Change of Plans

We expected to be on our way to Colorado today for a baptism, but the Bassetts ended up having to postpone things for a week or two.
That's ok- it meant we got to have Halloween Dinner Grandma-Style with Hailey and Makayla.

They did all the work. Almost.

They made mummy hotdogs

which were actually ridiculously tasty.

My helpers also made banana ghosts and clementine pumpkins for a side dish.

I didn't try a ghost, but I understand they were frightfully good.

Of course, I made some witch's brew to drink,

and I rustled up some rice cooked in water with black food coloring maggots as another side dish.

Yummy!

Even Hailey had some fruit, something she rarely does.

We even got to go to the ward Trunk-or-Treat. Stan has a leaf hanging from a thread on his hat. Do you know what he is? Check your answer at the end of this post.

We had chili at church before Trunk-or-Treating. 



Guess who won first place for their chili? Yep, me--and I got a gift card to the local yogurt shop as my prize. How cool is that? Here's the recipe I used.

Stan is a leaf-blower. How's that for a last minute costume?

October

Hailey has informed me a dozen time October is her favorite month and Halloween is her favorite holiday.  I totally believe her, knowing that soon November will be her favorite month, Thanksgiving her favorite holiday, followed by her favorite month December, and Christmas, her favorite holiday.  Hailey has been anxious to do Halloween projects every time we're together.

Our first project involved tie-dying paper towels.



Naturally, we used Halloween colors. This is water with gel food coloring added.

We let them drip dry for awhile,

then hung them up to dry. Fortunately, I just happen to have a tie-dyed paper towel dryer.

Next we cut them into pumpkins and bats. Perfectionist Makayla is not happy I'm making her cut her own pumpkin.

My semi-professional holiday decorators hung them on the front window.

Here they are from the inside

and the outside.

Makayla has been begging to do this craft:

Hailey's ghosts and

and Makayla's ghosts. I'm not sure where Makayla saw this, but she knew just how to do it.

Just make sure to clean your feet afterwards or Grandma will have ghostly footprints to wipe up.

Next we did a craft using popsicle sticks.  This project has taken several days, and the girls have loved it. It involves, counting, cutting, gluing, and tons of paint, all activities the girls delight in.

I have miles and miles of painter's plastic. Scrubbing paint off the counter after our last project suddenly gave me the idea to use some of the plastic to prevent all that work.



Haunted House masterpieces in the making.

After they dried, we glued and glued, then decorated.

We waited for it all to dry, while Hailey graciously agreed

 

 to make a dent in the brownies and blondies left over from Sunday's Bishop's fireside at our house.



Tah-dah!  Hailey's version and

Makayla's version.

Makayla's back,

Hailey's back.

 

Hailey being Hailey, felt the need to add some extras:

more paint, faces on the animals, a fence, and a tree.

I love that she likes to make her own mark on her projects.

We have had an absolutely beautiful fall, and plenty of time to enjoy jumping on the trampoline,

and playing in the leaves.



Hailey stuffed her shirt full of leaves and pretended to be a scarecrow.  Amy will appreciate pulling all those leaves off the inside of Hailey's shirt.

Hailey showed up one day with this hand.

She assures me she is getting plenty of Monkey Bar time at school.

If only Hailey was as excited about spelling as she is about math. We went the pet store to look at turtles, and she counted how much cash I had in my wallet ($17), added it in her head to the $35 in her piggy bank, subtracted it from the $65 the turtle cost, and asked if I thought Grandpa could cough up the remaining $13 faster than I could spell "no".



Finally, since we will be gone on Halloween, two little cuties stopped by early to show off costumes.

 See you girls in November!

Anatomy of a Remodel: Week Ten and Eleven

Notice how I'm showing two or three weeks of remodel at a time? Yeah, it's been sloooowwww going. After a solid week of hard work, we got the leak fixed in our 4plex, re-walled, re-textured, re-painted, and RE-RENTED. I'm always sure we're going to have a hard time getting things rented (it's such an odd time of year for a move), but we had half a dozen quality applications. 

 

Doesn't it look nice?

Now we're working at the house remodel again. I'm not going to lie, we're really tired of painting.

Stan finished the corner the heat stove was in, complete with molding.

It's so hard to capture paint color on the camera, but here's the kitchen, with its awesomely white ceiling and clean painted walls. We hope to finish painting the walls this week, then on to the molding. Wish us luck!

 

Anatomy of a Remodel: Week Seven, Eight, and Nine

Yep. It's true: Our remodel took a back seat to our vacation. But that doesn't mean we didn't make progress.

 

The sliding glass door was pathetic. The rollers didn't work, there was moisture between the glass panes, the frame was bent, the lock broken. Stan decided it would be cheaper to replace than to fix. As he pulled out the old one, it shattered. You can see the new door waiting in the wings.

 

 There were 203,189 pieces of broken glass everywhere. I know. I picked each and every one of them up while Stan left to get what he needed to finish the job.



 

The new door went in right before we left for Cancun. Now that I can actually see through the glass, I do believe the grass needs cutting. Maybe the replacement was premature? Too bad the curtains aren't up yet. I'd just pull them shut.

 

When we returned from vacation,  we had a setback. Our little family in the 4plex had to move to take care of aging grandparents. They left everything in tiptop shape, but we discovered a problem. There was a tiny amount of water at the back of the toilet. There was also an "off" smell.

 

It turns out that when Stan hung nice storage shelves above the toilet, he hit a pipe and made a tiny little hole that was slowly getting bigger. That required him cutting into the wall, repairing the hole, and now he's working on restoring the wall.



While Stan is working at the 4plex, I'm over at the house, painting walls. It's hard to capture paint colors on a camera, but it looks great. Certainly better than the bright blue it's replacing.

 

The painted wood paneling is going to look especially good. It's amazing how a coat of paint can modernize a room

This is going to be a slow week for forward movement. Stan is headed to St. Louis for business. I'm going to paint my heart out, but I'll be painting at the 4plex bathroom this week, and the house won't see much progress.