First Fire

Cold and rainy day

Gray light out, warm glow inside

Quiet zen of home

Costumes- Then & Now

First Halloween together- Pooh and Piglet

Rainbow and Leprechaun

Cowboy (with stick horse) and Princess

Day clothes that same year

Tinkerbell and Captain Hook

Doctor and Surgeon

Pigpen and Charlie Brown

Butterfly and Vet

Pa Ingalls and Laura Ingalls Wilder

Skeleton, Stick Figure, and Rick (Daddy)

This past Sunday, we made a trip to the thrift store, a trip to the fabric store, then we hunkered down in the craft room and spent just shy of 6 hours executing Halloween costumes for this year.

It's been kinda fun watching the evolution of our costumes- from whatever seemed like it matched that Mama could grab at the store, to whatever we could make from what we had around the house, to what we could put together from the dress-up stash, and then on to what the kids themselves could think up and pull off... it's been fun (and always kinda last-minute if I'm being honest).

This year both Audrey and Henry had a very strong concept of what they want to be for Halloween.

Henry watched Spirited Away with me a little while back and immediately decided he wanted to be No Face. I found the mask on Amazon but the rest of it we put together with pieces here and there from the thrift store.

(Neither Audrey nor Henry wanted a pic taken of them in their complete setup until Halloween evening when everything- including makeup- is complete, so check back here this coming weekend!)

Audrey has been obsessed with the Redwall series and decided she wants to be Major Perigord this year, a warrior hare with a very specific and detailed outfit (the front and center hare in blue).

The ears came from Amazon, the base shirt came from the thrift store, and the faux fur came from some voodoo coupon magic at the fabric store. Everything else we had around the house.

I am now officially all crafted out, but I can't help loving how super excited they both are about debuting their looks. I am really enjoying watching their wheels turn and getting to participate in pulling off their meaningful costume choices. It was totally worth the majority of our Sunday.

I may be as excited as they are for Halloween to come now!

Cold Front

It always, always feels like a holiday around here when the first cold front blows through... like, the first real cold front (I'm not talking about those false-hope fronts that bring the daytime highs down into the mid-80's, y'all). We got a good one this week, and I felt perfectly justified pulling out the hot chocolate, hoodies, and long pants, then later lighting a fire in the fire pit (never mind that it was also because we cut down a couple trees and needed to clean up the branches).

We even had to close down the windows a couple times- we got chilly!

I know it'll be warm again soon, but I am so glad we got to really feel fall for a few days!

Horses and Dinner

We had the privilege of joining some friends at a charity dinner this week to celebrate the work done by Riding Unlimited in our community. Using horses- and a tiny little donkey named Tony- as therapy animals, the good people at Riding Unlimited work with the handicapped and people struggling with physical limitations. They put on an impressive event, complete with a honky-tonk band, brisket, and an appearance made by some of the therapy animals. They made a particular impression on Kyle, who was extremely impressed by their whole operation and left vowing to be one of the contributors in the following year.

Audrey and Henry especially liked the donkey and the dancing.

I enjoyed the company and the amazing sunset out the barn doors. We rubbed elbows with some of the wonderful, spunky clients and other community supporters. It was so good to get out of our 'usual' and experience another angle of what's going on around us. It was a good night.

Elevensies

It's never very much fun to have a birthday on a weekday, is it? But we did our best to help our oldest Little make the most of her day today- first thing in the morning she had her birthday bag and a lemon muffin, followed by a ride to school and drop-off with Grammy and Gramps, cupcakes to share with her classmates, special drinks when she got back home, steaks for dinner, three new book series to add to her collection..................................... and her very own laptop.

Oh, and she lost her first molar at dinner, too.

Little Brother is doing his very best to be happy for his sister, and we're having fresh new conversations about responsibility and trust now, too, thanks to this new device being located in her room. I think she's up for it, though. My girl is a pretty good rule-follower. The first thing she said after all the "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUs" was, "Now I can do my homework on my own computer in my own room!"

Set that good example, Big Sister. I think I know what just made the top of Little Brother's wish list!

Happy birthday, Audrey Grace, we love you more than you will ever know.

11-Eve

Sister's turning 11 tomorrow (at 6:40am, to be precise). She asked me this morning if she was going to be a teenager after this birthday, then she said she couldn't think of anything she wanted for a birthday present, then she asked if she could have some coffee.

My sweet smart girl, my ninja, my violinist; a Minecraft extraordinaire, Guinea pig tamer, OJ maker, and ponytail aficionado; afraid of spiders, not afraid to help a stranger, thoughtful and funny and uninterested in frilly things..... the best girl a Mama could ask for.

We did a "Yes Day" this past weekend instead of a traditional birthday party this time around (her choice), have you heard of these? Basically for one full day you get to do whatever you want (within reason). Anything that would add to the enjoyment of the day, the answer is yes.

She had doughnuts for breakfast.
She played Minecraft all morning.
She had Ramen noodles and a trip to the ice cream shop for lunch.
She skipped our usual rest time and played Minecraft some more.
We had fondue for dinner, and for dessert she had frozen CoolWhip topped with the filling from Oreos (just the filling, not kidding).
She stayed up as late as she wanted and read in bed (she lasted until about 10pm).

She reports it was an excellent Yes Day.

Of course we have a few more surprises for her real birthday, and there will be cupcakes to bring to school tomorrow. It's hard over here, lemme tell ya.

Oh my girl, you are a hoot. Happy 11-Eve!