Better Late Than Never - Halloween 2008

I freely admit I am a wee bit tardy with the photos from Halloween. I could lay out some sob story tale of woe of sick kids with runny noses, car troubles and my own current state of disease - but, cute pictures of cute kids are always way more fun!

A pleasant respite from the costumes of last year - these Halloween offerings did not take near as much time nor trouble. Smartest thing I ever did was let go of the ideal that we needed a "theme". Wizard of Oz was fun last year, and the kids were darn cute - but trying to get all those costumes sewn left me feeling like I was being attacked by flying monkeys.

From youngest to oldest:

Nathan

Originally going to be a frog. (Adam really likes "fwoggies") Perusal of listings on e.Bay for ideas uncovered incredible deal with free shipping on Zebra costume. Mom shouted "Sold!" and the postal service conveniently took care of the details. Cute and warm - the costume was both functional as well as fun. Nate took to candy quite handily. See picture below.

Adam

Pirate of the High Seas. His costume took the most effort. Shirt, vest, belt and pants were thrift store finds gleaned from the girls' section. Store bought hat and sword. His "buckle" shoes are actually dress shoes bought on clearance from Wal.mart. Also wearing Sadie's knee socks. Mom had to "cuff" pants (size 6 girls - let down the "cuff" afterward and Sadie has a pair of capris now - oh how I love 2 for 1's!). Shirt and vest had to be "cut down" to size. Basically I just cut the sleeves off, shortened the shirt; trimmed side seams and recut the arms. Sewed it back together and "voila!" one ruffly pirate shirt! The hat was also a bit goofy - so I just took it from a tricorne hat to a four corner style. (It fit and looked better)

Sadie

A princess, of course! Recycled princess dress from Halloween's past. Made this dress for Jessica when she was about Sadie's age. Fabric recycled from awful pink bridesmaid dress and matched with clearance light weight decor fabric. Sparkly silver sandals and plastic "jewelry" and tiara complete the look.

Garrett

Originally wanted to be a flying ninja monkey. Ummm, okay - mom's brain short circuiting with mental gyrations trying to figure that one out. Settled for Ninja Warrior. All I had to do was sew a tunic and come up with a sash. A black turtleneck and pants serve as good base; add a plastic sword and we're in business! By the time the trick or treating was done, the sword was snapped in two. I can't say I wasn't expecting that.

Jessica

50's girl, Bobbie Soxer. This one was also easy. Thrift store sweater paired with poodle skirt made by mom's mom for high school play. (How much does this depress me that I use to be able to fit into that skirt? 27 inch waist people - 27 inches! sob I only had to adjust about an inch for Jess' 25.5 inch waist) Add a pair of white sneakers and of course, requisite bobbie socks and pearls; tie a scarf around pony tail. (Nathan was unhappy that Jess put him down and refused to stay out of the picture - so that is why there is a screaming zebra in the photo.)

Trent

Okay, Trent. Well, Trent didn't have a costume - so he was himself - or rather, a member of the pep band because he had to be at a football game Halloween night. I discovered some "self-portraits" when I downloaded the photos off the digital camera. Ummm - well, I will let you decide for yourself - I'm not sure what he is doing here.

Some Group Shots

Finis

Pumpkin Posse 2008

Jack O'Lantern time!!

This picture cracks me up - the chef's knife poised, ready to strike the unsuspecting gourd; Garrett pulling out pumpkin guts and Trent holding back Sadie - who looks truly horrified by such goings-on. (Honest - this wasn't posed! Sadie is actually mad because she wanted to be first to rip out pumpkin guts and Trent was pulling her off Garrett's pumpkin. Matt with the knife was just a bonus photo element!)



Soon, Sadie gives in to the dark side and begins scooping out pumpkin guts also. The look on her face is priceless!




As you can see, the kids had their work cut out for them These pumpkins produced a lot of seeds and pumpkin pulp!



Trent was a reluctant participant - preferring his tome to de-pulping pumpkins. Adam tried to get him involved in the activity.

Adam: "Here Trent, have a pumpkin!"

Trent: "Uhhhhhhh, thanks?"



Trent was not the only one who felt this activity was disgusting and refused to engage.

Nathan: "Ewwwwwwwwwwww!"



However, scribbling on a small gourd with crayons is always fun . . . helps you to forget the fact you just dribbled chocolate milk all down the front of your shirt.


"Hmmmmmmmm; Garrett is wrong - these do NOT taste like Chicken!"


Jessi seemed to be enjoying herself. Perhaps she has a bit of a sadistic streak regarding squash or she just knew I was taking her picture at the moment!


The artiste at work . . .



Adam was another participant who refused to get his hands "dirty", preferring instead to inspect the work of everyone else to make sure it was done to code.


Adam:"It's a thankless job, but someone has to do it! Nobody mention the word union!"

(Garrett: "Union??")


The Gourd Group and their completed works of art. (Yes, that would be 3 kitty pumpkins there and one melting face.)

Happy Halloween!

Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day

n June 0f 1995, I joined the millions of women affected by pregnancy and infant loss. Since that time I have endured 6 more losses - and while so very early on in pregnancy, were no less devastating due to their brevity.

In 1986, then President Ronald Reagan signed his name to a proclamation stating the month of October to be Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month. Following suit in 2005, Congress passed a bill proclaiming the 15th of October to be Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. In current years this day and month are marked by Remembrance Walks, Prayer Ceremonies and many other rituals meant to help healing, spread awareness and engender compassion.

Anyone touched by the tragedy of losing a child - whether in infancy, at birth, beyond or before knows how life altering and devastating the experience is. They would have been sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, grandparents and friends - that we did not get to know them more fully in this life is truly a loss.

Always Remembered . . .

~i~

Rain, Rain, Go Away . . .

Sunday morning we awoke to this:







This is the field directly behind our house. You can see our chainlink fence and playset in some of the pictures. We figured the water was about 12-13 inches deep. The wind was blowing and created "waves" across this expanse of water. It did not come up into our yard however (we have a significant rise up from the lower portion of the yard to where the house actually sits) and later that afternoon had run mostly off. The storm drains and creeks nearby were just completely overwhelmed with several inches of rain in a very short period of time. The rain stopped about noon on Sunday and the drains had a chance to catch up a bit.

A Sweet Little Birthday Bash Giveaway

Found this and thought it was kind of fun. Enjoy!

Mother Regrets

I planned on reading you many books

I never planned on yelling so much

I was going to be the coolest mom ever

You would remember days spent at the park, the zoo, the library

I was never going to be too tired

If I had made half the outfits I planned on sewing you - there wouldn't have been enough days in the year to wear them all

You would always know how smart and amazing you are

There were going to be many days we made cookies together

I was never going to be impatient

I would listen twice as much as I talked

I was never going to be cross

There were always going to be crayons and playdough

There were going to be lots of games

I never thought there would be days I didn't know the right thing to do, or say

Everything you drew would be a masterpiece and carefully preserved

I would never be too busy

Music and laughter would always fill the air

I would dry your tears, not be the cause of them

I would never forget how precious you are

I would never forget to thank God every day for you

I would never wish you would just grow up

You would never doubt how much I love you

Wow! That went by fast!

Summer, that is.

This morning we got up bright and early (6:15 am anyone?) and off to school we went. Trent left earliest for Marching Band Practice. I'm not sure he was entirely awake as you can see by the picture below.



Since it was Sadie's very first, first day of school, I made her a special first day of school outfit. I only had to stay up until midnight to finish it. She is my skirt girl - for years she refused to wear pants of any kind, saying "Princesses do not wear pants!" We finally convinced her that some Princesses do and she will condescend to wear a pair now and then. Of course, for her very first day of school she had to have a skirt - and not just any skirt. Oh no! That would not do for my Sadie. She had to have a very special skirt - cupcakes and polka dots and lots of pink. You can't see it because it is under her jacket, the part that had me up really late was actually the t-shirt. I got one of those jeweled iron-ons in the shape of a cupcake to match, because it was supposed to be easy. Yeah, right. It took almost 45 minutes of alternately pressing, cooling, waiting and trying to peel off the cover and repeating this process to get all the little sparkly jewel things to finally stick to her shirt. Yeesh - I think I could have glued them all individually faster . . . but eventually they all finally stuck, save one, and I called it good and went to bed.


School lunches went up considerably this year and with four of them in school, seemed a bit excessive. So we decided to 'brown bag" it. Given it has been many years since we have needed to purchase a lunch box, I was a bit shocked by how much they all cost and how small most of them are! Ten dollars for Care Bears with a cheap plastic zipper that is going to break the first week? I found a few lock down type storage boxes on clearance for $1.50 each (wahoo!) that were the perfect size and with a few of my smallest storage containers we made our own Bento style lunch boxes. When I packed them this morning, I was rather impressed with how nicely everything goes in - neat and protected from squashing. They didn't have handles though and so with some fabric, webbing, and a thermal insulating drape, I made them lunch bags to carry their boxes in. The kids were really excited about them - though, I am guessing Trent won't bother to use his much being in Jr. High and all, lunch bag made by mom - not so 'cool' you know. I found what is called an "ice blanket" that fit well into the bottom of the box and didn't take up too much space. That coupled with the insulating liner out of the drape should keep things quite nicely for the kids. You can see the bags in the picture - Sadie and Garrett are both holding theirs.


Does it make me a bad mommy if I say it was rather nice to put 2/3 of my children on a bus this morning and send them off to school?

I did get teary eyed after the last kid rode away; perhaps that will improve your opinion. So now what do I do with myself? Given that Nathan is currently poking my sewing machine cord into a cereal bar, I am pretty confident I am not going to have to wonder for too long.

Four down, two in four more years to go . . . !



P.S. This last picture made me weepy. ***sigh***