Halloween...better 2 months late than never

This blog thing is just not working out right now. Instagram is killing my blogging. So much easier to upload a quick photo from my phone with a one-sentence caption rather than devoting 10 minutes to blogger.

BUT

I will continue to blog. I love it. I blogged before blogging was cool. So I'll keep going.

Anyway...

Here's what our Halloween looked like (I guess I'll post about Thanksgiving around Valentine's Day and about Christmas around July 4th...).

It was warmish, so we got to play outside some.



Here's my monkey climbing and goofing off.



At our church, we went to Trunk or Treat and I decorated my car like a big giant open mouth. It was awesome, if I do say so myself. Thank you, Pinterest, for the inspiration.



Here's what my girls dressed up as:



Eden was Princess Thomas the Tank Engine and Winnie was a witch that I sewed up a couple of years ago for Eden. Eden even got to wear Mommy's make-up. Ooo la la.

And Winnie wasn't the happiest posing for photos, but Eden doggedly held on like a big sister and did not let Winnie escape.

When Eden told me she wanted to be Thomas for Halloween, I decided she needed to be a girl version of Thomas. So after scouting Pinterest and googling "Girl Thomas costume" I decided to make my own. I got a regular t-shirt and some felt, freehanded a picture of Thomas's face onto some tracing paper then cut felt pieces to fit all his facial features and appliquéd Thomas's face to the shirt. (Sorry, that was probably way more than you wanted to know.) Then I made the skirt, cape, and boiler hat to go along with it. She was happy. So was I.





Overall, it was a great Halloween season, so to speak. We got to use the costumes several times and attend multiple Halloween functions so we had a blast.

On a separate note, Kevin is trying to come home for Christmas so he will try to get on a plane on Friday (this coming Friday) to come home and stay till Dec. 30. Cross your fingers that there is a seat with his name on it on the flight!

Small Hello

Hello.

I'm still here.

Haven't forgotten about part 2 of the Halloween plans. Maybe I'll get that posted by 2014? Maybe?

Who knows?

It's just been very busy around here lately.

Pardon my negligence.

Here is something I've been working on (i.e. the shirts) as part of all the busyness.



And this:



I promise an update soon...ish...sorta.

Toodles!

Family Photos

I know I told you in the last post that the next post I wrote would be the continuation of the Halloween one, but I'm going to interject a quick post about our family photos that a friend from church took while Kevin was here in September. Which one is your favorite?











Enjoy!

P.S. We are not going to find out where we are going to move next until the end of January. Kevin just found this out on Friday. And he isn't going to be able to come home in January because the conference he was coming for was cancelled. So I guess I'll let you know where we are living next next year.

Halloween happenings and other spooky occurrences: Part 1

Well, we've had a Halloween filled month of October. Eden and Winnie were able to wear their costumes three separate times this month (besides Eden wearing parts of hers for everyday play).  We decorated our house on October 1st and slowly continued adding more as the month went on.

I'll confess I've been hyper vigilant about making sure I'm not a scrooge when it comes to holidays while Kevin is gone. When he was in Afghanistan in 2009, I basically threw my calendar out the window and moved in with Ebenezer pre-ghosts-of-past/present/future. I knew I didn't want to be that way around my children so I have embraced all (major) holidays with the enthusiasm of a 10-year-old. Hence, our month of Halloween.

So anyway, we went to the Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch twice and the Dream Field Farms pumpkin patch once. We also went to the Maxwell AFB Fall Festival, my church's trunk-or-treat, Publix's (a grocery store) trick-or-treating, and then did our own mini-version of trick-or-treating on Halloween night. We lived it up big time.

First, our adventures at the Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch in Clanton.


Sister photo...oops.


Enjoying some goldfish while I gorge myself on really nasty, greasy, ruined-my-desire-for funnel cake.


The fields of sunflowers were beautiful.


Winnie loved the horses. Meeeeeeehhhh, she says. (This is a combo of "moo" and "nay" that she says when she sees a horse.)


And Eden's favorite part of any festival: bouncy castles.


I got to "help" Winnie go through a couple of them (meaning chase after her/drag her through tunnels).


Eden had no fear of the tall slides. Afraid of swings, this one, but will she slide down a two-story slide (that even freaked me out a little)? You betcha.


Then we went to Dream Field Farms with the Skarda family. This place had a bunch of fun kid activities, like sandboxes filled with corn kernels...

(Word to ya kernel, dawg.)

Nothin' like a little CRACKed corn (punny I am).


Watched some pigs race.


Rode a very bumpy cow train.


This is pure glee, no?


My pumpkin patch cohorts, Mike, Jess and Charlie.


Military members received a free small pumpkin, so Winnie had a great time picking up pumpkin after pumpkin.




It was all too relaxing on the wagon ride back from the pumpkin picking for Mr. Charlie.


And Eden even made friends with a goat. Who then nibbled her fingers and scared her off goats for good.


And I'll end part 1 here. Next time I'll share the costumes I made for the girls. Eden was Princess Thomas the Tank Engine (yes, you read that right) and Winnie wore the witch costume I made for Eden 2 years ago. I'll also explain the "spooky occurrences" reference from the title of this post.

Toodles!