Halloween 2009: Costumes!

(the dress photographs really blue, it's more green in person)

Our Fairy Tale Family wishes you a Happy Halloween!

Oops...

We didn't get great pictures to show you today. Today has been crazy! Bald Caps are HARD to get right!!

So, instead- I really reccomend mummy mini pizzas. Super easy and yummy, they are much faster and less stressful than pumpkin tarts to make for something like a pre-school party- especially when Stinky turns the carrier full of tarts upside down on our way to the party.

Pretty self explanatory. English Muffin, string cheese, sauce. You could use olives for eyes. I don't like them, though, so I used a teensy bit of black food coloring. Bake for about 10 minutes, or just before the cheese starts to brown. There's something about warm, baked cheese. YUM.

Pictures tomorrow! Promise!

Pumpkins 2009

WBH has been hard at work on this year's trio of pumpkins. A dirty job, for sure...

...but totally worth it. Check out the boys.

There's one more that was a special request from Stinky. I'm saving for a Day of the Dead post.

Costumes are so close to done. Finishing touches are all that are left. Pictures tomorrow evening.

Halloween 2008

WBH made this one as a gift for my brother, a big fan of The Office. Dwight Shrute is a pretty scary guy.

Stinky was the only one who really dressed up, and his costume was inspired by the comments we get about NoNuts all the time. Please, don't ask a great dane owner if they 'have a saddle for that thing.'

We might be forced to make one.

Halloween 2007

Stinky's first Halloween. I started knitting this costume that summer. If I can brag, the cardigan and pants looked pretty fantastic when it was all done. I will never knit pants again.


Being in a new home , we were able to use costumes people hadn't seen us in. So Chris resurrected the pirate costume...

.. and I used my costume from a church production of Wizard of Oz.

The pumpkins this year were a sight to behold. We called this one "Hannibal Lantern"

And we brought Bat Boy into the mix.

Halloween 2006

Halloween is kind of our holiday. It's our favorite. Starting this year, we've made the decision that each year our family will determine a group theme for our costumes. I'm about halfway done with our costumes, which will be taking up most of my mental capacity and energy this week. So, if you'll humor me, I'm going to share pictures from the last few years of halloween.

We used a cement form, spray paint, and elastic and transformed my belly into a cannon. We had the parrot at the time, we figured we might as well get into the spirit of things.

This was the first year WBH used his drill press to carve our pumpkin. It made a fantastic mess in our apartment, but we were happy with the results, and he's done it each year since.

I Made it Monday: Sweet Weekend

We're still coming down from the sugar buzz that was this weekend. There were so many different things to learn at decorating class that the instructor suggested we bring cupcakes. The bear was Stinky's request, but the grapes are my favorite. I don't know why they photographed so blue. Fortunately, I took them to church to share and they're no longer in our home.


These bad boys were a big hit with WBH. Stinky mostly wanted the whipped cream we paired them with. Recipe and instructions are at Bakerella. I used a standard muffin tin instead of the mini muffins. The pie filling recipe is incredibly creamy and smooth. The recipe probably makes 2 dozen, but you'd need a third pie crust. I had to throw away some batter because I only have one muffin tin. These are also gone, and I wish I could say it's because we shared.

I hope your weekend was just as sweet! I'm sewing up a storm on our costumes. Can't wait until they're done and I can show you!

Not Sunday, Still Inspiring

"Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these His little ones. … Rear your children in love, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Take care of your little ones. Welcome them into your homes, and nurture and love them with all of your hearts. They may do, in the years that come, some things you would not want them to do, but be patient, be patient. You have not failed as long as you have tried."

Gordon B. Hinckley

D is for dinosaurs

They're Stinky's favorite thing. Today he sang to me "I'm the biggest carnivore in the cray-shuss (cretaceous) forest! Teeeeeeeeee-REX" Thank you, Dinosaur Train.

He can identify, and knows the names of the usual suspects- t-rex, brachiosaurus, triceratops - but sometimes he likes to throw us for a loop with pachycephalosaurus, deinonicus and one day last week, copralite. I'll admit, we pull that out for parties sometimes.

We read dinosaur books: "What if a dinosaur catches the flu? Does he whimper and whine in between each achoo?" We listen to the DinoFive from Baby Loves HipHop: "I may be big and scary but I'm really pretty nice." At least 3 birthday and Christmas presents are dinosaur-themed. We wear dinosaur shirts. He has 6 that I can think of off the top of my head.

We wear dinosaur backpacks.....


Dinosaur Costumes...

And when friends are coming over, while mommy is planning to make a cake with a pretty fall leaf, we beg for a dinosaur cake....

...and we get it.

What's nice is, we parents are learning, too. Stinky and WBH watch discovery channel together, and learned that there's a possibility that groups of dinosaur species may be one species, but at different ages. Who knew?

What are your little (or not- so-little) ones focused in on now?

I Made it Monday: Table Covering

There's something about fall that is just so nest-y. Having company for dinner times two this weekend, and I wanted to dress up our table a little. One craft store that I love has a scrap bin, where you can get the fabric by weight. I've been collecting their fall colors each time I visited with this in mind, and stitched it together Friday night. It's inspired by the charm packs that have tempted me at the fabric store- but the difference you pay for the convenience felt a little silly when I've got a rotary cutter. Now if I had just cut evenly... Oh well. We'll call it rustic?

Sunday Inspiration: Divine Adornment

"I wonder if you sisters fully understand the greatness of your gifts and talents and how all of you can achieve the 'highest place of honor' in the Church and in the world. One of your unique, precious, and sublime gifts is your femininity, with its natural grace, goodness, and divinity. Femininity is not just lipstick, stylish hairdos, and trendy clothes. It is the divine adornment of humanity. It finds expression in your qualities of your capacity to love, your spirituality, delicacy, radiance, sensitivity, creativity, charm, graciousness, gentleness, dignity, and quiet strength. It is manifest differently in each girl or woman, but each of you possesses it. Femininity is part of your inner beauty.

"One of your particular gifts is your feminine intuition. Do not limit yourselves. As you seek to know the will of our Heavenly Father in your life and become more spiritual, you will be far more attractive, even irresistible. You can use your smiling loveliness to bless those you love and all you meet, and spread great joy. Femininity is part of the God-given divinity within each of you. It is your incomparable power and influence to do good. You can, through your supernal gifts, bless the lives of children, women, and men. Be proud of your womanhood. Enhance it. Use it to serve others."

James E Faust

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

We live in the suburban area of an urban city, if that makes any sense . Our neighborhood is a little rough around the edges, but we haven't encountered many problems. Today, I'm grateful for the people in my neighborhood.

There's the guy two doors down. They have two dogs that like to argue with NoNuts all morning long, but he was in our driveway to give our car a jump at 6:30 this morning. There are two houses down the block and across one street that we always assume are in competition for 'best looking house on the block." Give us a few years gang, and we'll be rivaling you, once we clear the remodelling debris from the yard. Across the street are the women who take in unadoptable rescue dogs with great medical needs. One woman's disabled brother also lives with them. Neighbors like that are great to have around. Next door to them lives the chef for my favorite mexican restaurant. A man who cooks like that is a-okay in my book. Our letter carrier is incredibly cool. Expecting a surprise baby (her only other child is 20), she and I check in almost everyday, and she has a standing invitation if she needs to puke in my house. Grown-up interaction is a rare commodity during the day sometimes. Today she's bringing her ultrasound pics by to show me.

Then there are the suspected drug dealers next door whose customers are finally learning not to block our driveway. The home is a rental tri-plex for sale. We're praying it's foreclosed on soon.

So today, as I'm feeling grateful for my neighbors and singing some Sesame Street, I want to know- who are the people in your neighborhood that you're grateful for?

I Made it Monday: Brownies

WBH has the camera at school today, to show the picture of the awesome (or soon to be awesome) table I found last weekend to the shop teacher. It's lovely, but it's been stripped and needs to be refinished badly. We may outsource it to a shop student looking for a little cash. Supporting our local economy and all...

Back to the point. I make really good brownies. I am not really a big chocolate fan, but I will eat these all day long, given the opportunity. These are much more moist and tasty than what you'll get from a box.

Saucepan Brownies

2/3 c flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 c. sugar
2Tbs margarine or butter
2 Tbs water
1 bag of chocolate chips (the cheap imitation stuff seems to work the best here, surprisingly)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract (try others. Almond is awesome).
Other brownie fixin's, as desired.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Mix flour, soda , and salt in a small bowl. Mix eggs and vanilla in separate small bowl. Melt butter, sugar, water and half of the chocolate chips in sauce pan over low heat until boiling, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Add remaining chocolate chips, flour mixture, egg mixture and any fixin's you like (I like to add sprinkles on the top because everything is better with sprinkles. Bake in a greased pan for 45 minutes, or until the brownies start to pull away from the edges.

Enjoy! This recipe doubles beautifully, by the way. Go ahead, I won't judge you.

Edited to Add: this one has been shared at Life as Mom's weekly ultimate recipe swap!

Sunday Inspiration: Burdens Become Blessings

"Thus burdens become blessings, though often such blessings are well disguised and may require time, effort, and faith to accept and understand."

L. Whitney Clayton

Gratitude

I'm very grateful and touched by the supportive words today. Ladies, you brought tears to my eyes- and that's not just the meds talking. I mean it, one hundred percent. You all really rock. In the midst of a hard week, I'm trying to remember that a grateful heart is a happy heart. I'd like to share somethings I'm grateful for.

WBH's work ethic of steel (to say nothing of the buns)
the support of family
a sweet, too-tall boy who says things that blow my mind everyday
Autumn
the last crybaby pill - YAY!
new endeavors and learning opportunities
a plan for a quiet sabbath

I hope your weekend is wonderful. I'm loving the change of seasons to fall- sweaters, changing leaves, decorations, all of it! Do you like this time of year? I'd love to hear what you like best.

Growth: Somedays, it is just hard.

The last week has been a struggle for me. Last week felt like a series of intentional and unintentional slights, hurt feelings, and plain old bad luck. This week, our family has been sharing a cold- it is lingering longest on me. I don't think I'm getting much right. When you add in a medication* that is making me especially emotional this week has been quite the weep-fest.

Our church's semiannual conference was this weekend. I needed it very much. I needed words of wisdom and love. What I got was just that, but also a bit of conviction. Did you ever have that moment when a teacher or parent tells you "I just expected more from you" and you feel simultaneously loved and horrible? That's how I felt. I know I can do better. I need to do better. I needed the fire lit underneath me that conference gave me.

Sometimes growth is hard. Sometimes the best thing that can be done for a plant is for it to be cut down. That doesn't make it feel better right away, but sometimes you know what

*On that: We've decided to try for another baby, which for us is an intimate process involving WBH, my doctor, nurses, pharmacists lab techs, and me. Honestly, we're blessed in a lot of ways here. As far as fertility treatments go, what I require is the least invasive of all. Also, when the time comes for the birds and the bees talk, we think we can get by for several years with "When we decided to have a baby, the doctor gave Mommy pills. The end." When I mentioned this to my mother-in-law, she said if we do that, we'd better be careful when we say Baby Tylenol.

We Made it Monday: Pumpkin Jars

A joint project with Stinky, these are super easy and very open to interpretation. We used tissue paper, paint, yarn, felt and the stuff that you use to glue your puzzles together (it's what we had). It could be done with just paint, or just paper and glue- use what you've got! I first saw these here. Halloween is kind of our thing, and I'm excited to decorate our home for it.

Oh, one more thing: I really, really, really reccomend electric tealights for this. Really. Little hands that helped to paint and glue paper want to be able to handle them. At least, the little hands over here do.

Sunday Inspiration

Each of us will have our own Fridays--those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. "But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death--Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. "No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come."

Joseph B. Wirthlin

MIA

It's been a rough week, the kind that saps one of all creative energy. Sorry about that. Enjoy a cute picture of my kid.

Back for Sunday Inspiration, and I Made it Monday.