Halloween

First off I have to say thank you for all the warm birthday wishes for Hannah. She appreciated it and so did I.

Halloween has come to an end for all the kids in our house. They got to stuff their faces with tons of candy, candy, and more candy. Except maybe the Nerds and Smarties that Dan has decided are all for him. We had a fun filled day. I ran the Fall Festival again. We set up the pumpkin patch this morning so each kid in school could take one home today. Seth was quite the helper.


The only problem is what to with all the left over pumpkins. I can only take so many home. So, we left them for the teachers to take... or throw out. I got a few free corn stalks out of the deal again. Not to shabby. There was quite the freakin' mess of corn husks in my car though.

Then they had their Costume Parade around the school.

Simon in his strange commander costume.

Hannah and her best friends. Named the Three Musketeers by their teacher last year.

We went Trick or Treating with some of Simon's little friends. Hannah decided she wanted to go with her friends and some how I was supposed to get Hannah later on when they were all done... ? Amazingly enough as we were finishing up with Simon's group of friends Hannah and her friends showed up. We did one more block with all of them and heading back for some pizza.

Now, if only the teenagers would head on home so Simon will quit coming in to complain about the noise outside.

I leave you with Seth wishing you Happy Halloween over his candy.

One decade

10 years. Wow. Really? 10.

My baby is 10 years old today. Where has all the time gone? She was so small. The smallest baby I had. She fit on her daddy's arm. He could cradle her head in his hand and her bottom went to his elbow. So very little.

She got bigger. Little by little.

So big, she was big enough to go to school.


5 years old.
6 years old.

7 years old.
8 years old.9 years old.
What changes will the next decade bring?

Happy Birthday to my beautiful princess Hannah. You're a wonderful little person and I can't wait to see who you become as you grow up.

Crafty

Once upon a time I had time to get quilting done. Time for my craft. Then my children went back to school. Now we have busy days followed by after school activities. I have made some progress on C's quilt. It is coming together nicely. The blocks are done and now I am putting in the strips between the blocks and the strips between the rows. This is a much longer process than I thought it'd be. Having to get stabilizer on everything is a big PITA.

Seeing as we are so crazy busy all the time we missed pumpkin picking with the MOMS Club last week because Hannah was busy that day but still wanted to pick out her own pumpkin. I had to squeeze pumpkin picking in today between school getting out at 3 and Tae Kwon Do at 4:15.

She found one right away!

He tried to pick it up.

Simon loves his pumpkin.

OCD on the pupmkin field.

A few friends came with us.

Tell me you love your pumpkin. "I LOVE MY PUMPKIN!!!"

After TKD, cooking and cleaning up from dinner we carved our pumpkins. I always enjoy carving pumpkins with the kids. Maybe it's because I am still a kid on the inside. Dan thinks gutting pumpkins is gross... so I show him the guts while making gross sounds. See, still a kid on the inside. :)

Scoop 'em out.

We didn't use any patterns. I am still not quite sure what Simon's face is all about on his jack-o-lantern.

Once we were all done carving up the pumpkins it was time for bed (we even had to skip bath). I got the pumpkin seeds roasted, which turned out yummy might I add, and then had to clean up again. By the time I was done with my day it was almost 10 pm. I was out of go-go juice. No quilting for me last night. I checked my email, watched Hero's and went to bed.

I did get to be crafty today by making a googly face on a jack-o-lantern. The rest of the week is full starting with today, I have to make cookies for Hannah to take to school tomorrow. Tomorrow is her birthday. The big 10. I am still in shock. Followed up by Halloween parties, a school festival, and ending the week with trick or treating... I'm gonna be one busy mama. Will I get to quilt this week at all? I'll try.

Early Halloween

We got to enjoy the annual Halloween party with our MOMS Club yesterday. The kids have such a good time. A little playing on the playground followed up with pizza, a craft, and a parade with candy! (I think they only want the candy.)

I'll try to get a quilting post up next time I swear!

Cleopatra. She really wanted to be Pennywise, you know the scary clown from It, but we didn't find a clown costume.

Contra Commander.... whatever that means. It came with excessories, I think that's what he liked best.

Little Fireman. I think little kids look adorable in any costume.


And last, a great shot of Seth.

Conversation with a toddler, part 2

"Seth, what do you want to wear today?"

"Monkey jammies!"

"You can't wear your monkey jammies today because you wore them last night."

"More monkey jammies!"

"You want more monkey jammies?"

"Yeah!"

"You know what, when I go to Costco next I'll see if they have any more and I'll buy you another pair of monkey jammies."

"No, FIVE monkey jammies."

"Wow, five, that's a lot of monkey jammies!"

Sorry the picture is out of focus.

Hurray for pictures!

I have my computer back!!!! I am so happy. Many thanks to some wonderful handy husbands I know. It's all better now.

So, here are some pictures!

My pin cushion.

Apple picking.

"Wait for me!"

Stretch!!!!

My little brother is getting to big. I can't stand it.

Hello, apples!

Hello, are you still out there reading? Where has everyone gone?

I should have my internet connection upstairs in my office back up and running today. Cross your fingers. It's weird to have a ton of pictures and blog post ideas yet no access to my photos.

So, I have a few apples left over from yesterday. Mom and I wanted to can some applesauce and maybe some apple pie filling so we went apple picking in the morning with the kids. We got fabulous Empire apples. As a matter of fact we got 58 pounds of them! Each kid had a bag and added 10-15 pounds to it. Oops. More than we needed. I don't think I've ever paid $70 for apples.

After we made double batches of applesauce and apple butter I still brought home 16 pounds. We weren't able to make pie filling though. We didn't have the liquid pectin we needed. I ran over to the grocery store and tried to find some. They don't even know what you mean when you ask if they have any home canning supplies. "Canning, what's that?" You know, when you take food and put it in a jar and save it for later! How sad that most people don't even know what it is. Anyway, we are still going to try and make some pie filling and can it up. How great would that be to make up a delicious apple pie for Thanksgiving with your own apple filling that you made from scratch.

As for quilting. I have made progress on the baby clothes quilt. I think it's gonna be pretty darn cute. I also made a cute pin cushion using a tuna fish can using this pattern. It's easy and cute. I actually really like her blog. She has some great tutorials. Check it out.

Conversation with a toddler

Tonight when I got home from the PTO meeting all the kids were ready to brush their teeth and head to bed. Hannah and Simon were already in the bathroom and now Seth needed to get in there.

"Seth, mommy will brush your teeth, ok."

"No, me do it."

"Maybe Hannah or Simon can brush for you?"

With his arms at his sides and at top volume he yelled, "No, me do it. Me do it! ME DO IT! ME DO IT !!!! MEEE BIIIIG!"

I don't think I've laughed so hard in quite a while. How can someone so little insist that they are so big? I did let him brush his teeth tonight. After all, I did laugh at him when he asserted himself. His teeth won't fall out if he does it by himself for one night.

Bragging

I have to brag for a moment...

Simon is doing so well in school! He got a progress report today and he got good marks in everything. They also do a card system in class (you know, they start on green and if they are bad it can get turned to yellow, orange and then red) and he's been on green the whole time so far! For those of you who know Simon this is a big accomplishment for him. He is such a wiggle worm. He can't sit still to save his life. And the talking! He doesn't shut up. I feel for him. I know how it feels. They didn't call me Little Yellin' Ellen for nothing. Anyway, I am totally proud of him. He's doing great. He also just went up another belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Hannah is also doing great in school but that isn't new. I have to remember to praise her too since her good behavior is normal in regards to school. At home she gets rude sometimes but you can't win all the time. Hannah was asked by her teacher to be in a special Future Problem Solvers program at school. All the kids who were interested had to take a test to make sure they could think in a different way that you'd need to to be in FPS. Of course, Hannah can think outside the box. Oh, and she is out of her brace. Her little arm in all healed up and she can even go back to gymnastics this week.

I have amazing kids. I am a lucky mom.

Tonight I went to another quilt guild meeting. We worked on a charity quilt. I actually did some hand piecing. I don't ususally do that. Mostly out of shear laziness. Why hand quilt when the machine is sooo much faster? I know how, I just choose not too. Anyway, I think I'll go ahead and join the guild. I did find out that at a quilt store close by they have a Friday night quilt get together. Hmm, I think I'll check that out too. Not this Friday because the MOMS Club is going to Fright Fest at Six Flags for the Moms Night Out.

I'd love to share some photos of the progress I've made on C's quilt or of the treasure I rediscovered this weekend (I have some of my grandma's sewing supplies) but alas, my computer has decided it can't see the internet anymore. Grumble, grumble. We have to have networking run upstairs. Damn older homes. So, I've been using Dan's computer for a few days now. I want mine back... I can wait... I can be patient...

Nursing

I don't tend to think that what celebrities are doing is worth more than a good laugh but I think this is pretty cool. Angelina is on the cover of W magazine breastfeeding. Hurray for her.

Orange, blue and brown

Today is an orange day for Seth and I. After walking the kids to school this morning Seth decided he wanted to paint. He came down from Hannah's room with orange paint, a brush and a cup. I got out all the other things we'd need, his paint shirt and paper. I even went outside and brought a few leaves in to paint with. Seth was much more interested in getting paint everywhere but hey, he's only two. We also tried to make a tree and use his handprints for leaves... the paper is mostly all paint. He had fun and that's all that really matters.


We also made some orange juice today. I told Seth we'll have to look for orange leaves on our walk to school this afternoon. Orange all around. Maybe he'll eat the yams tonight at dinner since they are orange too.... One can hope.

On to quilting news!

I have been putzing around with this baby clothes quilt for a few weeks now feeling like something didn't fit. I cut all my blocks but something still didn't work for me.

I finally figured it out. The block in the upper right hand corner throws me off. It has too much color. All the other clothes I used are like this:

But she also gave me some like this:


I don't like all those colors together. She told me she likes blues and browns so I am going to remove the rainbow block up there and just use the blues and browns. It will work so much better for me. It will feel like they all belong. It can be scrappy and cute now not scrappy and uncoordinated. I am going to try and get as much out of the clothes and I can and then I'll hit the quilt store to finish it off. I think this will be adorable when I get done!

Quilt hacker

I still am having a hard time just cutting into clothing but I have made some head way on the latest quilt project. I know women throughout time have re-purposed clothing and used their scraps to make quilts for their family but it still feels weird hacking into a perfectly good baby outfit.


Now that I have finished watching the first season of Lost I think I might get a bit more work done. I'd find myself standing in front of my cutting table just staring at the tv. Might as well sit down and watch because I'm not getting any work done...

Cute

Sometimes they are pretty darn cute.

After we went through popcorn park zoo I snapped a few pictures of them.