More Halloween Pictures!

 Halloween was a raging success this year! I am not big on Halloween but I don't mind the dressing up and trick or treating. The kids really got excited about it this year and that was fun. Katie got to be the leader of her class in the parade and did a great job carrying the sign! Yes, there were about 900 other Elsas there.

 In fact, I believe that costume distribution can be summed up like this: 20% Elsa, 20% Mario and Luigi, 10% Minecraft, 30% Super Heros, 10% Zombie Prom, and 10% Other. Its kind of funny how so many kids wear the same costumes. James was concerned that no one would know who the Sacketts are, and the kids would think it was weird. I asked him who he was dressing up for and if HE liked the Sacketts. Of course the answer was yes, and we decided it was a good thing to go your own way.

 Tyler loved the parade and all the festivities. In fact, he was so excited when he got off the bus that he dropped the ENTIRE contents of his backpack onto the ground to show me all his loot. Lord have mercy.

 James informed me that his shirt was 'too clean' for a cowboy and needed to be dirty. He also tried this as an excuse to get out of a shower. I ended up soaking this shirt in coffee and it made it nice and dingy. He was happy!

He is wearing my Grandpa Cheyney's suspenders, which finally fit him after he has been wearing them sagging off of him for years. He's grown into the suspenders, and nearly out of his cowboy boots!

Halloween

I had no idea I have neglected the blog so much. Eek! I stayed up late finishing up everyone's costumes. Katie wanted to be Elsa and Tyler wanted to be Peter Pan. James is dressing up as Tell Sackett (how awesome is that!) but I forgot to take his picture. Here are a few to tide over the grandparents and I will take some better ones after school.

Random Tidbits

Here are a few updates in no particular order:

• After having one of the best gardening years ever, things are sadly winding down. James was miffed last night when he realized we were out of Katie's homegrown cherry tomato stash.
• This year, each kid had their own 'garden'. Katie had flowers, tomatoes and squash. She loved eating right from her garden and sharing the rest with whoever came to visit. James planted Indian corn which would have made lovely cornbread had not the evil squirrels stolen EVERY SINGLE EAR of it before we realized what was going on. Can you see I am building my case against the squirrels this year? And Tyler? Well, he adopted the rest of the garden as his own. He fell into it like a natural and could identify a weed sprout from a basil sprout from a tomatillo sprout which I find to be quite impressive for a 4/5 year old. He would drag anyone who came over out into his garden and regale them with his knowledge and point out each plant and tell them what it was. It was neat to watch him and how much pride he had in his garden.
• Which leads me to my next point. Drumroll please.........and now, without further ado, I hither for shall announce that Tyler grew a real, live watermelon this year!!! Which is much better than last year's watermelon incident.
• In other news (yeah, none of this is really 'news' but whatever) I have been sewing like mad to get my Etsy shop shined up for Christmas. I just mailed a cute little dress of to a customer in California, which is about the 10th state I've shipped to. Yay!
• And the best news of all??? My sister is coming next week! I am beyond excited at the shenanigans that we can get into while she is here, and did I mention my sister is coming!? Its so exciting! Sadly, my pesky bro-in-law will not be able to come, which means I will have to save up an extra dose of ornery-ness for the next time I see him. Betcha can't wait Phil! haha
• And now, I must end this most scatterbrained post because the chickens are freaking out and I better go let them out before they make me crazy. Or I make them breakfast. Whichever comes first...

School Ramblings

The kids have been in school a full month now. This means several things:

• I am already tired of packing lunches. It is very confusing to remember who likes what considering they change their minds every other day. For example, Tyler LOVES cheese at home, but has informed me under no uncertain terms that he will NOT eat it in his lunch. Also, he is too scared to ask the lunch lady to open stuff that he can't, so I have to remember to open stuff before hand. Katie used to eat Clementines like they were going out of style, but now she says she 'hates them' and can't eat them because she lost her 'clementine peeling tooth'.
• In the first month of school, approximately 43 trees have given their lives for my children's paperwork alone. Seriously?! This is 2014 people. You'd think we could find a way not to send home the same papers with all three kids each day. Do I really need 3 registration forms for the Wrestling league? Nope. Don't even need one.
• Also in the first month of school, there have been enough fundraisers to drain even Donald Trump's bank account. My personal favorite is the Race for Education. They gather the children in an assembly and show them all manner of cheap crap made in China to entice them to sell out their friends and family members. Then they come home saying that if they come up with 10 names and addresses they get to win the most awesome, amazing, wonderful, I'm going to die if I don't get it......bouncy ball. And I tell them to skip the names and addresses and we can hit up the dollar store for a bouncy ball instead. A much better option without the threat of excommunication from the family. But that's not all! After they shake you down for addresses, they send home a letter three letters, asking for donations of stamps and tape to use for the mailing of said fundraiser. Keep in mind this is only one fundraiser of many so far. Because apparently spending something in the neighborhood of $4000 a year on property taxes isn't enough. 
• Lest you think that school is all annoying, all the time, the kids have all landed wonderful teachers this year! Tyler has the same teacher James and Katie had. He is doing great, much to my surprise and amazement! He loves school and gives himself 'homework' even when his teacher doesn't. He has already come a long way in writing his letters, although his identification of them is still sketchy. Katie has James' first grade teacher and we loved her. She was so much fun and I am sure Katie will have a good year. James likes his third grade (yes, third grade....waaaaaa) teacher a lot, and I do too. She seems pretty awesome. Yay for good teachers!

In other news, Katie lost her two top teeth in the last few weeks. I will try to post a picture soon. After losing her first tooth earlier in the year, she decided that was way overrated and didn't want any more teeth to fall out. She actually cried when the top ones got loose because she didn't want to lose them. Especially Chippy, her trusty clementine peeling tooth. She let them get so loose they were literally hanging there at all sorts of unnatural and off-putting angles. It was so bad, she could close her mouth and her loose tooth could stick out between her lips. Gross. But I digress. The first one finally got so loose she let me pull it. I despise pulling teeth, but not quite as much as I despise seeing a loose tooth do gymnastics while still attached. The second tooth was not going to be pulled out for anything, not even promises that the tooth fairy pays double today. In the end, she actually knocked her own tooth out. She was swinging her arms, whacked herself in the face and knocked her tooth out. Voila! Add that to the ways you can pull a tooth.