happy halloween 2016

We had so much fun tonight! There were so many trick-or-treaters out tonigh that we ran out of candy before 8 o'clock! That's a lot of kids! Ethan opted once again to pass out the candy, but after 15 minutes of non-stop ghouls and goblins, he retreated down to the basement to unwind with a game (or 2) of Destiny. Which means I became the "official" candy giver for the night.

Here's a pic of Buddy in his costume. It lasted less than 5 minutes before he tried to eat it off of his back. Like I said before, weirdo. Ha!

Browny the Shark. He lasted for nearly an hour before he figured out how to get it off by himself. I didn't realize it was off until he made a run for the door when the doorbell rang, and he didn't have it on.

Jeff was insistent that he wanted to wear this blacksuit. Backstory: this isn't the original one I bought. He wore the first one to a Den Meeting for Cub Scouts and ripped one of the knees out and broke the zipper while playing afterwards. He added his Dad's Steelers hat as an afterthought, ha!

Vanessa wanted to be a Pokemon, as per her increase in her obsession of all things Pokemon. Of course, she wanted to be the one Pokenon that didn't have a costume, so we had to get creative. All this took was a hoodie from Walmart, yarn, felt, some cardstock, and lots of fabric glue. Turned out better than expected and Vanessa was over-the-moon about it.

Ryan had a Halloween party to attend, but he wasn't originally going to dress up. He came up with this all on his own, although he couldn't decide if he was a McDonalds sign or the french fries box. I thought it was hilarious.

And, here's our jack-o-lanterns! From the top: Jeff's, Vanessa's, and mine.

The top is Scott's, the bottom, Ethan's.

Happy Halloween!

jack-o-lanterns 2016

Even though we went to the pumpkin patch earlier in the month, we opted to wait to carve our pumpkins, mainly because we have jerks here in our neighborhood who think it's funny to smash jack-o-lanterns before the actual day. We'd originally planned to have a carving party for Family Home Evening on the Monday before Halloween, but our schedule that week became hectic, so we weren't able to do it until Saturday (the 29th).

Here's the family, working so hard.

As usual, we're down a kid since Ryan was out and about with friends. I won't lie, it was a bit disheartening for me knowing he wasn't there, but I acknowledge the fact that he's now in that point in his life that his friends are important to him and he'd rather hang out with them.

We did have a bit of difficulty picking out our designs...well, most of us. Being the laid-back, go-with-flow kid that she is, Vanessa opted to paint her pumpkin. Any guess as to what she painted?

Yep, a Pokemon.

I can't remember which one exactly, but it's definitely a Pokemon.

Jeff had to take multiple breaks because his friends were outside playing, but he finally got it done. And Ethan chose a design that was a bit more intensive, so he took awhile, too. I get jittery around knives so I did a really easy one, while Scott was being a show-off. Okay, not really, but his design was right up there with Ethan's.

Eventually we finished and stored the jack-o-lanterns on our back patio until Halloween, away from any potential smashers. I'll reveal the designs on Halloween.

Happy carving!

shelves

The last few days were busy for us...well, mostly Scott since he did the majority of the work. I helped supervise and held a few things in place, but I mostly chatted his ear off, which I'm sure he appreciated, lol.

A few summers ago, Scott built some storage shelves for me in our cold room. At the time it was the perfect size for my stockpile and the other storage items we had in there. However, since I've continued with couponing, our stockpile has grown and I was in need of more shelves. So on a free Saturday (no kids sports, no church activities, etc.), he sat down and planned out the rest of the shelves. He also checked his work schedule and took 3 days off to work on the project.

Love it!

So on the morning of the first day, we went to Lowe's and managed to stuff a good amount of 2x4s and plywood into the back of our Armada.

At this point, both of us were really wishing we owned a truck, but oh well. You make do with what you got, right? And a Nissan Armada isn't bad for towing things around.

Back at the house, Scott set off to work. First he had to build the "skeleton" of the shelf.

Then he connected it to the already existing shelves (I helped hold it up, yay!).

There was one shelf that needed to be built piece by piece, standing upright, but Scott maneuvered it with help from me and the kids. Luckily, no one was hit by the nail gun, ha! Oh, and one of his measurements was wrong so we had to go back to Lowe's the next day to get more plywood, but other than that, everything went smoothly.

And now, I have this in my cold room:

I am so in love with my shelves and even more in love with my hubby for doing this for me. He and the kids laugh at me for being so enamored with couponing, stockpiles, and shelves, but I always say that it's all for them. Besides, they like the free stuff I bring home, so they can't complain. ;-)

I'm really excited to fill my new shelves!

vanessa

Vanessa had to make a tough decision this past week, but she gave it a lot of thought and prayer:

She's decided to discontinue piano lessons.

Despite all of her hard work and practice, her heart just isn't into it as much, and she wants to concentrate on her drawing. Her teacher could tell she wasn't putting in much effort at her lessons or that she wasn't practicing, so she asked Vanessa to take some time to think about what she wanted to do.

It took her about three days to feel positive about her decision, and after praying about, she came to tell us that she wanted to stop piano lessons.

I won't lie, I felt sad when she told us. She was showing such talent that I couldn't help but be proud of her. But, this was about Vanessa, and what she wanted concerning her talents. And, I'll admit that she has quite a few. But, she wants to be an artist when she grows up and has decided she needs to concentrate on that and cultivate it.

But, I'll sure miss seeing her at the piano, plucking out the notes to her favorite blues song that she learned or even playing a section over and over because she wants to do it without any mistakes. I'll especially miss seeing her smile so proudly when she realizes she successfully tested out of her current level and onto the next one.

So thanks, Ms. Tonya, for being so patient with Vanessa and teaching her. We truly appreciate everything you've done for the last 3+ years!

the great room switch

Jeff has decided that he needs a room makeover. I'm not sure where he got the idea from, but he insists that he really, really, REALLY WANTS a loft bed with attached slide. Unfortunately, his current room doesn't have a high enough ceiling for it (he'd bee whacking his head on the ceiling fan every morning), but guess which room does?

My craft room.

So, being the nice, awesome mommy that I am, I agreed to switch rooms with him. So, this is what the upstairs area of our home looks like at one point:

It didn't really hit me until I had moved most of my craft stuff into Jeff's bedroom (in order to put his bed and dresser into my craft room) that I realized that I have A LOT OF CRAFT STUFF. The above picture doesn't show it, but I still had 2 more tables, another set of plastic drawers, plus multiple containers and paper dividers to move. And that's not including the stuff that was still in the closet.

Yikes!

But, the next day all of our stuff had been moved into the new rooms, and I quickly shampooed the carpet in Jeff's new room. This is what it looked like:

Nice, right?

Meanwhile, my new craft room is a disaster area, mainly because I have to paint over the Halo mural my brother painted for my boys all those years ago. This is 2 days and 4 coats of primer later:

When the last coat of primer finally dried, it was time for the actual color paint. That was another 3 coats, which dried relatively fast, but I waited until the following day to semi-setup my tables, shelf, and drawers.

And this is what it looks like after some organizing.

I still have a ways to go before the room will be finally organized and properly setup, but Jeff has already settled ito his room nicely.. Now we're just waiting until spring to build his loft bed...hopefully he doesn't change his mind about that.

pumpkin patch adventure 2016

Every year we try to make it a point to go to the pumpkin patch to find our pumpkins (except for the two years that we didn't; mom fail!). We've been going to the same patch for the last several years now and this year, the kids decided they wanted to try a different location. There was one about five minutes away from our usual spot so we decided to try our luck there.

And, it was different! First of all, they had a mini petting zoo that the kids zeroed in on right away. Here's Vanessa with some alpacas, I think.

 

And Jeff opted to pose with this goat who we couldn't figure out if his head was stuck in the fence. (for the most part, he looked pretty content, so we just left him alone after the picture)

 As our unofficial pumpkin wagon pusher/puller, Jeff volunteered to commandeer the wheelbarrow.

He did well for about 5 minutes...

...then decided to let Dad have the honors while he went off in search of his pumpkin.

Ryan opted to go to another pumpkin patch with his friends, which made me sad, but he did ask that we pick a pumpkin for him. I doubt he'll have any pictures to share with me, but at least he's still in the Halloween spirit, right?

There were also some other activities to do, some free (like the petting zoo), some that cost extra (pumpkin tossing, a playground, and a small hay maze). After we paid for our pumpkins (which wasn't a pleasant experience due to overcharging), Jeff and I paid for a spin through the hay maze. It was small and short, but it was fun. Jeff had me giggling as he led me through, purposely sending me to the dead-ends.

I still can't believe that October is halfway done and Halloween is almost upon us! I love fall, but it feels like it snuck up on me! Oh, well! Only thing to do now is embrace the coming holidays!

Here we go!

halloween preview 2016

With Halloween just around the corner, preparations needed to be made. This year, I was actually on the ball and got quite a few things done, mainly costumes.

There were some pet costumes on sale at Walmart and so I jumped at the chance to get two for Browny and Buddy. Every year since they've joined our family, I've said they should have costumes, too, but never followed through with actually getting them. I guess this year was it.

Here's Browny's costume, he's a shark. He was nice enough to let me take a picture of him.

Buddy, on the other hand, refused to cooperate. In fact, he hates his costume; I took it off of him (it's a dinosaur) because he was trying to eat it, and afterwards, he kept growling at it.

Weirdo.

This is Jeff; it's a blacksuit and he was adamant that this is what he wanted to dress up as. I don't know exactly what's got him so excited about it, but he was really excited when we finally went to purchase it.

Vanessa has decided to be Popplio, a Pokemon. There isn't an actual costume for it, which means I'll have to get creative with it. I'm thinking a colored hoodie and some felt, but I'll have to plan it out more.

And, as usual, nothing is planned for the older boys; Ethan just wants to pass out the candy, and I think Ryan might have a party to go to on Halloween night, which means if he does dress up, it'll be a last minute thing.

Oh, well. At least I'm somewhat prepared for Halloween. :-)