Mummies, smoking tombstones and Homemade R2-D2's Oh My!

Reece's bat and stars pumpkin, Emma's became a tiger

I have to show off my hard work for Emma's class, this year I will not get in trouble for these cupcakes

Reece's mummy cupcakes, I have now become the hunch back of Notre Dame after frosting these all morning

Hands down this mother wins most dedication for a homemade Halloween costume. This bad boy came rolling down the gangway in the air museum on Saturday,pulled by his mother. I had no clue anyone was even in this thing. But, yes a 4 year old boy popped out of the top. She couldn't find a R2 costume, she told me, so she made one out of needlepoint. It took her 3 months. Who does that? I mean really!! Her husband built the frame it rolls on.

Our frontyard this morning- oooooooooohhhhhhh spoooky!

Prelude of things to come..........?

Isn't it Murphy's Law that the cutest darn costume in the world is the one they HATE the most? Tell it to the Marines Adeline. I think she's screaming " No more metal hangars."

Pumpkin Patch aka a church parking lot full of pumpkins

Florida summers are awesome, humid, but awesome. Florida falls have something lacking, although the weather is great for trick-or-treating, when it comes to finding a decent pumpkin patch, they are hard to come by. So here in the bible belt of the south, we have "pumpkin patches" in church parking lots and another strange occurrence here called "Trunk or Treat." I have since found out that trunk or treats were devised for children who don't have a safe neighborhood to trick or treat in, so instead you dress up, go to a church parking lot, and everyone fills there trunks with candy. When I informed Robin of this "custom", she didn't find it any safer going up to random for cars for candy. And as her husband so mildly put it " a house can't throw you in a trunk and drive you to Mexico." But I guess they are pretty popular b/c every baptist church around here has one going on the night of Halloween. But, I digress, I took the kids to the Methodist church's pumpkin patch and they had a fun time picking out the flattest pumpkin there. No I didn't misspell fattest, I meant flattest.





Had Everyone been looking this would've been the cutest group photo

Which one should I pick?

Every time I tried to take a picture of Adeline, she thought it meant jump

on a pumpkin and pose

The Wojtanik Sisters Rock Nawleans!!

In January while visiting Robin for the birth of her baby, she let me know that New Kids were having a reunion tour after 20 years. While she's telling me this she is getting on their website and the hair is literally standing up on her neck as she is so excited she can't contain herself. We saw New Kids on tour while we were tweens in Detroit and then a year later in Washington D.C.. We were young and impressionable and didn't know what was good music, we just knew these were 5 hot guys( let me take that back) 4 hot guys and one who looks like a monkey, who sang pop songs that we loved. So I think after being caught up in all that at a young age, it doesn't leave your bloodstream, kinda like a parasite. It may go unnoticed for years, decades even, then something happens and you are 13 again, willing to fly across the country or drive 3 hours, leaving children and husbands in the dust, to scream like they just picked you to be their tour bus groupie, for hours straight until you are hoarse, then you limp back to the hotel because you wore your sexy shoes that gave you blisters to fall into a boyband induced sleep riddled with choruses of Hangin Tough and Please Don't Go Girl running thru your mind. Yes, it was awesome, yes it was ridiculously cheesy, yes most of the girls there were over 300 pounds, and Yes Jordan Knight is still as hot today as ever.




Only the elite few who had seats on the floor got the wristbands- damn right bitch

OK for those I haven't told this to yet, there was a small round stage that was kept hidden until mid-way through the concert. Robin knew of this stage earlier from a friend, so when the time came for them to pull the cover off it, Robin grabbed my arm out of the socket to pull me past all the girls in crimped hair dressed like some 80's video rejects, to come within 1 foot YES 1 FOOT of the band. For three entire songs that little stage rotated slowly at arms length, giving us complete access to pants, shoes and hands.

I informed Becky that I have this super natural power that enables me to snare guys into looking at me, but apparently it wasn't working this evening, because Jordan never once looked our direction! OK, maybe that super power only exists in my mind.

I can now check 1 item off my bucket list- touch a New Kid on the Block, because both Robin and I were able to get a hand shake from Donnie and Jon( Sorry jeanette, I know he was always your favorite)

They sang as much old stuff as their new stuff

One of the cheese filled parts of the concert had Jordan on a pedestal in front of a fan blowing his shirt open singing a song entitled Didn't I Blow Your mind this time what ever Jordan, I love ya, but come on, I found myself rolling my eyes through alot of this concert! Well to all those closet New Kids Fans go see the concert, you will love it, laugh at it, get giddy, think how royally ridiculous the whole thing is and at the end of the night thoroughly enjoy yourself. Thank you Robin for twisting my arm to have a sister weekend that included our childhood idols, the nasty smut on Bourbon street, the giant Baked Alaska at Antoinnes, the pina coladas, margaritas and red beers, the dead orphan ghost boys that take pictures of you while you sleep and the Mardi Gras Beads with the white AND black phallic symbols. Let's do it again in another 20 years.

A fix for the economy

Unbeknowst to me, while Rick was fixing the pool pump, the kids decided they needed a way to acquire toys by setting up a stand in the front yard to sell things. Emma was the grand schemer behind this idea I'm sure. She would sell the Halloween sprinkle cookies we had just made the day before and Reece had a bike pump and a bag of balloons that he would pump up for you upon request. They sat there at least 15 minutes and then a neighbor arrived home from work, came over and gave them each a quarter. They were thrilled and refused to leave their stand, even when dinner was ready, they didn't want to miss an opportunity to make more money. After dinner, Reece came in and asked for more cookies and I said No, where are all the other cookies, then Emma came running in all flustered and said " Where are the cookies, the line is waiting!" And I'm like " Line?" So, I peek out the front window and there are ALL the neighborhood teenage boys and some of their skateboard friends all standing in a line, giving my kids quarters and eating the remainder of my cookies. Emma and Reece couldn't have been more happy. Some of the boys even came back for 2nd's. The kids earned a combined $3.50. That's a lot of sugar cookies! This could either buy A. one G.I. Joe with the kung-fu grip or B. a venti raspberry mocha skim and no whip for mommy.

Maybe it's time to sell the backpack

We took a nature hike last week Friday and everyone except Adeline loved it. She HATED being in the backpack and screamed( in Rick's ear) the entire 45 minute walk. If we stopped to look over a bridge at the fish below, she just screamed louder. We did however see a small snake sunning himself , and while taking pictures I just had to snap one of Adeline in complete meltdown mode.

Good Golly Miss Emma

Here is the bike waiting to be rode

Here is the Daddy who patiently holds

Here is the little girl who takes off like a breeze, with no training wheels to assist, just the push of her knees, she glides along Oxford Place like a bat out hell and and believe it or not she never fell.

Rick's first weekend off in almost 2 months

The first weekend off with Rick we decided to take a Sunday drive down to Destin and enjoy the 75 degree weather and let the kids goof off for almost 2 hours on this play set. When we hit the lottery we'll put one of these in our backyard, but until then, we have to drive an hour away to get the fun. As for mom, I'm in none of the photos b/c I had an allergic reaction to a ultra expensive designer wrinkle cream that Rick's sister Emily gave me free samples of that she peddles as a pharmaceutical rep. To put it lightly it looks as if I put poison ivy around my eyes. They are itchy, red, and scaly, lovely huh? The Dr. said it would've taken 4 weeks to heal, if I hadn't gone in. So I'm staying out of the public view for awhile and hated having to go to Girl Scouts yesterday and having all the girls giving me funny looks.

I have to say I'm happy

I never like to be over political or in you face with certain rights or religious views. But, I have to put this one in my blog, I was beyond thrilled to hear that OJ Simpson was found guilty. Since the murder of his wife over 10 years ago, I have felt a cold blooded killer was let free to walk the streets even though he took her head off. Even though this is for a completely different charge, this could put him away for the rest of his life and prison is exactly where this murderer needs to be. Who writes a book, If I did it? The judge revoked his bail so he will sit in jail until his sentencing, and his lawyer says he's not a flight risk. Yea right, doesn't he clearly remember the white bronco driving painfully slow down the freeway? I could see his face crumble when they announced the verdict yesterday and I have to say I'm happy.

No, it's not the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

In the infamous words of Austin Powers" Grrrrr Baby." At the Pensacola Seafood Festival Emma became Tiger Girl. She loved being the only one in line to request a Full Face tiger! Awesome Emma. We enjoyed $10 coconut shrimp on a stick, overpriced bottled water and the local artists that come every September to Pensacola. I'm sure we'll be back again next year to try grilled grouper or crawfish gumbo.