The Best Part of Making a Pumpkin Gingerbread Cake

Mott Boys versus the Star Wars Action Figure Guys

A few weeks ago after church the kids were getting bored so Daniel got out his blow dart gun that he got on his mission (I'm not sure if it's from Singapore or if he got it in Malaysia or Sri Lanka or somewhere else he visited).

The boys (and Daniel) had so much fun setting up a huge Star Wars army and then trying to knock them down by blowing darts at them. The piece of cardboard in the background is to protect the walls from any darts that might miss their target.

Darth Vader was by far the hardest enemy to take out. Tristan and Oliver were almost convinced that he was using the force against them, as it took way more darts than it should have to finally knock him over.

Anyway, this is the kind of fun Sunday afternoon activity that goes on at our house. At least they are spending quality time together, right?

Rachel's Thoughts on Motherhood

Rachel, in what is (according to her) not the most ideal fighting outfit.

Rachel has been thinking a lot lately about becoming a mother. Recently she told me that if she were MY mom, she would let me have a pink army shirt AND a red fighter-shirt and a pinkish-reddish sword and we would eat pinkish-reddish cake and banana splits. (Rachel loves both red and pink, so to her "pinkish-reddish" is the ultimate color. And she absolutely loves banana splits, which is why she manages to work them into almost any conversation.)

Anyway, you can tell she's a girl with two older brothers if a pink and red fighing outfit complete with sword seems like the best gift a mother could give.

Rachel's ideas on mothering do not stop there - the other day she and Oliver were out in the kitchen and I heard them have this conversation:

Rachel (in a very condescending voice): When I grow up to be a mom, I will be in charge of my kids. (I can tell she just can not wait for this time of power - her poor children)

Oliver: Oh, yeah? Well, you'll have to do everything hard when you're a mom.

Rachel: What will I do that's hard?

Oliver: You'll have to clean your house and stuff.

Rachel: Well, this is what I'll do when I'm a mom:

• Get my little kids dinner, lunch, and snack. (I guess they're not getting breakfast)
• Cook some stuff in the oven.
• Get my kids some applesauce.
• When I'm done I'll put the food back in the pantry and fridge.
• Play catch with my kids with a soccer ball.

It was interesting to see how she views my life - it looks like it's mostly spent in the kitchen. At least I get out to the backyard once in a while to throw that old soccer ball around. I think I know where that part is coming from - the last few Saturdays Daniel, Tristan, and I have played catch out in the backyard (with a football, not soccer ball, I should clarify).

It's actually been really fun. Daniel is the quarterback, and he has me and Tristan run different receiver routes. On Saturday we were trying to see who could catch the most out of 10 passes for four different routes. I am embarrassed to admit that Tristan beat me on the first three contests. I only won when we were running out patterns, and even that one was close - we were tied at the end of 10 passes each, so we had to go until sudden death, and I managed to beat him. It's good practice for both of us and we have a lot of fun. Tristan is so competitive, though - he does not like to lose. Luckily I do not have that problem.

Rachel, Oliver, and Lizzy usually hang out in the backyard while we're playing, and I guess Rachel has been observing and decided that playing catch counts as a motherly duty now.

The "Relaxing Pants"

Oliver did something funny the other day. We were going through clothes upstairs in his room (I brought in all the winter clothes from the garage, so I'm trying to get rid of some of his summer clothes and too-small things. If you're wondering why I'm only boxing up some of his summer clothes, it's because even though it is the middle of November in most of the country, here in the heart of Texas it is some other month - on Wednesday the high is supposed to be 90 degrees).

Anyway, I was having him try on lots of pants, and we got to a funny little pair of plaid pants. I strongly considered tossing them, because I'm not sure if he has any shirts to match them, but they looked cozy and comfortable, and I thought he'd probably like them, so on they went. I said something like, "Ooh, these seem really soft and comfortable. I bet they'd make good "relaxing pants" (meaning, you are never to wear these out of the house, son!).

I guess he liked the idea of relaxing pants, because he got very excited, saying, "Yes! I love these! These are the best relaxing pants ever! I want to go lay down on my bed right now and just relax."

He ran over to his bed and sprawled out in his best "I'm relaxing" pose. He then gave a big contented sigh, and said, "This is so relaxing! I think I'll just grab myself a club soda and turn on some music."

I was laughing so hard. I have no idea where he heard about club sodas, and why he thinks they might be relaxing. I'm quite sure I've never mentioned them before.

Relaxing Pants: Exhibit A

Relaxing Pants: Exhibit B

Hard Decisions

My kids make the strangest candy choices. I don't know if you could tell from the "candy piles" picture on the Halloween post, but we had quite a few good piles going on, with lots of candy bars, chocolate, skittles, M&Ms, etc.

When I was helping the kids pick their 10 pieces after our ward party (they got to choose 10 more after trick-or-treating), we still had several turns like this:

Me: Okay, Rachel, it's your turn to choose. What one do you want?

Rachel: Um, I want this one. She grabs a little miniature sour apple-bubblegum dum-dum from the pile.

Me: Shudder. Are you sure? Look at all these big yummy treats over here.

Rachel: No, thanks. I just really want this one.

Me: Don't you want a big bag of skittles or a Reese's peanut butter cup?

Rachel: No, this one's my very favorite. Plop. Into her bucket it goes.

Me: Sigh. Okay, Oliver, your turn.

Oliver also had questionable taste. Tristan at least was trying to choose some big things. He has all these big plans for saving his candy. He told me yesterday that he figured out he could save it for 80 days if he only eats one piece every 4 days. About 10 minutes later he came and told me that he was thinking about saving them for just 40 days, or he might just do what Oliver is doing and eat one piece every day. We'll see.

Update: Since Halloween the boys have each held themselves strictly to only one piece per day, even though we said they could eat it whenever they want to. They are both alarmed that Rachel is blowing through hers much faster, as they are sure she will regret it later. They are probably right. The other day I heard Tristan say to Rachel as he watched her search around in her bucket for another treat, "I wouldn't do that Rachel! If I were you I would not eat one for like 5 days and then maybe you won't run out so fast."

Halloween 2007

Tinkerbell, Wendy, Peter Pan, and Captain Hook

(Elizabeth, Rachel, Oliver, and Tristan)

Daniel and I took all the kids trick-or-treating. They all loved it, but is was especially funny to see Lizzy get into it for the first time. We only sent her up to a few houses (the ones with relatively safe paths up to the doors), and she thought it was so great. After she got her treat, though, she kept plopping herself down right on people's porches to investigate her bucket. She also kept trying to give people treats back from her bucket - she would do little trades. The rest of the time she sat in the wagon while the other kids went up, and searched through her basket for suspicious things to throw out. Things that were iffy ended up being placed in the bottom of the wagon, and then things that were really weird looking were tossed out onto the sidewalk.

At one house all the kids got a little microwave popcorn package, which I thought was a cute idea, but Lizzy had very mixed feelings about it. She didn't want to completely abandon it (she threw it out of the wagon a few times but then wanted it back), but she was not comfortable with it being in her bucket, either, so it ended up with a special spot on the bench across from her. Once in a while she would change her mind and give it a chance back in her bucket, but it never stayed there for long.

When we got back, I put Lizzy to bed while Daniel organized a candy sorting/choosing party. I wasn't involved, but I could hear from the other room that great fun was being had by all. All the buckets were dumped and then sorted into different kinds of candy. Then each of the kids got to choose 20 pieces (they had already chosen 10 from their Halloween party, so they got to choose 10 more from trick-or-treating).

I love that they accept this with no fuss. On our way home from our ward party last Friday, I kind of casually mentioned that when they got home they could choose out 10 and then we'd put the rest in the give-away bucket. The boys each said one thing, like 'oh, we don't get to keep it all?', and I just said, 'What!? Do you guys think it would be healthy to eat all this candy?' Then they were immediately on my side, saying things like, 'Oh, yeah, you're totally right, Mom. We forgot about that. That would be really bad. Of course we shouldn't eat this much.' Tristan even went so far as to say that if they ate that much candy all of their teeth would probably fall out. I told him probably not all (I don't want him to think later that he's been lied too) but it still wouldn't be good for his teeth.

I'm sure it won't always be that easy.

Halloween pictures:

Halloween Decorations

Some of you may remember how much Oliver really loved all the Christmas decorations last year. I did not realize that he would get so into Halloween decorations, too. He loves driving around and seeing what other people put in their yards and on their windows. A few weeks ago he asked me why I hadn't set up any Halloween decorations at our house. I told him that he could make some himself, so he got right to it and started drawing pictures to hang up on our front windows and door. He was not super happy with them, though, and was really concerned that they might not show very well from the street. I wasn't sure why it really mattered.

Then last week we got a big pumpkin and made a jack-o-lantern, and each of the kids got a little mini pumpkin to decorate. Oliver was really excited, but to my surprise, he still did not seem content. He kept saying that people wouldn't see our pumpkin when they drove by. The next day he spent a lot of time out in the front yard, and I wasn't sure what he was doing. He asked me if he could move around some of the pumpkins, and I said okay. He went back out for awhile, but I still wasn't sure what was going on.

Then he came inside and sat down by me, kind of looking depressed. He said, 'Mom, is this ALL the Halloween decoration stuff we have? Like, is there any more in a box somewhere that I could use?' I didn't know what he was talking about, but told him that we didn't really have any Halloween stuff.

Finally I went outside to see what he had been up to. I started laughing as soon as I saw it. He had found a little bag that we got from a party that had little Halloween trinkets in it (straws, pencils, rings, finger puppets) and had set them up on the front porch and in the front yard. He had also moved the little pumpkins around so they would be more visible from the street. It was so cute to see that he had been trying to make our yard look presentable compared to our neighbors.

Poor kid. I know he was so frustrated that we only had little teeny things to set up. I felt so sad for him when I realized that that's why he had come in and asked if we had any more Halloween stuff - I think he knew that the things he was setting up weren't quite the same as 'real' Halloween decorations. Anyway, he has completely put himself in charge of the decorating job, and each day it looks a little different out there, as he struggles to come up with new arrangements that he feels will look okay. He always asks me, 'Do you think people can see it?' And I say they can. (I don't add that they might have to use binoculars.)

I took some pictures so you can see how funny it is - I don't know if you can tell the scale from the pictures, but these are seriously TINY decorations - there is a little ghost in front of our doormat, and it is only about a half inch taller than our doormat. Maybe you will understand Oliver's frustrations.