Do you remember last year when I was obsessed with this show on BBC?

Well it was back- the gold lame suits, the evil genius Lord Webber- all of it. This time they are casting Oliver. They are showing the roles of Nancy and Oliver but there is only voting on the role of Nancy. I especially am happy about this as this was one of the musicals we did when I was a kid. And I actually have some happy memories form that time. So BBC has lured me back in. This week was the first episode- and my early favorites are Irish Nancy, the two toned hair girl who is curvaceous- and this one blond girl.

Also the winning Maria has been a huge hit and she even won the London Critics award.

Just Another Day in the Clove House

Just a quick note about today- We had a children's Halloween party here at the house. And even though I left the camera out on the counter I didn't take a single picture. It was the right sized group- about the perfect mix of old and new friends- boys and girls. I made fruit and veg trays, cheese and crackers, pumpkin muffins filled with spiced cream cheese, and a cranberry bread pudding with pecan praline on top (that recipe needed a little refining). The kids put glitter stickers on a pumpkin coloring page and we made carmel apples and let the kids cover them in sprinkles, m&ms, or peanuts (or all three). It was fun to see the kids different approaches and interest levels to these activities. It was a fun day. Some nice visiting time for the mothers and my house was less torn up than it usually is. Also two new borns and those are always fun.

During the party Beckett was not so pleasant. He went to bed really late last night and was a little grumpy about kids touching his things- so he put them all in his crib and got in there and yelled at Kennedi to stop looking at him. He also didn't like kids touching the M&Ms (but he then got a baggy and put some in it and sat in the corner and was okay) he also didn't like them spilling on the floor. Then in the middle of the party he fell and split his head open and wouldn't keep the steri strips on it and so I had to superglue it. sigh.

Coen loved it and played and visited the whole time. He is my social guy. When everyone left he made all the left over apples for his cousins and Tractor Grandparents. And he made them cards- my personal favorite was the "circle ghost with four wheels".

Then I went to cooking class at the Toro's and that as usual was fabulous. Yum and lots of ideas for fast easy asian meals at home.

As I was getting Coen ready to go eat dinner, Alma told him he couldn't take blankie. Coen had a melt down. I trying to calm him down explained that he usually never takes blankie out of the house and did he want to go eat with a baby blankie? He agreed with one caveat- blankie wasn't a baby blankie- it was a big boy blankie.

When I got home Alma was in bed and the boys were running around like maniacs. They had dinner with Tractor Grandpa while Grandma and I were at the class. We played a little longer and cuddled and got hyper and finally are in bed.

When I was laying with Coen he said "You like to sleep with Dad."

I responded "yes I do. When you get married you will probably like to sleep with your wife."

"Kennedi is my girlfriend and we are getting married in 4 months."

"Oh Coen" I said, "I will miss you so much."

"Well, I will send you cards. I will put an M on it so you will know it is for you. And inside I will write HBCTKM because those are the letters I know." (Whenever he sees an M he say M for mama)

"You won't visit me?"

"Well, we will be pretty busy."

As I left the room Beckett had wrapped his Star Wars DVDs in his blankie and was rocking them.

All is finally quiet in the Clove house so I am off to sit in the tub and read a book.

And on an unrelated note-just because I want to record it. Coen and I were in Ben Franklin (where they rip you off because they know you have no other option in town) and he was chatting and playing with some Halloween decoration and I was only half listening. He kept saying this is a B and this is O and this is O and moving the letters around and then he said "Mom look I just made them say Boo. See B O O says boo." I got all excited- our first sight word. And with no coaching other than all the stuff he helped me hang up for Halloween at our house. Maybe he is starting to get interested in letters! And I wasn't really paying attention so I hope that those paper mache letters weren't injured in his letter exploration.

And another note- I din't get anything done Alma had put on my to do list- sorry. And I just kept thinking about all the people I wished lived close enough to come play at my house and do crazy messy activities and crafts with- like Becky and Megan and Andrea and Emily and Christy and on and on and on. I wish I could see those I love more often. But then if you all lived close I wouldn't have to force myself to go out of my way to meet new people.

Oh and Megan- Tara Kellerman (married to Seth Kellerman) was at the party with 2 of her 4 girls and that was so fun and I look forward to doing more with them- I just thought you would think it was fun too. They moved back into town when he got a job as the minister at the Episcopalian church in GV last year. Isn't that fun!

We watch these incessantly at our house

So these are a huge hit with the boys. We watch them a lot. Beckett saying JibJab is pretty funny. Look for cameos by Brian and Obi Wan and Nick as Darth Vader.

Cute Video to Come

We have entered a new phase in our home. A time period I think of as the Star Wars Years. I actually thought to myself a couple of weeks ago "ahh, we have entered the Star Wars Years". Now Coen likes Star Wars and has for a while, and we have a lot of Star Wars toys, but Beckett is our real fanatic. He has taken the mania to a whole new level.

Almost every game he plays is Star Wars themed. My favorite is when he grabs me and pulls me into the hall saying "Run Pincess. Pincess follow me." and he drags me down the hall way crouching like Hans and shooting all the "Toopers" following us. He is usually Hans, Coen is Luke, I am Princess Leia, and Alma is Chewbacca. But this afternoon he wouldn't let Coen be Luke he just kept yelling "tooty-tooty" and pointing at him. It took a while but we finally figured out he meant R2D2. And just two hours later I had already forgotten what that meant when he was having a melt down because "tooty-tooty" had fallen down behind the toy chest.

The boys have different favorite movies in the series. So when I agree to let them watch one there is usually a big fight over whether we would watch A New Hope or Return of the Jedi. Who ever loses the deal cries like mad for the first twenty minutes of the movie or I threaten a time out. Beckett usually tells me it is "Storie- storie" Which either means scary or dark. He uses it interchangeably. One of my favorite things that happened during a movie- Beckett started screaming at the top of his lungs "Storie mommy storie" So I ran into the room and Beckett was pointing at the screen. It was the part of the movie where Yoda is raising the X-wing (Beckett's favorite "space-ip") out of the swamp and my little OCD guy was crying and saying "Mommy dirty- space-ip dirty dirty." He made me fast forward this terrifying scene. Normally while the movie is playing the boys get all their guys out and set them up, or they make their own spaceships. Any thing arranged in a group is a spaceship. Or they make a swamp out of the couch cushions. Or they chase each other around the room and jump on the couch with their light sabers and blaster.

Beckett has also made a little pile of the DVDs and some Star Wars X-Box games. He sorts them all day and carries them around where ever he goes. He sleeps with them- and some times an X-wing or the Millennium Falcon. If you refer to them as his DVDs he says "No mama- Daddy's DVs." He has been known to kiss them.

I got the best video the other night of Beckett in Hans Solo mode. But the cord is in the room where Alma is sleeping. So I will have to download it later. It is one of the things that will make me sob like a baby when I watch it when he is a big boy.

I've Been Crafty

So I have been crafting a little. This is one of my favorite things I have done recently. I also made a matching clip for Annie to wear too. It was one of those things that turned out how I imagined. I was so tickled with how cute the little doll looks!

I also made this scarf for Luke's halloween costume. He called me on the phone and said "Aunt Polly I am going to be Harry Potter for Halloween, would you make me a scarf? It is red and yellow. " I bit my tongue and didn't tell him it is actually maroon and gold. So I hopped into my new project and looked and a ton of pictures. I changed this from the original a little. Those are made as a big tube which is really warm and luxurious looking. I started working in the round, and then I thought. What the heck is wrong with me- this is for a kid in California! So I simplified a little. Still there were a couple of things that annoyed me. The cheap-o yarn only had these two colors in two different weights and that was a little odd. (As I was headed to the third store I reminded myself that this was for a kids Halloween costume- so I dealt with it). But I learned that I hate knitting with cheap-o yearn. Ick. It makes knitting a chore. Ick- it feels gross and you just want to stop touching it. But not willing to by merino for a child's Halloween costume. And my model is cute- but not cooperative. We will have to really appreciate it on Becky's blog when she posts pics of the kids on there costumes. And for my kids? Nada. It will probably be store bought and not cute- which I always hate- but I am not going to make a spiderman costume or an X-wing fighter pilot costume. I am not insane. And I can't convince my kids that any of the pottery barn costumes that I could replicate are cute. And Alma and I want them to be knights and we will follow them around banging coconuts together. But they won't agree. Which is sad because their little friends are going to be princesses and wouldn't that be darling!?!

So still coming- a darling baby sweater- so cute! and three hats for my mom's bald head- I kinda don't want to give away. But I still need to take some pictures of those. And sorry for the bad lighting of the doll- you see I finish crafting late at night and needed to wrap the gift, hence the crap lighting.

The decorations are out. I am especially happy with how cute all the pumpkins I made last year look on the mantle. So Coen and I put all of these up after Beckett was in bed. My little OCD child woke up in the morning and freaked out. We barely made it into the hall when he saw the mantle and started screaming "My house, my house!" over and over. And he wasn't excited- he was angry. He wouldn't calm down and eat until I walked all around the house and showed him everything we had done and let him look, and touch it and complain to me a little. I wasn't really expecting that. And I think I have a thing for banners. I have to stop myself or move on to a different holiday. I don't think I have any for St Patrick's day yet.