Reformation Day

Kinda at the last minute, a few of us with KWA (my new acronym for Kids With Allergies...like it?) decided the idea of doing our normal Reformation Day activities was making us freak out a little.  And we would have to take our kids' candy away and all of that, so.... in lieu of taking candy from a baby, we decided to just hang out together.

And BAKE.... Each of my kids took turns pausing their school work to help me bake a non-dairy, peanut, treenut and dye-free dessert.

Iris helped me bake deep dark chocolate cookies (pinterest).  They are EXCELLENT.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to a camera while she was baking.  But she did invite her siblings to help her roll the doughballs in the powdered sugar...

Clyde helped me make rice crispy treats.  These are tricky, since even white  marshmallows have dye, but Earth Fare has some kosher, dye-free ones from Israel, so YAY!  He drizzled chocolate chips on them, because why woudln't you?

Lucy helped me bake sugar cookies.  Then we whipped up a small batch of icing, (from scratch because store bought white icing has dye) then colored it with India Tree's natural food dyes (Ireally need to go give them a good customer review...except no true red), and drew pumpkins on them.

Then we played with little native American girls, ballerinas, Obi Wan and many normal people from Earth....

We also discovered the undeniable truth, that nothing causes grief quite like being dressed like Tweety Bird....

Costumes!!

I adore costumes!!  Always have...maybe more than the kids.

This year, the kids thought it would be cool to all dress like Star Wars characters.  For a month or so, Clyde thought about going rogue on us, and I realized how attached I was to the idea.  But he came around whole-heartedly after awhile.

Lucy knew from the beginning that she was going to be Queen Amidala.  We opted against the make-up...as it stung her skin.  For her pictures, she wouldn't smile, because she was remaining in character.

Iris was the second to decide.  She really wanted to be Princess Leia in her Ewok Village dress.  But then she changed her mind when she saw the Padme outfit.  It was love at first sight.

The girls were only slightly distressed when they realized they were the same person.  But then they decided that when they were in the same room, Lucy would actually be Sabe, Queen Amidala's decoy.  Then they researched via Star Wars encyclopedia and found that the queen and her decoy used secret hand signals that only they knew to communicate when incognito.  So they made up secret hand signals too.

Clyde decided on Boba Fett.  He's been a Fett fan for a while now, but I think the green lights you can turn on, on the helmet, swayed him some.  That and his favorite, General Grievous, apparently didn't look authentic enough.  It is very difficult to get a picture of Clyde.  Sometimes I feel that there is a huge discrepancy in the volume of his pics versus the girls pics, but the sweet child moves so! (Incidentally, this is the first year since I dressed him as a turtle when he was 10 months olds that he hasn't had a sword and hat....I guess a blaster and helmet are good substitutes.)

The Sunday before the 31st we went to the Nature Center.  They had booths set up, with not a lot of candy and food emphasis, which we prefer with our allergies.  Just give us the fun...no food please!

Hayride!

Queen Amidala on her white steed and winning a potato sack race...

Bobba Fett climbing a giant spider web and tossing rings over coke bottles.  That yellow blur in the middle of the picture is a ring coming at the photographer ;)  These activities are easier for bounty hunters to perform without their helmets!

Padme is bowling with a pumpkin, cheering when she knocks down the pins and pondering life.

Punkin Carvin Time

Family "punkin" carving night :) 

Lucy planning out the artwork she will put on her Cinderella pumpkin....

Daddy scooped the "guts" out of Iris's, but she still cringed as she carried out her "wiping the guts off the pumpkin" requirement....

Clyde and Daddy pulling guts out of his pumpkin....

Clyde and Iris drew plans for theirs.  Stephen and I tried to copy their faces from the paper to the pumpkin.  During this phase of the project, they let us know if something needed to be taller, fatter, or if the glasses needed to be "more like Lucy's", etc.

Daddy kept carving...

Clyde and I cleaned the seeds for roasting.  (Iris gave it a good college try, but her gag reflex couldn't take it.)

Lucy putting the finishing touches on her seasonal masterpiece.  (Literally, as it has each season depicted on it as you turn the pumpkin.)

Two pumpkins decorating our front stoop...

One gracing our table....

32

I turned 32 the other day.

I declared it a Household Holiday.

As I was stretching and waking up, Clyde brought a newly folded cootie catcher in the room so I could find out what I should do that day to be creative.

When he left, Iris brought in a cootie catcher to let  me know what I should do that's fun.

When she left, Lucy brought a cootie catcher to me and let me know what I should eat.

There was whispering and giggling in the hallway in between cootie catchers.

Then Iris and Lucy made some games for me to play so I could know how old I was turning.

Then Clyde made me a banner that was pulled by a remote control hexbug.  It went along right in front of me so I could read, "Happy Birthday, Mommy."

Stephen let me pick a restaurant.  I went with the predictable favorite....PFChangs!

Opened Stephen's really sweet card.  He purposely took a picture of my eyes getting watery, but I did NOT put that one on here.

Lucy made me a very pretty card....

Clyde's card and the necklace that he put into and envelope, then a box, then a bigger box...etc...etc...

Iris's card and the green pin cushion she made me....

I also received cards from my parents and Sherry & David.  Great Birthday!  So blessed!