Positively Defrightful

Halloween is probably one of my kids’ favorite holidays. I mean, they get to party, dress up, run around the neighborhood half the night, eat a bunch of candy…what’s not to love, right? To be honest, I think it’s fun too. I enjoy making a creepy themed dinner and creating fun costumes. And taking my parent tax out of their trick or treat bags. As a food allergy parent, the whole trick or treating thing used to stress me out, but my kids are so smart about the whole thing that I don’t really worry any more. We just help them go through their bags and swap out off limits treats for safe ones. And then the big boys get to eat all the rejected confections so they are pretty happy about the whole thing as well.

This year I fed the kids worm sandwiches, brain Jell-o and Jacked up veggies before sending them out the door.

Daniel went to a party and didn’t really do a costume this year so he is not part of our photo lineup. Malia was Ariel in the pink princess dress, but really looked like a standard princess because she didn’t want to wear a red wig. She was super excited though and even let me get her a hoop skirt to wear with her dress.

When we started the costume discussions last month, Matthew didn’t want to dress up at all. I think he wants to be a young man and not a boy and sees dressing up as something for little kids. But we turned to pinterest and found a non-standard costume that he was actually super excited about. Honestly, what’s not cool about being a pedestrian crossing sign?

Nathan didn’t have any grand plans, but he wanted a costume anyway. He really wanted a cape, Phantom of the Opera style, and I was happy to help him sew one. By help, I mean I helped him pick a pattern, taught him how to use a pattern, guided him in his selection of fabric and then acted as sewing advisor. He did all the actual cutting and sewing himself. He was enormously proud of himself, as well he should be. And he loved the whole swirling of the cape thing.

Since he didn’t have anywhere to go, Nathan invited a few friends to gather at our place for snacks and a movie. Unfortunately, only one person came, but they had a great time nevertheless. We made caramel popcorn and ate it all warm and sticky, so Nathan followed my lead and ate his with chopsticks to avoid the super sticky fingers. Honestly, I don’t know what normal people do without chopsticks. I use them for all kinds of non-Chinese food things. In fact, I use them for all kinds on non-food things...

So Happy Halloween y’all. Hope you had as much fun as we did!

Dork O’Lanterns

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins. Daniel’s schedule has been so crazy that finding a time to choose and carve our yearly squash has been a challenge. If he didn’t care about participating it would have been easier, but he still wants to do these family activities (for which I’m so grateful) and so we worked around his calendar. All the kiddos seem to have caught the dork bug and for once Nathan was the only one who looks fairly normal in his picture. To be fair though, he does look like he is pulling a dorky face behind that pumpkin…

As always, the images carved are definitely not the standard Jack face. Daniel went with the death star, Nathan did the headless horseman, Matthew crafted a Simba design and Malia selected the little mermaid. And then she carved the entire thing all by herself. I think she did a great job. In fact, I think all the kids did a great job.

And to be completely honest, the fact that they are all dorks is really not their fault. After all, they did get the dork gene from both of their parents so I guess it is inevitable that they would choose to let their dork show on a regular basis.

Missed It by That Much

Tonight was the Pinewood Derby. Our ward went their own way this year and invited all the activity days girls to participate. The girls were super excited and I think the boys were originally fine with the whole thing. That did seem to change a bit as the derby progressed and the girls started winning everything. But despite a few grumbles, the boys were good sports and took things mostly in stride. They had all the kids take their first four runs and then planned to narrow it down to the top 12 cars to do another round. Unfortunately, the first runs took longer than they had planned and they decided to take only the top 8 cars to the next round. But they didn’t make any kind of announcement to that end. Matthew’s car was in 9th place at that point and he was pretty anxious as they started the second round of runs and he did not have a place in the lineup. After awhile it became obvious that they had taken only 8 cars and Matthew was disappointed. I would have been disappointed too. Once the derby was over, I took Matthew to the store to buy some ice cream. As my older kids have discovered in the past, ice cream can help soothe a disappointment. Matthew made his entire car all by himself and I made sure to let him know how proud I was of that. Many of the cars obviously had a lot of grown up handy work, but he built his all on his own. And it was fast enough for 9th place. I’m super proud of him. He did perk up after awhile and was able to admit that he was proud of himself as well.

As a side note, the first and second place prizes went to girls as well as the prize for the slowest car. Of four winners, only one was a boy. 😐

Major Milestone!!!

Malia was brave enough to eat hot lunch at school today!

Futball

Matthew has not played organized sports for a while. He used to be all about football, but that waned after a bit and over the past year or so his interests have diversified. He has tried volleyball (a set of beginning techniques class as well as a round of tournament style games) and really enjoyed that. He would really like to try fencing but the beginners class that both Daniel and Nathan did has not been offered for quite some time. This fall he decided he wanted to give soccer a try. I think he really enjoyed himself. He loves to be active and outside and soccer filled both those needs. He said he would be interested in playing soccer again.

Some Unexpected News

The past few years have brought some welcome additions to Matthew’s diet. Due to the creation of a better blood test, he was able to do a food challenge for milk and eggs in breads and has been eating bread, rolls, and doughnuts with milk and eggs in them successfully for the past few years. He still can’t eat either milk or eggs raw or in things like cookies (they don’t bake long enough for the proteins in the milk and egg to break down enough to prevent a reaction) but the new foods he has been able to eat have definitely added some variety to his plate.

Today was his yearly appointment with the allergist and based on our past experiences, I didn’t expect much to change. There haven’t been any new breakthroughs in testing or treatment, so I thought today would be another “stay the course” appointment. In some ways I was right, but there was one big surprise. Due to the fact that Matthew’s IgE for milk is still low (around 10-it was around 26 three years ago) and his reaction to the skin prick testing was minimal, she wants him to do a food challenge with baked cheese. We’re talking pizza here. Well baked cheese is a must, it can’t be just gooey, but pizza! This is something I honestly never thought Matthew would be able to do. After ten years of being taught that milk could kill him, Matthew is understandably freaked out. I’m kind of freaked out too. It is completely scary. But it is also very exciting. It would make fast food pizza ok for him since he already tolerates milk and eggs in breads (the crust) just fine. It would mean that he can eat goldfish crackers. Even more than that, it might mean that the risk of cross contamination by milk wouldn’t be such a big deal and that alone would give him a bunch more food options.

Matthew isn’t ready to do the food challenge yet. Like I said, it is very scary. We’ll encourage him to do the challenge but like we have in the past, we won’t push him to do it before he is ready. He has to make the choice. It is his life and he knows the risks as well as the benefits. He will get there, but it is going to take some time. And it is even a bit scarier for him right now because his allergist is retiring this December. His first reaction was when he was 5 months old so he literally does not remember a time when she was not his doctor. She would like to see him do the challenge before she quits, but I’m not sure that is going to happen. But we’ll see. This could be a life-changing event for him.

Princess for a Week

It has been princess central around here for the past ten days. Malia has had a birthday and this year was the year we threw a princess party. In fact, we invited her friends to come to princess school so they could all learn to be royalty and earn their tiaras. We practiced waving a wand, dancing, making a bracelet, kissing a frog and defending ourselves (against a piñata). The girls wore their fancy gowns and they did, in fact, all earn their tiaras. Malia’s cake of choice was a super simple strawberry cupcake cake, but she was very pleased with how it turned out.

This month’s birthday table day at the elementary was on Malia’s actual birthday which made it even more exciting for her. School had not started for Nathan (though it had for everyone else), so he got to attend as well. We took her a lunch from Carl’s Jr. and even though she was totally hyped, she managed to eat up all her food.

After lunch, Nathan helped me pick out some balloons for her, and I think she was pleased with our selection:

Her presents from us were given that evening. She was happy about the princess Lego from Daniel and Nathan.

She was spazy about the tiara from Kevin and I.

(Yup, that’s my girl-equal parts girly girl, tom boy and spaz.)

The musical jewelry box from us was also entrancing.

But Matthew totally won the “who can choose the best present for Malia” award with his selection of a scooter of her very own.

This past Sunday was her cake day at my parents’ house. She opted for the blueberry cupcake cake for this one. She was also excited to be able to celebrate with her cousin Kate since Kate had been out of town for her princess party.

Even Jolly has had an opportunity to be royalty for a day.

I’ve about had my fill of princess stuff for now, but Malia has loved all of it. She’s such a perfect blend of interests that I’m happy to indulge her inner princess from time to time knowing that she’s going to alternate princess time with baseball time or football time or scooter time…she’s well rounded and a perfect fit for our crazy family.

Here is a translation of Malia’s birthday interview in case your reading of phonetic writing is rusty:

My nicknames are: Squeaker Pants
If I could change my name, it would be: Dot
When I grow up I want to be: a mom
My best friend is: Raylee
My favorite thing to do with my family is: Play games
This is what makes me happy: Playing house
This is what makes me sad: Falling
My favorite thing about school is: recess
The thing I’m best at is: the weed (??? When I asked Malia about this, she couldn’t even remember what it was supposed to mean. She decided her new answer was “to read” which is probably a better answer because I’m pretty sure child protective services would take her away if she was really doing weed. 😉)
If I had a million dollars I would: cheer
If I could go anywhere, I would go: To Space
If I had one wish, I would wish for: I want to be anything
For breakfast, I like to eat: cereal
My favorite thing to do outside is: ride my scooter
My favorite thing to wear is: dresses
Before I fall asleep, I think about: is I read books
My favorite birthday present was: a singing bird

My Favorites
Food: spaghetti
Holiday: Christmas
Book: Another Monster at the End of This Book
Toy: doll
Treat: cookies
Song: I Am a Child of God
Animal: tiger
Movie: Narnia
Color: red
Sport: football
T.V. Show: Sophia

“Totality” Cool

As I’m sure you all know, today was a total solar eclipse that was visible across the entire United States. Kevin and the boys, my dad and my sister Rachael and her family drove north into the path of totality. I would have liked to go, but August heat=migraine for me and I knew I would end up feeling miserable so I stayed home with Malia. Malia had school, but I went and checked her out for awhile so she could experience the 93% eclipse we got here. We went to the park next to the elementary school and Malia alternated between playing on the playground and checking in to see how the eclipse was coming along. It was actually pretty disconcerting to know it was the middle of the day and yet have no cloud cover and nearly no light.

The men folk had a great time and took a million pictures to share when they got home. Kevin had a sun filter for his camera and took so many pictures that he actually ran completely out of battery power.

Sprinkled in with the pictures of heavenly bodies were a few of the earthly bodies.

  (Nathan always comments on how I put the dorky pictures of him on the blog, but honestly what choice do I have? These are not staged by me. He just gets his dork on pretty regularly. 😉)

The boys were all completely awed by the marvelous show, and hopefully I’ll be around to see a repeat performance when it happens in our neck of the woods in 2045.