Cuddles and Kids Eat Free Night

Happiness!

She was squeezing me so tight I thought my cheeks would break!

Tuesdays are our eat out night. We usually go to either Denny's or Souper Salad. Kids eat free at both of those places...and I don't have to cook! Denny's has the best Kids menu of any restaurant we've been to. Every kind of "kid" food you can imagine, including grapes or goldfish crackers! We had an especially fun time at Denny's last night. Peanut was all hugs and cuddles...so much so that I almost couldn't eat! She was a complete ham for the waitress who took our picture. I've got one beautiful, sweet, snuggly daughter!

Sparkley Barkley

Tuesday night Peanut decided that Barkley was going to be a girl, so she attached all of her hair clips (I now realize she has too many of those...pretty much like everything else) to his ears. She was having a grand old time doing this. Suspicious that she chose to do this right before bed time...hmmmm.

We snapped some photos of the now girlie Barks and then spared him from the painful hairclips (yes, I realize that he's a stuffy) by removing them before bed.

He's a very patient pup.

I think you can see where his nose is starting to wear away right in the middle. She keeps biting him there. He's gonna look even funnier when I have to put a patch on his nose.

On another note, I am trying to get back to my original plan for this blog which is to show the real me and not just to show all things "Peanut",... but I've been in a bit of a funk for a variety of reasons...so I'm turning to humor a bit...my way of hiding sadness. Some days I wish hugging Barkley would give me the same kind of comfort it gives my sweet, sweet Peanut.

Sarah and Hills...and Magical Wanda the Witch

Sarah and Obama's number one supporter!

I can see Russia from my house!

Hmmm...where have I seen these glasses before?

"Lunch"

Here are the photos from Halloween day. It has to be said that Tricia and I are 2 of about 4 democrats in our office of 21 people...well, those willing to admit it, anyway.

SP for VP? NOT! But I Like Her Hair

I went as Sarah Palin for Halloween this year. Normally we have a costume contest at the office and I was pretty darn proud of myself for choosing my costume this year and shopping early for the clothes, props, etc. All in all I spent about $30 and that includes the glasses, makeup and red jacket. My friend Nadine (who just turned 40...25 days before me!) lives in Alaska and sent me a stuffed moose I'll just refer to as "Lunch"...

Monday morning before Halloween...the office decided not to do a contest! Oh the horror...was still going to dress up...We had big plans for the costume this year and we thought the office could use a little humor (some long time employees were laid off a couple of weeks ago and office atmosphere is a bit stressful)

The "We" is Tricia and I. I had convinced her to dress as Hillary Clinton and we made a spoof of the SNL skit with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. It came out pretty well considering we used my digital camera to record it and we did it in two takes. We posted it on YouTube and used a made up email address on yahoo in order to email the link to co-workers. There have been 132 views on YouTube as of today! Co-workers and friends sent it to friends who sent it to friends! This is funny to me, b/c I thought it was pretty bad...you could tell that we were reading from cue cards and we couldn't figure out how to get the cue cards high enough to read without the camera angle being off. BUT, we had sooo much fun making it!

Turn up the volume before you click on the link...the sound was really low off of my digital camera. Enjoy and have a good laugh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bICwdiKFD6Y

Witch Way Did She Go?

I changed out of my Sarah Palin costume and into another

witch's costume. Wait! Did I say that outloud? Sorry!

Peanut decided to be a witch for Halloween! We found the sweetest costume at The Children's Place. I was pretty nervous when we bought it because it was a good month and a half until Halloween...and she had been saying that she wanted to be Ariel...thank goodness she changed her mind! I like Ariel, but I've heard the costume is a tough one to wear. We've been reading this wonderful book that I got at the $1 store 3 Halloween's ago. It's called Trouble Brewing. It has about 6 different characters and I've always read it to her using the same voices. This year she not only remembered every voice I used (scary thing is so did I!), she memorized the story. From phone calls to family, to private readings for her Daddy, Mimi, Paw Paw and Nana, to telling the story to her classmates, friends...she's made her rounds. She actually read it to some of my co-workers including my boss on Halloween. Each time I'm just amazed and proud. Truth be told, I love showing her off this way.

The night before Halloween our neighbor, Joy, came over and painted her nails in rainbow colors, and the next morning she came over and helped with the makeup.

Peanut calls herself "Magical Wanda the Witch" because Wanda is the name of one of the characters in Trouble Brewing.

When we woke up Halloween morning she told me that her beloved Barkley dog should go as a ghost. I made him a quick costume out of an old pillowcase. Hard to tell that it's him in the picture because his costume got a bit twisted...but she was thrilled that he was dressed up as something spooky! Took her to my office for a bit early Friday morning and then off to school. Her school decorated the playground so the kids could go trick or treating there. It was actually very well done. Hope they do the same next year.

Friday night we went to Cecilie's house so she could Trick or Treat with her friend. Robert met us there and it was a nice way to share her for Halloween (on neutral ground). I hope this tradition continues!

We had a wonderful night. More on my costume in the next post.