The pumpkin mask

DJ was a pumpkin for Halloween, and one of the clearance items I found while making his costume was a pumpkin mask.  He wore it with his costume, and it has been around the house since, getting wear every once in awhile.

Today, Elektra donned said mask, and walked up to me and said, "I'm Elektra Eye Patch!!  And I'm going to get you!"

And sure enough, she GOT ME!!!!!

Then after she got me, she took off her mask, and told me that she was "...just Elektra."

She put the mask back on, and said she was going to go get Daddy!  She yelled, "I'm Elektra Eye Patch!!!", and off she went running.

For Christmas, Elektra received a treasure chest of Princess outfits to wear from the West Coast Steaks.  There were 2 full dresses, one 2 piece set, and all sorts of accessories like necklaces, rings, and slippers.  She couldn't WAIT to put them on.  And apparently, her cousins Sophia and Eleni, couldn't wait to help her!!  As you can see in the pictures below, they had a very willing live baby doll to play with!!

In October, we met Damian, Jenn, and Leo at the Gaver Tree Farm in Mt. Airy, MD.  There were tons of activities there for the kids, including a giant corn maze, slides, water duck races, straw bales for climbing, bean bag throws, and a giant pumpkin patch that required a straw ride to get to it!  

Here is a video of DJ at the water duck races.  If you can't see the video, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r1o2upR_dA

And then there was Elektra trying hulahooping for the first time.  If you can't see the video, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/0bMClcNjq0s

Finally, a few pictures of our little pumpkin patch romp!

Crazy Mouse

On Thursday morning, we were getting ready to leave to go to work (and take the kids to daycare).  I left the house first, went down the driveway, and off I went.  I thought Steve was right behind me, and he was... except that I got about a mile down the road when he called me.

"Did you see the crazy mouse on the driveway??" 

"What crazy mouse?"  

"This field mouse is just running in circles on our driveway!"

"Get video!"

I hear Steve disconnect the call and a few minutes later, I received the following video text (isn't technology awesome?!).

If you can't see the video, click here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3sa_mZXZHY.  (sorry for the typo in the intro)

Yep, this little guy was most certainly chasing its tail happily not caring about anything else in the world.  I don't know how Steve saw it on the driveway, but he had gotten out of the car, and was literally inches from it to take the video.  

We find it amusing that it took nearly 3 minutes for this critter to realize that Steve was even there and when it did, it stopped, eyeballed him, and then scampered off.

DJ participated in his first Christmas pageant at his school on Thursday, December 15.  Although we weren't supposed to video the event due to chapel rules (and, they had a professional videographer), Nadia and I decided to use our iPhone video cameras to film this first time event for our children.

There are a fair number of children in the 4's class... DJ and Grace are in the afternoon 4's class, which is smaller than the morning 4's class, but combined the two classes are just over 30 children.

Look for a bouncing-and-can't-stand-still DJ in the far right hand side, wearing a purple and white striped shirt, standing just underneath the pulpit.  He's just to the left of a little boy wearing a white long sleeved shirt and a sweater vest.

Grace is more in the middle - towards the left side wearing a shiny pink dress, standing just to the right of a girl in a white shirt.

They sang 4 songs, Angels We Have Heard On High, Go Tell Them On The Mountain (that Jesus Christ is born), Bells Are Ringing, and Happy Birthday (to the Lord).

I think you'll agree that this is just hilarious.

If you can't see the video, click here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB1h86nRrMs

Christmas Lights

I started to decorate the house for Christmas, and I found the lights that Brother John gave to my parents in the 1960s while they lived at Charmuth Road.

After 45+ years, THEY STILL WORK!!  Of course they do... they had lots of tender loving care, and stuff made back then was made better (right?).

But I can't bring myself to hang them.  They would be a fire hazard and would waste a metric ton of electricity.  Plus, there are bulbs missing their moisture protective rings, and I can't replace those!  Unfortunately, I missed the 2011 old light trade-in at the Gnome Despot, but I am thinking about saving them for next year.

Karma works in weird ways, though.  I attended my department's holiday party today and participated in a white elephant gift exchange.  The gift I picked was...

Yes, really.  And you know that there was no one that was going to steal this gift from me.  That was the only way I would have it!!

I'm having trouble finding these on the internet to get more.  They're just too hilarious to not try and find more of their brethren!!

Merry Flamingo Christmas!

We have a bug problem.

We have a bug problem.  Ironically, the stinkbugs were not nearly as bad as predicted, and we are only seeing them come in through our chimney flue.  But we knew they were coming, and we did various things to try and keep them out, including putting screening over the eves and the bathroom vents, as well as pulling bushes/shrubbery lining the house. 

The week after Thanksgiving 2010, I went into our basement and discovered bugs... lots of bugs.  Camel crickets, in fact.  When I couldn't just step on them to squash them because they JUMPED, I got the vacuum.  I went down 3 times a day for over a month and a half and vacuumed 7-10 a session.  I sprayed the baseboards with insecticide of some kind.  I saw a reduction, but I don't know if it was because the weather got warmer and they moved outside or because I was actually winning "the war".

An adult camel cricket, and not the biggest we've seen either!!

With the basement being redone, I thought that maybe the camel crickets would be gone since we put in new windows and doors, we well as sealing the cinderblock with drylock and framing/insulating/drywalling 90% of the basement.

Then, a couple weeks before Thanksgiving, I saw Mr. Camel Cricket.  Then I saw another one... another...and another.  Out came the vacuum, and the war began.  Again.  I was seeing the majority of them in the unfinished utility room, but they were venturing out into the new laundry room and bathroom.  

I decided to try an experiment.  I put a towel down to block the threshold between the laundry room and the utility room, I caught all of the bugs that I could find, and then laid down glue traps in the utility room.  Apparently, my experiment is working.  

I have not seen 1 camel cricket since in the laundry room or the bathroom, and my traps are filling.  Of the 4 traps I put down, 3 of the 4 are about 1/3rd full.  The 4th trap was flat out disgusting when I looked on Saturday. 

I tossed that one in the trash, and put down a fresh one.  In 24 hours, it had another 4 bugs.  Since Saturday, that trap has another 5-6 bugs on it.  

This begs the question: how/where are they getting in???  Don't know, but I seem to have them under control at this point.  The glue traps placed in strategic places are working, thankfully.

Yuck.