Happy Halloween!!!

OMG--I totally forgot to write my blog because I'm so wrapped up in Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab--is anyone else watching this show?? I watched last season and was completely sucked in by the patients and their treatment. It's a frustrating show in a way because you're really rooting for them to get better--but some of them are so bad off (like Jeff Conaway--remember him from Grease and Taxi? He was SO cute and I used to have the biggest crush on him. Well, he's a mess now--all kinds of drugs and semi-incoherent) that you just know they're not going to be able to kick it.

Anyway,this season is shaping up to be even better than last--not only is Jeff Conaway back--but his insane girlfriend is there too. Then there's Gary Busey who's as crazy as a loon, the drummer from Guns 'N Roses (who consumed 100 Valium followed by a bottle of "Jagermeister" and then some heroin--and lived to tell about it!) and the third place winner from the first American Idol. Oh, and Rodney King of the L.A. riots fame.
Okay, I've totally gone on a tangent--but if you're not watching, please start--I need to discuss it with someone.

So on to Halloween. We carved pumpkins tonight and it was more fun than I remember it being in the past! It seems like I used to be exhausted when the carving was done with my fingers aching from the scraping and the cutting--not this time! It was much more civilized. I made a little party of it with some cheese and crackers, chips and (the highly addictive) "Lil' Smokies." I also made homemade fudge (addictive too).

Here's Gooser ready to get his carve on!

Patrick working on his pumpkin:
Teddy with his "text-speak" pumpkin
Here's a couple "after" shots. I'll take more pics of them in their full candle-lit glory tomorrow.
Can you guess who the bat one belongs to?
A few more Halloween-related items...My friend sent me these adorable chocolates as a Halloween surprise. Aren't they cute!?! I screamed with delight when I saw the eyeball ones! They look almost too good to eat--but I will eat them anyway.
And here's a random pic of the Gooser eating a Frankenstein cookie.
Oh, and I was BOOed by Anissa and Kelly and Tenakim !
Isn't that cute? Thanks Anissa and Kelly and Tena!

Finally....bunny pic(s) of the day!

Gooser kisses Dr. Hoppy:
Dr. Hoppy wearing his/her witch costume!
Dr. Hoppy says: "Happy Halloween!!!"

Sugar Skulls

Awhile back, I ordered all the stuff necessary to make sugar skulls for a Day f the Dead celebration. The kids and I attempted to make them a few weeks ago thinking it would be a "trial run" before we made the "good" ones that we would use as decorations around the house. But we never got around to doing it again, so I guess we're stuck with what we made--and they weren't very good!

As with so many things in life--making these sugar skulls was not as easy as it looked. There was a lot of mixing of sugar and water and something called meringue powder which was--as you can probably imagine--sticky!!

The basic premise seemed simple--mix the concoction and press it into the skull molds, then gently ease out of the mold.

They. Wouldn't. Come. Out

I think we spent at least an hour tinkering with the sugar to water ratio to get it sticky enough to bind together, but not so sticky that would cling to the mold.Somehow,we managed to get some kind of a system going and we churned out some skulls and "candled" them in the oven so they were slightly hard and ready to decorate.

Now the "fun" started!

You know how decorating cookies always sounds like a fun idea, but it's harder than you remember and your hands are screaming in pain from squeezing the frosting and you're covered in sugar? Decorating the skulls was just like that.

Only worse.

And stickier!
I exaggerate--it was kind of fun once we got the swing of it--and we made some halfway decent ones for our first time.
I like Gooser's minimalist skull:
And Patrick's happy one:
And I think Don wins the prize for most artistic!
I can't remember who did this one--but it's pretty good too!
So the plan was to make them again, but we just haven't and I doubt we will before November first! Of course, by next year we'll have forgotten what we're doing and will be back to Square One again...

Bunny of the Day pic:

Me and the bunnster.

Oh, here's one more!

No American Idol For Me...

Well, according to Gooser anyway--apparently he doesn't like my singing!

Ever since Andy starred in Oklahoma last spring it seems I have the soundtrack from the musical continually playing in my head. While Andy was in the rehearsal stage, we were eating, sleeping and breathing Oklahoma. The songs are catchy and they stick like glue--I can't stop singing them!!

Poor Gooser has been home sick for the past couple of days with a cough (he seems better and will probably go back tomorrow) and I think my singing is bothering him.

This morning I burst into "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" and he put his hands over his ears and said "Please stop singing, Mommy!" Of course, I continued to sing and he ran off to draw some pictures.

Evidently he was working out his frustration through drawing.

This one is supposed to be me singing. Notice how it is crossed out--meaning no singing allowed! Also note the maniacal look on my face and the sharp rat teeth

This next one is a self-portrait of how Gooser feels when I sing--mad.
Here we have his alter-ego, Batman, also troubled by my singing:
Then he drew this bizarre portrait of me:
Here's a close-up of the face:
I asked him why one eye was so huge and he said "Because one of your eyes is big and one is small and one of your nostrils is big and one is small." Note the nostrils--one on top of the other!

Wow--I feel so attractive! And self-conscious. OMG--do I have one larger eye and nostril?? You might see me on an upcoming episode of Dr. 90210 for some recontructive work!

Anyway--I guess I have to curb my singing. At first, I thought maybe he was just sick of the Oklahoma soundtrack--but he wasn't happy with my rendition of "We Will Rock You" in the car either...

You thought you were getting away without a bunny pic didn't you? Not so fast! Here is Andy dressed up in his tuxedo for tonight's band concert (they're actually broadcasting it on TV!) and I thought he looked like a magician so I had him pose with the rabbbit...
Abracadabra!!

Mo' Bunny

Please forgive me--this is going to be another blog about the bunny! I can't stop taking pics of it. Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon and my blog won't be completely bunny every day. Just humor me one more time!

Look at it! I think this might be the cutest bunny to ever hop the planet.

Pickle just adores the bunny. Here she is hugging it. All the kids are totally into Dr.Hoppy--here's Teddy cuddling with it.This is a weird action shot--the bunny was doing its crazy playing hop!

Okay--one more. Thanks for tolerating my non-stop bunny talk. I promise tomorrow my blog will be about something else. I think...probably!

Introducing...

Dr. Hoppy!! Pickle calls all bunnies "hoppys" so I knew it was inevitable that the bunny would be called Hoppy no matter what we named it--and we added the Dr. portion for a touch of class!Cute, right?? He/she (I'm going to say it's a she!) almost looks like a stuffed animal in this pic!

We were away for the weekend (and, by the way, I apologize for not making the blog-rounds--I have to catch up!) so when we got back, Teddy and I went to buy the cage stuff and got it all set up, then we went to pick up the bunny.

Pickle just about freaked out when we brought the bunny home. She was practically short-circuiting--like "Bunny in house. Does not compute!" She can NOT get enough of it! And Gooser is so cute--he drew some pictures to hang by the bunny's cage so she has something to look at.

Thanks to everyone for your help with which bunny to choose--the lop was the overwhelming favorite and I'm so glad we got that one! Her personality is super sweet and, if she's hopping around, she'll hop right up into your lap! I really think we got a really good one!

It was a little dicey for awhile, because Don had said it was okay to get the bunny, but then he started changing his tune and saying it wasn't a good idea--but then he came around again. I think he likes her!

Some more pics...Here is her cage:

And one of her eating lettuce:
And scratching her ear--awwww!
Right now we're down in the family room and she's just hopping around. This is so much fun!

If anyone has bunny advice--lay it on me!!

Painting

Just a quickie today because we went away for the weekend!

I love to paint/draw birds and I thought I'd share some more paintings/drawings with you. This one is called "Party Animals."

The sort of ghostly bird in the middle inspired a (large) painting called "Bird Funeral."
Although I like parts of it, other parts bug me--so I think I'm going to redo it. Just waiting for the inspiration to strike!

Happy Sunday!

Sweet Gooser

This is cute: A friend of mine whose son is also in Gooser's kindergarten class called me today to say she was looking at the artwork in the kindergarten hallway. There were pictures of the the kids up with questions they had answered. One of the questions was "My favorite thing to do is...?"

My friend told me Gooser's answer was "Spend time with my mom."

Awwwww! What a sweet Goose!

Patrick Brag! Fx4

I'm dedicating my entry to Candid Carrie's Friday Foto Fiesta to my son, Patrick, because I'm so proud of him!

Now, I already new he was a great kid, but yesterday, his 5th grade teacher called me out of the blue just to tell me how amazing she thought he was. She said how great it was to have him in the classroom and what a good influence he is on the other kids,what a hard worker he is, etc. etc. It totally made my day! I'm going to get Patrick a special reward for getting such a glowing report from school!!

Here he is--I like this pic of Patrick and the colors look so bright!
Happy Friday!

Lop Or Lion?

Exciting news--the local pet store called me today to let me know that they just got a shipment of baby bunnies! I had told them awhile back to please call me when some came in.

Minor glitch--Don is not exactly in love with this idea! When I heard from the pet store, I immediately texted Don and asked if we could get one. He came right back with "No!"

Then I called him and he basically said it was okay,but he was less than enthusiastic. So I told him the kids and I were going to go check them out

I'm not kidding--baby bunnies are about the cutest thing on the planet! They had a few different kinds--what I would call "regular-looking" bunnies that were cute and small, something called French lops that had big floppy ears and another kind called "Lionheads" that had fluffy fur that apparently grows into a mane-like fuzziness around their heads.

Although the "regular" bunnies were cute, I was much more intrigued by the exotic ones! So now I need to decide between the Lop and the Lionhead.

The French Lop was pure white with pink eyes (there's something SO cool about the pink eyes that just can't be denied!).It was the largest one there (and I thought I wanted a really small one) and seemed to have a very docile temperament. It (apparently it's impossible to tell male from female at this age) seemed to like being held and was very cuddly. Also very cute. I would say the biggest drawback to this one is that it will get quite large!

I wish I had some pics to show you--but I didn't bring my camera. But here are some examples of that rabbit breed:
TheLionheads are very cute and fuzzy and much smaller. I'm not sure how I feel about the "mane" thing--it might be cool but it might be weird! They had a couple of these at the store--they were gray and a little jumpy. Here are some pics:
So they're both cute--but in different ways! While I was at the store, I basically settled on the lop-eared one because of its personality--but they get so big! I'm not sure I want a big giant rabbit!

I think I'll go back tomorrow and look at them again--I'm sure they'll let me switch even though I already selected one.

So now I need your help--which one do you think is better/cuter? Thanks in advance for your help!

Oh, and,whichever we choose--we won't pick it up until Sunday because I need time to get the cage set up.