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Tonight, after finishing up trick-or-treating, we gathered the kids together for our evening family prayer. It was Eleanor’s turn.
“Dear Heavenly Father,” she began “Thank you for Halloween. Please bless the candy that we got trick-or-treating, that it will be safe.”
A pause.
“And please bless the candy that I got in my goody bag at preschool that it will be safe, too.”
Ah, yes. There’s nothing as fascinating as the flimflummery that erupts when you mix religion with toddlers. Things have been especially interesting, Eleanor-wise, since we began sending her to a “Christian” preschool.
“Christian” meaning: they have “chapel” twice a month, spend a short time every day doing “Jesus Time” (aka, they hear Bible stories), and all of the children have learned the dreaded Noah Song. You know:
God said to No-ah, There’s gonna be a floody floody!
Errrrrrgh, I’ll stop right there. However, it’s the “Jesus Time” that seems to be having the biggest influence on Ella’s worldview. Namely, the way she percieves the New Testament to be.
Usually, during weekday breakfasts, I’ll have my own bit of scripture-storytelling with the kids, which usualyl means reading from the Book of Mormon Reader (yes! With the illustration of a middle-aged, potbellied Ammon! That’s the one!). But lately Eleanor has insisted on telling the scripture story all by herself.
This is the way it usually goes:
“Once upon a time, there was a wonderful man named Jesus. He was very nice. But then — BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”
–here she pounds on the table–
“Some Romans came and tried to kill Jesus. So he ran away –swoosh! and hid in a beautiful garden. And those Romans could not find him! The End!”
My transcript really doesn’t do justice to her interpretation, which usually involves a lot of gesturing and vocal inflection.
I haven’t the heart to correct her story, and even if I tried, I doubt she’d take me seriously. Eleanor’s the sort of kid who picks out a particular world-view and sticks with it, come what may. Heaven help us if she ever becomes involved in politics.
Awww. Ain’t he cute? I had the pleasure of witnessing the elementary school Halloween parade this morning, and Jeffrey was thrilled to walk with his class.
In case you couldn’t tell, he’s a centurion — or, as he puts it, “a Roman captain of the guards.” Not some common foot soldier, oh no. He became interested in the costume after recieving a Roman Playmobil set for his birthday. Of course, yesterday he came home from school insisting that he had to change his costume to a mummy — or rather, “a Roman mummy” — but gave up once I told him that we didn’t have any “mummy wrapping stuff.”
Hmmm. Do you think there ever were any Roman mummies? You can see it — some Roman stationed at the garrison in Cairo, who converts to . . . um, Ra-worship or whatever, and is embalmed after his death? Eh? Should I be staying away from the candy bowl?
And here’s Eleanor at her preschool this morning:
She is wearing the Raggedy Ann costume that my mother made for me when I was three years old. My mom’s been saving it for decades, and now the granddaughter finally gets to wear it. The striped kneesocks are, in my opinion, what elevates this costume from cute to awesome. Awwwww! There’s a homemade crepe paper wig that goes along with this costume, but I’m partial to the pigtails, myself. (Truthfully, my only memory of wearing the costume as a three year old is the sensation of the crepe paper rattling around my face. I didn’t like the wig, but Eleanor thinks it’s cool.)
William’s going to be a sheep for Halloween, but we don’t have any pictures of him in the costume yet. It’s the costume that Jeffrey wore when he was one, featuring a hat that Brian knitted himself.
For supper tonight, we’re having sausage chowder in little pumpkin-shaped bread bowls that I found at the grocery store, and I’ve managed to obtain a box of the ever-adorable Halloween doughnuts from the Banbury Cross bakery. It’s a box of doughnuts in the shape of cats, bats, ghosts, and pumpkins, complete with candy corn eyes and sprinkle decorations. Squee!
Of course, the best part of the evening will be giving out candy to kids with our fake-hand bowl.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a big plastic bowl with a fake hand glued to the bottom. You put your hand inside the fake one and find a secret black glove that is sewn to the inside of the bowl. When the bowl is full of candy, the glove is obscured, and when kids reach in for their treat, you can reach up and grab them from the inside of the bowl.
Little kids (like, age 4 and under) don’t think that this is scary, just confusing. It’s the older kids who have learned to be scared, to expect a trick when told to take their own treat. Some kids want to put their hands in the bowl and get grabbed over and over again (although I’m always careful that they only take one piece of candy). It’s fun. And inbetween trick-or-treat visitors, I get to sit on the porch, eat doughnuts, and read a book. What can be sweeter than that?
Yes! The house is FINALLY under controll enough that I can once again blog without guilt!
Which means that I can add purty pictures to the blog! Check it out:
Alpine Loop, 5 October 2008. PURTY!
Yesterday Brian and I spent the second half of General Conference driving the family down to the grandparents’ house in Provo. We decided to take the scenic route, going out to Park City, then down through Midway and ending with the spectacular Alpine Loop, a winding road that takes you through the aspen-and-evergreen forests of Mt. Timpanogos. We saw many, many scenic vistas, and many, many people taking photos of them. Playing Spot-the-Tripod became something of a sport. Alas, most of MY photos didn’t turn out so well, and the one above doesn’t quite capture the Beethoven’s-Ninth-Symphony-Esque-Grandiosity of it all. Let’s just say that a few days ago I was moping about, missing autumn on the East Coast, but now I don’t feel that way at all. Hurrah for snowcapped mountain peaks!
Here’s another spectacular photo, although you may not appreciate it as much as I do:
This is Eleanor’s first-ever attempt at writing her name! Well, her first two attempts, really. She’s very interested in reading and writing, which is a big change of pace compared to Jeffrey. Jeffrey, at age six, still needs to be prodded with a hot iron just to pick up a pencil, while Ella’s diving into the whole alphabet thing full on.
Eleanor and I were so excited about her name-writing that we had to celebrate with some Pumpkin Brains:
“Pumpkin Brains” is just the name we give on of my family’s favorite Halloween treats. You mix dry-roasted peanuts and candy corn together, and eat them together in the same bite. The resulting combination tastes a LOT like a Baby Ruth bar and is mega-addictive. Before I discovered Pumpkin Brains, I simply could not understand the appeal of candy corn (on its own, it is rather oo-ugh) but nowadays I usually insist on hunting down the Brach’s brand candy corn. (Oh, so far superior to every other brand. I can only find it at Target.) Getting the correct 2:1 peanut-to-candy ratio is, needless to say, essential.
