Trick or Treat!

I think that my kiddos must be in some sort of golden zone for Halloween, where they still love to get dressed up and go beg for candy, but they really don't need much help from mom with the details. 

They put together their own costumes, invited their pals to join them and set off to trick or treat in their own little gangs. 

I managed to outline some trick or treat good practice guidelines, and take some photos before they left the front porch on their own recognizance. 

This is the girl gang... 4 teenage girls and a very happy to be included 7 year old. 

The guys as killer clowns... and a freaked out Athena the Goddess. 

Killer clowns were a popular guy costume this year...they were indeed terrifying. 

Henry as a SWAT team dude and his buddy as a Star Wars something. 

His SWAT team bullet proof shield has already been repaired with not so bullet proof scotch tape due to over use in pre Halloween nerf wars.

There is a new off Broadway musical out now based on the short and incredible life of Alexander Hamilton as a depicted as a rapper. It has received rave reviews and my musical theater fan daughters  can't wait to see it. 

Alexander Hamilton also inspired Lily to dress and her pal to dress as founding fathers... which they did with true style.

And you better believe our founding fathers can dance like Uma Thurman when the mood hits.

Rosie went through several costume changes before landing on Athena the Greek Goddess thanks to some last minute Halloween shopping. 

I waited until Saturday morning to buy the 8 bags of candy that we hand give out during trick or treat... I make a point of waiting to buy candy until the day of Halloween, because if not, I will eat 8 bags of candy before any tick or treaters arrive at my doorstep. 

This year Rosie went to buy candy with me, and found this gorgeous outfit on the sale rack and wisely insisted on the purchase. I was ok with this impulse buy because it's not often you can dress like a goddess for 4.99 at Krogers. 

Bargain toga shopping at it's best. 

Other than that single Kroger purchase, the kids took care of their own costumes and trick or treat plans which gave me  a whole bunch of extra time to embrace my inner ninja... here I go ninja jogging across the park with my handbag. 

 (ninjas don't have pockets)  

Which was admittedly weird, but fun, as was the entire weirdly fun, Halloweenie day!  

(photo credit Laura Faherty) 

Secret Boo...Who Wore it Best?

Our neighborhood really gets into Halloween and with only a week to go, the whole hood is teeming with scary yard art and all things pumpkin and spice.

One of the not so scary but super fun neighborhood traditions is that of the secret Boo. 

To "Boo" a neighbor is to very sneakily leave a treat with a Boo note at their door and then skiddadle before being caught...my crew loves this tradition and morph into a type of bank robber ninja on their night of booing. Their incognito style must work because they have never ever, been caught... also, the Booing ninja who got us is equally as sneaky, as they ran away undetected too. And while our Booer remains a mystery to us, they must know us very well because for the first year ever, even the weird dogs in our family were Booed. 

Within our awesome treats meant for humans was a an adorable purple dog monster costume... a perfect fit for both Penny and Turkey who happen to wear the same size.

   

 But really...we need help in deciding who gets the costume on Halloween night.

So please, you decide...who wore it best? 

 

Penny the slightly uptight Schnoodle?

Or Turkey the blind, deaf, addled but adored Boston terrier?

For the record, while both hounds, made adorable purple monsters, neither one absolutely embraced  and enjoyed dressing up.

If your neighborhood is not yet in the booing spirit, check out this site... for sneaky good fun!
http://www.beenbooed.com

Grown Up Moms on the Loose!

Some lovely and very fun women in my world got together for a ladies only weekend in Michigan and it was quite awesome. Since Rosie considers herself a lady and was just fine with the no boys allowed rule that we made up, she was not thrilled when she realized that this was a Grown up Ladies only trip, and asked what in the world a bunch of Grown Up Moms could do without kids. We weren't exactly sure either but were excited to be together and figured we would make it up as we went along. 

Turns out, this bunch of moms was able to come up with a lot of fun stuff to keep us busy.

The first thing we did was toast our getaway with a bottle of red...and yes we were just as happy as we looked.

And admired the sunset and took big deep breaths as we ate our lasagna. 

Giggled hysterically while we tromped about in the woods like the mature grown up moms that we are. 

And then did a little meadow path choreography because... well, why not?  

When we needed a break from hiking around the woods we shopped.... and posed for cousin pictures at the super famous Cherry Republic. 

 The brilliant motto of the Cherry Republic is Life, Liberty, Beaches, Pie which I totally agree with and have folded into my own personal belief system. 

So yeah...we were able to find all sorts of stuff to do...

We hiked about in woods and meadows, laughed a lot, lounged a bit, and enjoyed each other immensely...it was a perfect weekend. And we all learned that the north woods is a perfect recharging station for this group of grown up moms.  

Our 7 Minute Story.

Every other year the Ohio State Marching Band comes south to Cincinnati to play during the halftime  of a Bengal game.
This is very cool and exciting for any and all Buckeyes in Cincinnati, but our families especially adore the amazing band and throw a breakfast party for the band, Buckeye alumni and their guests. It's always big fun to see the marching band up close and share in our joint Buckeye spirit, our kids have grown up going to the special band party and love it. But this year there was a little space in the program and for reasons still unclear, our fathers asked us to speak... not for long of course, but just to tell a cute, fun story for about 7 mins.
Here is a photo that Mary took of Katie and I as we were about to began... as you can see Jamie is captivated by the idea of listening to his mom tell a story at breakfast.

I have no recollection of clutching my pearls...

To anyone else telling a 7 min story with one of your dearest friends is not a big deal, and since we split time my part of the story was 3 and a half mins, even less of a big deal.  

But since speaking in front of a group makes me a nervous wreck... I was pretty much a mess. 

Katie insists that she was equally as nervous, but I don't believe it...since she is forever super chill and coolio.  

So in the weeks leading up to our talk, I did my best to rope everyone in my world into my little drama and to worry and stress right along with me...but no one really did. 

Instead my friends and family told me that no one was really going to listen or care and it didn't matter what I was going to say as long as we didn't take too long. 

But I couldn't hear them, and continued to fret. But I also did a couple of productive things along with my needless worrying that made me feel better about things. 

I spent hours and hours writing, rewriting, reading and speaking my part of the 7 minute story and I made Katie meet with me and do the same, which was really fun. We decided to tell a story about how our teenage devotion to the Bengals led us to make banners out of bedsheets and hang them around the stadium and eventually to the Superbowl. 

While we thought the life and times of our bedsheet banner era was charming and fun, I made a mistake of practicing it for my kids who gave me the worst review ever.  

After listening to my 3 mins of the story 

a few too many times, they begged me to "just stop talking about this... about when you were a teenager. It's weird and your voice sounds weird, like you are talking to kindergarteners or something and really I don't even get what  you are talking about, maybe it's just because your my mom or something, but can you PLEASE just stop talking about what you're talking about." 

And from my pretend kitchen podium I told them that it was my turn to talk and their job to listen and I wasn't interested their opinion anyhow.

So that was awesome...but I was pretty sure that the nice OSU alumni breakfast folk wouldn't heckle me like my very own children in my very own kitchen. 

And of course no one did... the entire room was full of kind gracious Buckeye fans who listened politely as we spoke about our teenage Bengal banner years.
And while I was indeed pushed far out of my comfort zone, I am grateful for all of the kindness and support shown to me during my 7 minute public speaking career.

Happy Happy Birthday to our Anna!

This photo was taken about a month ago...when in the name of family fun and adventure, I asked her and Nate, to fly to Wyoming hang out with us for awhile and sleep in a tent with Rosie. 

And so she did... with the enthusiasm that is so wonderfully typical of her. 

This photo was taken in the early morning after we all camped... please note that Anna is still smiling, even after a long night of sharing a tent with her youngest sis. 

And then cheerfully take her little roomie on a morning cattle quest. 

(or do you call a tentmate and tent-ie?)

Again, still smiling :-) 

Today this girl turns 24 and I am reminded of just how fortunate we are to have her in our world. 

Our Anna makes everything in our family brighter and better and a whole lot more fun. 

She is a gift and a blessing and I am so very proud of the remarkable young woman that she has become. 

Happy Happy Birthday to you, dear Anna!

Birthday Celebration... 48 is Great!

The day I turned 48 happened to be the day labor day eve... which was great for me because I got to celebrate on both a Sunday and a Monday. And then because I have the world's most thoughtful and coolio pals ever... I continued with those birthday celebrations straight on till Friday, when they planned and hosted a gals only birthday EXTRAVAGANZA... with waffles. And pedicures. 

I know, pretty awesome, right?!?

So here is a photographic essay of my birthday events- joyfully and absolutely bookended by waffles.

I kicked off my earliest hours of being 48 with a morning walk with my dearest Rosie and Penny G. Schnoodlepants...
We hit the farmers market and Rosie had the super nutritious breakfast of a waffle and a watermelon popsicle.

Arrived home to gorgeous flowers that delightfully smelled up my whole house from my dear Karl, who got them from his favorite florist (Del Apgar Florist on Eastern Ave) , and I was reminded of how lucky I am to have a husband who has a favorite florist :-)

A song!
I received a song on my birthday! Written and performed by my favorite musician couple... Josh and Genevieve... who musically suggested that I
"follow closely your birthday intuition and dance out in the open"
A new recommendation to me for sure... but I will definitely take this happy birthday song advice.
So watch out world as I follow my 48 year old intuition and start taking my moves into the open!

Then on to lunch at a favorite spot with my Mary, who rode the Megabus in from Chicago to help me celebrate... and was also kind enough to give me a crash course in selfie stick usage.

After lunch, I got to cheer on my favorite nose guard/linebacker/left tackle at the same time that I was able to cheer on Karl as he skillfully handled grill duty at the game flipping burgers on a 95 degree afternoon.

Later that evening, Charo came to babysit... which inspired more selfie stick pics... we are all giddy with anticipation of a grown up dinner out.

And here we are positively elated as we make our exit. Karl is gleeful with hands in the air excitement!

Because the day following my national holiday birthday was truly the national holiday of labor day, my parents very happily kept the party going by hosting an additional lunchy party complete with my favorite spice cake.
Which prompted much discussion of the renowned Spice Girls...because why wouldn't it?

 Because it was my birthday, everyone was very patient and good natured about my newfound, obnoxious, but still pretty fun, selfie stick usage.

No one was safe from me forcing them to pose... including my super cool 20 year old nephew, doesn't he look thrilled to have his photo with Aunt Maggie?

And then, as if a birthday with a bonus day wasn't enough... my dear and amazing friends planned a completely fun evening which started out by drinking wine at the EXACT SAME TIME as getting cute toe pedicures.
My mom saw this photo of Lauren drying her toes in the nail salon and renounced that I "led my dear sweet cousin astray." So if you were to ask my mom she would identify this as a girls gone astray photo of Lauren, Kim and Lynn.
Party animals...woop, woop!

After all of our toesies were as adorable as they would ever be...we ran across the parking lot for a delicious dinner at Taste of Belgium and ate waffles for dinner and dessert.
We had a terrific time and concluded that  Belgium was the most amazing country ever for inventing something so fabulous. And then I think that we may have started planning a trip to our new favorite country to celebrate our beloved waffles before deciding that maybe it would be more feasible to plan to come back to Norwood for dinner instead.

We tried to take a big group self portrait but we weren't skilled enough to squeeze everyone in...

So we resorted to the old fashioned, but tried and true method of asking the kind server to take our photo... so here is the whole crew of us.
And so concludes my very fun week long birthday extravaganza made so by the many dear friends and family that fill my life and remind me of life's blessings.
I am beyond grateful to each of you for going above and beyond to help me celebrate my first days of being 48. And also to prove that your birthday age doesn't need to end in a zero to receive a multi day celebration.
I am truly lucky indeed! 

Andre and his Beautiful Back to School Bus.

I have a new hero in my world and his name is Andre. 

You can't see him in this photo, because I didn't wasn't to alarm him by being too forward...but he is there, trust me. 

Gloriously driving his big beautiful bus.  

Summer was lovely but also epic long. Which you think would have given us plenty of time to get ready when our September 1st first day of school. And I really did think we were well prepared and good to go, but I was wrong and very surprised when on August 31st at a little after 7:00, one of my darlings ( names omitted to protect the not so innocent) told me that he didn't actually get his supplies during the 100 other times we were at Target over the summer, and he still needed his stuff. 

"Like now really, or definitely before tomorrow." 

And this same child, whose angry disappointment over the poor selection of night before school supplies at Target, threw himself into immediate and heartfelt sibling rivalry and pushed me right over summers edge to count the minutes to school starting. And I can tell you for certain that there are absolutely no orange folders with prongs and pockets in the store that has everything. 

And then, a mere 11 hours following the final fit of summer, as if in a hazy but beautiful dream,

 there was Andre... sweeping them off their feet and taking them to school where they can be with lots of other members of their own kid packs and those dear lovely highly skilled professionals called teachers. 

And while the first two back to school mornings were not captured photographically... the third time is a charm... sort of.
So...here goes our 3rd day of school wombats...
Lilly, 9th grade, Rosie, 2nd grade, Henry, 5th grade and Jamie 7th grade.
(Please note the middle school glee in Henry's expression)
Thank you dear teachers of SCDS for your loving dedication in teaching our kids and thank you dear Andre, for your care and efficiency in delivering in driving that big gorgeous yellow school bus.