Latin revisited and Halloween foolishness

First of all, we had a fantastic weekend in Southern California. It was wonderful to hang out with some of our friends, and I hope that our next couple of visits are just as great as that one was.

Since we got home, I've been on Halloween costume overdrive. Mr. A and I finally agreed on a costume on Friday, and I spent the weekend trying to figure out the logistics of it. I still haven't figured everything out, but I'm on the right track. I hope.

Anyway, we still have to make time for school. Today marks week 3 of Mr. A's Latin lessons. He still likes it. I'm kind of surprised. But his course is perfect for him. So here's his three-week progress:





I've been loving the weather here lately. It's cool, but not cold. It has been pretty nice for fall. When we went to the pumpkin patch last year, it was in the 90s. I remember feeling like I was torturing the kids because they were in long sleeves. This year, I feel a little bad when I take them out in short sleeves.


Yesterday, R had court because he has been on informal probation for throwing a book at another student. We had to take his community service papers to the court so they would strike the whole thing like it had never happened. We had promised R we would take him to get Japanese food (he's obsessed), and it just happened to be last night. Unfortunate timing if you ask me, because I don't like the idea of "rewarding" him for this whole court thing. On the other hand, if I say we're doing something, I will make every effort to make it happen. So we went. And I'm glad we did for the restaurant's sake. It was dead. There were only two tables seated at 7pm. Not a good sign.


I started on Mr. A's Halloween costume last night, and it's going to take me basically until Halloween to finish it. I'm going to try to take pictures of it at every stage. So here's stage one:


Ah. . .but what is it? I'm not telling. I want to see if it'll be recognizable by the end of the weekend, which it should be. If not, it should be very, very close.

So I realized that I will have to do double duty right now and work on Miss A's costume as well. But I didn't get anything for it when I went to the craft store yesterday. Oops. So we had to go back again today. I bought rust-colored yarn and fabric quarters. Running total for Mr. A's costume: $5. Running total for Miss A's costume: $10.


After our trip to the craft store, we stopped by our aunt's house for a quick visit. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins, and Miss A enjoyed terrorizing the neighbor's cat. She screamed "CAT! No, you stop it!" when the bigger kids tried to pull her away from it. It really is a good thing that she's so sweet, because she is a feisty thing.


After we got home, I tried to organize their room a little bit. Combining the As was hard because Miss A's room wasn't exactly set up originally for another person. I really need to get in there and deep clean/organize/purge, but I honestly don't have more than a few hours here and there to do it. And by the time I'm done with one area, it takes so darn long on the next area that the original area needs attention by the time I'm done. It's a frustrating cycle.


If you ever wonder why there is a disproportionate number of pics of Miss A on here, this is why:


Me: "Hey, Mr. A. Look at me and say 'cheese,' please."
Mr. A. : "Uhhh. . .hang on. I'm in a battle. I have to defeat this bad guy."
OR "Argh. Mommy! I'm playing with my friends."
Me: Sigh. "Nevermind."

Oh! And one last thing for the night. This was the exciting delivery of the day: black & white hi-top Chucks. I got both pairs for $25 from Sears (Buy One, Get One 50% off PLUS 20% coupon code). Yes, this is a lame thing to get excited about, but look at this! Miss A already had a pair, so now we can all match. Except for M. I don't buy him Converse because his feet are so big that the narrow, abnormally long Converse style makes his feet look like clown feet. On the flip side, he can carry off the fatter skate style, and those just look silly on me. But anyway, yeah. I'm lame enough to get excited about matching with my kids.