-or-treat...this was my first time every attending such an event ...and man..it was just about dumping candy and it was over faster than you could blink.


But, at least they all looked cute.