Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween🎃

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Skye and Sunny and Thunder were over this weekend for a sleepover. They were peacefully playing Barbies when it got mysteriously quiet. I went in to check on them and they were 'decorating' the Barbie house for Halloween.

Skye, who is very creative and artistic, was creating jack o'lanterns and a zombie to hang on the front of the house. My contribution was to tape the decor.

Please excuse the quality of the photos, the Barbie house is very pink and I took the photos with my phone which is kind of blurry.

I was impressed with their creativity and can't wait to see how they decorate it for Christmas!

The pumpkins are on the 2nd story columns 

The zombie is on the garage

She drew the Zombie on green paper and then made clothes for it from black paper ~ such detail!

Hopefully you can kind of see the detail of the pumpkin faces

let the countdown begin...

Sunny and Thunder are on Fall Break this week so they've been hanging out at Grammy Daycare. Katie asked me to have them make a Halloween countdown chain for their house. I was thrilled - it gave me an opportunity to use up some of my Halloween scrapbook paper. Here's the final result...

Yes, I'm Behind...

I haven't posted since before Halloween! Goodness gracious, I wish I could give you a good reason why, but I can't.

Today will be the first of my catching up posts. Halloween was such fun this year. We went over to Jessica and Adam's house for trick-or-treating. They live in a great family neighborhood. Tons of kids. Tons of parents out with the kids. Lots of houses decorated to the hilt with scary or funny costumed characters in attendance. The kids got a lot of candy (even Storm!) and they looked very cute in their costumes.

Here's a peek:

Storm chose a Mutant Ninja Turtle costume (haha)

Storm's 1st Halloween

Cowboy, Turtle, and Super Girl patiently waiting to go trick-or-treating 

Let's go already!!

Katie, Thunder, and Sunny at one of the decorated homes

Wow! Great haul for his first time out

Goodbye October... Hello November

Whew... I'm glad October's over! Since I'm not hosting Thanksgiving this year I can start to really concentrate on Christmas.

But before we move on, let me show you some of our Halloween fun.

Last Friday, we attended the Harvest Festival at the kids' school.

Thunder was a "rocker".

Sunny was a Black Cat. 

Trying to get a cute brother/sister shot at the pumpkin display.

We failed!

Thunder was most interested in playing on the slides.

But he did take a break to eat a cupcake!

Halloween at Abuela and Papa's house.

Here's my brother/sister shot.

Sunny was afraid of Tio Robert's Dracula, but Thunder wasn't.

As we headed out to trick or treat Sunny kept saying "I don't want to trick or treat". After she started getting candy in her bag she proclaimed "Trick or Treating is so much fun!"

Roberta (Abuela) and Robert

Three happy trick-or-treaters!

Fun at the Park and Trick-or-Treating

We met my friend Joanna and her kids at the park today. It was so fun! Sunny is finally big enough to run around with the other kids and climb the equipment and slide down the slides. She even went on the "big girl" swing and only let go twice. Thank goodness she recovered and grabbed hold again before she fell off.

Then tonight, we went over to watch her and Thunder trick or treat. Well... I watched them trick or treat. Dan watched the football game and handed out candy at their house! I have Sunny tomorrow. I may have to enforce a strict "no candy" rule...

Thunder is teething... as you can tell from Gramps' damp shoulder

Papi and Sunny - the Bee

selecting the play-do she likes best

Thunder didn't get any candy

Yes, that's a piece of candy you can see in her mouth

Tia tickling Thunder - his laugh is so cute

The Last Day of October 2011

Wow. I don't know which blows my mind more. The last day of October. Or the year 2011.

Sunny and Thunder spent the night Saturday night. I am so out of practice juggling two kids that I only took two pictures! Here they are:

Sunny and I are going to the park today to play with Joanna's kids. I'm taking the camera. I hope I get some good photos. Tonight we are going to Katie's house for pizza and trick-or-treating. The Chargers are on MNF so Dan will be watching the game. I hope he or Gabe or Adam can pry themselves off the couch to answer the door while us girls are out in the neighborhood!

Tomorrow is November 1st. Since I'm not having Thanksgiving my thoughts are turned to Christmas. I have three of my trees up and decorated. Tomorrow I start writing my Christmas letter. I will take down the Halloween stuff and consolidate the Thanksgiving stuff so I can start on my Christmas decor. I have two of the eight stockings I need to make completed. I'm going to try to get two more done, but the other four will have to wait. The grandkids have priority so I'll explain to the adult kids that I am not SuperWoman after all.

We are going to have a typical Fall weather wise. It's going to drop from the 90s/100s straight to the 70s. We only get two days in the 80s this fall. The same thing normally happens in the Spring. We go from the 70s to the 90s with just a pause in the 80s. Last year we had 80s in the spring and fall and it was wonderful! I know it sounds weird to most of you, but 70s is pretty chilly around here. I will be putting a blanket on the bed this week. And I have socks in my sock drawer at the ready.

Enjoy your day. Happy Halloween!

It’s November 1st… do you know where your Thanksgiving turkey is?

Now that the Halloween festivities are over, it’s time to turn our focus to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I enjoy the food, the fellowship, the fun with family and friends. In fact, what’s not to like about Thanksgiving? If you have a normal family you probably have an answer to that question. The one thing that seems to rob our joy at Thanksgiving is the ongoing drama that can occur when distant portions of our family get together for one day out of the year. Or maybe it’s the recurring drama. Or the drama that’s just waiting to burst into existence.

I feel your anxiety.

I think I finally figured out a way to combat those worries about who might say what to who. Who might not be speaking to who. Who might drink too much. Who might drink too little (haha, that’s joke. I just couldn’t resist). Or any other prickly family situation that seems to occur year after year.

I decided that my goal for Thanksgiving was that I (primarily) and my immediate family (secondarily) would be my focus. That I would focus on having a great time myself and offering the opportunity for my family to have a good time as well. That as for the rest of them, if they wanted to find something to criticize, or someone to loathe, or something to complain about, oh well. Their loss.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t actually perfected this yet. I still find myself hurt or frustrated or sad or angry or just plain p***ed off at some of the shenanigans that happen at loving family get-togethers. I still wonder why my family is so ornery when I’m just sure that everyone else has a Norman Rockwell experience every single year. But then I re-enter reality, realize that everyone has issues (even me, rarely), and that for better or worse, this is family God placed me in. I am to love each and every one of them with the love of Christ. And that’s what I try to do.

Of course, I also invite tons of friends on the hope that my family will all behave themselves around strangers!

Halloween Photos
I did not get very good photos last night, but I’m going to share what I have even if they’re blurry, off center, etc. We went over to Katie’s and went trick-or-treating with Sunny’s two cousins Naiya & Aziza. We hit around eight houses and then we were done! It was a lot of fun…

Wonder Woman, Snow White, Cow

Happy Halloween Fun

Living in the Phoenix area means that we don't usually have a cool, crisp Halloween. If we're lucky, the temperatures dip into the lower 90s/upper 80s. That doesn't stop me from pretending that I'm in the Midwest with a slight nip in the air. With that in mind, I thought I'd share some Halloween poems, tips, and recipes. Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

On Halloween the thing you must do

Is pretend that nothing can frighten you.

And if something scares you

and you want to run,

Just let on like it's Halloween fun!

19th-century postcard verse

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Make some Halloween memories... invite friends to visit,

dress up in thrift-store costumes and take pictures,

make popcorn balls together and watch all the old,

classic monster movies

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Polka-dot pumpkins!

Hollow out pumpkins of two or three different colors like

orange, white and green. Punch out round plugs from each

pumpkin with an apple corer and just swap the plugs between pumpkins.

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Start your own Halloween dinner tradition.

In the morning, put on a soup pot or slow cooker of

chili, beef stew or vegetable soup to simmer. It will

be easy for everyone to grab a bowlful while putting

on costumes or in between handing out treats.

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A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween. 

~Erma Bombeck

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Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold.  ~Judith Olney

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Backward, turn backward,
O Time, in your flight
make me a child again
just for to-night!
~Elizabeth Akers Allen

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You wouldn't believe
On All Hallow Eve
What lots of fun we can make,
With apples to bob,
And nuts on the hob,
And a ring-and-thimble cake.
~Carolyn Wells

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When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam,
May luck be yours on Halloween.
~Author Unknown
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A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words...

...but you're going to have to wait until Halloween for the picture.

Costco and Sam's Club have the cutest Halloween costumes for kids. Dan and I (really, it's all Dan) have been looking at them for Sunny. At Costco this weekend we spotted the cutest cow and ladybug costumes. I asked Katie if Dan could buy Sunny one. Katie said the cow was 1st choice and the ladybug 2nd choice. So we bought the cow.

Yesterday, Katie was running late so I couldn't give her the cow costume. Later she texted me and asked me to dress Sunny in it and send her a text photo. So I did. As soon as I picked up the costume Sunny's face lit up and she started "mooing" (one of the sounds we worked on in August). I dressed her in it and just let me say, you've never seen anything so precious! I took her into the bathroom so she could see herself in the mirror where more "mooing" ensued. It was so cute and funny.

Trust me, when the pictures get posted at Halloween, they'll be worth the wait...

By the way, Christmas Corner was updated today.

Harvest Festival

Our little pumpkin!

Last night we attended the Harvest Festival at the daycare center Katie works at.

It was our first official grandparent event!

Smiling at Gramps, he's funny!