Headlights in the Fog

Costume-o-rama!

A Scotsman and a Knight.

Jack with his teacher.
 Kitty the Knight in the parking lot after the school parade.
Jack looking oh-so-stylish with members of his class.

Kitty at her Kindergarten Halloween party.

Simply Amazing

Kitty is going to be a Knight for Halloween this year. Above you can see the color scheme in the shield on the edge of the table: Pink corduroy, sparkling silver pleather and cotton candy pink. Jack was a Knight last year, but his colors were dark grey, red and beige. I could have said, "You HAVE to wear Jack's old costume... I spent so much time on it!" Really, though, I am loving making Kitty's costume. I've discovered something: there is a very thin line between female knight and female superhero. 

Anyhoo, I'm making Kitty's goodie bag. It will be in the shape of a shield and have her emblem on it. I went and found Jack's shield goody bag from last year for reference. It was behind 18 million coats on some hooks we have in the kitchen. As I was walking to my studio with it, I realized there WAS STILL CANDY IN IT FROM LAST YEAR!!!!! I was dumbstruck! It was a lot of candy... like 3/4's of all the candy Jack would have collected. I'm still in shock. Jack isn't much of a candy person, but still. Kitty was through her candy within 48 hours. I very liberally let them eat the candy because I figure the sooner it is gone, the sooner we can get back to a sense of normalcy. 

Above is a picture of Jack at my worktable, drawing and lost in his thoughts. He draws a great deal and really has amazing ideas. This morning he told me that he draws too much. I, artist mother that I am, said, "Jack you could never draw too much." To which Jack replied, "No Mom,you have no idea, I DO draw too much!" Okay... if you say so.

 

Kitty has been all jazzed up to carve a pumpkin. A couple of weeks ago she stabbed her finger while trying to cut in to a tiny squash. No parents were consulted until there was already blood.

This weekend Kitty picked out the small pumpkin you see above. 2 days ago we carved it. Wait, let me clarify, I carved it and Kitty managed artistic direction. It came out very cute. We will be leaving it inside as there was a pumpkin massacre yesterday in front of my neighbor's house. Pumpkin guts everywhere and a pack of 6 self-satisfied squirrels.

On Friday, we met up with our good friends at the playground. Kitty insisted on bringing Pilly, her purpleish pink unicorn. I ended up holding Pilly while Kitty played in the dirt with her buddy Annabelle.

It got dark and cold so we split up: Jack and Louis came with me and everyone else went with Renee.

Playtime was too soon over and everyone was redistributed to their proper homes. We went out for dinner. We came home. I realized Pilly was missing. Thom and the kids ran out to the playground where I could last remember seeing Pilly. Not there. I called over to where Kitty had been playing to see if Pilly was there. Not there. We deduced that someone must have taken Pilly in to the school's lost and found and we could look for here there on Monday. Kitty seemed okay with everything that was going on until it came to be bedtime. She didn't just cry, she WAILED! My heart was breaking wide open. She got out out of bed and got 15 small stuffed animals to sleep with, got back into bed and started wailing again. She cried herself to sleep. The next morning I was watching 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' with Jack when I heard the back door open and close. 2 minutes later Kitty came in jubilant, "Pilly was IN THE CAR!!!!"

I guess somehow her brain worked the whole thing out and the first thing she did upon waking was check the car. She is a smart one, that Kitty. We were all relieved that Pilly was found. She's been loved so much that I don't think any other large purpleish pink unicorn could replace her... no, I KNOW that no other purpleish pink unicorn could replace her. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that.

Fire Station and More

Last week I went with Kitty's Kindergarten class to our local fire station. The school bus ride was fun... brings back a lot of childhood sensations. The fire fighters were demonstration pros: we saw a video and then watched a fire fighter put on all of his gear. The most interesting thing for me was the huge map they have of our township that has where all the fire hydrants are. The Fire chief said he didn't have to look at the map anymore... he knew them all by heart. Kitty didn't want to spray the hose or do any other activities... she told me she hated this school trip. Later that day at home she was gushing about how much fun it all was.

Jack is doing great in school. I'm so proud of him. He told me the other day,"I thought I was going to hate school but I really love it." Whew. Sunday night we went out for ice cream after dinner. The season premier of Ben 10 was starting at 7. We went to Carvel and were leisurely eating our ice cream when Jack asked Thom what time it was. It was 6:40. Jack started going in to missing-my-tv-show anxiety mode. Thom, Kitty and I were still eating our ice cream. Jack was trying to have us finish as quickly as possible. In the end, it all worked out... we got home with 4 minutes to spare.

Kitty has a crush on a boy in her class. I am reminded of my own Kindergarten crush... I once kissed him on the cheek in front of my mother. She'll say things like, "I love him. I don't know why I do, but I love him." Sometimes when we go to pickup Jack, 'he' is there with his mom waiting to pick up his sister who is in Jack's class. After we get Jack, when we are walking home, Kitty will walk very slowly and look over her shoulder. 'He' is walking the opposite direction than we are and Kitty likes to watch him until he's out of sight.

The other day I went in to my studio and the door to all the tools was open. I thought it was a little weird Thom didn't close it... but didn't think much of it until I walked in to the living room where Kitty was trying to get her dinosaur bank open with 3 different types of screwdrivers. She is an independent problem solver... that's for sure.

I'm progressing in the Gold house quilt:

I'm almost done with this stage. I have 2 huge trees that go in the foreground and will change the look of the composition very much. After they are done it is on to machine quilting land! I look forward to it... it's the best part. I do have to put this project aside for 2 weeks while I make the kids' costumes. Kitty is going to be a 'Girl Knight' and Jack is going to be something called 'Freaky Shadow.' It's a character his good friend Louis came up with. The girl knight will be fun to work on... the shadow will essentially be a sack-like black tunic and a black cape.