While I love having the sun in the morning, getting used to such long evenings of darkness are always an adjustment. The best part is the kids never seem to mind going to bed as the evening seems to have been forever! Ryan's football practices are now under the lights which is somewhat of a novelty for the JV team.

I signed up today to do a stamping technique class tomorow night at a local store where a friend teaches classes in the evenings. It's using a metallic paste and gold leafing which I've never tried. Will share with you the results! To say I am looking forward to an evening out is an understatement! Need to get working on my Thanksgiving cards before that holiday comes and goes like Halloween did ...

An eventful Halloween

I'll begin with a beautiful sunrise from Friday morning.

Yesterday was fairly eventful. It began with Kelleigh being given the ultimatum that her room would be cleaned or she would not go trick-or-treating. I draw the line when no carpet is seen when you walk in. She has a habit of slamming her door when she's angry and was told to knock it off. After checking to see her progress and pointing out areas that still needed dealt with, slam went the door. Mark walked into the garage, got the hammer and screwdriver, and we proceeded to remove the door ... as she screamed and ranted. Too bad. The door will come back at some point in the future when she starts acting appropriate. Of course she attempted to use other items in her room as a door resulting in more screaming as they were moved. Eventually the room got picked up enough to suit me but not without lots of drama.

Around 5pm we were starting to get things ready for the evening when there was an enormous crash. After checking to see if it was something indoors, we looked out front to see the water hydrant gushing water. Our neighbor was hanging decorations when a small car rounded the bend (going normal speed and no other cars in sight) and crashed into the fire hydrant, blew the front tire, and ended a couple houses away (the whole front end was smashed in too). The pressure blew the cement 'block' out as well as the lawn surrounding it. When the neighbor told the girl she may want to call her parents as the car wasn't drivable, she said "I can't, they don't know I have the car". She apparently didn't have her license either! Soon three patrol cars arrived, neighbors from down the street were coming up to see what happened for that amount of water to be gushing down, and finally the water department arrived to cut it off. The girl's father showed up and was not a happy man. It took quite some time for a tow truck to arrive but at least things were dry by the time kids starting coming around. She was a lucky girl to have only hit an object rather than a child. (The picture really doesn't do justice to the amount of water that was gushing.)

Here are my trick-or-treaters. Ryan was kind enough to take Connor to quite a few houses as Kelleigh and I only did the immediate streets.

Kelleigh tried hard to turn Buddy into Super Dog but he was having none of it!

Cards and butterfly

Connor was so excited to find this "perfect" (albeit dead) butterfly in the pool Sunday. I was amazed that it was so intact and not waterlogged!

To maintain some of my sanity, I made a couple Halloween cards I thought I'd share with you. I really meant to get one made for everyone, but obviously that didn't happen - I'll try for Thanksgiving! The witch is actually 3D and the inside appropriately says "If the broom fits, fly it" ... a motto I have adopted, while the second one looks cuter in real life as the bow is rather funky on the picture.

Pumpkin Artwork

Connor did this piece in his Art class today. He is very much enjoying this advanced art class and they have joined a website where they can post the kids work and pieces can be printed into postcards, shirts, etc.