The Sport Handoff

Before soccer was officially over, the skiing commenced.

Slade and Kennah enjoyed Meadow's season opener during last week's mid-week holiday.

Can't wait for Friday nights in January--high school ski bus up the mountain!

B-lated B-day

September always sneaks up and seems SO busy with back to school (Slade and kids), soccer practices, soccer games, etc. Each year I devise a plan to manage it all better. It's working, but not perfect yet. Kennah's birthday celebration is one of those events that we CAN do around her actual day but it is so much easier just a few weeks later.

This year the kids went on a Haunted Tour of downtown Oregon City. Rocky Smith - an art teacher at this high school, city commissioner and life-long OC resident - took the kids on their own spook walk. (He takes tours all month.) It was fabulous to walk a few blocks and hear about how different life was a couple hundred years ago. It was a lot of fun to see the kids warm up and ask lots of questions. Rocky did a great job telling things that have been reported but letting the kids decide how to process the info.


I drive by this mural almost daily. I guess I knew it was the beginning days of OC, but never thought about where things are in relation to today.

More stories . . .

the OTHER Watts Family

Halloween rolls around and our family disappears and then reappears slightly altered:

Sawyer, how many years can reuse the same costume? I think this is the 4th year. After all, he is the kid that doesn't like change. His first choice was to go as an alien dressed up as an Earth kid. Although an original idea, Slade wouldn't let him trick or treat in that costume.

Kennah made such a cute Joker.

The Queen of Hearts tried hard to wear her new Sunday shoes so they would match her dress, but something about that idea seemed to spark memories from the past. Halloween is just close enough to the time we pack away sandals and summer clothes that the kids have brand new church shoes. But I've fallen for that logic before and by the time the night was over the shoes look like they are last years' remains.

Long gone are my Octobers by the sewing machine making costumes. Or even better, the glue gun creations.

Why I LOVE my job!

A True Disguise

This is how I finished Kennah's silhouette. Every time I look at it I am thrown for a loop. Kennah is so NOT a dressed-up-formal-type of girl. It's quite a stretch when you think the real model was actually wearing a ski hat.

I was even more surprised that she gave it her stamp of approval. (Maybe because she chose the green colors.) Or maybe the pearls remind her of Lisa Simpson.

Stumped

Well, my creative juices have taken a stroll this evening. I have 2 new seasonal decorations that I am going to hang on the wall with fake webbing over the top (they ended up WAY more colorful than I had envisioned, so the it's my easy version of muting the colors):

The catch is, I need 3. Someone is missing. And I don't quite know what to do for her . . .it can't be "girly" (which is too bad because a crown would be darn easy to add.) I thought about mummy, but that doesn't read in silhouette form too well. Any ideas? Anyone? Anyone?

Middle of the Night Call

Sunday evening/ EARLY Monday morning my cell phone rang. Since it was close to my bed I answered (had it been across the room I would have let it ring.)

"Hello?"

"Mom, this is Kennah."

"Yeah?" Realizing she must be calling from the land line in her room.

"Can Dad come get me? I'm scared."

Happily I passed the news on to Slade and returned to sleep. After all, he's the one that tried to show them a suspenseful show in honor of Halloween. Kennah may talk big, but she's still a little girl inside.

The next day Slade asked Kennah why she didn't just ask me to come get her. "Mom sounded tired." I sure do love that girl!