As promised...

Hope the Great Pumpkin was good to all of you tonight! And, on behalf of Logan, please don't leave those lit pumpkins unattended all night. Only YOU can prevent forest fires! :)

"Schockat! Sucky!"

So, it's nearly Halloween, and how could that holiday exist without...candy! the inspiration for today's post. The subject line is Loganese for "chocolate" and "sucker." Yes, you can tell what he's been asking for lately. It all started a couple of weeks ago after our neighborhood Target (which is now a Super Target, mind you) had opened, and Eric and I, drawn like moths to a flame, went shopping for various odds and ends, thrilled not to be forced into going to Wal-Mart any longer. (Our Target was closed for several months to become "Super.")

The Halloween isle beckoned us in with its festive decorations and aisles of monstrous bags of candy. Knowing we'd have to buy sweets for trick-or-treaters eventually, I suggested we stock up immediately. Why wait, right? So we piled a few bags of candy into our cart. Now I see the error of my ways. Note to self: Never buy Halloween candy early...at least don't buy the stuff you really like early.

Through this perhaps misguided purchase, I've found that Eric and I have a rigid hierarchy of Halloween candy consumption. We quickly gobbled up all of the Almond Joys and most of the Reese's cups within the first few days of having the candy in the house. This weekend, we're settling for the Kit-Kats, and it's only a matter of time before the ho-hum Hershey bars will go the way of the others before them. Aside from the occasional Dum-Dum, we don't usually keep candy in the house. Well, Logan clearly approves of the change. Eric and I unwisely shared a bite or two of our Almond Joys, Reese's, and Kit-Kats, and now we have a chocolate-demanding delinquent on our hands.

This afternoon, I decided to move the candy from the dining room table to the kitchen counter, hoping the move would foster an out-of-sight, out-of-mind scenario. Nope, he was begging for "Schockat" with a vengeance. And as much as I hate to give in to his whining, it is pretty darned adorable to see him grabbing that chunk of Kit-Kat in his fist, doing his little dance of chocolate-induced joy (which closely resembles someone running in place while having to pee). Ah, how he loves sugar. He may just get a new supply of it, too, as we're going to Sycamore's Pumpkin Fest parade tomorrow.

Hope you all have a Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin patch

Columbus Day weekend is always a special one for me--my parents come up for the weekend and we take a trip to Jonamac Orchard in Malta. They always have a funny little antique motor convention and a petting zoo. So, on Saturday we braved the bitterly cold wind and made the trek to Jonamac. Logan got to pet and feed the sheep, the burros, the goats, the cows, and a llama. We also went to a little corn silo they had for the kids--imagine a really big sandbox filled with corn--lots of fun!
Finally, we took a stroll through the display of motors, bought some apples--Honey Crisps, yum!--and took off for the day.
The next day, we went to Applebee's for lunch. Fortunately, Logan was in good spirits, and as we were starting to pack up to leave, he started saying "Bye!" to everyone in sight. A young guy passed by, and said in reply, "See ya!" Logan must have thought that was incredibly clever, because he started saying "See ya!" really loudly to everyone as we walked out. We, along with everyone else, were in stitches. All in all, we had a great weekend.
Hope you all had a nice weekend, too!