Makin' A Stink

Now that Halloween has come and gone, I have been going through pictures that we took of our little trick-or-treaters. I have to say that the images of my son are particularly amusing. He was a skunk, and not too thrilled about it either ...

Here he is reluctantly showing off his tail.

This was his expression in most of the photos ... making a big stink about being a skunk.

And here he miraculously perked up when he found out CANDY was involved!

I cannot deny that this store bought costume was more for the entertainment of my husband and myself. Whew ... we couldn't stop laughing! He walked around like he was a run-over skunk rather than a woodland creature.

We had loads of fun this All Hallows Eve as we went on a scavenger hunt at church and of course trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. My daughter received a lot of compliments on her mommy-made costume and flaming red hair, and our son received a lot of chuckles. Another successful Pumpkin Day under our belts, and a TON of candy left to consume!

Part Of That World

It was the neatest thing ... meeting this spirited mermaid. She had the most beautiful voice. Her day-glo red hair was blinding in the sunlight. And her scaly fins sparkled brilliantly as she swam in the mysterious fathoms below.

She told me all about her life under the sea. About her friend the newt who plays the flute and about a carp who plays the harp ...
...she described her secret underwater grotto where she keeps all of her human treasures ...

... and she sang about her deep longings to be a part of our world ...

But with such lovely fins, it's hard to understand why she would want to become one of us.

Sketching Fins

SuperCat Rangi already knows what she is going to be for Halloween!

Here we are almost a week into October and I am suddenly feeling the crunch to get costumes for the kids! My son could care less what he will be, but my daughter is BIG on dressing up to go door-to-door to show off her latest getup. And since she seems to have the terrible flu that is going around, having her home makes this week the perfect time to get started.

I do this to myself every year ... I have to make or assemble a costume to top all others and this year will be no exception. Last year I was pretty pleased with the job I did on her Tinkerbell costume, but this time we are going extravagant: Ariel the Little Mermaid!

Now if you will excuse me, I have to figure out how to make a mermaid costume - complete with fins - that is modest, warm and that she can walk in. Hmm ... thank heavens for flesh colored polar fleece!

Blog Fodder

The Fruits of All Hallow's Eve

We had a fun Halloween this year. The kids' costumes turned out well; we went trick-or-treating with great success in the candy department; and I managed to actually carve a pumpkin or two.

I made little pumpkin houses this year. It was fun gathering the sticks to make the window panes (my daughter helped).

As I was carving the pumpkins I started to feel adventurous and decided to keep the seeds to roast and enjoy as a snack. It was a lot of work separating the seeds from the mushy, orange guts and thoroughly washing them. It was nice to eat them when they were fresh from the oven, but the husks are like eating sawdust. I chose to peel off the husks and just eat the green seed inside which tasted pretty good. Then yesterday I was at the store and saw that I could have just bought the seeds in bulk and saved myself a lot of trouble. Oh well, I am still proud of my efforts!

Free Coffee for Voters

I did it, I voted. I feel a great sense of accomplishment by having done so. And now I will receive a little reward by going into my local Starbucks on November 4th and getting a free tall cup of coffee ... that is if I tell them "I voted". It is all a part of their V2V campaign to get people to have a voice in this election and make your community a better place to live. So, if the satisfaction of knowing you are exercising your rights to vote in this country isn't enough of an incentive, maybe a FREE cup of Starbucks brew is.

Lights Out, Little Cookies

Mother's Cookies is shutting down. That's right, no more pink and white Frosted Animal Cookies, and no more of my personal favorite: Taffy cookies. Now, while I don't buy many cookies from the store, I still feel a great sadness that this American tradition is no more. What do I do now if I want a Taffy cookie? Where do I go? Who do I turn to? Yesterday I was in the grocery store and saw that indeed there were only three types of Mother's Cookies left on the shelf and in very few quantities. Forget the Wall Street bailout, we need to bail out Mother's Cookies! I plan to buy one of the t-shirts shown above. I doubt it will fix the company's bankruptcy problems, but it may the only thing left of those beloved little confections.

Paws Under the Door

My son is so silly. He loves to come into my office when I am working and close the door. He then gets mad that it is closed but he can't open it himself. Today he was grunting and whining so that I would open it and then he erupted in a high pitched giggle. I looked to see what he thought was so funny and saw my cat's paws sticking out from underneath the door. The cat and my son then continued to play, touching each other's "paws" and this provided much entertainment for some time - times like these make me so glad we have all the billions of toys taking up precious real estate in our house.

No Tricks Here ... Just Treats

The stunning six year-old Wonder Woman on the right is me. Really! Apparently my Kindergarten teacher didn't recognize me when I wore this costume to school. The dark curly wig was a great disguise. And yes, those are Wonder Woman Underoos I am wearing. Thank you for such a great costume Mom and Dad!

Happy Halloween everyone! It seems like October went by so fast; in fact I am already seeing Christmas commercials on TV. This morning started out as the perfect October day, but as the day went on it has started to feel like November (it turned cold, windy and the sky is very overcast). My favorite month of the year is about to end ... so sad.

My son has been a real grump this week since he has been sick, but we did manage to get a few photos of him in his pirate costume. Of course he squirmed and whined and didn't cooperate very well. He wouldn't keep the scarf or the hat on his head, but he did love the sword. Here are a few selections from our photo session:

Ahoy, Matey! I think he looks like such a little boy here and not a baby.

Our Little Swashbuckler!

This one is my favorite.

This year is our only son's second Halloween. I thought it would be fun to post a photo from last year. My goodness they grow so fast don't they?

2007: 7 month-old Yoda. Of course Mommy helped with the light saber graphics!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

A Tinker Fairy Pictorial

Alright! I have been excited to do this post for some time now and the time is here. Halloween pictures! Now you may be thinking "But it's not Halloween yet"'. You're right - but we take Halloween costumes seriously in our household. We take our growth in photography skills seriously too.

This year I made most of my daughter's Tinkerbell costume. I started with a sketch; then I made the dress, painted ballet slippers green and added pompoms, and even converted a Hannah Montana wig into Tinkerbell hair! How could I not take a ton of photos to display my handy work?

This is my sketch. Of course my daughter isn't as curvy as the real Tinkerbell, but you get the idea.

While featuring this year's costume for my daughter, I thought I would post some from the past few years. I like seeing how our photography skills have developed and how much our little girl has grown. We haven't taken Halloween portraits of our son yet because he has had the stomach flu, so be watching for those in a later post!

I like how this photo features the whole costume.

A curious Tinker Fairy.

Watch out! Tinkerbell is mad. I actually didn't have to do much to this photo because of a cool new trick my husband used to give it that dreamy look.

My daughter has always been a ham!

2007: 3 year-old Snow White.

2006: 2 year-old Cinderella.

2005: 17 month-old Princess Leia. Yes, I helped a little with the pink light saber!

2004: 5 month-old lamb. Love those cheeks!

As you can tell we have a lot of fun taking these! Thank you for humoring me.