That IS Tricky

Davis: "Mom, are we going to preschool yet?"
Me:  "Nope.  Not for another couple of hours."
D: "Lets just go now and wait in the car."
M: "No, because we'd have to wait in the car for three and a half hours."
D: "I don't care."
M: "I do."
D: "Listen.  If you don't take me right now, I'm going to change my phone number so that is REALLY tricky.  And you'll NEVER get it. Like 22882 but its a really a 9. Get it?"
M: "Not really."
D: "Yeah.  I told you. That's because it so tricky."

Halloween 2011

I already wrote about Madison's costume.  But here's another picture--just because.

She told me she's not sure if she wants to go as a dead ballerina or candy corn next year. I asked, "Go WHERE?" Next year she'll be in Junior High and I'm pretty sure that's the trick-or-treating cut off.  I'll probably end up making that dead ballerina costume anyway because, remember, she gets invited to parties now.

Kai went as a wizard. The first picture is how I told him to pose and the second how he thinks a wizard should pose. Apparently he thinks wizards are like rappers.

For the robe, I had him lay down on both pieces of material (the black with stars and silver lining) and cut around him in the shape I wanted.  Then I sewed up the seams.  I call this the Disney princess version of sewing. Then I took an old witches hat from a previous costume and covered it in fabric left over from Madison's skirt.  I stuffed the top with tinfoil so it would stand up the way I wanted it to. The staff is a stick with painted rocks wired to the top.  It was pretty heavy and got to be a pain to carry. We probably should have made the rocks out of Styrofoam.  

Chase doesn't do Halloween and told me he didn't want a costume, so I didn't make him one.  But one night last week as Michael and I were putting the finishing touches on the other costumes, Chase started grabbing left over supplies and made himself an elephant costume.


Unfortunately, or fortunately--depending on your point of view, when it came time to go to the ward Halloween party he ditched his elephant costume and just went as Chase.

Don't worry, if he'd decided to wear his elephant costume I would have made him put on some pants.

This is Chase as Chase--cowboy shirt, bolo tie, gray mouse in the front pocket.

Anytime someone suggested he was dressed up like a cowboy he would get upset and say, "NO. I'm just Chase."

The boy really doesn't like Halloween.  I had to pick him up from school early on Halloween because he didn't want to be in (or even have to see) the Halloween parade, eat the special Halloween lunch, or have anything to do with the class Halloween party.  He told me that Halloween is ruining his life.

So instead of trick-or-treating he chilled at Grandma's house and was plenty spoiled. So much so that the other kids are contemplating skipping trick-or-treating for a night with Grandma next year.

And last but, if you've spent anytime with Davis at all you'd know, certainly not least, Davis decided he wanted to be a robot for Halloween.

Michael took this one on.  He took a garbage can and created a robot costume complete with blinking lights and beeps.

I covered it with tinfoil and made the hat--which should be obvious because it has hearts on it. However, the hat got to be too much, and after two houses it came off never to be worn again.

Happy Halloween!!

More Language Lessons

D:  "Madison, do you want to know what cookie is in Spanish?"
M: "Sure."
D: "Cuatro.  That's cookie in Spanish.  Cuatro."
M:  "Cuatro is four in Spanish--not cookie."
D:  "Not anymore.  Now it's cookie."

The Season is Winding Down

Madison is in the final days of the 2011 cross country season.

Today she won another elementary school race, but the competition was pretty light.  In fact she was the only one in her division that showed up.  Apparently the other 6th grade girls in the valley didn't feel like running in freezing cold weather. 

Even though she was the only runner she beat her personal best time for the mile--6 minutes and 33 seconds. She was lucky enough to have her cousin Sam, who is on the high school team, run as one of her rabbits.  Unfortunately Davis thought Sam was racing against Madison and decided to root for him instead of his sister.  Now that Davis has confidence we're going to work on family unity. 

The First Costume Is Complete

I have one costume done.  Madison had a Halloween party to go to, yes she does that now, so we had to finish her costume first.

This year she wanted to be a Gothic Rag Doll.  I had no idea what that was so the first thing I did was google "gothic rag doll."  Thanks to google and pinterest I was able to get an idea of what she wanted, cried a little, and then I got to work.

This year she helped me with her costume. It was awesome because her help was actually helpful. 

Without further ado I give you Madison as a Gothic Rag Doll.

We made the wig by sewing white and black yarn (don't worry knitting friends I used red heart) onto a black beanie I purchased on clearance for 33 cents.  We used two full skeins of yarn-- and were still a little short.

For her shirt I found a boy's black t-shirt on clearance for a dollar and serged the edges of the sleeves (making them shorter and more girly).  I also serged around the neckline and bottom of the shirt.  then I cut up the center of the shirt, serged the edges, sewed it back together and sewed on fake felt buttons.

The skirt was super easy.  We took strips of black and white tulle and tied them around elastic (the oldest tutu making trick in the book) and once that was done I sewed a piece of gray fabric around the inside.

I made the sleeveless gloves by cutting the toes from a pair of striped knee socks and making a little stitch for the thumb.   We made the necklace with clay beads (we used sculpy brand clay) and some fine gauge jewelry wire.

Oh and don't forget the creepy make-up and white crackle nail polish!

Gothic Rag Doll COMPLETE!  Now to to the wizard . . . .

And He Used to Think I Was 25

Kai:  Mom you know how I wore my Oregon Ducks jersey to school today?  Well when I was going into class this older kid yelled, "Dude!  That jersey is SICK!  Just SICK!" But don't worry, because when, like, young and cool people say something is "sick" they mean its like "really cool" so, you know, it's like a good thing.

Learning's for Dummies

Davis is four and has already decided its not cool to learn things in school.  When I ask him what he learned in preschool he says things like, "Nothing. My teacher has a TV hidden in the cupboard and she just watches it all day while we do whatever we want"  or "Today my teacher brought a pillow pet from home and took a nap" or "Today we painted, but I already know how to paint so it isn't like I learned anything."

But yesterday when I asked him if he learned anything in school he very casually said, "I did learn something today.  Today I learned that I don't really like people."

This shouldn't have shocked me because that morning during an episode of Super Why after Wyatt said "and YOU-Super You, with the power to help!" Davis said, "The power to help? Who wants the power to HELP--people will just ask you to do stuff for them all the time!!"

So yeah . . . not really a people person.