Happy Halloween 2014!

My darling AK was born half-goth, I'm pretty sure of it.  She has always been in love with the dark side and  villains, so it was no surprise when she announced this summer she wanted to be Maleficent for Halloween.  Truthfully, I loved her costume idea, she makes a pretty fantastic Maleficent. 

 

I didn't actually sew her costume this year.  It's an assortment of pieces, the horns were purchased from Amazon  and the cape was purchased after I weighed the cost of the fabric and time with making the cape.   The black clothes are from her closet and the stick is from our backyard.   She pretty much hasn't taken the cape or the horns off for the last week.  It's a little alarming to turn around and see this face.  She makes a pretty convincing evil villain.  

For Mr. Boy, he decided he was way too old to dress up, but he came around eventually.  Mr. Boy needed a project and Halloween provided the perfect opportunity for one.   He isn't doing any sports due to his health right now and the afternoons are long for him.   He got really into the idea of designing a really cool scene for our church's Trunk or Treat Party.   

It was easy for him to pick a theme, because he loves nothing more about Halloween than the movie, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"  So, he got to work designing and drawing some pictures to go along with our theme.  He drew everything and spent hours working on it.  It was the perfect project.

Then he decided he really ought to be Charlie Brown to go with the theme.    I am super proud of him and I think he did a great job. 

As for me, I'm nothing this year.  I just couldn't quite catch the bug, but wow!  Have you seen Mr. Man lately?  He dressed up as Bono!  Skinny Jeans and all.  We've been together almost 20 years and he still surprises me!

 Happy Halloween One and All!   

  If you missed previous years posts and costumes, you can find them here. 

Five Things for Friday 10/24/14

Five Things I'm thinking about this Friday:

1.)  We just can't get enough of this book right now.   AK calls it "Franklin-stein" and if anyone corrects her I will banish you.  It's a parody of Madeline and my kids think it is hilarious. I might have a small addiction to holiday themed books. 

2.)  The Holiday Catalogs have started pouring in and my favorite is always the Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog.  My mom and I always poured over the pages and imagined us receiving the His and Her Gifts.  One year it was a pair of real live Camels and we felt like if we got them, we would have to build an Arabian inspired barn, and then if we got a fancy barn, we'd probably have to tear down the house and build a house to match.   It became a running joke... "It starts with a pet camel... "

3.) I'm completely obsessed with a Roomba vacuum and I'm pretty sure it's because of this video of a cat wearing a shark costume, riding a Roomba.  Ridiculous in the best way possible. If there is a robot who can take over a job that I don't love, why wouldn't I jump all over that?

4.) Every year I get hooked into McDonald's Monopoly.   I don't like to eat at McDonalds and the odds of winning are terrible, but for some reason I find myself going out of my way to get game pieces. My brothers and I used to play it when I was little and my mom who was anxious to skip out on cooking indulged us. Surely, I am not the only one who gets suckered into this marketing gimmick?  

5.)  I'm trying to take pictures for our annual Christmas Card.  Getting the dogs to pose for a decent picture is nearly impossible.  Finally I get a picture where they aren't wrestling, and Zoey's eyes are closed! 

The Second Annual Witches Tea

I'm pretty lucky, I'm surrounded by a  great group of friends and I love celebrating the ladies in my life.   Last year my Witches Tea was such a success, I decided to make it an annual event.. The Witches Tea has been my way of saying "Look Witch, thanks for having my back." 

I think getting the house ready is half the fun. 

 

The floating witches hats are my favorite.  They really creep the dogs out.

 

I'm grateful my family is supportive of this event, even though they are banished for the night. (We were trying to imitate a U2 Album cover in this pic.)  

What better way to welcome my Witches than with a giant W. 

I made my signature witchy drink, which is strawberry syrup in syringes.  It looks like drugs and tastes delish.  Everyone wonders why I have a bunch of medicine syringes handy, but it's pretty indicative of my life right now.  Some days I feel more like a medicine man than a witch. 

I really don't know how people had parties before Pinterest.  They must have partied like cavemen, because  I stole borrowed most of my ideas from Pinterest.

We had a caramel apple bar which was a great idea in theory, but my caramel got too hard as soon as you spooned it on your plate. It was a pretty big flop.   Thank goodness my friends Denise showed up to save the day with a cauldron full of cake pops.  She's the kind of person that basically invented all those great ideas you pin on  Pinterest.

Check out all my cute witches! 

Everyone dressed up to the nines and my poor neighbors must have been a little alarmed when they drove up and saw my house brimming with witches.

This party is by far one of my very favorites and I think it's a tradition I'll happily keep..

 See you later Witches!  Until next time.

Five Things for Friday

1.  The first weekend of October, we always attend the same event.  Without fail,  the last ten years it has  been blistering hot.  Every year I am baffled and exclaim, "This weather is crazy, it's October!"  Last year, I actually made a reoccurring item on my calendar warning me this is normal weather.  Guess What?  It's going to be triple digit temperatures this weekend and this year it's not taking me by surprise.  I feel like a genius for doing this, until I remember that I should probably have a good enough memory that I don't have to make notes to my future self in my calendar.

2.  Two weeks ago everything seem to break.  My car window, the transmission relay switch (is that a real thing or did my mechanic make that up?), the water heater, Mr. Man's tooth, the pool pump... in a matter of days we had shelled out a ton of cash for things no one would notice.  That makes me crazy, so I bought myself a wallet.  I call it my $5,000 wallet, because it's the only thing I have to show for all the money we spent.  I think it's one of the best moves I've made to date.  

3.  It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I love that my kids have joined me in wearing something pink each day in memory of my mom.   I miss her and I especially miss how she was always in my corner.  I hope my kids know that I will always be in their corner.

4.  It's the first Fall Season that we haven't spent our evenings and Saturdays on a sports field.   It's weird to have such an open schedule but secretly I am loving it. We are spending a lot of time together playing games, watching movies, and swimming.  It's been a pleasant side effect of Mr. Boys health challenges.

5.  This was our One and Only Ivan summer, where we spent the summer reading this book as our "read aloud book".   We miss the characters like they were our friends and found ourselves savoring the last chapters, not wanting the book to end.  It's a definite must read for this year.