Our Alpha Wolf

Gillian was honored as Alphawolf this morning. We had a great time congratulating her on her success. Papa even demonstrated the newest family trick for instant giggles. Simply hit head hard with sticky spider so that it stays on and wait for laughs. It's great medicine for anything that ails you.

Doesn't Papa look great in his new clothes? And Cora was walking backwards in that first shot.

Perfect Spot

The Emonts family isn't going to lie to you. We prefer fall weather. In fact, we only seem to do parks in the fall and the spring. We just don't believe humans were meant to be outside in 100 degree weather unless we're in the water. Ha ha. So, here are some more pictures from Finch Park. Cora has decided she'd like to stay in the swing the WHOLE time we're there, but Mommy doesn't enjoy that all too much.

Taken Monday, November 3, 2008.

Many thanks to Papa who got Mommy to slide again. We had the whole park to ourselves until 5 minutes or so before we left. I am in awe of how beautiful the trees are. I think they were in there prime Sunday and Monday. In fact, our tree out front has shed most of its leaves on Tuesday alone.

Liam	Cora
Liam and Cora swinging
Wahoo!	Who can resist that smile? (I know I can't, with either of my men.)
King for a Day!	Running for hugs (Mommy just missed it)
Cora on a Mission	Boy! That climbing wall is tough.

Park Weather

Since the weather today was so unbelievably perfect, we headed over to Finch Park for some fun (and to tire out little children). They all had a great time. We even learned about not following bad examples, for the older two. Cora discovered that swinging is great for when you're tired. She stayed in the swing for 10 minutes or so, when usually her average time spent in swing is 90 seconds - 3 minutes.

Cora	Gillian on the Slide
Liam walking Sideways	A Beautiful Accidental Photo of all Three

Aren't the trees just GORGEOUS!

Scene of the Crime

Cora Madison Emonts has not yet come to a full understanding of the rules of the house. She feels that any activities which are permissible outdoors must also be allowed indoors.

Example One
At Oma's house the number one activity is fishing. Fishing consists of tossing floating objects into Oma's pond and fishing them out with sticks or other items found in the proximity. At home, Cora seems to feel that this activity is easily duplicated by putting one's arms into the aquarium and tossing things inside. She often ends up quite wet this way.

Example Two
Digging in the sandbox is so much fun. Why not also dig in the potted plant in the living room? Below you can see a picture of the crime and the perpetrator. Gillian did not notice this event taking place until one side of the room and Cora were covered in potting soil.


The Crime


The Perpetrator
doesn't she just look guilty

Halloween

Halloween night has never been so much fun!!

The kids were all dressed up and ready to go at 6:30, just like we planned. They were all excited about getting their costumes on, which is a new thing for us. We usually have one or two that don't have any desire to get into their costumes.

Cora was great fun to watch. She quickly figured out trick or treat and her cute little 'thanks' as she walked off was sweet. She often trailed behind the other two and began to walk of with them before receiving her candy. One home on our street received a long visit from Cora, as she walked straight inside to see the dog in the next room. Luckily, the couple who lived there found her adorable. Most of the people we saw seemed to be in agreement.

Liam was really freaked out by the scary sounds playing outside one of the houses. He talked about it the rest of the evening. Gillian was very brave and walked through a scary maze with me, that luckily the teenage boys didn't jump out at her and scare her. I was quite thankful for their charity.

We trick or treated together for and hour and a half and I think the parents were more tired than the kids. At the end Cora couldn't hardly hold her pumpkin anymore, but she wasn't about to let go either. At the last house she couldn't raise it up for the candy to be put inside. It was so sweet. She also started chit chatting with people towards the end, like she thought it was more important to socialize. This saying only trick or treat thing just wasn't cutting it.

They all got to eat a few pieces when we got home and didn't make it into bed until 9:30, at which time they were angels and didn't complain one bit about it being time for bed.

Morning Sunshine

Cora was so precious this morning when she woke up, 9:30am. She could smell the waffles that Patrick was so sweet to make me for breakfast. She calls them wapulls as I'm not sure she's mastered the f sound completely. She's such a joy to us and so readily embraces everything. Just a few minutes ago she was out trying to catch honeybees. She has no fear.



We've discovered that she really enjoys being home alone. She almost seems to do better without any siblings around. She seems to play longer and more imaginatively. She's our sweet ray of sunshine! My favorite part of the day are my morning cuddles with Cora. And she's such a cuddle bug.

Live and Learn

I am nervous even to type these words. I'm scared to make the committment of doing this again. I fear to fail. I want to use this blog as an outlet for me. I look around and see so many well written blogs and feel the competitive drive in myself gear up and then I want to quit. I do not know why I would rather not try then try and fail, but that's honest. That's me. That's where I am. I can acknowledge that and I can go from there.

So here's to posting about our life through a blog for personal history purposes. My goal is to make a small update every day for one week.

Peter Pan Returns

I have always wanted to do a group theme Halloween and never have gotten to do so. This year, about two weeks ago I had an idea that we could do Peter Pan. We all love the story and it's got enough characters that we could make it work.

I had to sell it to my picky 4 year old and the 7 year old who had said she wanted to be a witch. At first the 4 year old resisted and then he embraced it. Now he just wants to know where his costume is.

So, I've never made costumes before and now I have several to make in only a month. Eek!

We're going as:

DH: Captain Hook
Me: Wendy
DD: Tigerlily
DS: Peter Pan
DD: Tinkerbell (bought)

So now I have four costumes to make and another one that needs a little embellishment. I figured at $25 that I could use the less stress of one bought costume. Hers was the only one readily available in stores.

Captain Hook's costume will be based on a discontinued pattern:




Wendy's will be based on a McCall's pattern 4948 that I scored for $.99 yesterday and I'm thinking that the bottom of the dress is too full. I'm not sure if I should modify it or not. I can't see the worth in using that much fabric to do this costume.




I'm going for Disney's Wendy. Here's a picture that someone else took at Disneyland Paris, I think.




Question: Is this pattern going to look like Wendy even though it is somewhat different? Does it matter?


For Tigerlily I bought some microsuede yesterday for half price that will be embellished with some native indian looking ribbon. I went ahead and purchased the simple McCall's pattern for a basis. I like the triangle bottom look I've seen on some pre-made costumes and I like it longer like a dress. Probably with something tied around the waist to give it shape and form.




My son's Peter Pan costume will be based on Disneyland cast picture above. I'm trying to decide how to do it. He's picking about fabrics so I wanted something soft, which seems to also mean expensive. So I bought a misses t-shirt from Goodwill yesterday, v-neck and green and I'm hoping that we can modify it to be his shirt. I'm not really sure how to do it, as I'm a complete novice, but hopefully my mil can help me make all my dreams come true.

I think he will be wearing pants and not tights, as I do not think my picky little 4yo will agree to wear them. He has a thing for clothing be done the "right" way. I'm pretty sure he will not agree that tights are something that little boys wear.

Tinkerbell I bought, she just needs a little bit of wire for her wings so they'll stand up and I'm hoping to cover a pair of her shoes with lime green fabric or something. Maybe a fluffy ball for the end of her shoes.