Goblins Gonna Get You

Lily loves her library books. We pick out a huge stack each time we go so we have new books to read at bedtime (for a while at least) every night. Lily goes through them pretty fast. She could sit through reading all of them at once if someone was willing to do that for her. We would probably lose our voices in the attempt. Mike is so awesome - he reads her 2 or 3 every night, and some of them are pretty long.

(Lily probably had another stack with her over on the couch)

Anyway, I try to get some seasonal themed books for Lily at appropriate times through the inter-library loan. It's so nice to be able to reserve books online and just go pick them up from my spot on the shelf when they come in! The down side is we don't always know just what they're going to be like before we pick them up,  and don't always take the time to look them over before bringing them home. (Did I tell you the story about the bed wetting book? Lily did not have a problem with that until the night after Mike read her that book. Message: Lots of kids wet the bed-you can still go to sleepovers-it's okay... Luckily it must have been a just a fluke or ironic coincidence.) Well, with Halloween coming and the girls dressing up like witches I reserved a bunch of books along those lines. This book of Halloween poems, innocent though it may seem, turned out to be maybe not such a good idea...

Lily has been afraid for some time of going to the bathroom alone, or into the next room, or sometimes even just across the room by herself to wash her hands or fetch things. Sometimes it's probably stubbornness or laziness, or wanting a little extra attention, but sometimes it's genuine fear! You've got me why. But... as a kid I had a pretty overactive imagination...and I think we can safely say Lily has, too.

Well, things were getting better. With a little extra coaxing and a bribe or twenty-two - Lily had finally gotten in the habit of going to the bathroom on her own. SO nice for busy parents who would rather not have to stand guard for imaginary monsters. But...since reading this book Lily has been a little extra clingy, and I swear Sierra has been too (though I am sure it's not for fear of ghost or goblin in her case). I feel like I am attached to my kids at the hip right now...and it's throwing my back out.

Lily is imagining this green goblin sitting in the little plum tree in our backyard waiting to play with her. I have to admit - it is kind of creepy. It probably didn't help that when I read it to her I put a little extra inflection in my voice to set the mood (it's habit!).

Who thought a children's library book would create so much drama!? This ghost poem was pretty creepy too.

It really brings it home to kids the idea of the unseen. Look at the terrified expressions of the little girl and her cat. ...My poor little Lily and her overactive imagination! I still feel guilty for that time I jumped out and yelled Boo! at her when she was like two and she burst into tears! Honestly, she can be a pretty dramatic little girl!

Isn't this a cool Haunted House picture? I printed out a few copies of these for Lily and her cousin to draw their own monsters and pumpkins on today. I have to say I do love these illustrations! :)

On a side note - since we have been talking goblins here... Anyone else remember a children's Halloween song that went: "Goblins gonna get you if you don't watch out....Goblins gonna get you if you scream and shout!"? I think there were some "Oooo---"'s in there too. I don't remember all the lyrics, but my brothers and sister and I loved that song when we were small - we had a record of it and now we can't find it anywhere. So fun - I'd much rather have that to play than any creepy haunted house sounds on Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch 2012

This morning Chicken Tortilla Soup in the Crock-pot, rain coming down outside, blanket forts, and sweet baby coos all combined to make me feel extremely cozy and grateful for the roof over my head. My life is far from perfect, but I feel so lucky and grateful for my loving family!

This weekend we made our annual visit to the local pumpkin patch - this year was a little extra special because as Lily pointed out - it was Sierra's first time!

Here are my favorite photos from this year. Enjoy!

The two cutest witches at the pumpkin patch this year!

We saw those little witch socks and the headband hat in the Target dollar section and once we tried it on Sierra we couldn't resist. Lily found her pink hat there too and finally decided on pink witch! (After mulling over tooth fairy, a Lalaloopsy, and Little Red Riding Hood this year.) Hey, it's classic and easy - and every girl's gotta be a witch at least one Halloween! So cute that she wanted to match her sister - I know that won't last!

One minute camera shy - the next a total ham!

Ham and cheese :)

Love those chubby cheeks!

Sierra kept sharing the cutest smiles with me while we waited in line for my corn.
She's our little social butterfly!

Watching her big sister bouncing

Lily and her candy sand art - probably not the best idea...

I had so much fun watching my little pink witch walking around the farm!
She definitely stood out - I think almost everyone else was wearing orange.

We didn't spend nearly as long or take advantage of as many photo opportunities as we usually do, and opted out of buying our pumpkins there when we noted the quickly approaching rain clouds and realized we had no easy way of - once purchasing the pumpkins - actually getting them to our car! But we had fun, and made it to the car just in time to get out of the rain! It was actually really nice that the day wasn't quite so hot!   

Sierra cried all the way home in the car though she's not normally much of a crier. When she does cry Lily cracks us up by covering her ears and singing "Deep down in the se-ea...wish I could be-e-e!" over and over. Mike calls it her "take-me-to-me-happy-place-song." It's pretty funny.