Newest Member of Our Family

Please meet the newest member of our family--Schwa:


Schwa is a common Garter Snake. We think she's female, and we think she's almost full-grown. C. had been promised a snake for her birthday, and after researching it, she chose a Garter Snake. But since Garters are native to Wisconsin, we couldn't buy one in a pet store. One of the employees there whispered to us that most people just catch them! So we tried a few times, but were lucky enough to have Grandpa catch one on Monday. G. drove out and got Schwa yesterday. So far she seems to be fitting in quite nicely, and she seems to like her home--spending equal time in her "house" (box), "pool" (water dish), and hanging out on her stick.

Another Field Trip for T--Stony Hill School and Village

T's class took another field trip today--this one to visit a Pioneer Schoolhouse (in the morning) and Village (in the afternoon).

These are all pictures that his teacher took.

In the school room:


Reciting:

I found these amusing:And these absolutely hysterical!

Then they had lunch at the train station:

Then they learned about the trading post
Learning how long mail took for delivery in 1840:
Looking at a wringer washer:

A covered wagon:

Complaints about the Remodel

*the drywall (80% of it) SUCKS!
*I still live in fear of our house being full of mold that I just haven't discovered yet
*having to fix (and pay for) lots of the fixing from the water leaking in
*the uncertainly for MONTHS of when workers would be here, or if they'd even show up
*the &^$# jerk who sold us the project and took off with roughly $5000 of ours, only delivering some items (and not exactly what was promised) after the threat of legal action
*the money... omg, the money!

More Halloween Pictures

T. and M. had their school Halloween parties on Wednesday.

M. was a bunny:
And T. was Harry Potter (I didn't get pictures since, in 4th grade, they only change into costumes at school, so these are from his teacher's website):



On Saturday, our village "downtown" had Trick or Treating with the businesses. One of the businesses had a stand offering free airbrushed tattoos.

C. got a skull on her face:

M. got a sparkly butterfly on her hand:

And T. got a snake on his pipes:

(supposedly they last for up to 3 weeks!)


Saturday night was a costume party at the home of some dear friends of ours. T. was again a mad scientist:
M. was a bunny (minus the makeup nose and whiskers)
C.'s getting into the goth thing:

And G. and I were Mario and Princess Peach:

The party (as always) was a blast!

Sunday was trick-or-treating, so we had to carve pumpkins:
Unfortunately the pumpkin M. picked out on her field trip rotted in back (and it was REALLY tiny) so she decorated it with stickers and marker):


And then it was TOT time. T. finally got to wear the Darth Vader costume:

C. and M. were goth and bunny again:
And this is C. with two of her best friends. M1 is Frida Kahlo (check out this picture and this picture, if you don't know who she is--the costume is fantastic) E. is a fairy:
It was a great Halloween season (and it's not even October 31 yet...)!

Pumpkin Carving with T's class

T's class carved pumpkins today for the village pumpkin display. I was able to go help. Here's some pictures from the afternoon:

Webkinz

Grandma has been asking exactly what these Webkinz things are, so I told her I'd send a picture.

So, taken from the Webkinz website, here they are:

C's Cheeky Monkey:
T's Polar Bear:
M's Koala:
Both T. and C. earned a Leopard on WR Insiders:

And M. saved her allowance for a LilKinz Tree Frog:
As much as I balked at these initially, they're a pretty cute gimmick. For $10-$15, you get a cute stuffed animal and a code to go on the WebKinz website, where you can play with an animated version of your pet, take care of it, play games, earn points and "buy" things for the animated animal.

Even G. was playing the games!

Halloween Parties (and a dance)

(Let me start this post by saying what a difference a new mouse makes! I tried to enter a few blog posts all weekend long and was swearing Blogger up one side and down the other. New mouse=happy bfmomma)

It was a busy weekend of dressing up here. It started w/ C's middle school dance. There was no *dancing* with boys, but lots of *talking* with boys. I think I like that alternative! Pictures from "before":
On Saturday, C. had a Halloween costume party to attend. She wanted to go Goth, so she wore the outfit I wore a few years back. Dare I say that she looks quite a bit cuter in it than I did?
And last night T. had a Halloween party to attend. He's going to be Darth Vader for ToTing and another party we will attend on Saturday, but he wasn't supposed to wear a mask, so he resurrected C's Mad Scientist costume from last year:

Pumpkin Farm Visit

M got to go to the Pumpkin Farm with her class yesterday, but I wanted to get some pumpkins for the other kids.

C. had one of a million social activities going on, so she didn't come with. G. was sick and had papers to correct, so he stayed home, too.

We always go to Retzlaff's Pumpkins on Pioneer. Among other things, we love seeing the "Kids Are People, too!" performance (see here for last year's pictures).

Again, T got picked for bass guitar. Here he is, trying to tune it:

And M. got to play maracas (she really wanted the cow bell):

Then we took a hay ride out to the field to pick pumpkins, and then we headed home.