Candyfest

Jemima thought she heard something mentioned about treats, so she was eager to look over the goody basket to see if there were any Temptations hiding in there for her. She was tricked. There were no cat treats. Sadly, she only found chocolate, eyeball gumballs, Capri Sun fruit drinks, and Silly Putty.   

I thought our house was adequately stocked with treats; however, we ran out of goodies in two and a half hours. Thankfully, there were no more visitors after 8 o'clock. Last year, we only had a handful of visitors, but this year there was a steady stream. 

We had mostly really young children show up at our door, so the Capri Suns were the hottest item going. For some reason, moms prefer to have their lil' ones receive 100% juice instead of 100% sugar-laden candy bars! I think I handed out 24 containers of juice. Next year, I will definitely stock up on more juice.

Here are a few of the characters that we saw tonight:

The Harris Family

I never knew that we had superheroes living right next door, until tonight. We just thought they were super neighborly.

 Twinsies!

 Princess Ellie

 Mackenzie, Lexie, and Brenton

 The "Other Smiths" paid the Smiths a visit.

 Claire (the birthday girl), Becca, Lauren, and Aubrey

 These 8th grade girlies were out begging for candy tonight.

This was my favorite thing that my daughter was given; however, she'll likely use the money to buy candy. Ha!

This is what Millie's candy haul looked like. 

For a brief moment, I had felt relief that we had given away all of our sugar-laden goodies. The temptation to indulge was gone. But now, it's back!!! I hope my daughter hides her candy from me... especially the Reese's.

Masquerade Party

Millie and three angelic friends (Taylor, Alyssa, and Bailey) hosted a costume party. They set their guest list, planned, organized, worked within a budget, shopped for supplies and food, decorated, and pulled off a very fun gathering. They needed a just a little parental input along the way, but all in all, these girls did a fantastic job! 

The foursome purchased matching costumes; however, I had to make a minor alteration to my daughter's costume by adding straps. Something about allowing my fourteen-year-old girlie to don a strapless dress at a junior high party bugged me. Yep, I am just living up to my conservative reputation. :-P

Mr. Smith and I were asked to help chaperone the social function, along with three other parents, so we kept things at a manageable level. Of course, I HAD to take along my camera to snap photos, much to my daughter's dismay. Some day, she'll be glad that I took soooo many pictures of her childhood. I think!

 Millie and a Makenna Rabbit

The party was held at the Hidden Lakes Clubhouse in Keller. It was the perfect setting, except that the venue seemed to have an arachnid infestation. Now that's a big, hairy spider! I think we should've called an exterminator...Eeeek!

 Some of the partygoers created fantastic homemade costumes.

 All smiles -- well, four out of five ain't bad.

How can it not be a fun party when toilet paper is involved?

Some of the attendees had to leave before we had an opportunity to get a group shot. There were just over thirty junior high kids at the gathering. What a great group of teenagers!


You girls are always doing such heavenly things. Where do you hide your halos and wings?

Oh! I see 'em!

Yellow-bellied

Does the term "yellow-bellied" refer to me or this snake? Both!

As I was doing yard work, I saw the bottom half of a Nerodia erythrogaster flavigaster, or yellow-bellied water snake, sticking out of the lawn irrigation valve cover. Mr. Snake definitely was not the only one who was yellow-bellied. 

I was proud of myself because I did not scream or squeal; however, it DID give me a start. At first, I thought that one of my kids was playing a joke on me by planting a rubber snake in the yard. It was a pretty realistic looking snake. 

I reallllly dislike snakes. I wasn't sure if it was dead or alive, but either way, it was not wanted.

My brave oldest daughter accompanied me back outdoors. She tossed a rock near the snake, and we saw that there was no movement. This critter was not just mostly dead, it was really dead. That made the situation a bit more bearable.

As best we can tell, the snake was likely after a tasty frog. I guess that would make our reptilian creature friend a cold-blooded killer...  We've found that frogs like to get inside the valve boxes throughout the yard. Mr. Snake likely trapped his prey inside the box, went in through the opening just far enough to have dinner, but discovered that he was too stuffed to fit back through the narrow opening. At least he died with a full belly.

This reminded me of Winnie-the-Pooh getting stuck in the opening of Rabbit's Howse, as a result of eating too much honey while visiting his friend.

Oh, bother!

Oh, bother indeed! 

I waited for Mr. Smith to get home to figure out how to dispose of the slithery carcass. Neither one of us wanted to pull the snake out of the opening in the lid, so we tossed the 3' long snake, cover and all into the trash. 

I'm sure the trash guys love finding this kind of stuff in the weekly collection.