Halloween on the 30th?

As you may know, we live in Penn State's family housing. And, apparently, they decide when Halloween is. For some strange reason, housing decided to celebrate Halloween today, the 30th, and not tomorrow. I emailed some staff members about it and they told me it was to avoid schedule conflicts for some of the staff members and to allow residents to participate in other local events tomorrow on Halloween. Weird. Anyway, there was a little parade around family housing for the kiddies, some games and food at the community center, and trick-or-treating. Below are some pictures.

Carrie made Sadie's dress. It's absolutely beautiful. Carrie did an awesome job. Sadie loves the dress. Dallin wore the Tigger costume that Sadie wore when she was younger. Cute.

Yes, I'm wearing a kilt! Isn't it awesome? I've been reading a lot about kilts and traditional Scottish dress. It's really interesting. Apparently, the pattern on my kilt is not a real tartan. Tartans are official patterns that represent families, regions, organizations, and so on. There are even tartans for U.S. states and branches of our military. Most tartans have some combination of red, green, and blue. Not all, but most. So mine is neither an official tartan nor a particularly traditional color scheme. The closest thing I could find is the Fort William District Tartan. I don't know why I'm so into this stuff. I love traditional Scottish music, and, of course, the bagpipes. I will always have a special place in my heart for Mexican music, food, and culture because of my dad. It's important to me and will be part of my life. But maybe because I'm adopted I feel like I have the ability to choose a bit of my own culture and traditions. And for me I think it's Scotland.

Renaissance Faire 2

This last weekend I took Sadie to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire again. A while back I talked about our first trip to the Faire. We planned to go as a family but Dallin was sick so I just took Sadie and Carrie stayed home with the sickie. I tried to sell our remaining ticket but had no luck, so we had another go at it. Interestingly, Dallin was sick again, so there was no chance of taking them again. Plus, next weekend is the last weekend and I didn't want to miss the Penn State-Ohio State game.

If you're wondering about the fairness of Carrie staying home both times while I took Sadie, you'd certainly have a valid point. Part of it must be that Carrie is about 10 times better than me at taking care of sick babies, and the other part would probably be that I am a much bigger fan of Renaissance festivals in general than Carrie is. I went often as a kid and they definitely have a special place in my heart.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun. Sadie was very excited to see the same comedy-acrobat act we saw last time. Their name is Barely Balanced. Sadie was particularly fond of the woman in the act. We saw her a while after their show and had the chance to talk to her and take a picture with her.

All Sadie wanted to do was go on rides, but they were all really short and cost extra money, so it was a constant battle. I let her go on a few, but that wasn't enough for her. I did her to go to a couple shows aimed at kids, which she really did enjoy. We saw a music-comedy group called the Tartan Terrors. It's a Celtic music/comedy act from Canada. They were incredible. I bought a CD.

But the most exciting thing about the day was my purchase of a kilt. Yes, a kilt. I don't expect anyone to understand. It's just how it is. I have wanted a kilt for several years. I'm a lover of all things Scottish (or Irish for that matter). I've made a sacred promise to myself that I will learn to play the bagpipe at some point, and that we will visit Scotland. I thought a kilt would make an awesome Halloween costume, Renaissance festival costume, and something incredibly awesome to have. I promise to get pictures up on our blog of me in the kilt. Just promise to respect the kilt. That's all the inner Scotsman in me asks.

We did think of momma, though, in case you were wondering. We brought her home some wonderful-smelling hand-made soaps. She thought that was cool. Here are a couple pictures from the day.

We've been busy!

I thought Julie would like this picture. It's the Red Cross Headquarters in Washington DC. Dallin and I took Jessica (my best friend) to DC for her conference. She flew into Harrisburg a few days early so that we could spend a few days together. We didn't do a whole lot in State College, but it was nice to have her here. There's always something good about having someone who has stuck with you through everything. It was almost like having another member of the family. She was great with my kids (Aunt Jess). She even pitched in with bedtime and when we had to babysit. She helped me with dinner and with the dishes. I wonder if she will ever come back because I really put her to work. Thanks for everything Jess!

This is me and Dallin. We didn't get any good pictures of the whole group, but we met up with Jon and Lauren Funk. They took us all out to lunch. I can't remember where it was. But it was really nice if somewhat slow. We visited a bunch of memorials. There was A LOT of walking. We were all tired by the end of the day. I can't believe I did all that when I was 8 months pregnant. (We spend 2 days in DC last October). Dallin was great the entire day. I think he only cried when I changed his diaper. He never really took a nap but he was still a very happy baby. It was nice to have 3 other people take care of him for the day.

Like the title says, we have been busy. Here is a picture of us at the Apple Festival. The cool thing about this picture is that we are standing by my own booth! There is a local fruit farm (Way Fruit Farm) that has a little festival every year. I decided about three months ago that I could try to sell some of the stuff that I make. The first week I was in DC and not much of my stuff sold. But the second week I sold a lot of stuff. It was a lot of fun. I broke even on all my supplies and paying for the booth, but it was still worth it because I had fun making the stuff and being there. Here are some close ups of my favorites:


I also made hats and scarves, baby blankets, washclothes, snowflake ornaments. If anyone wants to commission some of this stuff . . .I'm willing and able.

Now, Dallin is sick and demanding attention. Steve took Sadie to the Renaissance Festival this last weekend but he wants to blog about that.

"I won't! I'm four!"

Carrie went to DC today to take her friend Jessica there for a conference. She took Dallin, too. I spent the whole day at home with Sadie. We watched a lot of college football, ordered pizza, played with Legos, and went to the playground a couple times. It was great. I really love spending time with her. I absolutely adore Sadie.

When we were at the playground, at one point she called out to me to look at what she was doing, hoping that I'd be proud of her. I had a different assessment of the situation. I thought that her climbing on top of a metal railing on the play structure had the potential to lead to physical harm. At any rate, I said "Sadie, don't do that. You'll get hurt" to which she promptly replied "I won't! I'm four!" as if just by virtue of being four years old she was suddenly immune to injury and accident.

I then had an image of us having a conservation late some night in about twelve years. I'll offer some warning or express some concern over her teenage behavior and she'll say "I won't! I'm sixteen!" Great.

"I'm not your stuffed animal"

Sadie is generally very affectionate with me, and doesn't mind me swooping her up in a big hug or giving her a barrage of kisses. She's generally attached to me at the hip for a good twenty minutes when I get home every day (unless, of course, she's busy playing outside with friends - then I just get a token "hi"). That's why something she said the other day was just hilarious.

We were sitting around in our bedroom and I grabbed her to hug her and she said "Daddy, I'm not your stuffed animal!" Carrie and I just laughed and laughed. Actually, I thought it was pretty cool. Sadie is a bit of a feminist, I suppose. Anyway, there were no lasting effects on our relationship. She's just as loving and affectionate as ever. But it was cool to see her stand her ground. She'll need it when she's a bit older, eh?

Tic-Tac-Toe

Today I was watching Sadie play outside with some neighborhood kids. They were playing with sidewalk chalk. And I think at some point Sadie learned to play tic-tac-toe. Some of the kids left, so it was down to Sadie and one other girl who is 5. Sadie drew a tic-tac-toe game and asked her if she would play with her. The girl ignored her. Sadie asked again. More ignoring. I was getting a little annoyed with the girl, but decided not to intervene . . . maybe she just doesn't want to play. I think Sadie kind of gave up at this point, but then a little boy was riding by on his bike and the little girl asked him, "Do you want to play with me?" He did. Then this girl asked, "Do you want to play tic-tac-toe?" I couldn't believe it. Here she was ignoring my sweet little girl, but she will play with someone else.

These kids began to play and Sadie tried to join. Here's what I could hear:
"Could I play?"
No response.
"Hey, can I play?"
Still no response.
"Your not letting me play" (she had been waiting her turn)
"This for two people"
"I really want to play"
The kids run off.

I offered to play with Sadie, but the damage had been done. I don't understand how kids who are this young can me so mean. This is the weird thing: Sadie and this girl had a lot of fun together at the beginning of the summer, so I don't understand why she is just totally being mean now. I wanted to go and MAKE that girl play with my daughter and like it. She has no right to ignore my sweet angel, especially when she was being so mature about asking to play.

Anyway, Sadie and I played for awhile, but it ended up as an enormous fit with pee all over our carpet. Why are girls so emotional?