Halloween with the Flynn-Fletcher Family

There's 104 days of summer vacation

and school comes along just to end it.

So the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend it.

Our costumes are only funny if you have a child 4 years old or above.  Because if you do, you've probably watched your fair share of Phineas and Ferb.  I'm not going to lie, I love that show.  I think it's hilarious and allllmost as funny as The Simpsons.Certainly it's my favorite of the kid's shows and whenever the kids ask to watch TV, I try to talk it up, or force it on them. "Sorry, Strawberry Shortcake is broken, only Phineas and Ferb works."

Lillian actually made the costume assignments some time in August.  She is Ferb because she's taller, Nora is Phineas, Ethan is Perry the Platapus (we were trying to track down a fedora for him so that he could be Agent P, but it was a FAIL), I am Candace, and Tyler is Jeremy.  The picture doesn't really show my hair, but I spent more time than I'm willing to admit trying to get it to come up in a point.

After the ward trunk-or-treat, where we took the above pictures, we went to an adult Halloween party without the kids.  Because we had lost our accessories, no one knew what we were and quite a few people assumed we weren't even wearing costumes.  I'd like to think that Tyler wouldn't wear white tube socks with shorts like that or that I wouldn't wear a pillowcase turned into a skirt, but you never know.

I had to work on actual Halloween, so I didn't get to go out with the kids, but from the fact that they can't stop talking about how amazing it is that you can knock on someone's door and they will give you candy, I think they had fun.

Baby Man

Happy birthday Baby Man.

Now that you're one, am I going to have to stop calling you Baby Man?

Tyler, He Like Sandwiches

To celebrate Tyler on this Father's Day, I interviewed Nora to find out more about him. I think her answers might have been a little biased by the fact that he had just made her a sandwich.

Untitled from Amanda Ball on Vimeo.

Easter

I'm not touching that.

I'm not touching that.

Seriously, this is as close as I'm getting to that guy.

This shouldn't be that hard

I was making cupcakes for Nora's birthday (holy crap, she's two). I wanted to halve my cake recipe because I only wanted 12 cupcakes. First item: 3/4 cup butter. I remembered the visual up on Mr. Malloy's wall in AP Calculus that some student had drawn of the denominator of the fraction smashing through the bigger division line and multiplying itself by the divisor. Make sense? No? In this case, the 4 of the 3/4ths would grow arms and smash through the line drawn below it to find the 2 waiting. It would be so happy that they would hug and multiply in a completely plutonic sense to make 3/8ths. (If the two was a fraction, it's own denominator would feel stilted by the numerator's newfound love that it would grow wings and fly up to the three on top of the whole problem, and it's life would have meaning again. Why no, I didn't pursue a career in math, why do you ask?)

Luckily for me, the butter stick is divided into eight tablespoons (eighths!), so I went to go cut 3 tablespoons off. I looked again and thought that 3 tablespoons looked a little small. I looked at my math again. Sure enough, 3/8ths is the answer, so 3 tablespoons.

I could not figure out where I had gone wrong. I puzzled about it for a while, then decided to come at the problem from a different angle: 3/4 cup butter is 12 tablespoons, so to halve it, I wanted 6.

I called my mom to see what had failed in my calculations. We decided that my math was sound but that I had forgotten that a stick of butter (the eight tablespoons in question) is only a half a cup.

And now, I feel dumb.

Turkey Trot

On Thanksgiving, we participated in the 17th annual Thanksgiving 5K at Reid Park.

Tyler's game face. That kid in the elf outfit actually placed 5th or 6th out of all the men. Quick little guys, those elves.

It was promoted as a "European-style" 5K with obstacles, which is why we decided to do it. But this water feature/hay bale combo is 3 hay bales short of the sum total of all the obstacles. Tyler is behind that guy in the white shirt.

Hey Elizabeth. Sure, come visit us for Thanksgiving. While you're here, surprise! You can wake up at 6 to watch our kids while we go running. And it will probably be something like 40˚ outside, so bring a jacket.

The girls were such pansies when it came to jumping these pools. I'm in the middle looking decidedly uncool. They were all of 3 cm deep but everyone wanted to run around them, so there was a traffic jam on both laps. Come on ladies, live a little.

Tyler got 29:00 and I got 37:17. I would have been faster except I got a wicked cramp around mile 2 and had to walk it off.

Lillian turned 4!

Shhhh, don't tell her that her actual birthday isn't for another month. It's just than in another month, I'll have some kind of really small infant and won't be up for birthday parties.

For being thrown together at the last minute (a few of her friends left this week for 2 week vacations), I think it turned out really nice.

Tyler drew a Woody for "Pin the Star on Woody." The kids didn't really get this one, and I think that some of the older ones could see through the blindfold.

We also played Toy Story bingo, which was a little bit of a disaster because I had them marking their cards with mini marshmallows. You can probably guess that the game too for-ev-er because the kids kept eating the marshmallows instead of putting them on "Hamm-4." Also, I think the kids had never played any version of bingo before, so the whole concept was totally lost on them.


Number one game, which Tyler made up on the spot: see how many balloons you can get to stick to you.


Lillian had lots of help opening her presents.


And we ate alien cupcakes.


Nora was way into hers.

It wasn't very cutsie-pie or slick, but that's not my style. The kids had fun and Lillian hasn't stopped talking about it ever since.

I can't believe she's four already.

The other day, we were on a walk, and some teenagers were being rowdy nearby. "Are those grownups?" Lillian asked.
"No, honey. Those are teenagers."
"Am I going to be a teenager?"
"I sure hope not sweetie."

She will one day, probably. I'm already irritated about that. But, I'm glad that, for now, she's still my sweet, whimsical little girl who pretends that her feet are friends with each other.

International Waffle Day

International Waffle Day was on March 25th. It's mostly a Swedish holiday, Våffeldagen, that signals the start of spring. We celebrate it because 1. I'm always trying to get in touch with our Swedish roots, and 2. Waffles = easy dinner.





I told Tyler they should start celebrating Våffeldagen at his work. They could have a waffle bar where you could put all sorts of fruit or whipped cream and chocolate chips on your waffles. And then we could just happen to show up around lunch time on that day.

Stealing my own Christmas

Being sick has totally made me Grinchy about this Christmas. Where does one find the extra energy to actually bake things? Make my own wreath? Are you kidding me?

I did find myself in possession of some extra energy and volition yesterday, so I thought I'd bake snickerdoodles and fill up the cute Martha Stewart goodie bags I bought for half off at Michael's. Tyler always complains when I bake things just to give them away (although one time, he told me that this was one of the things that attracted him to me... maybe because I was giving them away to him?), so I was going to bake a double batch. Turns out though, I didn't have enough cream of tartar for double. That cream of tartar, although I'm fairly sure it has other uses, I think I've only ever used it for snickerdoodles, which I usually only bake at Christmas time. Every 3 years or so, I run out and it always surprises me.

Anyway, we got the cookies baked and wrapped up, but failed at delivering them. We were only 2 for 4 at finding people home and/or remembering exactly what house they lived in once we got there. We'll get the rest of them. Don't worry. Then for extra holiday spirit, we drove up to Winterhaven to check out the lights. Every place I've lived has had that one neighborhood that goes all out for Christmas. Eagle Hills. Vine Street. Winterhaven. It was a lot of fun, until Nora started screaming and wouldn't stop. That part, not so much. But, I especially liked the Harry Potter house complete with Whomping Willow, Harry and Voldemort locked in mortal combat, and Bellatrix LeStrange up on the neighbor's roof shooting hexes. Also, I liked the Festivus house which was simply decorated with a Festivus Pole and a sign that said "A Festivus for the rest of us!"

At the risk of making this post extra extra long, I want to briefly tell about our two firsts that I had this weekend.

First first: My mother-in-law very generously and very unexpectedly gave Tyler and I a sum of money for Christmas and I used my share to buy a Shark Steam Pocket Mop. I used it, and I loved every second of it. It cleaned my floors wonderfully and I found all the complaints of online people completely unfounded. My one complaint is that it didn't clean the grout very well, but neither does my regular mop. Actually, my other complaint is that because it just uses water, it doesn't make my house smell pine-sol fresh. How are other people supposed to know I put in all this hard work mopping if they can't smell it? Maybe I'll make a button: "I mopped today, thank me!"

Second first: I usually only wash my hair every other day. I have a lot of hair, like a lot, a lot, and it's very time consuming to wash it and style it. And I dislike doing it, mostly because I'm not dedicated enough to get up before my children to shower, so it's likely I have small children hanging on my legs, whining and complaining about how I'm taking too long. Which, I get that it's my own fault. Anyway, I read this article which was completely liberating. It talks about how dermatologists recommend only washing your hair 2 or 3 times a week. Fabulous! On day 3, which happened to be Sunday, a day I'm normally crunched for time because church is at 8, I put some cornstarch in a salt shaker, shook it all over my hair, concentrating on the roots, let it sit for a bit, then brushed it out. Granted my hair lacked the volume or bounce you get with a wash and a blow out, but it didn't look greasy at all. I curled it like Stacey London and I actually got a lot of compliments on it. Little did they know it hadn't washed it in 48 hours! Ha! The only word of caution I have about this is that it will only work on blonde hair. Sorry brunettes, I guess you're stuck showering like a sucker.

Thanksgiving

It was so good- I ate too much, and now I feel a little sick. This hasn't happened in a long time. It was all those yams my MIL makes. I'm pretty sure the recipe reads:

Yams+awesomeness=totally amazing.

You should try it out sometime.

I can't wait

So, I decided that I would make Nora some felt blocks for her birthday which isn't until mid December. But, as soon as I finished the first one (on the left) I gave it to her.

She's 1. She doesn't care about waiting, or surprises. And, when it's her birthday, I'll wrap them up, and let her unwrap them again.


For this project, I decided to learn how to blanket stitch. This fish was my first attempt. I'm still not sure what happened there at the bottom.


I got much better as I went along though. Right?

Guy Fawkes Day

Occasionally, I do something as a parent that I'm pretty sure is going to mess up my kids. Yesterday, I made a "Guy" to burn that night. Lillian, however, wasted no time making friends with Guy. She took him to the grocery store and made him fly around our house like a butterfly. He was her Guy.


And then, we burned her Guy. Notice our "bonfire." I think if I was more with it, and not in the aforementioned survival mode, I could have rustled up something a little more impressive.


She was confused and a little hurt that we lit him on fire. But, after I promised that I'd make her a new Guy, she was fine with it.

Halloween

I apologize for the low quality of the above shot, but it's mostly here just to prove a point. This is a picture of all the people Tyler works with taken on International Talk Like a Pirate Day. As you may be able to tell, Tyler is pretty much the only person who is not dressed like a pirate (he's wearing a green striped shirt). This is just to illustrate that they take holidays, especially holidays which require dressing up, very seriously. Which meant that he had to dress up for Halloween.


He wasn't long in deciding to be Han Solo. It's a pretty easy costume, which somehow I got in charge of putting together. This picture doesn't even show off the sweet red felt stripe that I sewed down the side (which Tyler's co-worker pointed out are so wrong. They're supposed to be bloodstripes, which I knew because I checked out multiple screen shots of his pants before getting started, but didn't feel like making). His vest I made out of an old lady's vest that I got at the thrift store for 50 cents.

I decided that it was high time that I dressed up too, especially because (finally) I'm not pregnant and can wear a normal costume. I asked around to see if anyone had a white bathrobe to make my Leia costume, but I could only find this LOTR-type robe. So I turned it around, basted up the back, rolled up the hood to make a sort of cowl neck, and opened two seams for my arms. Add Tyler's belt covered in tin foil and two knee-high compression stockings stuffed with socks (which was Tyler's last minute design; genius, really), and BAM: instant Princess Leia.

Lillian got a kick of how we were both princesses and insisted on arguing over which of us was going to marry the prince, played by Tyler because he had stripes on his pants, just like Prince Charming. No amount of explaining that I already married daddy would satisfy because She Is Cinderella and Cinderella marries Prince Charming. End of story.

All about Daddy

In honor of Tyler's birthday today, I interviewed Lillian to find out more about him.

Q: What's daddy's name?
A: Tyler Ball.

Q: When's daddy's birthday?
A: Cake.

Q: Where is daddy from?
A: He's sleeping.

Q: Where does daddy go all day?
A: Daddy be worried, has to come home.

Q: What does daddy do for his job?
A: A cake. A work cake.

Q: He does cakes for his job?
A: Yeah.

Q: So, he's a baker for his job?
A: Yeah. He's a baker. (He's an aerospace engineer)

Q: What's daddy's favorite food?
A: A glass of milk to drink.

Q: What does daddy like to do for fun?
A: Play toys.

Q: What's daddy's favorite toy?
A: Rings. (Nora's stacker toy that Lillian has claimed for her own and likes to pretend that they're bagels or bracelets and/or stack them on her head and knees.)

Q: Who's daddy's favorite?
A: I ate snack at preschool. I eat the animal crackers, not the apple.

Q: What's your favorite thing about daddy?
A: Daddy likes to color with me in my princess book.

Q: Is daddy ever naughty?
A: Yeah.

Q: What does he do that's naughty?
A: Poking your bum.

Q: What games do you like to play with daddy?
A: Candyland.

Q: Who wins when you play, you or daddy?
A: I win. (This is true. I've witnessed at least 10 games of Candyland with the two of them and Tyler has only won one time. Ever.)

Q: Do you want to take a trip with daddy?
A: Yeah. YEAH!

Q: Where would we go on our trip?
A: A trip. Mom, she's chewing on my markers. (Nora has gotten a hold of the blue marker.)

Q: What present should we get daddy for his birthday?
A: A work cake.

Q: What does that taste like?
A: It tastes like marshmallows.

Q: Do you love daddy?
A: Yes. Yes. Yes.

Me too.

Tuesday Reminiscences: In which I channel my forebears

I was at The Wal-Mart today, in the sewing section (I wanted to buy bias tape to make Lillian an apron out of a dishcloth, which I'll have to post pictures of sometime, because it's really cute. I didn't want to go to The Wal-Mart to get it, because it's a little far away and I'm into helping my local economy, and I saw that there's a quilting store not that far from my house. In the car, I told Lillian we were going to the store. We pulled up, and it was a trailer in a shady looking dirt lot. Lillian, always quick, said, "Mom, that's not a store, it's a trailer and there's monsters in there." I thought she was probably right, so we drove down to The Wal-Mart), and I saw that they have patterns for Halloween costumes out already. As I looked over them, I thought to myself that no way, no how could I top last year.


And, I realized I never posted pictures of Lillian in her full outfit, complete with umbrella.


I think our regular camera was broken, or lost, or both, so I took these with the camera function on our video camera... so they're not that nice. I think that's why I didn't post them before; they were not up to my exacting standards.


But, the cuteness is too much to keep underwraps any longer. Any ideas for this year? I'd like to do something even more disgustingly cute, that involves the whole family with some sort of theme... like... make Lillian can be a Wii, Nora can be a Wiimote, and Tyler can be the TV. Something like that, except not lame like that idea.

Happy Happy Birthday

Lillian turned 3 last Thursday. She had been asking and asking about her party. At first she really wanted a princess party and a princess cake.


This is not a princess cake. See, we decided to invite a boy and I didn't want to subject him to all that pink, so we had an Einstein's party. This is our first foray into serious cake decorating. I made fondant and Tyler free handed Rocket out of the same.


I'm really pleased with how the whole party turned out. I didn't ask any of the kid's parent's permission to put their pictures up here, so I can't show off the fun freeze dance game we played. We also made white mud which was a huge huge hit.


Lillian loved the whole day. She loved being the center of attention and us doing everything she wanted to do and blowing out the candles and singing Happy Birthday and wearing a birthday hat all day long.

Happy Birthday kid, you were worth the 30 some-odd hours of labor it took to bring you into this world.

Middle Idaho Days + Tuesday Reminescences

Ok, this Tuesday, we're going to talk about me versus the yellow jacket. While in Idaho, Brian's (visible below, just to my left) mom let us stay in her 5th wheel out back. This arrangement worked out perfectly and we are very thankful for her hospitality. However, we weren't the only ones who liked the 5th wheel. While in and around the thing, we were almost constantly under attack by yellow jackets. I did not encounter these guys anywhere else during my time in Idaho, whatever that means.

After breakfast on the 4th, I went back out to the trailer to brush my teeth and finish primping. As I walked in, a wasp followed me, so I left the door open hoping that it would just fly back out. It did not fly back out, it flew right into my hair.

Those of you who know me in real life can probably guess that I did not react calmly to the situation. And, in the course of carrying out my not-calm reaction, in which there was much jumping, screaming, and flailing, I injured myself. The end.


Here we are awaiting the start of the parade. Oddly, this is the only picture I have of Allison or Brian.


Lillian took her job of gathering up the salt water taffy very seriously. We were the sole candy gatherers for the family because the boys were in the parade.


If we had only remembered to bring our goat, we could have been in the parade, too.


Here are 'them boys on their motorbikes.' I uploaded the small version of the picture, sorry, so you can't click on it to make it bigger, but they're all there.


After the parade, and the BBQ at Aunt Rosie's house, the boys took another few laps around the dirt bike track that runs around the house. On the right there is the trailer we stayed in.


Here is Nora and Baby Hudson. Living in Arizona, where the low in the dead of night is somewhere around 80˚, it did not occur to me that my children would do anything that would require them to wear pants. Thus, when we went to the fireworks, Nora had to wear these leopard jammie pants and endure much redicule. And, that's a pretty standard face for Hudson. He's the crankiest baby I've ever seen.


The fireworks display was put on by the local fire department. I can totally see the logic in this. They would set off a few, and then stop because the hill was on fire, walk down, put out the fire, and repeat the process. I learned a lot at that fireworks display, for example, in Idaho Philadelphia Freedom by Elton John counts as a patriotic song and although it's spelled Pocatello, it's pronounced Pocatell-a or Pokey, for short.

Still to come: The moon, in Idaho.