still in progress...

Not much new to report here. Papa and I had some rough food poisoning earlier in the week that has slowed down house progress. The kids have been getting up around 5:30 each morning thanks to the time change, which is making me sluggish.

I have slowly started to pack up our trusty moving boxes.


M.G. has been telling us that our next move should be to Maine! So, I don't think the idea of having our own house has quite sunk in yet.

In progress...

The weather is great today and M.G. is going to have so much fun playing outside at school.

We checked out the house this morning and Papa and Grandpa and Grandma M have gotten so much done. All the old carpet is up and they started priming some of the walls. 2 coats of primer later and you can still see those stripes in M.G.'s room!

Papa is going to try to do a little priming and painting in the evenings this week. We hope to move in on the 14th, but that will depend on the paint and carpet. I wish I could be over there painting too, but having the kids running around with wet paint and the carpet tack strips exposed just seems like a bad idea.

All of our things that were in the storage shed are now in our garage. We took quite a bit of furniture from my parents when they moved from their house to their new condo and I had forgotten about some of it until we saw it today.

M.G.'s bike and my childhood red wagon are hanging on hooks in the garage like we live there or something!

Halloween!

Grandpa and Grandma M are in town this weekend to help us with the new house. The 6 of us had some Halloween fun even with all the work that they and Papa were doing.

Astronaut M.G. being weightless. (Using Uncle Dave's old astronaut costume.)

Puppy M2 ready to go! (Getting another year out of this outfit.)
Halloween afternoon we went trick or treating at some of the downtown businesses. It took M2 just a few stores before he started to get the idea and would stop to point at his loot in between stops. He didn't master "trick or treat," but he'd say "thank you, thank you, thank you."

We also went to "trick or trees" at the public garden. It was a beautiful afternoon and we followed the pumpkin trail to learn about 8 different trees (and collect more candy, of course!)

After supper we took the kids over to the new house. We arrived just in time to put some ghost lights up over the door and turn the porch on as the trick or treating started. I handed out candy at the door while Papa took the kids trick or treating on our new street. He had to stop M.G. from shouting, "We're your new neighbors!" at every passing family. We did meet a few of our actual neighbors and all had so much fun. My favorite part was when M.G. was back from her trick or treating and having such a good time helping me answer the door. At one point she said, "My first real trick or treating!"

She had a rough time today with the time change, being up late last night, and wanting to know what Grandma M, Grandpa M, and Papa were doing at the house. But I think I forgot about all of that when she was picking out her candy after supper and insisted that we all try a piece.

Little House

M.G. and I started reading the Little House books together after we moved here. We both have been enjoying reading 2 or 3 chapters together on days like yesterday, where M2 took an early nap, or days like today where she doesn't have school.

We've read Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie. We're working on On the Banks of Plum Creek now. M.G. and I have had some interesting conversations over lunch too, about what the characters are doing and what is happening.

I have fond memories of reading my mom's copies of these books, which happen to be in our storage shed now. M.G. really gets into going to the library to get our next installment and she likes to look at the pictures and try to read a little of what is coming up next.

It was a fun time to pick up the series, since the Ingalls family moved around so much. They moved from their home in Wisconsin all the way to Kansas and then to Minnesota in the current book. M.G. and I talk a bit about how that compares to her life so far - moving from place to place. We have it pretty good now, with phone, internet, and cars! It took Pa two days to travel by wagon the 40 miles to town in the 2nd book and they had no hope of hearing from their Wisconsin family much after they moved either.

In a future book, the family moves to South Dakota. We live very near their MN and SD homes, so when the kids get a little older it will be a fun thing to check out.

Moon Journal, night 1

Today M.G. was given a Family Moon Journal to bring home. We are supposed to look at the night sky every night for a month and make recordings in our family journal - a drawing, song, poem, or words about what we saw, or something we cut out of a magazine... whatever. Just a few nights ago, when Grandpa B was here, he pointed out Venus and the moon to the kids and they were really excited about it. So, this is ties right in.

Tonight it had been drizzling. This was M.G.'s first entry. I wrote the day and the time, then she took the pen and asked for spelling help....

She drew 3 musical notes to show it was a song.
DARK
SKY TONIGHT
NO MOON
JUST
CLOUDS A
LIGHT CHA CHA CHA!

(The light was either the parking lot or Walmart lights, I think.)

Homeowners!

Yesterday we closed on the house! It was really a pretty easy home purchasing process in the end. We now have keys and had fun running around all the empty rooms yesterday. The kids and I went over this morning to open the door for the guy to measure for carpet and we plan to wait to move in until it has been installed.

We also have a lot of painting to do and I'm going to need to start a list to prioritize other projects.

I am not good at taking pictures of inside rooms, so I'll post any good photos I take over the next few weeks and see if they fit together to show most of the house.

Front step with the pumpkins that our realtor gave us at the closing for the kids. Kids have been happily playing in leaves every time we are over there. (Nice 1976 inspired door, right?)

Partial view of the front. The top is siding and the lower part is brick.

The kids are so excited about the house. They both seem to love it and run around like wild people when we are there.

This will be M.G.'s room. Everyone who has seen an interior photo has wondered about those stripes. But, as predicted, M.G. was very pleased. "They are wild and I am wild. It is the perfect room." We are using veto power and the stripes will be painted over. She has picked vibrant, bright colors of blue, pink, or yellow for us to choose from... the talks continue.
This afternoon we'll pay for our carpet and find out the installation time line. We're very fortunate that all the Grandparents have offered to help paint and watch the kids so that hopefully we can move in before Thanksgiving!

I'm wondering if it would be strange to take the kids trick-or-treating in that neighborhood, since technically we don't know anyone there. We'd have our light on and hand out candy too... but perhaps we're too new. I don't even know the rules or times for this town... must figure that out!

Ho Ho Ho horses...

Last night at supper M.G. was lost in thought. Eventually she said, "At Taylor's horse farm, you say "HO" to get the horses to stop."

Papa said: It might have been whoa.

The M.G. said: I was thinking about what those horses do on Christmas.

Me: What do you mean?

M.G.: I was thinking about what those horses do when Santa Claus comes to Taylor's house.

Me: What do you think they do?

M.G.: I think they stand very still.


M.G. had a lot of fun on the farm. She got to brush Taylor's pony and watch him eat what looked like a granola bar for horses. Then she got to sit on the pony as it was led down a path and back. She really enjoyed it!

Dresses

In late November, my parents are taking M.G. and me to The Children's Theater in MN to see Cinderella. We are both very excited about seeing the play. M.G. has already been talking about wearing her best dress and how unfortunate it is that I don't have any dresses as lovely as hers.

Now that the end of October is in sight I have been thinking about all the celebrations coming up in the next two months. This morning as she was talking about some princess related thing, I was wondering if I should splurge a little and get her a brand new, slightly poofy and shiny dress that would be a little more princess-like than her red corduroy jumper from last Christmas.

Hmmm.... the difficulties of having a little girl!

Preschool parent...

Today M.G.'s class is visiting the horse farm where one of the little girls lives. Papa is going with and M.G. was very excited about that. Last week a dad came in and played his trombone for the kids. Another dad gave the classroom some old computers that they use as "mission control" for their pretend rocket.

I'd love to visit or offer something to the class, but I'm at a loss! Hmmm...

In related news, each week two of the children are the stars of the week. As far as I can tell, they bring in something special from home to show their personality, have a parent visit class for the day, or something similar. Rebecca is on next week and has already let me know that she wouldn't enjoy having Papa or me stay for the whole class. She really likes having her time to be independent from us. So, I'm already wondering what she should bring in. I have no idea if the majority of kids have their parent stay or what sort of thing they bring in.