Trick or Treat!

Yes, I did finally get Malena's costume done, and she is now officially off my back. Whew!

Halloween is traditionally my favorite holiday - imagination, costumes, and candy. How can you go wrong with that combo? So here are the costumes for this year:

Bonnie as a "bedhead" or a "sleepyhead", whichever you like better...
 

Malena as a wizard. She refused the pointy hat after this picture, insisting that it made her look too much like a witch, which she definitely was not.

Collin as a space cowboy. He also dressed up as a Bumblebee Transformer, so depending on what party you were at, he was something different. Gotta keep people guessing.

Jack as Spiderman, although he did make me get him the Wolverine costume. He wore that into oblivion in the past two weeks, and now we're not even sure where it is.

And Sophia as the kitty. I decided about a month ago on her being a cat, and then my little sister (who is taller than me) sent me the cutest cat outfit for her! Totally unplanned, I swear.

Hope you've all had a great Halloween!

High Altitude Shelf

The garage's ceiling has been offending Doug since we moved in. "What a waste of space!" he says, almost monthly.

He decided to do something about it, in the shape of a shelf. It's a great shelf, very sturdy. It's also very, very high.

This is good and bad. Good, because it limits access (especially to the younger set). Bad, because whatever we put up here, will be forgotten. We can't see up there very well...and it's high...you get the idea.

It will be a great place to put the cradle, made for us by Doug's dad. We don't want it available for the kids to ruin at will, and this will keep it in good condition until my babies have babies (may that be many years).

Hopefully, we'll remember that it's there.

Sophia is TWO!

The "terrible twos" are here - although, for the record, threes are much, much worse. Twos are actually pretty fun, according to me.

Here's the birthday girl, all excited about her cake!

There weren't any candles, due to Sophia's own "cleaning" spree. She emptied the drawer and the candles went missing - surprise, surprise. She didn't seem to mind not having candles, though.

She was super excited about her presents, too:

This one was from her aunt, who was visiting us a few weeks ago. Or was that last week? I can't keep track these days. What Sophie didn't like was the kids taking away a newly opened present to give her another wrapped present.

Happy birthday, Sophie!!!

Temptation Strikes...and Wins a Double-Double

Nurseries should be off limits to this girl. Honestly, I can't get enough of the plants...of course, I do have over an acre to fill...which I remind Doug every time he rolls his eyes as I roll in with another carload of plants.

So what was it this time? Roses. Not my favorite flower, to be honest. However, they have a wonderful appeal, and I think the long blooming season will look spectacular in the front yard. Why do I think this? Because the In-N-Out near our house has entire rows of them...and the landscaping there is just beautiful. Yes, I go to In-N-Out for the landscaping. Just kidding - but I do enjoy the landscaping while I'm there!

Here they are, waiting to be planted...

And here they are, in the ground. Hooray!

Jack is jumping for joy, too. Mama is done! Now we can play!

Here's a closeup of the flower they produce:

I also had to get a magnolia tree. It's not the spectacular magnolia that you might see in the south - such as my mother-in-law's tree in California. Oh, I wish. But it is a nice patio tree that will give us lovely flowers in spring. And I can say that I have a magnolia, which is not something to be underrated. Again, here is the potted version, waiting to be planted...

And a planted tree.

Oh, how I love trees. Especially in fall. Have any that you especially love changing color right now? Hope you're enjoying fall as much as I am!

Pumpkin Time

Once again, it's the season for carving pumpkins. All I can think of is the mess.

My children decided to circumvent my control-freakedness this year - bless them. Individually, and on different days, they took a knife and a bowl out to the front porch, and calmly carved their pumpkins. They put the mess in the bowl and took care of everything. No mom required. 

And the results are amazing. Are you ready for this? The first two pictures are courtesy of my sister, who was here for a weekend and had her camera available (thanks, Julia!)...

Bonnie's:

Throwing up and crying...yup, she's 12.

Malena's:

The quintessential jack-'o-lantern

Jack's:

A little abstract, but still a great effort

And finally, Collin's:

He wanted one that threw up, too

 And, just for fun...Jack posing with three of our pumpkins.

Another year without getting stressed over carving pumpkins. Maybe this is a trend!

What's Blooming

This is the last installment of blooms for the year, I'm afraid. Did I hear cheers? : )

Well, I have mixed feelings. I'm sad the blooms are done, and yet I love fall. The changing leaves and the brisk air invigorate me after the sultry days of summer that only put me in a semi-catatonic state.

So, here it is! My last chrysanthemums popped into bloom.

Hope your week is going well for you!

Purge, Baby!

In a good way, that is.

When I throw something away, I feel great. I realize that not everyone feels that way. But I feel liberated from "stuff". My goal is to let as much leave the house - through trash, donations or whatever - as comes in, so that we are not accumulating.

Accumulation = stress

This is a personal equation. Again, I totally realize that this is not true for everyone. But each thing that is bought requires space to store it, time to clean it or move it so you can clean, and you have to think about it every time you look at it. Therefore, I try to keep only the things I want to think about, or that I need to have around. 

For example, I do not want to think about a toilet plunger, but they do come in handy now and again. Bleh.

October is always a good time for me to throw things away. Why? Because Doug is off hunting. Shhhh! Don't tell him! He always gets so stressed when I feel like purging the house of excess. He is...a pack rat. He believes very firmly that anything that we possibly could use should be kept. And that it doesn't matter if we don't have a place to store it. Argh!

But if I clean (and purge) while he's gone, it doesn't stress him out. And it makes me feel better. And has he ever missed something that I've thrown away? NO! He has missed things he has lost, but that's another story. Actually, he doesn't miss things because I usually only purge things that belong to me (and only to me). Like my clothes. Or the kids' rooms that are filling up with junk and trash. 

So there. 

Purging = freedom

Another one of my equations. Nice, huh?

Plastic Pumpkins

We have a ton of plastic pumpkins. You know, the ones used for trick-or-treating. Why, you ask?

It's because of the moving. We have moved at least once where our pumpkins were in storage or at the last house while the kids were getting ready for Halloween. So I just got more - they're only one dollar each, right?

Last year, I put all the extras on our wall...which looked pretty okay.

I even put tea lights in them...but they died a few days into October. And I was not climbing up there every day to turn them off...so by Halloween, they were just plastic pumpkins sitting on a wall.

This year, I tried putting them on the wall again. The fact that it is several feet shorter worked against me: the kids kept knocking them off. So, I took them outside.

They do look a tad goofy, but what is Halloween for, if not to be goofy? Are you having fun decorating for Halloween? Share!

Sowin' Some Grass

So Doug was doing yard work last week, talking to Jack, and accidentally stepped in a hole. A big hole. And twisted his ankle pretty darn good.

And so, what does he decide he needs to do? Pronto? That's right...sow grass over much of our existing yard. Basically, almost everything that isn't garden. Granted, that's not a lot in our yard, since Doug's garden is a behemoth. Still, sowing requires a lot of walking. A lot.

Did I help him, you ask? Ummm. Nope.

Even without little sprouts, it looks so much better. Here's hoping the grass sprouts before they turn off the secondary water (which is probably in the next week or so - they refuse to give anyone an absolute date).

Looking west - the garden to the south still looks seriously sad

Looking south at the bottom of the yard

And this is what it used to look like - August 2011

The whole idea is to get rid of the puncture weeds (also known as goat heads). They are evil. And if it makes our yard look better too - extra bonus!

Collin is Eight!

Since Friday was Collin's birthday, I thought I'd treat you to a picture-fest of a small boy who is not so small anymore...

At the hospital in East Stroudsburg, PA

A one-year old Collin

Three and a half in Sumter, SC

Eight with attitude

Love this boy!

Moving Around: Boys' Edition

With new curtains up, it was time to move things around and see if we could get some furniture placement making sense in the boys' room.

First of all, I had to get the boys matching bedside tables. Eventually, they'll have matching beds, right? When Doug gets around to it...So it is only fitting that they also have matching bedside tables.

Malena and I went to IKEA on Friday night, and found some cute tables that were only $12.99. Wahoo. The kids were super-excited to help put them together.

Once together, the boys were very happy to have them in their room. Until I told Collin that I wanted to change his bed arrangement.

After promising that I would change it back if he didn't like it, we tried a few different things. Here is where we started...

Version 1: Long table (actually a coffee table from a yard sale) between bed and wall, with new tables between the two beds. The upside of this option: the curtains were not trapped behind the bed. The downside: the room looked strangely lopsided. At any rate, Collin nixed this one.

Version 2: Long table at the bottom of the bed, new tables in between the beds. Collin nixed this one, too.

Version 3: The coffee table and the new table lined up alongside Collin's bed. Collin said, "That's it, Mom." The control freak inside of me is saying, let it be, it's his room. I had to leave.

The version I wanted? Version 4: only the two new tables. Yup, this is the shot where Collin is thoroughly disgusted by my efforts.

Kids rooms are fun. Really, they are. But I am so glad this one is downstairs and I don't have to see those two tables lined up by the bed very often. How can he sleep like that? It's a mystery that will probably never be solved.

Whaddaya Think: Too Girly?

In an effort to get one step closer to making Malena's Halloween costume, I finally got the curtains for the boys' room finished. Whew!

Jack picked out the fabric a few weeks ago at JoAnn's. Since he was the one choosing, I got to set the parameters: blue and white, with perhaps some lime green thrown in. Blue and white won the day (along with a little candy to bribe the kids into being good while the fabric was being rung up).

A bit of a Moroccan feel, don't you think?

Then I cut it out - along with lining - and it sat on my washing machine for...well, the past few weeks. I wanted full-length curtains, so I got six yards - three yards for each panel. Luckily, there's only one window in their room. Why "luckily"? Because the fabric was expensive (even though it was 40% off!), for one. For another, it takes less time to make only two panels. Wa-hoo!

So this weekend, I pulled out the sewing machine, and went to work. It seems like it's been a long time since I just lined curtains from scratch without having to patch anything or "make it work". It was quite relaxing. I sewed up the sides of the curtains, folding over the edge twice to hide the selvage. Then I turned over the top to make a 4" ruffle, along with a rod pocket. Since the pattern is repetitive, I used it as a way to align my edges. The selvage also had a note that there was an "Up" direction to the pattern, but who actually cares? Just kidding - I decided it didn't matter very much.

The ruffle

Especially since I had already sewn sides up, determined my top, and didn't want to unpick everything once I realized it was upside-down. Besides, I really can't tell.

Can you tell it's upside down? Me neither.

Anyway, then I hung those suckers up. Or tried to. As I took out the curtain rod I purchased (again, a few weeks ago), I realized it was bent. Argh!!! So, after an agonizing return-the-rod trip, I then really hung up the curtains. And, sigh, decided I loved them.

But are they too girly? Hmmmm....

I thought about it as I pinned the hem, took them back down and sewed up the bottom hem. And continued thinking about it as I put them back up.

I think I have determined that I don't really care - I love them. What do you think?