Rob's birthday was today, Oct 27th, but we will be celebrating tomorrow by taking him and the kids out to dinner. Rob got the kids for his birthday today (an extra day, yea! ) and brought them over to practice riding thier bikes in our triple wide driveway. The kids wanted to wash Rob's Van and our Marshmellow car - they loved - it - Averys favorite part is squirting everybody with the power hose - my dry pincurls got all wet. Audrey loved being able to wash the roof of my short little car. Then they came in the house to watch a cartoon movie about a little boy playing baseball. Audrey sat in the kitchen with her "TEA" and watched from the TV from there.

It may still be over 80 degrees but the fall winds in our corner of the world have started and they play havac with Grandpa's setting up the Halloween display. About half the stuff got set up last Sunday.

3rd of How To build A Sarcophagus

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1 and 3

We searched the Internet for pictures of real Hieroglyphics and found the ones that would work best for this project. I printed them and cut them up, Reg arranged them across the long counter to be sure they would work as he wanted. Then he Decoupaged them to the Sarcophagus.

Picture 2 Reg lining up the masking tape to get the Pharoh's headpiece as perfect as possible. It came out great.

Picture 4 The finished Sarcophagus looks wonderful, with his taller shoes it will be a perfect fit on Halloween.

Part 2 Building a Sarcophagus

Picture 1 Forming the elaborate headpiece on a Sarcophagus

Picture 2 Traditional gold for Egyptian Pharohs and High Level dignitaries.

Picture 3 Inside of coffice will have a granite like finish

Picture 4 Crackling the under coating of gold

How To Build a Sarcophagus Part 1

• The word Sarcophagus refers to the carved, generally stone case in which the linen-wrapped mummy was placed. This year for Halloween Reg is going to be a Mummy, as in "The Mummy" , the famous movie from 1932 starring Boris Karloff and Zita Johann. When Grandpa and I researched the movie, we found out lot's of interesting tidbits. There was a lot of footage shot with Boris Karloff in the Mummy costume, but only a little of it was actually used because the director though using less would leave more to the imagination and be more frightening for the movie audience. The costume was put on with glue but no arrangement was made to go to the bathroom. To see a 3 part You tube series about the movie, go to this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEhouFzD7KY Picture 1 Using thin wood board, foam board and expanding insulation a Sarcophagus shape is made with glues, cutting, and filing. Picture 2 white plaster/hole filler covers everything for a base. Picture 3 Double layers are added to base for stabilization, durability and bottom extendtion. Weights have to be used to be sure glue is tight. Picture 4 Top cover is shaped. Both bottom and top have to fitted together perfectly.

The Best Jumping Place

Avery and Audrey have always loved jumping on Grandpa and Grandma's bed. But the best place to jump now is Papa's bed. Rob has put up a mirror on the wall and the kids can see themselves jumping. They laugh and jump and laugh and jump until they are so tired they just lay there for at least 8 minutes!

HGTV Kid style.

Today (Friday) I spent at Rob's house with Audrey and Avery. We rolled out sugar cookies, cut pumpkins and moons, and baked them. Then we frosted and decorated them. We make candy skelton necklaces, we played the Fairy Game, we had a tea party, we played a doctor game (Audrey did X-rays on me! ), we ate fish stickes and they told me funny jokes - but what the kids loved best was when the contractor came to fix the bathroom ceiling. They were just enthralled. We set up a table and chairs with their snack of crackers & peanut butter and cheese and juice so they could watch every step the guy took. He used a drill with a flash lite. He put up squares of wall board that fit perfectly. He stood on a pail and the bathtub. He was as patient as he could be while the kids pointed out all the details and asked questions. Nothing Grandma did can compare with in house kid style HGTV.

The Heat is gone (Maybe)

Finally - a day below 100 degrees - in fact - it may not even break 90 degrees today. Yesterday afternoon we got real clouds - then real RAIN - enough to even make the ground wet. Last night it got down to 76 degrees in the house - WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING. We were freezing - it was like living in heaven. Right now it is overcast and sprinkling fat sparkly sequins of precious rain drops. Cross your fingers for us that summer will be gone in Arizona !

Audrey gets Pneumonia

Audrey's bad cold turned out to be Pneumonia. AzGrandma got to come over to Papa's house and spend the day with her. We had a tea party lunch with tuna sandwiches cut into little squares and hot dog coins to dip into catsup. Audrey poured us tea from her tea pot (apple juice). Audrey loves apple slices with peanut butter for snacks. We did some little craft projects I had brought over and I read Audrey her favorite books. She read her Toy Story book to her friend Jessie herself. Audrey says Jesse can't hear Grandma reading the words, Jesse can only hear Audrey reading the words.

We played a Tick Tac Toe game lots of times, Grandma Bonnie had given it to Audrey and Audrey loves it. It has hearts and flowers instead of X's and Os.

Dead Scorpion 6 inches

This is a dead Scorpion in front of Rob's house. Thank goodness he has a good pest service every month. It's about 6" long. This is why I REALLY hate people with dogs who don't pick up their dogs poop ! Scorpions love it like a Las Vegas buffett and one neighbor who doesn't clean up after their own dog attracts enough scorpions to make, 1st their own yard dangerous for kids, then the neighbors yards, and as the scorpion population grows, an entire neighborhood. Look at the size of the stinger on the tail.