12/2/12 Country Report

Whew! Another 3rd-grade "Country Report" completed! These are no mean feats!

For those who recall, Gabriel's "country report" was about Canada, and for the "project" he picked a cooking project of the 'Nanaimo Bar.' That led to his choosing Vancouver BC for our 10yo trip destination, and we went to the real Nanaimo, B.C in search of Nanaimo bars!

Julian, interestingly, picked Argentina -- mostly because he'd heard me play the musical "Evita." But what fun and fascinating country to study, with a rich and diverse history and cultures.

"Country Reports" are always very involved projects, requiring an essay, presentation, project, a flag rendition and preparation to talk about the flag. And this time, it was with Julian.

The hardest part with Julian is the essay -- it's hard with any kid, but words don't flow so easily for him. He likes to read and certainly picks things up from reading, but in his mind there's a huge chasm between reading something and putting it into a sentence. He has a hard time organizing his sentences too, like he'll make a reference to the tango without saying first it's a dance.

So I work with him in numerous ways, starting by having him just talk to me. For instance, one of the things Julian found most interesting about Argentina was the gauchos, or legendary cowboys. I ask him about them, I get him to describe the gauchos to me, we look stuff up together, read about them together -- in the case of tango, look at videos of it. Then when he has to write, it's more in his head and has an easier time making it to paper. Still, it takes a lot of time and creativity to get him to concentrate, to balance momentum and burn-out. We'd started on the content some time ago, but opportunity (catching him in a good moment) and continuity is a big challenge now.

I've also learned when Julian needs breaks and mind-shifts. Partly as incentive and partly as a moment-breaker, I'll take him for a walk to a nearby market to get bananas for his cooking project.

I also taught him a silly "tango," which we showed it to Bonne Maman and Papa Paul over Facetime (yayy!). I think they enjoyed our goofy demonstration!

It was a hard sell, but finally, finally, Julian finished his essay about Argentina late Saturday night. That should have been the easy part -- just a final draft copy -- but even for that, he has a very hard time copying from a marked-up draft. In the end, I ended up dictating the final paragraph so he could copy it.

But once he finished the essay, he'd tasted success and was on a rolllllll -- he copied his recipe, and worked on his flag (finishing the coloring, cutting it out and pasting it, and practicing talking about the flag's origins).

Mercifully, Julian chose a cooking project over a diorama or a cultural dance (though in retrospect a tango would have been fun to do together!!), as the "project" part of this report. I bought a book on Argentine recipes and we spent an afternoon poring over it, and he chose "banana empanadas" to do for his project for his class -- perfect.

Today, Julian and I made the second round of banana empanadas, partly to take photos for his "project board," a paper layout of with his hand-written recipe, and photos of the project, for this report. This meant making pastry again, plus the banana filling.

Julian has always liked one-on-one projects, so despite a rough start, we ended up having a nice time together this afternoon.

In spite of my quelled irritation at the school for having to do all this, in the end, as usual, it was OK to do together. We both learned a lot about Argentina, and the experience, tough as it was along the way, was a win.

Julian with his essay, flag, and recipe poster board....whew! His presentation is sometime this week, so there's still some practicing to do -- and we have yet more banana empanadas to make!

Now, will Julian decide that his 10yo trip should be to Buenos Aires?! ...... I wouldn't mind!

12/2/12

11/19/12 Kitty Warning

I got home today and it was pretty quiet....until Zorro started meowing insistently. He'll make a pathetic little mew from time to time, but never this consistent. He wouldn't quit! I had no idea what was wrong.

I was puzzled why Meow-stache wasn't around, but she hides a lot these days, so I didn't think much of it. Usually she follows me around when the kids aren't home, but who knows with a cat. Special as she is to me, really, she's just a cat.

After spending the evening working and taking care of office things, I finally did a thorough check of downstairs, then went upstairs. I checked around, and then discovered....Katrina's door was closed. This door has a tendency to shut itself unless it's completely open, and then the tiniest nudge can put it into a position to swing shut.

I opened Katrina's door, and was met immediately with a horrific stench, and then a black-and-white streak zooming out past me downstairs. Meow-stache was stuck in there!

Oh my gosh, I felt terrible. She'd pooped on the floor and rug, peed on Katrina's bed (which thankfully still has a night-training protector on it), and obviously was hungry. She was probably trapped in there all day!

I did a hasty but thorough cleanup, and then went to make up with my new friend, who forgave me immediately with purrs and rubs. Meantime, I swore to myself that I'd find a way to fix this troublesome door, that has had a tendency to close itself since we first moved in here.

The thing that really freaked me out later was remembering that Zorro had made such a big fuss when first I got home. He was clearly trying to tell me that something was wrong, but being a cat and all, wasn't very articulate. I'll be sure to take him seriously next time!

11/19/12

11/18/12 Pie Playdate

What happens when two moms and bakers (bake-stresses??) get chatting in email about the finer points of pastry-making, from cold butter, shortening, tools, and pre-baking the shells? Why, what else, besides a Pie Playdate!

S. has some serious credentials, having been trained in a British home-ec class, and with a deep cake-decorating background, and being known for making beautiful pies. We're talking about a San Francisco Giants Pumpkin-Carving Contest winner after all! So I was psyched to get some professional-level guidance!

First, the fillings. I had some wonderful help with this too. Katrina measured all the spices for a pumpkin pie, measured the heavy cream, cracked the eggs, and mixed it all together. "You only made the pastry!" she declared later.

I lost count of how many pie crusts we made, but it was quite a few. Some were butter-only, some with shortening, some with the fabulous ingredient of vodka. The end-results was that the vodka pastries came out the best (flakiest) in the end, but were the hardest to work with.

S. is also very creative about form factor, making pies that looked like muffins and loafs! I stuck to ordinary 9" circular things. It turned out that the best test of pie crusts were so-called "railroad cookies," which are simply leftover dough rolled out, and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

In the end, we had a whole lot of pies made -- and more than met our objective of exploring the best way to make them! Chris Kimball, here we are!

Oh yeah, meantime, our children? We'd planned to park them in front of the TV with some Indiana Jones movies, but they had so much fun playing outdoors with balls and bats (S's son is a serious baseball player; Julian had no idea what hit him!), they ended up walking to a nearby park and doing plain old normal KID-things together.

That regrettably included a conspiracy to conceal a broken glass bottle, run over deliberately by a bicycle, with one kid getting cut trying to hide the evidence and clandestinely securing a band-aid. But that's still healthier than zoning out in front of a screen on a gorgeous afternoon, right?

All in all, a fabulous and productive day!

11/18/12

11/16/12 Snow Stuff

This is a new annual ritual, but it has to happen -- and this one is pretty fun. The kids have to try on all their snow stuff from last year, and find out what's missing, outgrown or just never worked.

That doesn't mean they're very happy about the requisite photo though!!

After a record-breakingly abysmal last year snow-wise, several ski resorts around Tahoe just OPENED due to early snow!!! That's promising, and I'm PSYCHED!!

My new financial circumstances mean that ski/snow trips must turn from "ok, time to go!" to carefully planned, sacrifices-made luxuries -- but I can't begin to imagine not doing it. Especially seeing Katrina jump up and down about snow. I can't possibly sacrifice this.

Snow came for free for me growing up in the East Coast, but in the unbelievably mild climate we live in, you have to go to the snow -- and I am determined to make that happen, no matter what the tradeoffs are. The experience, the joy, the memories.... they just can't be traded. Snow just feels like a right!

And this year, unlike last year, it's already promising that Mom Nature will cooperate!!

(Alpine Meadows ski resort, yesterday)

11/16/12

11/13/12 The Spelling Test

ARRRGHHHH....Julian, once again, BIG trouble!!

So much for my relenting and offering him incentives for expected -- not even good -- but expected normal behavior. I had told him that with great behavior for the next two weeks, that not only could he go on his next class field trip, but that I'd miss a day of work and volunteer to accompany the field trip -- unlike last week when his behavior was so poor that he was excused from his class field trip and spent the morning sitting in the poor principal's office.

What a shame too -- his first class field trip was a nature/science trip that involved turning over rocks and seeking insect life to examine the health of a creek at a wonderful nearby park -- totally up Julian's alley. But I didn't blame his teacher at all for excusing him from the trip, he knew full well that he was at risk of losing the trip due to classroom behavior.

I hoped that a stern talk and an offer of accompanying his class on the next trip would make for tremendous incentive, but today, Julian rewarded my Grand Ideas by being sent to the principal's office -- and during a spelling test, which I was asked to re-administer this evening. Between phone calls, email, doorbell solicitations, making dinner, and keeping after Mr Delinquent to do his homework, I had enough to deal with, so I was furious about this extra job.

Fortunately, someone else stepped up to the task.

I couldn't believe it, but Julian and Katrina plowed through nearly 40 spelling-test words -- and not super-easy ones either, ones like "outmaneuver" and "tantamount," and written in cursive. Julian even paid Katrina (who'd finished her homework after school at CDC) 50 cents to help -- which I said he couldn't do, but he insisted. Aside from the fact that she agreed to do it -- she was completely undaunted by reading a 3rd-grade-level list of spelling words written in cursive. It's like it doesn't occur to any of them that this might be a little odd.

And I'm pretty sure the parenting magazines don't cover this dilemma -- is it OK to allow your 8yo son to pay his 6yo sister to administer a spelling test he was kicked out of his classroom for????

Well, regardless....I doubt this will register with Julian's teacher as my finest parenting moment...but it just occurred to me that Katrina's 1st-grade teacher should be pretty impressed!!

11/13/12

11/12/12 Bike Swap

Not quite sure how this happened, but I went outside to discover the kids happily playing on bicycles -- but not their own??

Katrina was on Julian's 18" bike, and she loved it.

Julian was on Gabriel's beautiful new mountain bike, which I think is a 24", and looks enormous for both boys:

Gabriel was left with the very original 12" bike he got from REI so many years ago, which he accepted good-heartedly so his younger siblings could play on the bigger bikes. That $100 investment of a "good" bike was way worth it!

(April 2005, 7 years ago, when Gabriel was 3 and Julian wasn't even walking yet:)

We'd always had a slightly different view of bicycles than many families, seeing them as communal resources to be used as fit for a given member -- so, not "gifts" or "mine," but rather, "use what fits you now." That's much easier to implement when the oldest is a boy and there's no pink involved, and when Dad scrounges bikes from neighbors discarding them.

Now that there are two households, I see no reason to diverge from this perspective -- indeed it becomes a practical economic reality. Bikes, ski boots, jackets -- it's all in one, guys. So I'm glad to see you sharing!

11/12/12

11/11/12 Belated Birthday

It was late, but finally, Katrina's birthday party happened today, on Sunday Nov. 11th. The great part was splitting the party with her longtime friend Dylan, at Sky High Sports, the trampoline place. This is by far the best place to have birthday parties!

As kids get older, lives diverge....Dylan is far, far more athletic and would have nothing at all to do with the "little kids" area (for 8 and under), where Katrina and her 2 friends ended up spending all their time. But 2 friends proved to be a perfect number of kids. Both Dylan and Katrina invited 4 friends each, for a total of 10 kids, but the difference between the two kids' schools really showed here.

Most of Katrina's invitees had classes on Sunday morning; but Dylan goes to a more diverse school and had less trouble finding friends without prior commitments on Sunday morning (though Dylan and his siblings lead very rich lives themselves, unlike Katrina!)

Katrina was so excited about her party, and picked out a dress that she's never worn before. Of course it's a hand-me-down, do I ever buy her lovely dresses?! No!

She also chose heavy knit brown tights to wear under this light summer floral dress! I hear some moms are bugged by stuff like this; I think it's hilarious, I love it. Look how absolutely lovely and happy my beautiful, fantastic, funny daughter is!

Since so many of her friends couldn't attend, I ended up filling the spots with brothers.

The trampoline place is a fantastic way to wear out little boys though. It's phenomenal how mellow they all are afterward!

It was a terrific party for all. I spent much more time yakking with Moms than jumping, as I'd planned for, but given how my last visit to this place ended (hobbling out with a cane after my trick back tricked out....owch), this was probably just as well.

I'm really sold on "smaller" parties for kids -- two to four friends is really the way to go. This was total fun -- thank you Dylan, and Dylan's Mom!

11/11/12

11/10/12 The Bunch

At the risk of repeating myself, one of the reasons I'm especially glad we got two cats is that their personalities are really, really different. Meow-stache is a wonderful companion for me, but she's getting increasingly nervous around the kids.

Unfortunately, the kids are hard to persuade that when Meow-stache hisses, to leave her alone -- and for a long time, like hours or even the rest of the day. Katrina didn't heed this last week, and got scratched when she reached out to the fearful kitty, who was hiding under a chair, even after that very clear warning.

Zorro, on the other hand, is very relaxed with them!

I'm still pinching myself that it worked out so well, that the kids got one and I got one. If only I could find her!

11/10/12

11/8/12 Losing it

I patted Julian's knapsack today, and it was light. Where was the nifty fabulous pocket fold-up rain-jacket I got from Land's End, that fit perfectly into a knapsack front pocket? Missing, of course.

This is infuriating. Julian has already lost 3 lunch bags this year too. Even aside from the confusion of two homes, he leaves things behind like no one's business. Katrina and Gabriel combined have lost half the number of things Julian has.

So what to do? It's easy to say "fine, let him go without a jacket" -- but in practice, that's not so easy. Teachers and other parents make comments; it affects his going on field trips, being outdoors, whatever. A cold kid is far less cooperative, and making him "suffer" all winter long with no jacket has no practical effect -- he still loses stuff right and left.

The lunch bags are also annoying -- I could give him paper lunch bags every day, but those are a much bigger hassle for me than real lunch bags (that he keeps losing), and I'm not about to reward him with pizza-hot-lunch and chocolate milk for losing lunch bags. Fortunately, those are inexpensive enough that I can insist he "buy" new ones with lost allowance.

Last summer, for daycamps, I tethered sunscreen to his knapsack, by punching a hole in the crimp and using a coil keychain to attach it to his knapsack. Great idea, right? Except then he left behind his whole knapsack, tethered sunscreen and all!!

Is there a remedy for a chronic loser?!

11/8/12

11/6/12 The Companion and The Playmate

An unexpected benefit -- or safety? -- of getting two cats is that you have better coverage for possible roles.

For us, that means that it turns out that Zorro is indeed becoming the "playcat" for the kids, while Mommy-Meowstache is a better companion for me.

In fact, to my surprise, the Mommy-kitty is downright nervous around the kids -- hiding all the time, and even hissing at them sometimes when they try to intrude into her safehouses under furniture. Katrina got scratched the other day, minutes after she'd been soundly warned by a hiss -- which I'm sure she'll heed next time!

Mommy-kitty was nothing like this in the kitty adoption room, and it even so happened that I brought a kid with me to confirm (well, ok, my friend brought her kid, but still, an 8-year-old was present) -- and there was no sign of concern).

I should note that Gabriel reports no trouble with Mommy-Meowstache, and he spends a lot of time hanging with her alone when he gets home from school -- but she's hissed at him a few times if there's another kid around. She hisses at Zorro the most though, so maybe she's just fussy.

Even now, I'd say that Mommy-Meowstache is fine with the kids if they just observe her behavior and back off and stay backed off. But that's no fun for a kid! So thank goodness there is the brave, playful, social out-there Zorro to play with.

Meantime, when the kids are in bed, I'm quite happy to have the Mommy-kitty emerge from her enclaves and follow me around, purring constantly.

She's by far the more complex character -- much more interested in things outside, investigating suspicious activity, more observant; her play is deadly serious. Zorro spends more time lying on the bed with me and purring, but I think she'd do more of that if he weren't there.

Meantime, I love how when the kids aren't around, she's always checking in on me, almost like she's guarding me. She must know how much I need that right now.

11/6/12

11/2/12 The Vaccum

My Mom, being the best Mom in the world and all, got wind of a recent discussion I'd had with my friends about vaccuum cleaners -- and given that I had new cleaning challenges with cats and all, sent me a superior model. Thanks Mom!

But did anyone really think for a moment that I would bother with drudgerous chores, when there's a perfectly capable mercenary kid around?!

In fact, I'm using the delightful little appliance quite a bit, but I'm still happy to leave the heavy lifting to greedy little boys :).

11/2/12

10/31/12 Halloween Recap

As always, it took some doing -- but the night before Halloween, the kids had their costumes! Gabriel was a pilot, with a costume hijacked from a policeman, with some emblems and a hat added, but the other two had straight store-bought costumes. I have to admit some guilt about that, as well a sadness for missed opportunities -- I used to love making their costumes!

But frankly, of all the things I have to deal with in their lives, I'm afraid that sewing and gluing homemade Halloween costumes have been pushed out of the Top Ten.

This year, Julian was a gladiator (which was great), Gabriel was a pilot, and Katrina wanted to be a cat, but had to settle for a tiger.

Among countless others, the major-est event was the school costume parade.

Somehow, Julian and Katrina's teachers conspired to be the same thing: my new favorite costume idea: a bath squoosh-sponge thing!

This year, the school had a "surprise" for the parents: a flash mob!!

Julian and Katrina let on that there was a "special surprise" for parents, so with their poorly concealed "hints" I was able to to piece together that some brave soul at the school had somehow taken on the monumental task of coordinating five grades of four classes each, into a dance routine!!!!!!

It's impossible to see in the photos - and especially hard to take photos with all the parents blocking the view with massive video cameras (what will they do with all that video??) -- but this was pretty cute to watch.

I was barely able to see Katrina's half-hearted motions, and Julians "all-OVER-it!" sincere full-body performance, as though he was the STAR of the whole show -- but still, it was a huge experience and total fun for them. And me!

It's fun that the whole school shuts down because of Halloween, but, GEEZ, wasn't Halloween just a DAY once in long lost years afore?

Well, I'm not complaining -- employment challenges notwithstanding, and though the Halloween parade is so massive and chaotic, it'd break my heart to miss the moment. And who can pass up a flash mob?!

10/31/21

p.s. lighthearted post notwithstanding, what's really on my mind is that I haven't been able to call my Mom, who lives in now-Hurricane-ravaged lower Manhattan for days. I've been trying many times a day, but Mom's phone isn't working yet. Thank goodness for my dear brother, who's keeping me posted and has assured me that Mom and Paul are well! He's also assured me that my sister and her family are well, or I'd be fretting about them too. Thank you Ronan!

10/31/12 Postponing Halloween?

I should be posting about costumes and candy and parades, regular Halloween stuff. But the more I see in the newspapers about Hurricane Sandy's devastation, the less I can think about that stuff.

It's amazing what's happened on the East Coast, and how many people lost their lives doing ordinary things that my mother could easily have been doing. I haven't been able to contact my Mom for a few days (hi Mom, if you're finally able to read this!), though my brother tells me via texts that she's fine (and thank goodness for him!). Still, I know this is a stressful and scary experience for her and Papa Paul, and I wish I could be there.

And then the governor of New Jersey postponed Halloween! The final straw!

Anyway, just so you East Coasters out there know: I'm thinking about you constantly. Costume and school-parade photos of kids will have to wait, I'm afraid.

10/31/12

10/29/12 The weekend

Whew...almost over. My 2nd weekend alone without my children. I'm amazed how much I miss them.

I was always really low on the "on" scale as compared to most moms....I never do much in the way of sitting and focusing my attention on them. It's more like I miss just having them around -- grouching at them not getting dressed, intervening in the boys' numerous fights, sprinting to rescue Katrina from some-or-other torture from her brothers...and sometimes hearing them happily play, and occasionally even involving myself in it. But there's so much ambient amusement and interaction from us just being together too, and I so miss that.

On the surface, this weekend-to-myself thing seems like what most moms are anxious for. I get to do things in big blocks of time, I have lots of time to myself, peace and quiet -- things most moms can only dream of. And indeed, I make the most of it -- I've always been fine being alone.

But I'm sure looking forward to "my" weekend. Sometimes it feels like the kids are just visitors, and like I'm just a half-time mom.

I wonder, do they miss me? I doubt it, kids are much more focused on themselves, and they're not away from me long enough to really feel it. I don't want them to feel like they miss their mother, that's a big deal for a kid. But I sure miss them.

I know we'll all adjust to this new on-and-off schedule, but so far it's a much tough adjustment for me than I expected.

10/29/12

10/26/12 Jack-o-Lanterns

Halloween has morphed from a day, to a month, to a season.

Though I am a chronic underachiever when it comes to involvement in modern childrens' lives, when it comes to Halloween, I always covered the bare minimum, with costumes (I used to make them), parties, pumpkin patches, school parades, decorations, scary baking, and of course, trick-or-treating.

But one classic Halloween tradition always eluded me, until today. Gabriel just returned from science camp today, so I figured that rather than making him lug his sleep-away duffel bag a mile home, I'd pick him up from school, and retrieve his siblings while I was at it. This would give us a stolen afternoon to carve jack-o-lanterns out of the pumpkins they kids bought at the pumpkin patch last weekend.

I haven't actually done this before, but I channeled Aunt Laura and Uncle Ryan's experience last year, asking the kids how they'd done it. I cut open and cleaned the pumpkins...but that was it. The kids took it from there.

Julian, brimming with ideas.

Gabriel, exacting and methodical.

Katrina, full of enthusiasm. She had such a great time.

Especially with Katrina, I made sure to do as little as possible, mostly showing her how to use the tools, but she did her own pumpkin completely herself. This is what happens when you're the 3rd child. I doubt it would even have occured to me to let my oldest six-year-old carve his own pumpkin, but the third six-year-old pretty much has to.

Kid jack-o-lanterns -- and really, kid jack-o-lanterns. I'm so proud of them. All on their own!

Not bad for my first time!!

10/26/12

10/26/12 Mommies

I have the most beautiful shadow! This funny kitty just shows up wherever I am, provided I'm alone. Then she scurries around on the walls, and then quietly pokes her way into where I am.

The key with Mommy Meow-Stache is to just wait. And then she arrives.

Meantime, her much braver son just hangs out lazily on beds. But I sure love having Mommy-Meow-Stache following me around -- we're turning into quite the pair of pals! (crummy photos notwithstanding...)

10/26/12

10/24/12 Babar

"Mom, I have a SPECIAL book for you to read!" Katrina announced delightedly tonight after her bath.

I'm sorta "done" with reading to the kids before bedtime. Truth is, I was never crazy about this particular aspect of childhood, even though I always knew how important it was, and how great the bonding is, it teaches them to read....yeah yeah yeah, great stuff. Once I got started reading, I was OK, but I can't say I always looked forward to it, it always seemed like one last thing before getting them to bed.

But tonight when Katrina showed her "special" book, I pounced on it. It was a hand-me-down from a friend, a Babar book called "Babar et L'etoile du Cirque," in French. Katrina made sure to point out to me that the word "Niveau" meant reading "level" (the emblem made that clear), and then asked me excitedly to read it to her.

I've done this before, stumbling through each French sentence and then translating it into English with some, er, "creative interpretation" (meaning, I don't know all the translations!) but it's been a while since I've done this.

My French is ancient, it really never got off the ground -- but the base is there and I could become fluent if I were immersed, and with a credible accent. I've suspected for a while that Katrina has a particular interest and facility for languages, and seeing her with this book reminded me of that. Her language-superpower stage of life is in its sunset, it's a shame I haven't found a way to leverage that.

Maybe via a classic fictional elephant, we could learn it together!

10/24/12

10/23/12 Always around

Ok, sorry for the boring repetition about cats, but what else is on my mind is best left unprinted for now.

Meantime, I'm SO enjoying my wonderful new kitty-cats. I'm still figuring them out. Zorro is overall so much braver, but I can count on Meow-stache appearing in whatever room I'm in, scrambling to some hiding place, and then creeping out and perching somewhere from which she can nervously watch the action.

Turns out, there isn't always a whole lot to watch, but to my delight, she shows up closeby anyway.

Eventually, ennui creeps in....

...and takes over.

Sorry kitty cat -- I can promise lots of love and scratches, a clean litter box, fresh food and water....but entertainment, not always!

10/23/12

10/21/12 Pumpkin Patch Time!

It's October, that means the whole month is about Halloween...right?

Which of course includes pumpkin patches. "Pumpkin patch" sounds so quaint, doesn't it...but nowadays, they've morphed into amusement parks, complete with paid parking, ticket counters, and lines. We braved the same "patch" today as last year anyway, mostly because of the "pumpkin blaster" feature.

The first order of business was the pony ride. Some amusement while we waited.

Gabriel is too cool for pony rides now, but Julian isn't.

Katrina, never!

Katrina playing princess....

Julian very secure in his masculinity...!

We paused for a juggling/carnival show, realizing a few minutes into it that we'd seen the guy once before, in Arnold last summer with cousins. I guess there aren't that many juggler / musician / unicyclists types in the area!

Then, a corn maze. I thought this would be silly, but it was really fun. We had a map -- and that doesn't help nearly as much as you might think, and were directed to find 10 "passport stops." At each stop, you answer a question on a sheet of paper, and the right answer tells you which way to go. But even if I knew how old Dolly Parton was when she released her first album, the correct answer of "turn left" or "turn right" wasn't helpful. In any case, we all had a great time navigating and finding our way around the maze.

It's impossible to get photos inside a corn maze, unfortunately.

Finally, our real reason for being here -- the pumpkin blaster! This is a huge gun that shoots pumpkins at targets like plywood bullseyes and old cars. Katrina wasn't interested, but the boys had I had fun -- for a few minutes, anyway. It doesn't take long to blow through 6 shots and $10!

Of course, we were at a pumpkin patch, so pumpkins were required.

No lifting for my tricky back, which is just dying to freak out right now -- but fortunately, I have two perfectly good sons!

For someone who hates crowded large places as much as I do, even this place was borderline, but the corn maze and pumpkin blaster -- and happy children -- made this totally worth it. Halloween, bring it on!

10/21/12