Halloween 2008

Halloween was a blast this year! The kids had the day off of school, so we had lots of time to goof off and get ready for the big event, trick-or-treating!

As you can see, Will decided to be a vampire. This was by far the easiest costume I have ever made. It took basically one day to complete and he was thrilled with the outcome. I think he was really hoping to scare people. That didn't happen, but he still had fun waving his cape around. 

Emma had to be Hannah Montana.  This was decided back in the summer, I believe. She is infatuated with Hannah Montana and wants to be a singer herself when she grows up. I picked out the fabric for her costume, without Emma's consultation. I hit it right on, thank goodness.  She couldn't wait to get the dress and wig on that night. In fact, she woke up Friday morning with a smile, announcing that it was finally Halloween! She played the part well, tossing her hair and dancing around. Maybe voice lessons are in her future..... 

Jack decided to go as the Chicka-chicka boom-boom tree.  If you have a toddler in your home, you certainly know what this is. If not, it is a book about the alphabet.  In the book, all of the letters climb to the top of a coconut tree, only fall out.  It was a huge hit at preschool, to say the least. And he was SO proud of his costume.  Having "little" ones is great! You can be creative with their costumes and they love it.  

 

Of course, Allan had to get in on the action of dressing up. He decided to go as Billy Ray Cyrus.  For this special occasion, he had to grow a goatee.  It was a rough couple of weeks dealing with the "splinters" as Jack called them.  No one liked getting poked when being kissed and Allan just couldn't stop rubbing and scratching at it. In the end, he got LOTS of compliments from lady friends and has decided to keep it for a little while. He certainly looks different, but I am still up in the air about liking it or not. 

After the kids were done hitting the neighborhood, we had a bonfire in the backyard for neighbors who wanted to enjoy a fire, cocktails, and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows with us.  Chris, Sonya and Max came up from Ft. Bragg to join in the fun too!  We had a ball.  I believe it was midnight when we (including the three kids) finally hit the beds. Anyone who knows us, knows that that is WAY past bedtime.  We just really enjoyed the great company and conversation. 

More updates to come......

My New Hobby

As if I don't have enough projects and things to do, I decided to learn how to do something new. OK, I have to be honest. I don't have anymore time now than I did five years ago, but I am not going to delve into that. The fact of the matter is that I have decided to make time to do things that I enjoy. And I enjoy creating. Creating three children was fun, but I am ready to try something else. :)

I found a fun little shop in Winston that has classes to learn how to smock. I have been wanting to learn how to do this since Emma was born, but never found a place that taught it.

I spent two nights in this shop learning to smock. I think it is cutest on dresses for little girls, but have seen lots of adorable smocking for little boys as well.

I wouldn't say that I am good at it, but I can say without a doubt that I LOVE doing it. The three hours each night of class just flew by. And the big bonus is that I can take this with me while I wait at the doctor's office, carpool line or wherever I find myself sitting.

The pictures are what I learned in class and the "pieces" can be placed in a dress or made into a pillow (I was thinking tooth fairy pillow for Emma?). Anyway, I need to go back to the shop to pick out my first project. I will keep everyone posted on my new hobby progress as it develops!

Emma + Kindergarten = Tears

It came, and thank goodness it went. But not without a tear - or two, or three.....I have been dreading Emma's first day of Kindergarten for quite awhile now. I'm still not sure why. I am generally not an emotional person. I like to view the glass as half full. I enjoy seeing my children grow and learn and become independent. But, for some reason, Emma going to school yesterday just tugged at my heart.

She woke up early, before the boys, and came padding into our bathroom. The image will be with me forever. She was wearing her satin princess gown, her eyes were still puffy and sleepy-looking and the back of her hair looked like a lion's mane having a bad day. It's a sight that I see every morning. But this morning it hit me that in just a blink of an eye my little princess would be a moody teenager that no one would want to be around.

I want to soak up every bit of her littleness that I can, while I can. The reality of it though is that my time with her is now limited. I just hope and pray that everything that Allan and I have tried to instill upon her up to this point, will continue to stay with her.

And so began my day, with these thoughts and many more that I simply do not have time to type right now. I had to explain to Allan why I was being such a moody, nasty person. This of course, started the first of many tears. I dried them up and put on a happy face to start the first day of school. Emma and Will enjoyed our traditional First Day breakfast of Green Eggs and Ham. When we got upstairs to wake Jack and finish getting ready, I was welcomed with a "good morning, Mommy. I'm wet all over." Urghhhhhhhhhhh! This was not in my morning plans, but I put on a smile and took care of the mess and quickly bathed Jack so we could take our FDOS pictures. The pictures went well and we were off to the school. I decided I wouldn't walk Emma in. Thank goodness! I was crying (again) as I pulled away and watched Will holding Emma's hand, walking into that suddenly unfriendly looking school. Then, I saw Emma's best friend and her mom walking through the parking lot. I stopped to say hello and actually only managed a wave before more tears started flowing.

I called Allan as soon as I got home and cried again. Then, I called Nana, and cried again. What the heck?! I decided to get a grip and get down to business of stopping this blubbering. Jack and I ran to the fabric store to buy thread and ended up with more project supplies to keep me busy (like I really have a problem staying busy!). We got an oil change and then it was time to see Will and Emma get off the bus. FINALLY!

Both kids got off grinning from ear to ear, full of happy stories from their first day back. I felt a tear coming on, but I just smiled and told myself that everyone is going to be just fine. And we are.

Emma's New Dress

While picking up fabric to make my new bag, I found this incredibly cute pink and brown fabric. As I already had several projects set aside for myself, I decided to make a dress for Emma out of it. I made it this morning while the kids were playing Webkins, if that tells you how easy it was! I think it is just too cute and best of all, Emma LOVES it. As she grows, I can let the hem out or she can wear leggings underneath. Now, we just have to find the perfect pair of shoes to go with it......

My Bag!

Yeah for me! I finally finished another sewing project - and I did it in 1 (ONE) day! Another yeah for me because it turned out great and I love it!

My mom had the sewing machine out while she was here to make a dress for Emma. Rather than put it away, I just decided to get busy and work on my purse project that I had been wanting to work on since springtime. It really took less than a day because I also fit in games with the kids, cleaning and school time (among all of the other daily things that I do!)

I have to say that it was really easy and lots of fun to make. I just wish that I had enough of the lining material that I could have made the whole purse out of that instead of the flowers. Regardless, I still like the purse and I will certainly use it. Next, I plan to make an apron for myself. That should be REALLY easy. Stay tuned, because I might just be on a roll and get my other 3 projects completed that have been waiting for me inside my closet!

FYI - for those of you who haven't heard, I got braces the day before Will's tonsillectomy. You can see them in the recent pictures. I highly recommend them for anyone wanting to lose weight. I am hoping that they are also good for straightening teeth!

Girl Day

After talking about it for what seems like an eternity, Emma and I finally got to have a "girl day". While spending time in Ohio, we shipped the boys off to Aunt Debbie's and caught a ride with Aunt Sharon and Nana to Columbus. The main mission of the day was to find a flower girl dress for Emma as she is going to be one in Danielle's wedding. The wedding is set for November 28th and so we really needed to get busy picking out a dress.

After having a yummy macaroni and cheese lunch at Noodles & Co., we headed off to David's Bridal. Emma wanted to try on EVERY dress available in her size. It didn't matter if she liked it or not. We catered to her whim and thus started the fashion show! She had so much fun trying them on and testing the "mushroom factor". This is whether or not the dress poufs up when she sits down. She tried on lots of cute dresses and we found one that suited both Danielle and Emma. Danielle even bought Emma's headpiece that she will be wearing. It is ADORABLE! We jotted down all of the information on the dress and headed off to another store to try on more!

The next store didn't have as many to try on, but we found one that we really liked. Emma didn't seem so fond of it because it was in lime green and fuchsia, but we tried to explain that HER dress would be in those colors. Hard concept for such a little girl! By the time those dresses were all tried on, Miss Emma was getting a little tired. So, we headed off to meet cousin, Sarah at Easton. Emma was so worn out that she fell asleep on the way there. I let her sleep in the car for awhile while everyone else did a little shopping.

When Emma woke up, Sarah was there and we were off to find a good place to eat dinner. On the way to the restaurant, we stopped at Libby Lu's and Emma had her picture taken with one of her favorite movie stars - Ashely Tisdale, aka Sharpay!

Dinner was great, but a little late for Miss Emma. All in all, I have to say that we had a fabulous girl day. It was wonderful seeing everyone that we so rarely get to see.

On a side note, I have to commend Danielle for her speedy hand-off and Sarah for her quick delivery. The details of this comment are too lengthy to post here!

No More Tonsils!

Well, everyone, the tonsils are gone. And so are the adenoids! Will bravely went to the hospital first thing, Wednesday morning to have his tonsils removed. He was in great spirits the whole time. We waited for a short time before going to pre-op where they gave all of us id bracelets and asked lots of questions. All of the prep work took about an hour. He was finally visited by a couple of nurses from anesthesia. They asked Will if he had any questions. Of course, he did! He wanted to know if he could see his tonsils after they were out. The nurse said that she had never had this request, but would certainly show them to him before they were carried off to pathology. She then explained that they would be taking him to the operating room where there were all kinds of cool equipment, like a machine that squeezed his muscles. Without missing a beat, Will asked her if she had tickets. Needless to say, she was quite confused by this question. She just replied "no, to what?". Will said, "to the gun show!" and flexed his muscles for her. That created quite a bit of laughter from everyone. Leave it to Will to get everyone laughing before surgery!
After that, they wheeled him away and Allan and I went to get some coffee. We had no sooner sat back down in the waiting room and turned on the computer when we were paged to the consultation room. Will was done! Talk about quick! The doctor came and told us that he had taken out both the tonsils and the adenoids due to their size. Will was doing well and would be transported to a room shortly.
The rest was pretty uneventful. When Will got up to his room they had him drink a cup of apple juice and asked that he go to the bathroom. He was rather concerned with the IV in his wrist and kept asking when it could come out. He also was not fond of the oxygen monitor that they had clipped to his toe. :) It didn't take long and Will fell asleep. To pass the time, Allan and I watched "Seven Years in Tibet" on Netflix via the hospital's WiFi. Pretty nice!
For some reason, the nurse just didn't want Will to go home. Rather than staying for the recommended 90 minutes, she had us there for 5 hours after the surgery! We were getting a little restless and impatient at that point - not to mention hungry! She finally did release us and we went home to some very concerned siblings. To our dismay, Will never did ask for pain medication his first day home and even ate an egg for dinner.
Since Wednesday, he has not slept much, but has had some pain. We've had to give him some codeine, but he really hasn't complained much. I have to say, he really isn't Will yet. He isn't eating anything and he talks as little as possible. I didn't think there was ANYTHING that would stop Will from talking. I guess this is it!
We are now hopeful that Will's sleeping and breathing problems are over. So far, so good. We are SO proud of Will and his brave attitude. He is an incredible little guy.
Will chillin' out after the surgery
Will enjoying his first cup of ice cream after surgery. Notice, his friend, Bananas beside him.
Mom gives lots of love before the surgery. I had to wear Will's sweatshirt because it was so cold in the hospital!
Will gives his wink of braveness before the surgery. As always, he was calm and happy.