Trick or Treat

Tinkerbell Peter Pan

...and a Duck (the costume all of our babies wear)

Tinkerbell with her cousin Alice in Wonderland

All 3 kiddos

How much candy did your children consume tonight????? (and how much of your children's candy did you steal, or tax as Mike says?)

Paper or Plastic?

Last weekend we went to our friends' annual Halloween party and we dressed up as
grocery sacks. I was plastic and filled with all things healthy, including cabbage on top of my head, and Mike was a paper bag filled with "man food".

"My what big eyes you have"

This baby has HUGE blue eyes. I took the following pictures of him the other day and just had to post them. I love this little ray of sunshine. This next week he will turn 6 months old. I already feel like he isn't a little baby anymore, and the kid cannot even crawl.
I love this happy, snuggly, drooly baby. I love how he gets carted around to all kinds of strange places and is always happy happy happy. What is it about babies? Everytime I hold him I am so consumed with love. I feel so lucky to be his mommy.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I have a friend from when I lived in Michigan who is probably the most creative person EVER. I am constantly intrigued by the things she sews and I'm so impressed by how she transforms unwanted adult clothing into clothes for her children. Although I love to sew, I do not really consider myself a creative person and mainly just stick to store bought patterns and fabric. But, Al inspired me to be a little more creative. A few weeks ago Mike was getting rid of some holy khaki trousers. They almost got thrown out when suddenly I thought, I'm going to try to refashion those useless holy pants into something wearable for Julia. I figured that I had nothing to loose so I began to cut away.

I must say, it was really fun and I was pleased with the result. Goodbye, yucky pants for Mike and hello knickers for Julia complete with embroidered back pockets and flowers on the front. I have NEVER embroidered anything (outside of smocking) and it looks pretty terrible, but it was fun and made them look more feminine.

Doing this made me realize just how much goes to waste because we think of things as old and not needed. I'm excited for further refashionings.

Thanks Al, for your inspiration!!!!!

Mary Poppins Part 2

12 hours after returning home from my brother's home, Mike, the kids and I were off to my sister's for 4 days of Mary Poppins part 2.

Their kids are at great ages and we all had a great time. Andi was the master Halloween project maker and under her direction we made some pretty fun and creepy things. Most of the ideas are from the Family Fun website if you are interested in doing your own stuff.
Julia was the "helpful assistant" who often ate important ingredients right off the projects.
Homemade GAK- so gross but so cool. Made from glue, borax, water and food coloring.

Witch brooms Haunted graveyard

Scary witches

Spooky spiders (my personal favorite)

Edible eyeballs

Homemade tortillas in bat and ghost shapes. (I have never ever even considered making homemade tortillas- GO Andi)

Pizza Mummies

Monster Mouths

Cole loved all the attention from Jeffrey who was always more than willing to hold him. Cole was also happy to be upgraded to a walk in closet from his previous quarters of a laundry room. Julia's favorite ride: being pushed in the mop bucket by Jeffrey.

I am Mary Poppins

Welcome to the world little guys!!! This past week Cole and I went up to Northern California to meet my new little adorable twins and help their parents (my brother and his wife ) take care of them.

Cole enjoyed the acoustics of sleeping in the laundry room.

Big sister to the twins and I had fun making cookies.

Just a glimpse of the bottles that were washed and used, washed and used, washed and used etc etc. Wow, twins go through a lot of bottles each day.

My brother and I took the "triplets" on a sunday walk, along with big sister.

Cole was endlessly entertained.

Here I am with Cole, twins and big sister.

And here they are asleep in their carseats.

Cole wanted to be a twin too!! Too bad he's double the size of his cousin, but hey, they are wearing matching outfits. Wow, twins are a lot of work. :)