Costumes 2013.

Making costumes has become a fun tradition for us the days leading up to Halloween. Our church Halloween party was last week, quite early to have costumes ready, but luckily we found lots of short cuts and got ours together mostly in one day.

(That's not Isla, although it kind of looks like her! You can tell because my babies never wear shoes.)
Faye loves to hear the story of The Enormous Crocodile (Roald Dahl) over and over again. After changing her mind about the big costume decision a million times a day, my suggestion of the enormous crocodile finally stuck. We visited Thrift City (new favorite store!) and picked up a green hoodie and green fleece pants that were way too big for Faye. Then I just cut off half the pant legs and used that extra fabric to make the belly. The cut-off arms became the crocodile's mouth, stretched over a baseball cap and cardboard to make it stick out. 

Felt for the teeth and eyes. Lots of hot glue here; no sewing. (Will have to take better pictures on Halloween.)

Such great games at the church party. Here it's the donut on the string; apparently Faye got to use her hands.

This one was ghost bowling.

I was happy that Isla fit into the peacock costume I made for Faye two years ago. (That one was a little labor intensive, but worth it!)

Cute Everett wanted to be a pumpkin. I found an easy Martha Stewart tutorial to make one from a pillowcase and didn't bother hemming the arm and leg holes, so it was really quick and easy! Everett and I were just pulling out green felt to make a stem hat when we glanced over and saw one of the discarded green legs from Faye's fleece pants. It fit right on his head, so there's the stem!

So, I am pretty proud of myself for how this one turned out. For some reason, Carson was determined to be a bowling lane. Not a ball, not a pin, the whole lane. I took an old white T shirt and white pants and died them tan (used RIT dye for Everett's pillowcase too, love that stuff.) Then used a sharpie to draw lines and felt for the markings on the lane. We happened to have a couple of little toy pins that we hot glued onto his sandals. I wish I could have made his head look more like a bowling ball, but it's what we had. I still don't know why he wanted to be this, but he was really happy with it!

So, with minimal sewing, lots of hot glue, and really only a couple hours of working on them, I think we have some great costumes here! The kids even could participate a lot with dying the clothes, gluing the felt pieces on, etc. Let's hope they hold up through one more party and then Halloween night!

Outside days.

The weather this past week has been absolute perfection! Let's forget the San Antonio mugginess that is 80% of the year and just focus on this one wonderful week. We've been staying outside as much as possible, as seen below.

Just walking around with her snack. We walked down to a different little park by our house today, and Isla learned to go down slides by herself. That little body just flies down; it is pretty funny!

This is typical Carson enjoying the playground.

Everett surprised me with his pumping ability. Guess they do learn something in public school!

Faye the fashionista. Too bad she had taken off the floppy hat she had on earlier.

Just a few deer in the YMCA parking lot. Faye had her head out the window yelling, "HI DEERS!" There are eleven deer there!

Little girl riding a bike in her Sunday dress.

Our friends Jen and Scott came for a quick visit so Scott could take his citizenship test. My kids were thrilled, since they love playing with Kate and Jane! 

When they called to say Scott had passed the test and they were on their way back, we quickly made this sign (it says "congrats, Dad, you're a citizen!") and welcomed him home with a patriotic celebration. 

Julia and Faye made fantasmas.

The annual bike rodeo. Carson was hoping for another trophy but got second place in his grade. I'm kicking myself for not putting reflectors and things on his bike to get those points! 

And Everett was super cute on his balance bike.

 Here's hoping for lots more beautiful outside days!

I have this awful habit of staying up until Rick gets home from work. It's one thing if he's on nights and I know I'm going to bed alone, but it's another thing when I'm just sort of waiting for him to arrive, not knowing if it'll be in five minutes or in five hours! I think he's breaking records on his number of hours worked these last couple of weeks... NINETEEN yesterday, and about the same today so far...

But, I am sitting here with the window OPEN and dying of happiness because there is a cool breeze! In San Antonio!

Since the temperatures are finally feeling fall-ish, I got out all the fall/winter clothes bins. Didn't get much done with both Faye and Isla around! Isla quickly became obsessed with shoes, and now she frequently brings me a pair and says, "uhh uhh," until I put them on her. This baby's got opinions!

Summer, Fall, whenever, does Everett ever wear pants? The other day the house was too quiet, so I went looking for Everett. I stood at the doorway to my room and watched him, in front of the full-length mirror, holding my fabric scissors and a paint stirrer. He was whipping them around and had this super intense angry look on his face. When he noticed me in the doorway, he got a little embarrassed, and then informed me that he was, "just getting ready in case any bad guys come in." Beware the pant-less dude with a paint stirrer!

 Oh good, Rick is home, and I can finally quit wasting my life away and go to bed!!

September stuff.

Just random photos not yet documented from the month of September:

We had some excitement on our street a couple weeks ago with some paving going on. Good thing the kids have hard hats.

Everett was often outside watching what was going on.

Rick took the boys camping during his vacation week last month. This is how Everett came home.

I bought my very first power tool! A jigsaw. I had been looking a bit on Craigslist and saw this one advertised; turns out it was at a pawn shop. I might become a regular pawn shop customer.

I have plans to make headboards for actually every bed in the house, so we got right to work on Faye's for her new big girl bed.

The cut-out headboard with the foam. (We made our ottoman and upholstered it the same way a while ago; after doing it once it's easy!) If anyone does an upholstery project like this, I have a few short cuts. You don't need expensive spray adhesive to attach the foam to the MDF or whatever wood you're using. I ran out, and I thought, why not use a glue gun? Worked just fine. Also, I've read that the best way to cut foam is with an electric carving knife. Maybe my neighbor's was the wrong kind, but it did not work at all. I cut it with scissors, which I know does not give an even cut at all, but once the batting and fabric are on pulling the edges down, you can't tell. Cutting with scissors works best if another person holds the foam and sort of pulls it apart for you. Also, to backtrack to the first step where I drew the shape on the MDF, I just free-handed one side of it on a big piece of paper, then flipped it over to cut out the other side. Stapling the fabric over the curved parts of the headboard was hard... I didn't get it perfect, but if you don't' look too closely it's all right!

And here's an unfortunately poor-quality picture of her bed! We used Ana White's plans for the bed and made up our own headboard. We did add a couple of inches to the legs to make the bed a bit higher. The dark stain is very pretty in real life!

Not set on the pillows, but it's what we have for now. Faye is officially a big girl out of her crib! Funny thing is, she will not leave the bed, ever, unless I come get her. After her nap she just lays there stroking her "lovey" for like an hour. I thought she would be the hardest kid to convince to stay in bed, but she must feel some sort of invisible force holding her in!

Rick went back to work after his week off. He has been around sooo much more this second year than his general surgery intern year! My children have a father! (If Isla sees his car pull into the driveway, she starts right up with her, "DADADADA." And then when he comes in, she flops on the floor and prepares for the wrestles and tickles. It is adorable.)

Another fun project, painting the fridge! (Can you tell Rick had time off in September??)

Aaand we started the kitchen cabinet transformation, but it is currently sitting sanded, cleaned, and primed waiting for me to make some decisions on colors, hardware, and whether or not to put beadboard on the cabinet fronts. I cannot make up my mind!

Keeping the plants alive... I think. I am an awful gardener. Everett is sitting down because this was the week when suddenly his right knee quit functioning. For five or six days, he could not straighten it at all. He would hobble around hunched over holding onto the walls, and then he just started crawling/scooting instead. (And somehow he could still scare, chase, and cause Faye to scream equally well without the use of his leg.) So, on day five, I took him to the doctor, thinking what if he had bone cancer or something?? The silly doctor thought he had nerve damage and suggested I take him to the Emergency Room immediately. What? I didn't, but the next morning got all ready to take him in. As we went out to the car to go, he was walking with his leg a little straighter! I told Everett let's forget the hospital and just take you to school. He agreed, remembering that Carson got a free Spurs ticket last year for perfect attendance. Over the next couple of days, he could straighten it more and more until it was all better. So strange!

Caught a little toad one day! Everett cried hard for an hour when we let him go.

Isla never knows who or what is going to come greet her when she wakes up from her naps!

Why do good pictures always turn out blurry??

Her hair is all messy since it's post-church, but I love doing this upside-down ponytail thing, culminating in a cute bun on the top of her head!

Faye y Julia con sus dinosaurios.

My baby drinks milk from a cow now instead of just me! So sad! (She still nurses three times a day though.)

Babysitting seven girls under the age of four. It was actually really fun to just plant myself on the floor and play with everyone!

And now it's October! We put up the tiny bit of Halloween stuff we have, ate apples and dip for a snack, and had chili for dinner. And the kids talk incessantly about what to be for Halloween already. Not sure Faye understands that she has to wait 30 more days before she gets to do that whole trick-or-treat thing!