This and That: Driving, Car Work and Halloween Costumes

This is a typical meal for the kids and me when Brian's away - a meal outside on our old coffee table, with the kids coming and going on their four-wheeled seat of choice. Especially at dinner when Brian's working late, we are all in a better mood outside with the fresh air and added entertainment of the riding toys.  Anything to make the end of a long day (or that last stretch before naptime) go more quickly and smoothly, I'm all for it!

The kids are still loving riding the lawnmower with Daddy, but in a new twist the kids are now taking turns driving!!  This was Nathan's second night driving (the first night Sarah was sick so the two of us girls stayed inside to cuddle on the couch). 

I love the wave from Sarah!

I took pictures Nathan driving so that I could text them to the grandparents, and I got a text back asking if I had taken a video.  So on Sarah's turn I did just that!



This is a favorite activity of the kids - washing the tires on the cars.  Nathan and I were talking about how Daddy knows all about cars and how to fix them.  I asked Nathan if he wanted Daddy to teach him so that Nathan could fix cars by himself when he gets older.  He responded with enthusiasm, "Yeah!  Then I'll be able to wash the cars AND fix the cars!"

Brian had the day off Monday and spent some time working on the brakes on the white Avanti (or "rah-vanti" as Nathan still calls it).  To do this, Brian put the car up on ramps to have more room under the car to work.  So the next day, Nathan's goal was to get some ramps set up for his ride-on dump truck (Aunt Karen, does that look familiar?!).  The toy-up-on-ramps was a constant activity this whole week.  We discovered that the zoom-zoom doesn't balance well ("it's not stable") on the ramps due to a different style of wheels, but the bubble lawn mower is a great candidate.  One day Sarah tried to take Nathan's ramps and then pitched a fit when I told her she had to give them back, but Nathan was able find for her two other pieces of long wood in the garage (which looked like broomstick handles).  These circular rods were then precisely lined up on the drive way and she was able to drive the tricycle over so that the wheels straddled the broomsticks.  Thankfully she was happy with that arrangement!

I never know what these kids are going to come up with!  Nathan started cutting on some foam/paper/stuff that we have in our craft dresser and made the pink person all by himself (not visible, all the differently colored shapes he cut out and taped to the back to make it "stable" - apparently "stable" is a new favorite word that can be applied in many different circumstances!).  Then Sarah wanted a person, so I helped her make a purple girl, which meant then that Nathan wanted me to cut out a green man for him.  When posing for the picture he told me that the green man was the daddy and the pink one was the mommy.  Unrelated - I was really surprised at how cooperative Nathan was this week about posing for pictures when I asked!

Halloween costume sewing has begun. Nathan wants to be a "rainbow alligator".  I knew about the alligator part, but the 11th hour addition of "rainbow" kind of threw me for a loop.  I showed him an inspiration picture and he told me that he wanted the belly to be rainbow colors.  On the inspiration picture I showed him (just trying to make sure that what he imagines and what I'm trying to make is somewhere in the same universe), he pointed to where the "belly" of the alligator costume had horizontal lines sewed in it.  At first he asked "how many sections are there?" so he would know how to plan out his "rainbow" dreams, but I told him that we didn't have to have the same number of sections and that he could just pick out what colors he wanted.  So it turns out "rainbow" translates in his mind to striped belly with light green, light blue, yellow and red.  Sarah wants to be a black kitty cat... one that may or may not end up being decorated with pink and purple polka-dots.  I stopped at Joann's this week to purchase some of the fabric I need, though I didn't get all the colors - first, because I wasn't sure about the "rainbow" and "polka dot" requests and second so the kids could help me pick out some of the colors.

Sarah was SO SICK last week and this week!  She's been clingy and fussy and coughing up a lung and just pitiful.  I think this is the first time she's really been pretty sick.  I've been sick too - I got hit with the bug worse then Nathan but not nearly as bad as Sarah.  Brian, amazingly, still hasn't come down with it so we hope he's in the clear.  But thankfully Sarah and I are both on the mend and felt much better on Thursday and today, which meant that Sarah went back to school for the first time in a week and a half.  So between crying/whining/fussing fits from Sarah and encouraging Nathan to please just leave his sister alone, these were the lunches I packed this morning - "jelly" sandwiches (with sunny butter and strawberry jelly), watermelon, cucumbers for Sarah and carrots for Nathan, chocolate chip cookie.  Pretty standard lunch so far this year.  The kids also like for me to send "egg and burrito" filling (basically breakfast burrito filling - scrambled eggs with cheese and pureed greens and black beans) in a thermos.  So far I haven't given the kids food poisoning by holding eggs warm in the thermos for 3+ hours, so hopefully that will hold!