Bowles Blog

Yard Boys

Autumn + big yard = plenty of leaves.

Luckily we have plenty of help.

First, our faithful workhorse, John (Deere).  He's a trooper.  As long as you fill him with enough gasoline to power a midsize sedan, he works tirelessly.  Oh, and is he versatile--he mows, he mulches.  He never complains, even when he gets dog poop in his tires.

Of course John would be just another pretty face in the shed if not for his skilled and rugged pilot, BGD.  As long as he has his podcasts and 70s music blasting through his headphones, he can tackle yardwork for hours.  And he is fastidious.  No leaf escapes his mowing pattern.  None.  Ok, maybe one or two.  At most. 

Then we have those 3 hardworking children of ours.  Ebby helped out this weekend for a good while. Then her friend came over (early) to pick her up to go to the movies and she was outta here--before I could take her picture.  Trust me though, she raked.

Then we have the dynamic leaf raking duo of Cuyler & Will.  They spent about an hour raking in the 'upper yard' and then were asking if they could go inside and play video games.  Instead I took them down to the 'lower yard' to help me rake the bottom of the driveway.  Um, they had a blast.  They raked and played out there for another 2+ hours.  They built a fort, had a war on fungi, and made up a very complex game that involved a fictional Autumn festival, me pretending to be an old, senile woman and them "stealing" leaves from my piles.  They cracked themselves up.

See, that's Will laughing as he scoops up some pilfered leaves. 

Cuyler was using a leaf as a mustache, speaking in a disguised voice and calling me 'Madame'.

Will, bare legs and gloved hands, praying for more leaves to fall.

The boys, working in the leaf bunker. 

Cuyler, bundled up and standing on more  building material.

I'm happy to report that 2 days later, the leaf bunker is still in tact--maybe tomorrow they'll have a chance to add on.

With an 11:30 early dismissal day, we can only hope.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Puppy Love

Sort of like life imitating art, but dogs imitating human siblings.

Only difference is, I don't have any pictures of the siblings wrestling.  I'm usually too busy trying to break it up to grab my camera.

I'm sure I'll have endless photographic opportunities if I change my mind. 

Can't you just feel the love...and taste the fur?

Behind the Photos: Halloween 2009

You'd think at this point that taking a family photo or two wouldn't be such a big deal.

You'd think that kids would be excited to go out trick or treating on Halloween night.  Um, free candy and all.

You'd think that when children pick out their own costumes, they'd be happy about wearing them.

You might even think that if 2 out of 3 children are pouty and/or in the midst of a major meltdown at 5:50pm, that a fun evening of trick or treating starting at 6pm would be out of the question.

Yep, if you didn't have children (or maybe just if don't have my children), you'd think all these things would be true.

They're not.

It could be that I make too big of a deal about getting a family picture on Halloween.  After all, we all take the time to get dressed up in our (sometimes spectatular) costumes.

BGD decided to retire Goofy this year and instead went with the very authentic Gorilla suit. I mean really, check out the detail, from head to toe.  Impressive.  Ebby, after accepting then rejecting several other costume ideas, decided to take over the Mrs. Potts costume from yours truly.  In the meantime, I had stockpiled some devilwear and some red wings on clearance last Halloween.  I was going to be a Devil with a Blue Dress but I never got around to the blue dress so I was just Devil/Demon Mom.  Will kept it simple this year, he was a monkey.  And pretty darn happy about it too.  He wore that monkey mask/hat most of the week before the holiday.  Cuyler told me early on (August?) that he wanted to be Wicket the Ewok from Star Wars.  I wasn't that into the idea. I had no idea how I would make a (simple) Ewok costume.  Eventually it was 5 days before the school Halloween costume parade and we hadn't come up with a better idea, so I headed to the fabric store.  Armed with orange fabric, brown fur and a large container of safety pins, we make a passable Wicket costume.   So, everyone should've been all set, right??

Not so fast.

Early in the week, Cuyler found the perfect stick to use as a prop for his Wicket costume.  Clearly, you can see in the photo, Wicket has a stick, er rather a catapult/slingshot.  Naturally he couldn't bring the stick part of his costume to school on Friday for the parade.  No problem.

When it was time to get dressed on Saturday afternoon things started off smoothly.  Then Daddy/BGD 'tweaked' his back getting on his gorilla suit.  Ebby decided she looked dumb in the Mrs. Potts costume.  Worst of all, Cuyler broke his perfect stick while engaging in a pre-photo battle with a monkey. 

Naturally, the grandparents we around to witness it all (except for Pa, someone has to be on a cruise vacation...). 

Cuyler ran into the house, ripped off his costume and retreated to the basement, distraught.

Ebby had to be talked down from the costume dissatisfaction ledge, by her friend who had come over to go trick or treating.

Eventually, after a few threats, some cajoling, and way too many tears (and perhaps not all from the children), Cuyler re-emerged and Ebby put on her teapot hat.  Family photo time!          

Bubbe did the photographic honors.  Nana & Grandpa had since fled to the safety of their child-free home.

As you can see, there wasn't a lot of joy in Bowlesville.  But we have a photo of the 5 of us.  On Halloween!  In costume!

After a few more photos, it was nearly time to head out.  Cuyler was still mourning the loss of his stick (after rejecting about 50 substitutes gathered by his very thoughtful brother and settling on one that was just okay) when he started to gather his gear.  He picked up his trick or treat bag in one hand.  Then he picked up his flashlight in the other hand.

He looked at the stick.

And realized that he didn't have anymore hands.

No hands, no stick, amazingly, no problem.

Once Ebby was set free without parental supervision (but with a flashlight), she was also a new girl. 

The gorilla with the sore back was left home to scare trick or treaters and hand out candy.  Devil Mom headed out with her furry crew of boys (2). 

It was warm and windy, lots of moonlight.  The boys stayed with me, we went to all the houses on our street.  They chatted with the neighbors, were polite and got plenty of candy.

Dude, we had fun.

Amazing.

And that's the (very long) story behind the Bowles family Halloween photo.

Maybe next year everyone will just get dressed, stand in a group and smile.

Or maybe we'll start a week early.