the simple life

"gimme" holidays

Julian and Annabelle were naming all of their favorite holidays as we were Trick-or-Treating the other night.  Christmas, Halloween, Birthdays, Easter, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving...

Realizing that Thanksgiving wasn't really a holiday where they received gifts or candy, I asked Julian what he liked about Thanksgiving.  Was it the family time, and seeing loved ones that we only saw during the holidays?  Was it time spent with favorite cousins?  

"Dessert," he said.  "We always get TONS of desserts at Thanksgiving".  

That's my boy.

Trick or Treat!

For Halloween we did homemade costumes.  The original plan was to buy costumes, but Dustin has had truck problems for the past few weeks, and has missed several days of work to sickness and no vehicle, so our budget was cut drastically to zero dollars. :)

I felt like I was in a bad episode of Project Runway yesterday, when I realized that I had an hour and a half to complete 3 kids Halloween costumes, with zero dollars.   Oh, and the models were terribly impatient, constantly interrupting and cracked out on sugar from the day's earlier Halloween parties at school.

Ezra's was fairly easy. My parents sent this Razorback football costume to Julian last year, obviously in an attempt to see him beat up by children in Iowa football costumes. Ezra's pretty tough though, so if anybody could pull it off, it was him.  The hardest part about this costume was finding the darn shoulder pads, which ended up being in a Goodwill donation box on the porch.  Thanks for that, children.

The only negative part of his costume was that the shoulder pads kept shifting, giving him the impression of having breasts under his jersey, and his chin strap itched him after an hour or so.  He ended up taking that off and using it as his candy holder.

Annabelle considered being a kitty, a princess (always), a vampire pirate, or a ghost.  We went with ghost, because I found a solid white bed sheet in a box of old photo props. 

During the "fitting", she could see easily, but add in rain and strong winds, plus people in the mall constantly stepping on her costume and shifting the eye holes, and she pretty much walked blindly all night.  At one point, we were leaving a house to walk back to our car, and Annabelle was "floating" sideways away from us.  She had to be maneuvered by Dustin all evening.  It was really precious. At the end of the night, she said, "Mommy, I know you thought I was jokin, but I seriously couldn't see anything all night long."  Poor girl.  She gets extra candy, for effort and good attitude.

After ripping up the bed sheet for Annabelle's ghost, we switched Julian's costume from "Spooky Chef"  (a chef outfit that came with our play kitchen + a creepy ninja mask from the dress up box) to a mummy.  It was awesome.  One older man commented after entering the mall, "Now THAT'S a mummy!"

We did have to stop and re-tie strips all night, and he had to be immediately CUT OUT of his costume when we walked in the door so he could use the bathroom, so this is definitely a one-time use outfit only, but it ended up being such a fun and somewhat easy to make (and free!) costume.

Happy Halloween!

Autumn

10 on Tuesday

1. I feel like I've been ripped off with this whole Autumn season.  We've already had snow, people.  SNOW.  Beginning of OCTOBER.  Boo to that.

2. Nearly all of October has been spent indoors, because we've all (all kids, and adults) had flu and strep throat.

3. Tonight, I demanded a tiny break from the madness, and left for the bookstore.  It's a good thing that Dustin was home early, because in my state of mind, I very well may have left the kids with or without a grown up. Not really, but it would have been tempting.

4. Well there's a cute boy:

5. Autumn redeemed itself a bit.  It was raining, but in a beautiful way, and I drove home from the bookstore with a clear head, new Iron and Wine CD blaring (thank you lovely library) and thoughts of a new Winter scarf that I am determined to make this week.  I NEED it, have I mentioned that we're already getting smatterings of SNOW!?  (Is smatterings a word?  Is it the word that I'm wanting to use here, because it doesn't look quite right.)

6. As I dug around the closet trying to find Julian's winter coat (which he affectionately nicknamed his "Puff Puff Pooh" jacket) I realized that the last time I remember seeing it was in APRIL, when he was wearing it to his first day of pre-K.  After some quick math, I realized that the winter coat is something that is worn 7 months out of the year in this lovely state.  Holy heck.   

7. However, I am still not giving up my flip flops.  I've been wearing MY puff puff pooh jacket + hat + flip flops.  I'm hard core like that.  ;) 

8. Something non-weather related:  Dustin and I made this in June, just after my computer tried to die and go to Computer Heaven, and I never got to share it here.  I still love it.  :)

I got the frames for $1.74 per 2-pack on clearance at Target when we lived in Austin.  I've been hauling them around looking for their purpose ever since.  Since I'm inept at quilt making, I made (with mucho assistance from Dustin) a picture frame "quilt".  I love it so much.  Just ignore the gappy places please.

9. One of Dustin's customers yesterday gave him a MEGA HUGE stack of old Martha Stewart Living's.  Most of them were ones that I have never had, so I'm in magazine ripping heaven. 

10. When we went to the apple orchard last month, we were admiring the cute sheep and watching the funny goats play when Julian cried out, "OH GROSS! THAT SHEEP HAS A BUTT!!!"  

Why yes son, yes it does.  

He quickly left the sheep pen and headed over to see some huge horses.  As they walked away from the fence he yelled, "OH MY GOSH, HORSES HAVE BUTTS TOO!!!"

I think he KNOWS that animals have butts, it's just the actual (and I'm sorry, b/c I hate this word, but it has to be used...) butt hole that freaked him out.  We spent much of the day finding all the things that had "butts".  You'd be surprised as to how many things there are...

p.s. Updated the blog with a simple new blanner...you can peek in to see it if you'd like :) 

:) Children's book exchange mini update

I'll be back soon, I promise.  I've been dealing with a house of sick people for a week, self included.

My MAIN point for stopping in here, is that if you have contacted me about the CHILDREN'S BOOK EXCHANGE, I will e-mail you this week.  Probably tomorrow.

If you have not, but are interested in being involved, E-MAIL ME THIS WEEK.  I have 2-3 spots left if you want to participate.  It's going to be fun, and you can get up to 36 books for your kid (s), and your only obligation is to send out ONE BOOK (via media mail, which is usually less than $3), and find a few friends (real life or online) who want to join the exchange.

Let me know if you're interested, soon soon soon!  :)

okay, thanks again,

*mindi*

"melling" pudding

Remember how I told you that Ezra made random appearances in the background of every food photo I've ever taken?  Example from last July: click here.

Well, in an attempt to photograph some pudding treats yesterday...

 

I got about 3 shots in before I heard somebody yell, (somebody who can't pronounce his "S" sounds), "I WANNA MELL!"  

And there was Ezra, my little photobomber, smelling the pudding treats, and then making a delicious slurping sound.  And then our photo time was over, b/c every time my camera clicked, there he was, "melling" away.  :)

just in case you haven't seen these:

Target has these CUTE ramekins in their dollar spot, only it's actually the $2.50 spot within the dollar spot.  

They come 4 to a box, and they have other colors.  I saw a box of yellow and red and a box of classic white. 

I got these last week after they JUST placed them on the shelf, and when I went back yesterday, they were all gone except for the white ones...

SO...if you are like me and have always wanted ramekins, but never put them at the top of your list, and also LOVE cute color combos and also want to use these as little jars and holders and things all over your house (I bought 2 boxes), well, head to Target before you miss out.  :)

PSA over. 

remember this:

As I was taking the kids to school this morning, Annabelle said, "I think I'm going to start a club today." 

I was a little envious, as my plans for the day are never as fun and full of promise as starting a club with my best friends.

I'd like to start a club today too.  

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The second that Julian walks in the door, he heads straight for his art box.  He normally asks for a snack or to play video games (even though he KNOWS that Friday is video game day) or to play outside, but this week, he's very focused on art.  Drawing and book making, mostly. 

After 2 hours, he emerged with a cardboard box full of art projects that he was giving out as gifts.  He had a paper that listed our names, and which gift we were to receive.  As he was giving Ezra's gift to him, Ezra snatched up Annabelle's gift.  Julian became SO upset.

He yelled over and over to "GIVE IT BACK!" but Ezra did NOT care.

Julian pointed at his "gift list" and threatened, "EZRA!  If you don't give it back, you're gonna be X-ed OUT and you'll NEVER GET A PRESENT AGAINNNNN!"

I giggled at the use of the phrase "X-ed out".  I"m going to remember that one for the future.

I really love that it's impossible to jump on this big air pillow (at our favorite Apple Orchard) without making a funny face.

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Ezra: "I'm a mean robot and I'm going to cut your neck open."

Mama: "OH NO! Can't we be friends, mean robot?"

Ezra: "NO. I GOT TO DRIVE."

Mama: "Where are you driving?"

Ezra: "CHINATOWN."

We've made plenty of threats to "take you down to Chinatown", but this time, Ezra meant business.

Yesterday I was skimming through a thread on one of my message boards, and this photo popped up in a joke about angry puppets.  Ezra happened to be standing at the desk when I scrolled past this photo, and he said, "WAIT!  GO BACK!"  So I scrolled back up to see the photo. 

He made a quietish scared noise, "AHHHHH! ELMO ANGRY!  ERNIE CARY! (scary)"  As much as I tried to move on to a different website, he kept begging, "GO BACK!  GO BACK TO CARY ELMO!"  It was like watching a child discover for the first time that Santa's not real. 

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You may recall that Ezra can't pronounce his "S" sounds. Today when I turned off the TV to leave for Target, Ezra said, "Mama! Don't turn off the TV! That wuh my favorite ho!" (show) I'm sure Dora is many preschooler's "favorite ho".

Children's book exchange

I'm looking for a few people that want to participate in a children's book exchange.   You mail out one book and receive up to 36 in return.  If you're interested, e-mail me at mindi1111@gmail.com or comment and I'll give you more information.  :)

Thanks guys :)
*mindi*

Forgot to mention, U.S. only please.

Parkour!

Do you watch the Office?  It's one of the best things about my week.  :)