What we've been up to

We've been....

...carving pumpkins

...trick-or-treating

...spending Halloween night in our typical way with Bridget, Scott and Annabel. Our tradition is that the moms sit home with whoever is too young to trick-or-treat and pass out candy (and maybe sip wine) while the daddies take the kids around the neighborhood. Sammy actually attended a party this year in lieu of trick-or-treating and Claire and Annabel actually trick-or-treated by themSELVES this year (but just on our block). It's a good thing I have Luella or I'd be depressed that my babies are getting so big. Bridget fed us deLICIOUS curry chicken with great toppings like coconut, peanuts, cilantro, and a chutney something-or-other. Bridget also has beautiful Halloween decorations which I tried to capture, but my substitute camera stinks.

...throwing our own Halloween party 2 weeks ago and it was a rockin' party if I do say so. It was so rockin' that I couldn't get many pictures taken. I think our house was definitely at capacity. I don't throw many really large parties, but when I do I always learn important lessons.

Important lesson for the night #1: If you try to serve your chili in a hollowed-out pumpkin (as a serving bowl) don't roast the pumpkin first as the recipe suggests to make the pumpkin look all shiny. If you do, the bottom of the pumpkin will be soft and when you fill it with 10 lbs of chili, the chili may fall out the bottom of the pumpkin while you are removing it from the oven.

Important lesson #2: If you are serving sangria, don't put it on the table with a ladle in it if you haven't marked it as alcoholic. In the hubub of scooping up your spilled chili, you may forget to tell people it is alcoholic and a few children may get slightly intoxicated on the "punch". But really, it went quite well and we had a blast. Well, at least I know that I, and the kids who drank the sangria had a good time anyway!

...taking classes! Sammy started soccer class at Lil' Kickers last week and he L-O-V-E-S it. The Harris family is not known for their soccer skills. They are a die hard football family. But at least for now, Sammy is content with soccer and he loves that he has a "coach".

...doing a few random projects here and there. I took profile pictures of my kids so as to create these silhouettes of my kids like the one you see here, (this is an example...not my kid). They are pretty cute, except for the one of Wella. Apparentlly, when photographed from the side, Wella has zero neck and when transferred into sillhouette looks a bit like a tomato with a nose. But they were fun to make anyway. I hung them in my kitchen.

...buying a piano. Claire and I went to this place called Keys 4 Kids which sells used pianos in a huge warehouse just south of our neighborhood. We bought her this Wurlitzer piano (I don't know if that's a good kind or anything. As usual, I did zero research, but it was relatively cheap and it arrives tomorrow!). I don't have a piano teacher yet, but that's to come.

...going to chicken-coop-raising parties. Actually, we're not because we have plans this weekend, but I just had to throw out there to you all that I was invited to help build a hay bail chicken coop in our friends' side yard in Garfield Park this weekend. If you knew Garfield Park, you'd know how funny it was that I was invited there to build an eco-friendly chicken coop. Our friends, the Von Kondrats, are completely amazingly interesting people. He is on the swat team, she has an Abba band, they homeschool, they live in the inner city, and they "acquired" the empty lots next to their rowhouse-home and have turned it into an organic farming project. There is nothing this family can't do.

...congratulating my brother-in-law, Ben, who works for the newly-elected Governor John Kasich of Ohio! Ben has worked for John since college, when he was a congressman. We were very excited on November 2nd when he was elected Governor.

...reading this blog, about a family who adopted this sweet little girl, Zenish, from Ethiopia this month. The mother of the family, Kim, went to highschool with me and was in a sorority with me at KU for the one year that I went there for college. I tear up reading their story. Isn't she a beautiful girl?

And, last, but certainly not least, we are EAGERLY awaiting the arrival of my little sister, my kids' Aunt Katie with her very serious boyfriend Chance this weekend! We have not yet met Chance and poor Katie hasn't been able to get time off work to come meet Wella until now. It will be a whirlwind visit of only 3 days, but we're super psyched for her to visit! Yay Aunt Katie!

And, I may have celebrated my 31st birthday this week as well. Okay it was yesterday. I'm officially "in my thirties". That's old.