Thanksgiving Prep

Shara had Alan and I write 2 poems each, an acrostic and a haiku, each to be written on lined paper and turned in for review. These will be read at Thanksgiving. So now that I'm thinking about it, I can't share until then. Sorry. However, I'm also realizing that I didn't post the Halloween photos. Darn that Facebook. I keep forgetting about this blog because of all the posting done over there. I'll do another summary from fb on what's been going on in our lives the past several weeks!

Veteran's Day Hockomock swamp tour; Pete our fearless leader showed us around the Nip.
Shara's design idea for our french bread.

Haunted houses are very common.
All of the dead come alive.
Lots of scariness for everyone.
Lots of people dress up in costumes.
Only the bravest people come out.
When it gets dark peoples' pumpkins light up.
Everyone has lots of fun.
Emergencies are when you run out of candy.
Never eat too much candy.

Halloween & Other

Halloween - this year Shara was inspired by Teen Beach Movie and decided she wanted to be the biker girl and the one in the movie had a beehive ala Amy Winehouse. Disney had several "commercials" on tv showing just how simple this hairstyle is to do yourself! Ha! So needless to say, last Sunday began our foray into beehives and Aqua Net. At church the youth group wanted to do a costume contest and Shara won for most detailed costume. That day she did most of her hair herself. All I did was put some of it into a bun and she did the rest. Later that day, after almost finishing the pumpkin carving, we tried to rush to the town parade and didn't get there because our ambition was too great and the hair didn't work and it was very upsetting. I think we learned a good lesson from that trial.

Last night (10/30) I posted that I "have to wake Shara up at 5:55 am and do her beehive. I'm hoping we won't both end up in tears. I'm going for the cheater's way and using a rolled up pair of pantyhose - they say a bath loofa - poofy sponge thing, but I think the hose should work ok. Pulling out the aquanet! It went mostly well and was a team effort. Original outfit ripped off and after rummaging through the laundry found a good shirt. Got to the bus stop early and with breakfast so I'd say yes, well.

So her hair was in need of a redo after the day at school. I took just the pantyhose and that seemed to work well for an extra poof to her hair. Then I had to get ready because we had the family theme going. I put on my Broadway Lunch shirt, slicked back my hair, put on a little 5 o'clock shadow and became a 50's male. Quick supper (thank you Alan for the great grilled cheese) and we were off trick-or-treating.

Two cool chicks

Shara carved this all by herself while I made the meringues!

ready for trick or treating

They looked so cute before baking.

Not so cute now, but tasted excellent!

Some comments from facebook: 10/31 - listening to shara sort her candy is hysterial. "This is the best day of my life". "I have to have dots. That's my new goal." And apparently we shouldn't have the blue raspberry jolly ranchers.
Denise Hamer Charland, Olivia Melo, Tobi Applebaum and 8 others like this.
Lauren Katherine Does she need dots? We have one box nobody will eat! Lol
Laurie Lessner no thank you. we have plenty. It's now turned from funny to the point where I'm really having to hold my tongue because it seems like she's eaten so much. Maybe I need to be more like Alan Yabroudy and keep refilling the wine glass.
Lauren Katherine Mmmmmmmmm. Wine.
Laurie Lessner the candy follies have come to a close - the end of gluttony in our house - until after Shara goes to bed and then I'll have just a little more...
Jill Lessner Looker Sounds like a fun night!
Laurie Lessner it was - each year is a big difference and great memory


















10/26 - Finally some good pet news - Brutus had his stitches taken out this morning and was given the go-ahead to resume his normal activities. Alan tried to get him to go down the spiral stairs, but he didn't want to, so he got carried down to sit on the couch with Shara. He was made to get himself upstairs and chose the spiral. He did fine, but at his age, normal activity is sleeping most of the time!
Jill Lessner Looker Great news!!
Laurie Lessner thanks all!
Scott Gillespie YAY, BRUTUS!
Tobi Applebaum So happy to hear the good news. Brutus is a trooper.

Target Photoshoot

Out much too late on a Friday night!

Where's the Post?

Between posting to facebook and my own blog, I forget what I've posted where but do know I've been neglecting everything lately. Here are the photos from Halloween. We had a fun night - a friend of Shara's and her family joined us trick-or-treating. Shara was so excited to go out the first thing she did was start running to Keira's house to see if she could join the party. On the way she tripped over some Sandy debris and cut up her hands. Well that didn't stop her and we were off to get candy. We made the monster eyeballs to hand out to the grown-ups who were left at home to give out the candy. It was appreciated and got a few laughs. Shara had a ton of fun and was crazy-happy-excited the whole time. We have to get her out more!

Laurie & Shara as Hermione and Harry

Alan as Ron

The "joint effort" jack-o-lantern

And so for the things that are happening now - there was a field trip today from church to the Maha Yoga Center. My independent child couldn't wait for me to leave her and seemed to have a nice time. She didn't say too much about it when asked, but it was fun for her. Later we had dinner and a movie - the Court Jester. Very cool - she's a Danny Kaye fan too! For dinner she didn't want tuna noodle casserole, which I haven't made in years but got out her cookbook and selected twice baked potatoes. I should have taken a picture, they were so cute. The potatoes were boats, with celery oars and olive people. She also liked the red kuri squash I baked with some brown sugar and apple cider, and the tuna noodle, because who doesn't like tuna noodle? I know, bubbe doesn't like it! The best thing about having tuna fish is Shara gets to give the juice to the cats.

Last week we had Shara's parent-teacher conference. He saved ours for the end of the night so he could end on a happy note. He had nothing but positive things to say about Shara and she's having no trouble with anything and even got the best grade in the class on their first real big test. It was on soil. They learned about it by reading and also doing some experiments in the science lab. She brought home the worksheets and other materials so she could study last weekend and had fun quizzing me and having me quiz her. She really likes school and even wants us to give her hard addition and subtraction problems for her to solve. So it wasn't that big of a surprise that she is doing so well, but it's always nice to have the teacher confirm our suspicions.

The other big event was dad/grandpa's memorial service. I was so proud. Shara had agreed to do a reading with me and we practiced a bit but it didn't really come together until we were at the pulpit during the ceremony. The whole thing only took about a minute to read but she did a wonderful job and took it seriously. After the ceremony she met several of the people I had worked with at Gershons and was able to put faces to the names in the stories I've told her. Earlier in the day we went to Lakeside Farms to get some lunch, apples and doughnuts (of course). The first and last time she was was there was back in 2005. Apparently she likes cider doughnuts just as much now as she did back then!

I Love candy with a capital "L"!
      I LOVE:

• Twix
• 3 Musketeers
• Snickers
• Milky Way
• Milky Way (dark)
• Woppers
• Reeses
• Butterfingers
• Snickers
• MMs
• Sour Patch Kids
• Sweetish Fish
• Laffy Taffy
• Blow Pops
• Candy Corn
• Fun Dip
• Gum Drops
• Gummy Bears
• Gummy Worms
• Jaw Breakers
• Jolly Ranchers
• Pop Rocks
• Ring Pops
• Skittles
• Smarties
• Star Bursts

Halloween - finally

We have a rule in the house that Halloween celebrations shouldn't start until October. Last weekend Alan and Shara got everything down from the attic to start planning. We convinced Alan to participate in dressing up this year. Apparently he was going to take a year off, but that just wouldn't be right. Shara and I went to Target and got the candy. We're trying to decide on what goodies to bake and Shara said she wants to make sure we eat dinner (hot dog mummies) early so she doesn't miss going trick-or-treating with her friends this year.

We've been sticking, mostly, to the 8 PM bedtime and life is much better. It's either that or we've gotten into a routine again. She's been much more awake when she gets home and is able to do a few things around the house without having a meltdown. Swimming, dance and church are in full swing now. She doesn't love swimming because the instructor still puts a pretty big emphasis on jumping in, but it would be nice to know how to swim before jumping in the deep end - just saying. Speaking of  "just saying", Shara's new phrase is "I know!, ri-eat". And she's been bringing home nice work from school. One one of her papers, her teacher commented, "I love that you answered in full sentences!" How nice that he takes the time to make comments like that. I don't know how well we'll keep up with this normal sleep schedule. She has two sleepovers coming up and an overnight in NY for my reunion. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Maybe it's more an issue of having a daily schedule.

A bit of catching up

Alan just moved over to the android-side and Shara's got his own iPhone. She's thrilled. I asked her if she now has everything she wants and she said, "Yes. I don't need my castle anymore!"

Tonight we started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. She was hoping Cassidy would bring back the Harry Potter pop-up she borrowed from the library. She did and as we were going to bring Alan to pick up his motorcycle from the mechanics, she said, "I hate me." Obviously I asked what she meant and she said she forgot her library book at school. It was the Harry Potter pop-up, so after dropping Alan off, we went over and got it from her desk at school. So, what an opportunity to start reading the real book! I'd been wanting to for a while now and am so happy we are.

Halloween planning was a lot of fun. Shara picked the theme and it was easy to put together, especially since she's so easy going and is more into having fun creating than the final result. Though we all liked the final result as well. So it was a cold Halloween and she was bummed that we weren't able to go out trick-or-treating with her neighborhood friends. Next year we'll plan the evening activities a little better, but it was a good evening.

We actually made it this year to the King Richards Faire. It was probably the most relaxed time we had there. I took the advice of someone on the Web who suggested eating lunch before going. I never thought the savory food was very good and it's so expensive, so this was a great idea. We grabbed subs and then ate the good stuff - ice cream, kettle corn, huge chocolate chip cookies, hard cider. We saw 2 jousting contests, a funny musical with a talented cast, and a couple of silly shows, including a rat circus. Shara got inspired by the circus and tried to train Brutus to jump through a hoop.

One thing both Alan and I noticed recently is the huge amount of energy Shara's had lately. The past year I had thought she was just a calm child that didn't like much physical activity, but I had seen the lack of energy. I now realize it wasn't because of her demeanor but how she was feeling, I assume. Now that she isn't getting the stomach aches anymore and eating better, it's obvious she happier and healthier. I guess that's a good place to end this post!

This is for Bubbe

Bubbe, sorry for not having more frequent posts. Things have been pretty busy around here. Shara had a fun Halloween, and today she even wrote a song about it. She wrote down the words in her journal on the bus ride home, so be sure to ask her to sing it to you the next time you see her. She was a witch and we went around the neighborhood, but nothing terribly exciting happened. Nice candy. Alan and I eat most of the chocolate stuff and Shara eats primarily lollypops. The yellow Laffy Taffy, I'm told, looks better than it tastes. Shara's had two ballet classes so far and absolutely loves it. Tonight she was reminding me of Liz & Sam by sliding over the kitchen floor, stretching, while she leaned on her table, finishing up her homework.

Today was the best day we've had together in a while and we both knew it. This morning Shara got dressed without me asking her to (she's actually been doing that a lot lately), but the best part was when she came out to eat breakfast and had almost 1/2 hour to eat. We chatted while she ate and I did some dishes and got lunches together. Not once did I have to tell her to hurry up or tell her how much time she had left. It was pretty relaxing for both of us and we each earned a bead to put in our bucket. She then through her banana peel in the compost bucket, and we had a really good hug/cuddle before getting out to the bus stop. The love-fest continued this evening. I picked her up from Tina's because Alan had an eye doctor's appointment. When we got home we looked at her folder and went over her homework and spelling words for the week. Then I got dinner ready and we enjoyed a relaxing meal together. Shara tried my swordfish leftovers and even had a bite of Alan's leftover broccoli rabe (which was too spicy, but did get her a check mark on the assignment to "try a new vegetable today"). After dinner she had dessert (blow-pop) while perusing the Toys R Us catalog, checking off the items to go on her wish-list. I haven't looked at it extensively, but it looks like almost everything is checked. There was at least one squeal or screech given on each page.

Happy Halloween!

Right now, Shara's singing "Halloweenie, Halloweenie". We all had lots of fun yesterday. Shara & Alan went to Auntie Chris' new store to pay a visit and probably scare her - Alan, that is. They then went to Oma & Jidor's and Shara got plenty of candy to start off her halloween gatherings. When they got home, Alan got out a few decorations that were way too scary to have out last year - Frank & the skull with lite up red eyes. I made monster eyeballs with Shara and got my costume together. We had a very hurried dinner because kids were already starting to come around and Shara needed to join the fun, and fast.

I wore Shara's chef hat (toque) from her "Bake a cake" dance and an apron. Both embellished with a few snakes, spiders and a bat. I also carried around a tray of the monster eyeballs (basically buckeyes with an M&M for the iris) and some of our halloween cookies. These were offered to the people at the doors while we were trick or treating. Shara was Snow White - the fancy costume from Nonnie. Alan was practically me, from 20 years ago, but instead of a blue wig, he had a spiky hot pink/purple one, purple fishnets, short black skirt, and several piercings... Shara doesn't seem scarred.

We went all around the neighborhood, first Shara & me, then Shara & Alan, then Shara & me again. Highlights include hot apple cider and petting Ava at Bob & Nancy's, petting Cocoa at Rhonda's, and an unfortunate incident down the street at the scary house. Someone who should have known better scared Shara pretty badly, but she recovered before we got home. Doesn't want to go back there next year though.

When we got home, I had a fun time organizing Shara's chocolate while she figured out which to eat. She chose the Starbursts and cookies & cream Hershey bar. Good choice.

C is for Cookie!

Shara & I spent about four hours making and decorating Halloween cookies today. My, you may be saying, that's a long time, but really, that is a long time. I'm done, the cookies are cute and I was very proud of both of us. Shara used the pastry bag to decorate the faces on the ghosts and I just needed to put on some Dead to deal with letting go of my cookie control. You all know what I'm talking about - my need for my cookies to be perfect. Well I was very good and these cookies are not mine, but ours. And we plan to share. Because there are so many (or at least it seems like there are).

Yesterday we had a nice reunion with all of Shara's friends from Kindercare at Molly's party. The ones she didn't know from Kindercare, she knew from either dance or schoool. It's a small world and really nice that she's able to see them on occasion. She made a very cute stuffed kitty that she named "Rose" and it holds something special inside, so if you see Shara, ask her what's inside of Rose.

Off to have dinner & a movie. Tonight's special feature is Scooby Doo and the Witche's Ghost.

Happy Halloween

Tonight we had a great time running around the neighborhood collecting candy from veritable strangers. Actually there were several people we knew and a few new to us. Auntie Chris joined in the festivities while daddy scared the kids coming to the house by passing out the candy dressed in a, well, in a dress. He actually looked ok and several people were surprised after they heard his voice.

This year was so different from last year. Shara was a little chatterbox, saying Happy Halloween to everyone and being so polite. She certainly isn't a grabber. Alan said he took the bowl away when one kid went for her fourth handful. Our neighbors had hot mulled cider, munchkins and big candy bars. Another house had Hillard's candy bars - we got two! Shara did get scared, actually more scared than I've seen her in a very long time. At one house, we rang the bell and waited a little bit, then I heard rustling in the bushes and a guy (a dad) poked out wearing a mask. He saw Shara, for just a second because she bolted, and took off the mask and apologized. The sort of funny thing was that she was thinking the dog waiting at the door was the thing to fear.

We headed back home earlier than I thought we would have. Shara was cold and wanted to go home, get her jacket and go back out with daddy. We went home and she decided she wanted to stay in the house and give out the candy. So funny, she said she wanted to give the candy and she was going to pick what candy to give to the kids. I said they'd probably want to pick themselves and she figured she'd just put it in their bags. Well that was fine with Alan and myself because we wanted to see the scary house at the end of the road. Chris, Shara & I had gone by it on the way home, but I knew better than to let her go close, not that she wanted to. It was fun. They had Lord of the Rings playing on their garage, and the dad was dressed in a rather scary scull mask and black robe, the wife was on the porch brewing her vat of something, while the kid was dressed as a "thing" hiding out like a bush. It was very cool.

When we got back home, Shara and I decided she'd probably feel bad if she didn't go to the spider house up the road (blow up spider she's been watching daily), so we went back out. She didn't want to go too far and we decided just to stop at Anne Marie's for one more candy and go home to bed. She was really wiped out!