Princess & the Pea

I want to do everything.  I realize I have a problem.  I love learning and think I can do anything (even though a lot of times my wonderful projects/ideas fail miserably).  Two of my New Year resolutions will be to learn to sew and to work on my photography skills.  Why wait until January you may ask?  Why I have just too much going on to try and learn a skill!  Work has been crazy and Lindsay's birthday party has developed a life of its own.  Lindsay's cheese stroller costume was supposed to be sewn but was hot glued instead.  Sewing is alot more difficult than it looks.  I really thought you just put a roll of thread (didn't even realize they were called a spool or a bobbin!) into the machine, put some fabric under the needle and magically you would be able to sew.  Ummmm....yeah.   

Photography definitely comes more naturally for me. I have always loved taking pictures.  My father always had a camera with him, even before it was cheap and cool.  I can't imagine taking pictures without the help of digital edit or the crispness of my multiple pixel Canon.  Granted I'm not that young and I do remember impatiently waiting for rolls of film to be developed at Wal-Mart and then only getting one or two good shots in the whole bunch.  That was way before I had kids though and I think my picture taking has quadrupled since then!  I want to really learn how to frame a picture though and how to use Photoshop.  First I need to purchase Photoshop (Christmas HINT honey!).  One random Saturday though I got a wild hair up my derriere and decided to conduct a photo shoot in my backyard.  Imagine my husbands surprise when he came home to this in the backyard :).  He was a trooper though and helped with holding my subjects since I quickly learned that placing a 10-month-old on top of a bunch of wobbly mattresses and blankets is not exactly something you should do.  Hello mother-of-the-year award!  Oh well, the last shot is my favorite.  My little princess!      

Halloween - Part 2

I love Halloween.  I get so excited about decorating.  I guess that's because we go the whole summer and most of spring without a decorating holiday.  Sure, I could decorate for 4th of the July but I'm not big on a house full of the red, white color scheme.  I also love the fact that you can be anything you want to be for Halloween.  Don't we all sometimes want to be someone we aren't?  I sometimes wish when I'm covered in baby food and doing dishes to be a famous actress walking the red carpet, getting tons of free stuff and who has someone to clean up after them.  Or sometimes I just want to be that neighbor down the street who totally seems to have it together and her kids are always well behaved and groomed while I'm lucky to get a brush through Emily's hair. I might get some weird looks if I dressed up like my neighbor to go trick-or-treating!

We had a great Halloween even though it was an icky Monday night and it poured rain for the actual event.  Emily went trunk or treating at church on Saturday night so she had already met her candy quota for the holiday.  She is so my child and she is so going to be a hoarder one day.  She's not bad about sneaking candy.  She just wants it near her.  She will take her candy out of her bucket just to look at it and count it.  I used to do the same thing as a kid.  Is hoarding genetic?!  Emily was a cat (I made her tutu but every other part of the costume was store bought) and Lindsay was a mouse in a block of cheese.  And what a cute mouse she was!!!  I was pretty proud of the way the block of cheese turned out.  I also learned that a hot glue gun is alot easier than trying to learn how to sew at the same time you are trying to make a Halloween costume.

The trick-or-treating crew

We made ghost pizza on the Sunday before Halloween.  It looked really cool before it was baked, but when it came out of the oven, it just looked like regular pizza.  Maybe next year I will add the ghosts on top after it has baked.

Of course I had to do Halloween gifts for all of Emily's classmates.  I can't remember where I saw this idea.  Probably Pinterest.com :).  Her classmates got the sucker with a note from Emily and the teachers got the same but with an extra bag of candy. When I picked her up from school that day, Ms. Debra said she was destined to be a hostess (again, she is definitely my child!).  Emily would jump up from whatever she was doing and run to the closet that held her treats and present one to each child as they were leaving.  She was very concerned that Ms. Debra would take over her duties with the three children that were still there!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

 

Halloween Decorations - Part 1

Little late but better than never!  Here are some of my Halloween decorations from this year.  Wonder when I will find time to take these down and put up Thanksgiving?!?