Happy Halloween - Iron Man

Halloween in Louisiana is an event all in of itself. Since Halloween fell on a Monday this year, festivities started the Friday prior. First we went to educational community based activities, then we participated in alternative "trick-or-treating" based activities at local churches/community centers. After such long days we spent Saturday evening at home carving our special pumpkin Daddy Swann selected from the pumpkin patch and roasted pumpkin seeds, its our little tradition that I started years ago with Garr.

As for Sunday, there was a pause in the Halloween festivities as the religious observances trumped the holiday. Then Monday, rolled around and everyone was given the opportunity to leave work early! Yes, you're actually allowed to leave work early on Halloween so that you're able to trick-or-treat.

Then entire neighborhood was jammed packed wth vehicles, thank goodness we have a gated community or we wouldn't have had a place to park! And speaking of parks, the local park converted its trails into a trick or treat trail with free hot dogs, snow cones and cotton candy (the weather is mid 70s here!) - and of course candy - CANDY like every 2 feet! There were also moon bounces and all other types of things for the little and big kids alike! After that, into the "city" (as Robert calls it) but it's just the neighborhood behind our apartment complex. He didn't like that too much though, as the houses were pretty elaborate in their decor and he refused to go get candy on several occassions - I think he may be a tad bit traumatized by all of the "darkness" of the holiday; mommy may have forgotten for a moment that he was just four (bad mommy)!

It has surely been a long night, maybe they should consider giving people the option of a late arrival to work the following morning ;)

Robbie's Field Trip - Pumpkin Patch

Mrs. Hailey's PreKindergarten Class

Robbie and the prekindergartens went on yet another field trip. This time, Daddy Swann chaperoned. They visited Anderson Farm in Leesville, LA and had lots of fun learning about how a farm operates, harvests crops, and takes care of animals. They even had a picnic lunch!

Daddy Swann was a little nervous about his chaperoning responsibilities but was quite a "hit" with the 3 and 4-year old class - as they traveled through the corn maze, took a hay ride, and selected their very own pumpkins. As a final surprise he even choose Robbie a "special pumpkin" that he saw only when he arrived home later that evening. So all in all - I think, I'll be able to get him to chaperone again...check out his pictures from their trip.

Robert's has to hold Mrs. Hailey's hand because he doesn't behave in line.

But...he's always "line leader"! OK, I had to find a bright side!

They listen to a presentation about "following directions" on the farm. Oh well, gald Daddy Swann's there...

They learn how to make feed.

Then they get to use it!

Afterwards is hayride time!

Robbie and Daddy Swann make silly faces!

Then there was a hay maze!

Robbie was in charge of "hand sanitizer".

Time for brown bag picnic lunch before reboarding the busses back to school.

BTW - Mrs. Hailey (Robert's teacher) commented that she can tell where Robert gets his "social side", as Darryl doesn't talk much! LOL

But wait, was that a stab at me? hmmmmm!

Robbie and The Giant Pumpkin!

Great Gift

A few years back one of my many surrogate moms (Christina's mom, Loretta, to be specific) bought me a wonderful Christmas gift, a caftan. It was extremely gorgeous and I knew I would wear it one day, but I had yet to have all of the elements to make it a complete look. Well piece by piece over the years (I really believe it was like three Christmas' ago) I acquired all of the elements to make to unveil this masterpiece...and voila.

Check out my look for today!

I felt as if I channeled Billie Holiday with my flower or Diana Ross with my flowing and draping silk. The wind blew at the perfect time as the pictures snapped and created nature's own "Diva Fan" just for me! You couldn't tell me nuthin' - lol! It was like a photo shoot (minus the apartments bldgs and our grill in the background) gotta work on that- HA HA HA

I received so many complements today from everyone but especially from my "non-black" male admirers, it was amazing! Ebby reminded me how "they" all love the "ethnic" look (insert blushing).

Henna Hands

I love my neighbor!

She's came straight from India to DeRidder to open several businesses with her family (they have a few stores here and several in Houston - 3 hours west). I asked her one day when we were at the bus stop with the kids in the morning in the most "non- stereotypical" way if she did henna, next thing you know...wow! I was treated to this beautiful work of art. She even volunteered to teach me and told me more about its origins and purposes.

I simply love it & I love the great melting pot of people that you can come across that appreciate their culture and even moreso love to share with interested people like myself!

Darryl has never seen henna before and has been hatin' ever since. He wants it done so badly its hysterical. I told him that men don't traditionally get hennaed but I found out that they actually do in special instances, such as weddings (now he's trying to renew our vows early so he can get done) - ha!

I told him that I would do it for him once I learned but he was appalled  at the thought of my "primitive" free hand, I assume and said "you don't even know how to draw"...duh, that's why she's gonna teach me! Sheesh! So just for that, when I do learn, I'm not gonna do his after all.


Thank you, Bendi!

It's Finally Here!

It all started this morning. You know when your having one of those mornings when you hit the snooze button like four times because you're sleeping so good and snuggled all under the comforters...it was perfect! It was cold in the house because the temperatures have been dropping drastically overnight into the 50's and 60's (and Darryl wont let me cut off the A/C) but during the day reaching back into the 80's and 90's - simply perfect (camping weather for any of you who have ever spent any time outdoors, during the day it's hot as heck and at night it's bone chilling cold). Well this is my weather, and I believe that this, may just be the first signs of Autumn in Southeastern Louisiana.
So as I am about to hit the snooze button for the fifth time, it's about 6:30am now and Robbie's alarm is scheduled for 6am because he has to be at the bus stop by 7:15am promptly or we have to sprint to to the late bus stop...I hear a strange yet familiar steady noise. Could this be? Oh my goodness, it's RAINING!!! I jumped out of bed and rushed to Robert's room to wake him.

Now to you this may not be a big thing, but here it hasn't rained in over 6- weeks and even then it only was a sprinkle and not enough for an umbrella. We have fire warnings all month and burning bans - this place can spontaniously combust if someone were to through a ciggarrette out of a car window its so dry.

OK, still not a big deal.

Well, I bought Robbie a rain coat and boots 8-weeks ago...now do you see? Robert never got his teeth brushed, washed up, and dressed for school faster! Now, I tried to give him a disclaimer that he would have to take the coat off once he arrived at school (he could wear the boots - a compromise of sorts)...but something tells me he wasn't listening to me at all. I can just feel that today will be a "note day"...but his 8-week wait & smile was definitely worth it!

BTW - if your interested in the raingear check out www.westernchief.com they have great stuff for both girls and boys (big and small). You should see my rainboots ;P

Batman Robbie preparing for school

Battling puddles big and small

Date Night

Darryl & I in the lounge before dinner

The "Hubby" and I had date night last night which had several twist of events but ultimately turned out wonderful! It all started earlier in the week when Darryl informed me that he had tickets for us to attend a piano concerto. Now, this was great as I can appreciate fine arts and I would've never expected Darryl to think "outside the box" and arrange such a date night on his own (insert impressed)! So upon further research, I found out that the piano concerto is actually a nationwide competition that ends here in Louisiana! The final winner then goes on to perform in St. Petersburg, Russia in addition to performances at Carnegie Hall, Washington, DC, and a recording contract. The competition lasts a total of four days and our tickets were for the final day, how great was that? But all of our plans to attend fell through at the last minute because in all of his planning for the event, my dearest husband failed to secure childcare...alas!

Pouting because Darryl told me "no"

So after almost five years of marriage, I have made progress but it seems that I am still not 100% - ha! But date night was not a complete bust...since we were dressed for the concerto and Darryl did find a babysitter (just too late for us to attend the event, everything is an hour and a half away, the concerto was in Alexandria, LA). Plan B was enacted!


We ended up driving down to Lake Charles, as I've been trying to get Darryl to take me there for live jazz and entertainment at the beautiful L'Auberge du lac Casino Resort. Well on our hour and a half ride to Lake Charles (mind you it's only 6:30pm by now) I'm yawning and contemplating taking this babysitting opportunity to sleep, we finally arrive. The resort is simply breathtaking and sits on the water. It's filled with all of the luxuries of a resort and we soaked it all in! We found a nice upscale intimate restaurant with a rustic, log cabin theme (Darryl and I want an authentic log cabin for our ultimate dream house) so it was perfect. It had a live pianist that sung many of my favorite popular jazz tunes and it sort of still felt as if we got our piano concerto after all (just not of  the classical genre). It was a beautiful evening, but we were simply too tired by 11pm to partake of any additional live jazz bands, karaoke, or casinos - although we did have fun exploring the resort grounds and strolling the great halls and lovers lanes along the water.

We laughed about how old we were all the drive home (while we swerved to stay awake for the hour and a half commute). I remember staying out all night! Now its like, "naw...I'd rather sleep" Ha
BTW- the "hubby" looked mighty handsome but sadly sleep trumped that...I know, I know! I'ma have to get him a coupon book! LOL