Halloween

 Halloween in our house is quite the big deal.  It is my all time favorite holiday what with all the dressing up and the scaring others.  However since having kids and since they are still quite small I have found that I am decorating very mildly.  One of the things I would love to eventually do is run and operate a haunted house.  I love to do the scaring but I hate to be scared.  It's odd I know, but that is just the way  it is.

Claire was really into it this year.  She was excited to dress up and be someone else for a day and of course to get a ton of candy and covet it.  She told me what she wanted to be months ago and never changed her mind.  She wanted to be a fairy and that is what she was.  Ben on the other hand didn't care so I let Claire pick out his costume which ended up being a blue dinosaur.  

Claire got to dress up at a school party the Thursday before Halloween.  All the little girls were dressed as princesses with the exception of one who was a pony, and the all the boys were dressed as some character from Toy Story.  Claire, before getting out of the car all dressed up, made sure that I or Ben would not be accompanying her to the party as she wanted to have a good time with her friends and not with us.  Typical.  She is always afraid that we are going to come in, stay, and cramp her style.  This does not bode well for when she is in high school.

This year Halloween was on a Sunday and Travis decided that the congregation should dress up for the service.  What a fantastic idea!  It really spiced the service up and made it fun.  He came down the aisle with his Vader head on and his collar on.  Darth Pastor!  The congregation loved it.   My mom came over for the weekend and was Bobo the western clown and I was a witch.  Claire was so happy to be dressed in her costume and be at church that she was not her typical shy self.  She was bold and spoke to most anyone who talked to her which is unusual.  She really came out of her shell.  Ben on the other hand was his typical happy and outgoing self and charmed the pants off of anyone who noticed him.

Trick or treating was a blast for the kids.  They jammed down dinner and were ready to go in an instant.  Travis had a wonderful time taking them all around the neighborhood and reported back that most people told him that our kids were the cutest and most charming.  Claire was very polite and spoke up and Ben was, well, Ben.  We were also the best house in the neighborhood this year again with the new addition of our bubble fog machine!  We had at least 300 kids and adults come to the door and then lingering to take pictures in the driveway or just play with the smoke filled bubbles.  It made me proud to hear all the wonderful comments and hear that we were the talk of the neighborhood!  Yes I think I will toot my own horn on this one! Toot toot!!  Travis also had a great idea to make the piano in our front room look like it wanted to eat children that came to the door.  It was a huge success with the black lights we had put around and the kids loved it.  

Just one of those days.

Today has been a rough day as far as child rearing goes.  I have had to be on the phone a lot because of the upcoming Christmas Bazaar that I am in charge of.  Why is it that every time the phone rings or I make a call the kids go crazy!  It's driving me mad because they just go nuts!  For example, every time I answered the the phone Claire would start screaming or rile up Ben to scream.  That sounds professional doesn't it?!  There is nothing like trying to convince people to join your bazaar like crazy people screaming "I want to eat you!" in the background of the conversation.  At one point I was on the phone and Ben was just licking the fireplace.  I didn't even know what to do or say to get him to stop.  I can't just yell over the phone "Stop licking the fireplace!".  That might sound bad.  The pictures are what happened next.  They found the mask in the closet.  It is loud with real sounds.  Again there is nothing like trying to explain to a potential vendor to choose your bazaar like hearing in the background "YOU DON'T KNOW THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE" or "DON'T MAKE ME DESTROY YOU".  This is the kind of day I have been having.  

A completed yard!

We have completed the yard for the year!!  The grass seed is down thanks to Steve who came over yesterday and helped yet again.  Now I just have to water it 3 times a day for the next 2 weeks.  That part is not so great but we should see some green in 6 days!  Here are the latest photos of the progress.  I'll post about the yard again when the grass has filled in.

Not too much.

These last few days have been slow around here.  By slow I mean as far as projects are concerned we are at a dead stop.  The yard has been on hold as has the painting of the kids room.  Some of it has been lack of enthusiasm but it has been mostly due to circumstances.  Things like rain, heat, visitors, being pregnant, kids, and lack of motivation.  I did plan to get the house decorated for Halloween today and get some painting done but the weather turned it's ugly head and was 82 degrees here and with no air conditioning was 80 degrees in the house and hotter upstairs where the painting is happening.  I felt like a huge beached whale today with this heat.  Luckily the kids were in pretty good moods and were getting along otherwise I fear I might have one maybe two less children by the end of today.

It's quiet in the house now and only 72 degrees which is tolerable.  Maybe I can paint a little tomorrow but we'll see how the weather feels before I get too involved.  As far as the yard, we hope to have the grass planted by Friday and have the front planter box planted.  All this depends on my lovely husband.  I hope to be able to get out by myself Friday but we'll see how that shapes up.  For now thats it.  I'm off to bed.

Kissing whales, being painted, and pants with nobody inside them.

The kids had a great time during the morning hours while I tried to paint and do laundry at the same time.  It's hard to get anything done with little kids around but you find ways to do a little at a time and today that is what I did.  I got small portions of things painted  while entertaining the kids and folding and putting away laundry.  It's not the way I like to work but what else am I going to do?  

While trying to paint the pants with nobody inside them Ben kept on insisting that I kiss his small toy whale.  At one point he just shoved it in my mouth and left it there.  Also while trying to paint, both kids painted me and climbed all over me.  This, as I'm sure you have guessed, really helped the job get done faster.  There was a brief time where they were not in my face but decided that they both had to ride the rocking horse at the same time.  This then erupted into a huge battle where one was trying to buck off the other and then Ben just threw Claire off the horse.  This also made my painting experience go super smoothly.

Somehow I did manage to get a little done.  It took a lot more coats of paint than I would have liked but it will, at some point, be done and be fabulous.

Cat!

A quick update!  The cat and the fish are done!  Moving on tomorrow to the pants with nobody inside them.

We have Sneeches!!

I was able the last couple of days to get some paint on the wall.  Who knew that that would actually ever happen?!  I painted at night, during nap time today, and this afternoon and we now have Sneeches!!  It took 4 coats of yellow but they are on the wall and I love them!  They have turned out better than I expected.  I was able to start the Cat in the Hat today with 2 coats of white and I hope tonight or tomorrow I can get some black on him and get him done.  I'll post when there is more to see.

A Sussical time

I've had a bee in my bonnet about painting Ben and Claire's room.  They share a room now and it is quite girlie which I know is not a big deal to Ben at this point but that will change.  Plus I don't want him to gripe about it later in life that not only did he share a room with his sister but it was also a fairy garden room.  I would never live it down in this family.

With that said I decided to paint over the garden and find a more gender neutral theme for the two of them.  For quite a while I was going to do an ocean theme because they both like fish.  But then I stumbled across a Dr. Seuss book last week and then things got out of control.  Travis, being the man that he is, was fine with the change as long as he didn't have to do anything but look at it when it was completed.  He did however suggest some things to me that were wonderful because it saved me a lot of time and painting.  He suggested that we move the kids into Ben's old room and paint it instead of painting over Claire's room and risk destroying the tree my dad made.  What a great idea!  Yesterday we took all the jungle theme stuff out of Ben's room and turned Claire's room into a tropical jungle.  It will be fun for the new baby and this way the two of them get a little more space.  Ben's room is about 3+ ft bigger than Claire's room.

I spent the evening drawing all over the walls getting ready to paint.  I am having so much fun and I can't wait for it to be painted and done!  I think it is going to be such a cute room and a fun room for the both of them.  Claire is super excited to have all her favorite Dr. Seuss characters on the walls.  She kept on insisting that I hurry up and paint so she can move in.  I think the project is going quite well at this point.  I still have more drawing to get done but I'm sure I will complete it tomorrow and then start painting on Tuesday.  I'll post as I go.  Today is the pencil drawing thus far.

The end is near!

Today although wet (Very wet) we managed to get a little more done in the yard!  For the first 30 some odd minutes it was dry and then things took a rather wet turn.  Steve and Karen were out to help which was wonderful.  Karen knows so much about gardening and what looks great together that she is a God send to us.  She has made our yard look spectacular!  We have yet to seed the lawn and finish up the planter box in the front and then we can call it done until spring.  I never thought we would get that far before it got too wet and cold but thanks to fabulous family and our wonderful church members we have just about reached all our goals for this year!

Come spring we will paint the planter box in the front and the retaining wall in the back red to match the house trim, make 2 huge planter boxes in the back for veggies and paint them, and add a bench to the retaining wall for some seating down below.  It's a short list and an easy list.  I can't wait to have everything on the list complete.  This has been a wonderful experience and I thank everyone who has helped in any and all ways.  You have all been amazing.

The clouds have parted

This Saturday was super productive as far as the yard is concerned!  We needed the boost as Thursday was a bust for Travis and Steve.  They went to get lumber that a member was donating and it was far more work then their time was worth and it took 10 hours.  Trav was very discouraged and we both thought that there was never going to be even a pin hole of light at the end of the tunnel.  Boy were we surprised to see 8 members of our church and 3 of our family members on our doorstep ready to work at 8am on Saturday morning!

It was a beautiful sunny day which was great to have since it has rained on us every day prior.  Everyone worked so hard that the grading is done, the stone path, the wood retaining wall, prepping the dirt for better dirt, planting, the mow strips, and we were able to get a lot of filbert shells spread.  There is a little more to get done but if we did not have all the help we did we would have never accomplished nearly as much on our own.  I firmly believe it would have taken at least 2 months of Saturdays for us to get done what was done.  We all actually had fun and many laughs were had.   We all felt like it was a good way to spend Sept. 11 by helping each other.

The few things we still need to get done are to condition the dirt a little more, plant grass seed, and spread more filbert shells.  Over time we will get more plants and plant them as our yard could use a few more and build 2 planter boxes in spring for veggies.  Overall a wonderful week as our yard looks a thousand percent better and all our neighbors are thrilled as are we!