Happy Halloween

I mentioned that I was going to a Halloween Party.  Instead of using my Red socks, Anne came to the rescue by receving a costume in the mail.  Corey, Ethan, and Anne are headed to a Halloween Party in a few days.  Anne (always the planner) ordered her costume on line.  She would never make it at 'Halloween City'!  Me....sadly a procastinator- was very happy Anne's costume arrived 2 hours before my party started.  Here's how I looked:

 I hadn't planned on being a 'pregnant' nun, but there was an extra balloon in the car ....so the immaculate conception was created.

Here are my friends (the ones with the extra balloons) arriving as a 'bra'. 

Happy Halloween!

Shopping

Ethan and I went out for a few errands and it was fun to experience shopping through the eyes of a toddler.  We headed to Rural King, one of my favorite stores.  I had no idea they carried such a large selection of huge blow up Halloween decorations that would take up most of your yard.  Ethan immediately noticed them.  He especially liked the Halloween Helicopter (what, you don't own one of these).

All my pictures in this post were taken from my arm's lengths. In order to avoid Ethan touching anything in the stores or standing in the stores, I held him. This led to slightly substandard picture taking.

 This is Ethan looking at the Halloween Helicopter.  I tried to explain the concept of  'covenants' and why he would never have one of these. He completely understood.

 We also came upon a disply of animals.  We never quite figured out what one does with this little metal toys, but we found dogs that looked similar to Louie, Bailey and Riley. 

 After Rural King we headed to Cummins State Street, or CSS if you know the lingo. (not to be confused with COB, GOB, SEC, PGA)  Ethan needed to run the company for a few minutes and grandma had to have her 'vital numbers' checked to help lower the cost of her health insurance.  (I'm really trying for a debit card to Babys R Us so Ethan and I can go shopping at a store where he might be able to walk)

 After we saw granddad at CSS (see above if you have already forgotten your acronyms) we headed to Halloween City.  Grandma was going to a Halloween party and needed something to make an outfit out of.  Ethan and I decided upon a pair of red and white stripped socks.  (these are available for anyone's use of they need them)  That was about all the shopping Ethan Grandma could handle.  From here we headed home.

 Ethan had a nice lunch of peas, wild rice, grilled cheese and fruit.  After he had thrown it on the floor and I explained that we don't throw our food at grandma's house (save that for home where Louie is); Ethan got down and pointed to the food and said, "no-no".  I plan to use this tactic in the future.  I think you should too.  Jim, just think of the possibilities of pointing to an injector that is plugged and saying, "no-no...bad injector"!

As we headed up for a nap, Ethan decided to try his old baby bumper seat.  It's his barco lounger of toddlers.  It was a perfect way to end our day of shopping!

Finding Elmo

One of Ethan's favorite words to say is, "Elmo."  When I couldn't convice him that Curious George or Blue Alphabet Dog were Elmo's cousins, we decided to head to the library to check out some Elmo books.  Here is Ethan ready to go in his car seat which takes grandma about 20 minutes to hook him into.  He can only breath diaphragmatically after his strapping, but it's a short trip.

The library has a Halloween scene set up on arrival.  Ethan loved looking at the pumpkins and ghosts.  I explained that he would never see one of those rats at his house.

The library set up has changed since I last took Anne and Mike.  There are some books for older children in a stack when you walk in.  Ethan quickly knocked out about 6 of these.  We both got the 'look' from the check out person, who looked like she just got out of lock up to come to her job.  I wish I could have shared this visual, but the timing wasn't right.

We made it to the Picture Book section and starting looking for Elmo books.  Ethan quickly came upon two children working on computers.  I explained this is where all the home school come for some lessons.  He looked up at me and said, "How do I sign up for that gig?"

 

He was excited to see games and puzzles at the library. 

Finally, we found some Elmo books and another one of Ethan's favorites- Dr. Suess.

Ethan is old enough to have his own library card, but his parents must be present to get one.  Checkout gal said, "Just drag em in with you next time." 

As I was checking out the books, Ethan found computers with Vegas type games blasting.  All I could hear was, "Up"; so I knew he had a find.  There were four computers set up with two of them occupied (more home school kids--see above)

Ethan and I started playing the game...something about flying to China---but then checkout girl came over and told us we had to sign up to use those computers.  Maybe they don't want 18 month olds banging on their keyboards or maybe it's one of the perks of being those home school kids!



All in a Day

Ethan comes to visit on Wednesdays and it's always a fun filled day.  I attempted to capture some of our activities.  Here's where we started in the office.  Ethan likes to check the computer, push the phone buttons and write (with 2 pens- double fisted) pretty much all at the same time. 

After work, we headed upstairs to play with some legos.  He loved the car legos. 

Ethan loves buttons.  I tried to teach him how to use my camera.  Unfortunately, I showed him the wrong button first, so he kept turning my camera off.  After I undid my teaching and retaught the correct way, he was ready to shoot!

Here's his first photo of grandma. (Notice G-ma is still in jammies.....one of those days!)

Once Ethan got the swing of things, it was capture the world.  Here's a sample of his photos.  I didn't have enough space to show all of them.  I think he may follow his mother in picture taking.

I tried to get a picture of Ethan combing/curling his hair.  I wasn't quick enough.  Ethan's been called a girl one too many times for his mother.  I think those beautiful locks are coming off soon.

After all this fun, it was time for lunch.  Ethan is really into Mac and Cheese.  He starts with a spoon, but quickly realizes it's faster just to shovel it in. 

We also went to the park, and had a little late afternoon party with some of grandma friends.  Those never made it on camera. 

The best picture of the day would have been grandma asleep on the couch for the rest of the evening after Ethan leaves.....getting ready for next Wednesday!

Vacation Food

 

I mentioned that Jim and I went to Asheville, NC last week for a wedding.  One of the really fun things we did, was go out to breakfast.  The first sign this breakfast was going to be tasty was the wait....outside.....in the cold.....but......with lots of coffee provided to the crowd.  When we got the menu, I knew things would be worth the wait, because the menu was based on the Primer Readers that Jim and I had in elementary school.  (I'm not sure Jim graduated from the reading program....I've never seen him read a real book---I think he skipped this subject, and went right to Calculus)

Jim's heading off to a trip to Austria right after this meal, so he's all smiles!

 Carolyn's headed to Saint Simons after this meal, that's why she's looking kinda tired!

Starter of yogurt and fruit!

Carolyn's breakfast sandwich with tators....YUM.

Jim's french toast with more fruit!

The food was great, but the coolest thing about this restaurant was---you can bring your dog into the restaurant and have him sit right at your table.  Seriously!  I've never seen this before. 

Put Asheville on your list of great places to live!

Old Technology

There are times in life you realize you are old, and one of those days was today.  Ethan came over to play, and his new fun thing to do is reach in drawers and pull things out.  The first thing he pulled out today was a cassette tape.  He quickly threw out the tape and started playing with the container....looking for buttons.



He knew if he kept playing with it, it would turn on.  I don't think Ethan had ever seen a cassette before.  After he realized the box couldn't do anything, he went back to the cassette and learned to pull the tape out of the cartridge.  Fun kinda ended then.

Since Ethan pulled out the cassette tape 'Learn how to Play Harmonica', I thought he was ready to try it.  I went out to the car and got the harmonica (you may be wondering why one carries a harmonica in their car- I'm ready for a trafffic jam to entertain myself.  Columbus hasn't ever had a traffic jam--but I'm ready if it happens)  Unfortunately, Ethan wasn't quite ready for the blowing in and out to make music.  If only we had a cassette player so he could learn!

Oh-oh

If you've been around Ethan lately, you quickly learn that when things aren't going well, he starts saying Oh-oh.  Sometimes it's a short "Oh-oh", other times it's a long drawn out "Oooooh-ooohhhh".  So, when I came upon 'Jim's Pier' at Saint Simons on Monday, I let out the longest, loudest, "Oooohhhh-Ooohhhh" you could hear.  This is the sign I saw as I approached the pier. 

I don't have any problems with routine maintenance being done.  The problem is, Jim considers this pier to be his.  If there are other people on the pier, he tries to shoo them off.  He hasn't gone as far as push anyone off, but it's just a matter of time. 

As I got closer, it was apparent the pier was out of commission (I didn't believe the first sign).





Hopefully, the work goes quickly and progress is made.  It's a beautiful, quiet, peaceful pier where "Oohhh- Oohhh" is never heard. 

Wedding!

After driving what felt like 3 days, we made it to Banner Elk, and played some unbelievable golf at the Diamond Creek Golf course (more on this when I download pictures from my camera).  Let's just say it was such a difficult golf course that I asked our Fore Caddy (Will) to hit some shots for me. 

On Saturday, our Indiana friends packed up to go home, and Jim and I headed for Asheville, NC for a wedding.  Ken and Christy's Langston's son; Cam, was getting married.  As we left Banner Elk, the snow was coming down heavily.  I was starting to get worried about my sleeveless dress and jacket I brought for the wedding.  Jim knew the wedding would be moved inside.  I knew better.

Here are the musicians that greated us when we arrived.  Look at that setting.  Cold was worth this beautiful mountain view. 



I'll add some more pictues when I get back to Columbus.  I'll leave you with my new favorite song we learned at the wedding.

Snake Farm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8lC4eV57Ts