Chellisms

Boo 2007!

The ladies first stop was Nana and Pappy Petey Poo's house, where they scored some See's candy and I stuffed my pockets with Milk Duds. Bailey is showing us her "game" face. She was one vicious witch, until she rang a door bell and a large dog was there as well as a person. The dog barked, Bai screamed and took off running. The owner felt bad and gave Taylor an extra candy bar for Bailey. I think that was our only case of Boo 2007 tears, we got off lucky.

And they're off! Bai is off to the left, with the black and green pointy hat. Tay is in the middle, between the Storm Trooper and the baby, she was a pirate.

This is our gang of kids waiting to cross the street. Our neighborhood party planner organized a pre-TorT pizza party in her garage. It was perfect, everyone hit the streets with full bellies. There were a ton of kids but it went super fast and I think everyone went home happy.

Pumpkins!

Pumpkin King

We got our pumpkins over the weekend but had not cleaned or carved them yet. Needless to say, time is running out! We brought them up out of the garage this morning after the girls went to school and then Tim dug right on in.

That pumpkin was a pain. Whoever picked the 32 pound gourd is an idiot (why, yes, that would be moi!). The worst part was that it didn't even have that many seeds to roast. How fricking disappointing.

Check out the thickness of that skin/rind or whatever it is called. It is currently sitting on the dining room table with about 1/3 of a bat carved in it. I carve one section every 30 minutes or so, my hands hurt. Tim and I carved the other pumpkin this morning and it was no where near this much of a pain.

Later taters! Am off to have dinner, roasted pumpkin seeds and hot chocolate with a shot of french vanilla creamer in it. Yum-O!

Longest Saturday Ever

Soccer season is officially over. No more pirouettes during the game. No more 9 AM cheering while simultaneously freezing my butt off.

Yesterday was a full day. Games at 10:05, 12:25 and 3:55. Pizza parties at 1:30 and 5:30. And cake, there was cake. But no hard alcohol, I was very disappointed. I need to learn to like beer.

Enjoy some commemorative snaps:

Bai is number 9 on The Stars 5 and under team.

Bailey's coach was using this season to make a video to submit while applying for college scholarships. Yep, he is a high school senior. And he had groupies at the games, made me feel old. Each of the kids was interviewed as to what they like best about soccer and how they liked Coach Dalton.

Go Bailey!

Bailey and Coach Dalton.

Tay is number 2 on The Big Dogs 7 and under team.

An action shot.

This one is a bit blurry but I had to include it because it was taken right before Tay got body checked by the girl in yellow and laid out flat. She took a cleat to the head and has a huge goose egg today. It scared her more than anything.

Tay and Coach Stephanie. Tay got the certificate for taking the most hits for the team. She took numerous balls to the face, stomach hits and todays cleat to the head but she had a great time.

They both had fun, Tay more so than Bailey. Tay definitely wants me to sign her up again, Bai hasn't decided yet. Only time will tell, I guess.

My Very Own Picaso

Sometimes Bailey surprises me. More often than not I find myself shaking my head over the things she says and does.

Tim decided to rearrange a few things in his lab and in the mudroom. We have a mish mash of overflow furniture down there. The 3 piece solid wood entertainment center that we didn't want to haul upstairs, the big Sony TV that we had doorway issues with and a few other things. The surround sound is set up down there and we mostly just watch movies in that room. The girls love to put on Hannah Montana and sing and dance down there as well.

Evidently Bailey hasn't just been singing and dancing.

She has been practicing her writing skills as well. On the chair rail. Behind the entertainment center. More than once. In ink.

Let's just say that Tim was not pleased when he discovered it and that Bailey has a date with the chair rail and a sponge. Actually, she will be cleaning the chair rail through the entire house (okay, it's only in 4 areas but entire house sounds so much more punishing!).

Need your chair rail cleaned as well? Give me a call and I will send her right over, she ought to be a pro by the time she is finished here. 

Doods? How many times can I say "as well" in one post? Geez.

'Ono

There are quite a few things I miss about living in Hawaii. The people, the weather, the beaches, the laid back atmosphere and the food.

Malasadas.

Yum-O!

Malasadas are Portuguese donuts and they are super good. Fried dough, not as sweet as a cake donut but more dense than a bar donut. Rolled in sugar while still hot. Sometimes injected with haupia  (coconut flavored pudding) or custard (chocolate or vanilla).

If you are familiar with Hawaii malasada makers I would say that these are more like Agnes's Portuguese Bakery and less like Leonard's. They have a crunchier crust than Leonard's but are every bit as good. They are also free form, Tim informs me that Leonard's uses a mold in the fryer whereas Agnes's and Cher's are both batter dropped in hot oil.

Tim and I just found a place here in WA that makes malasadas. We visited this morning and scored a half dozen fresh malasadas that were awesome. They don't serve the filled ones (yet), but that is fine by me. I am a malasada purist, Tim likes his filled.

If you are in WA and craving some fried dough may I suggest Cher's Ono Malasadas located at 14624 International Blvd in Tukwila. I think if you go early in the morning she may have some made, we had to wait about 10 minutes (if that) for ours but they were sooo worth it. 

Cher's serves a variety of coffees as well, Hawaiian creations such as mocha coconut and macadamia nut are on the menu. I dislike coconut anything but she had a Milky Way coffee listed that I neglected to see until after I had my mocha in hand. I guess that just means I have to go back.

I would suggest grabbing a handful of napkins. Don't eat them in your car if you don't have access to a Dust-buster type vacuum. Sugar everywhere. Yummmm...   

18 Days

This is going to be the best November ever!

Oh, tickets to the mainland from Hawaii are really cheap right now.

Just sayin'...

Make sure you check out the eyebrows and farkels over at Final Score. That Makenna is quite possibly the sassiest tortilla chip dipper (in margaritas, of course) I have ever met. 

Dark and Stormy Night

We had our first wind storm tonight. With it came a 6 hour power outage. We did some coloring and some homework. The girls took showers and managed to set off the smoke alarms with the amount of steam they (Taylor) produced. Then we settled in for a dark night.

I know it's hard to see, but this is how we spent our evening. The girls curled up in front of the fire and watched Casper Meets Wendy on my laptop and I curled up in the chair reading a book by candlelight with a flashlight held under my chin. I now have a crick in my neck.

Man, the flash is bright on the camera. This was taken right after I took the dark photo above. The power was still out but that flash is bright.

The hairy guy with the big ears is Harold. He kinda freaks me out, be he is Bailey's nighttime protector. He sits at the foot of her bed, covered up with a blanket so he won't get cold of course, and protects her from things that go bump in the night. Oh, and we never call him Harry, he is sensitive like that.

Tay has her giraffes as well. Stuffy and Stubby. Stuffy is big and, well, full of stuffing. Stubby is small and stubby, just like her. And me. Her and I got the stubby legs in the family, it just isn't fair.

Oh well, power came back on about 30 minutes ago. All is right again in my little world.

Except for the stubby leg thing. Dammit.

Shrinky Dink, Part II

Tay wants to know if I can shrink one for her too.

Shrinky Dink

Bai got a new sweater this evening. It happened in a roundabout sorta way. A few weeks ago I went to Macy's with my mom. I fell in love with a Nine West sweater but the price tag made me weep. After walking around for an hour or so I decided to buy the sweater and forgo food for the rest of the month (kidding).

I have worn the sweater twice, I have washed it three times (you wash your new clothes before you wear them, right?). Now I am not exactly sure what happened in tonight's washing process, I did it the same as the other two times. By hand, cold water. The end result was not (sooooo not) the same.

I need to hem the sleeves, but otherwise it will look great on Bailey.

And why is it that the length of the body shrank so much but the sleeves are still so long?

A picture will be posted in the morning. I really want to go wake her up and make her try it on right now but I am not that mean.

Well...

Uncharted Territory

A friend and I worked at the elementary school this morning. We administered vision and hearing tests to all of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th graders. Erm, it was interesting to say the least. There were a few kids that I have to wonder how they made it to 3rd or 5th grade with bad eyesight. I was the only one with a vision chart with letters, the others had charts with different facing E's all over it. It made for some good laughs. I had to switch to an E chart for the first graders and then explain to each one how to use the hand that wasn't covering their eye to point the direction that the E was pointing.

The best part of the day was realizing that of the few hundred kids we tested that only about 1/5 to 1/4 knew their right from their left.

Oh, and I couldn't read the chart at 10 feet with my glasses off. Um, I may not have even been able to tell you if there was a chart or not.