Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all around the blue hutch
Things were calm and quiet; playing hide and seek and such.
Honey was upstairs playing games on the computer.
Bubba was playing with him – it couldn’t have been cuter.

The girls were busy playing both upstairs and down
With giggles and laughter their signature sound.
And I was in the bathtub all hidden away;
taking time from my chores to “come out” to play.

When up in Little’s room there arose such a clatter
It took all I could muster not to see what was the matter.
Little was crying, such a hullabaloo,
And Honey was trying to make sense of his crew.

Before I could speak the girls were back at their play –
I was still in the bathtub all hidden away.
Then what to my wondering eyes did appear?
Two little girls’ faces – they found me, the dears!

I held Little’s head and I kissed her sweet cheek,
Then I looked at my hand and could hardily speak.
There was blood on my fingers and some on my palm
So I checked out the gash and tried to stay calm.

Now Honey! Now pullups! Now dinner is done!
Now iPad and iPod – grab both, not just one!
To the van in the drive! To St. Luke’s down the street!
Go grab a light jacket and shoes for your feet!

And then in a twinkling we were parking the car
And giving names and birth dates in the ER.
Little charmed all the nurses and brightened their day.
We were shown to a room where we waited and prayed.

Information was shared and they cut Little’s hair
While I sat with “mom sadness” in my own little chair.
(The nurse that was working was the very same one
Who set Bubba’s arm back in July’s hot sun!)

Soon Little was ready for what was up next
And I was thankful for Apple and wi-fi and texts.
I turned when I heard sounds of steps on the floor,
and then Dr. Harris walked right through our door.

He was tall and bright-eyed, a right jolly old elf,
And I smiled when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A question or two and a glance at her head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke no more words, but went straight to his work,
giving Little a shot, staying true when she jerked.
And taking a tool right up in his hand,
He put in three staples, not the stitches I’d planned!

He pulled off his gloves and gave some instruction,
Then assured me the staples would perform their function.
And I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he walked out of sight,
“Happy Thanksgiving to all. Now go home and sleep tight!”

I have this friend who grew up here and I am always interested in the fun things she does with her kids.  Her oldest is KB’s age and he has a sister and baby brother too.  They are on the go a lot and this Fall I got smart and asked her what things she has on her “to do” for Fall fun.

There were the typical things (pumpkin patches, etc.) and things I didn’t know existed (Oktoberfest in nearby little town) and then there was something so obvious I had never considered it. . . the zoo.  Ari mentioned how nice it was to walk around the zoo in the Fall weather and I immediately wrote it on our own list.

All three kids had last Friday off school and so we went to the zoo.  We have a fantastic zoo. If you have never lived in a place with a fantastic zoo you might find this hard to digest, but our zoo is beautiful, and huge, and has a great variety of animals and things to do.  I know I have written about it before so you probably approach this post like I did that trip to the zoo. . . expecting it to be the same old thing.  Well, I feel like it was an entirely new zoo.

The weather was actually a bit nippy and so everyone had on jackets when we left home! I planned well and we got there when the zoo opened so we had an entire hour to ride the carousel for free and get into the children’s zoo for free too.  The kids rode the carousel over and over and I sat and took photos and laughed and put them up on animals and helped them down.  ALL WITHOUT BREAKING A SWEAT!!! I had to remind myself that, yes, we WERE AT THE ZOO!!!

The cold in the air had all the animals up and moving like never before.  Bears were walking, tigers were pacing, gorillas were swinging, and the orangutan was feeling feisty  He walked up to the glass and sat down on a sheet to stare at us.  After he tired of the little faces peering at his gigantic head, he picked up a bed sheet that was lying on the ground and threw it over his head to hide himself.  He peeked out a couple of times and got giggles a-plenty from his little fan club.

The other highlight was the new “Sea Lion Sound” – a tunnel to walk through the water and have close encounters with the swimming sea lions.  OH MY.

It’s supposed to be 70 degrees here this weekend, that is rare for November.  I am thinking it might just necessitate another trip to the zoo.

This year we were a bit “bugged” by Halloween: Butterflies, Ladybugs, and Spiders. . . oh, my!

One more week and that Spiderman costume would not have made it!! Still, isn’t he terrifying? The best part was that he had his glasses on under that mask – hilarious.  Also, when “no one was looking” he would pretend to sneak around and shoot web at things.  So cute.

We went to our old neighborhood (seminary housing) to trick-or-treat and it was just perfect.  45 apartments with about 80% participation took us about an hour.  Everyone was so very kind and it was fun to watch them recognize Honey as the one who interviewed and admitted them.

At every door the kids would call out “Trick-or-Treat” in chorus (this was the first year they needed no prompting) and then Little would ask, “Do you have any pets?”  When we walked away from a door a passerby would hear, “THANK YOU!” from three voices and then one little sweetheart calling out in addition, “Thank you! Thank you for letting me pet your pup!”

The police came by, turned on their lights, and handed out bags of chips – so very cute.

It was my favorite Halloween yet! Just a great night.  How was your Halloween?