Halloween 09
We’ve gotten a lot of use out of our Halloween costumes this year. We had our neighborhood trick or treating (which is called “Beggar’s Night in Gahanna – weird!), a “trunk or treat” event at a nearby church, Boo at the Zoo (basically trick or treating at the nicely-decorated Columbus Zoo), and a school Halloween party and parade. Needless to say, we’ve got candy out the wazoo!
Here are some pics from Boo at the Zoo and a few we snapped before trick or treating in our ‘hood:
Boo at the Zoo - Elexa with a bobcat
Elexa, Abe, and friend Emmy hanging with the flamingos
Abe navigating through a fun little maze
"Boo!" The kids loved he maze.
"Trick or Treat!" We have a monarch butterfly (Elexa insisted on a REAL butterfly costume, not one of the fantasy-looking butterfly/fairy ones. It had to be like ones in her butterfly book. 
), a firefighter (Abe actually requested to be a fire truck - we compromised), and a firefightin' dalmatian (Toby is doomed to always conform to some sort of theme, pretty sure!).
We ran out of candy so we started handing out children. No takers. 
Thanks to Grandma Lelia, we got to "drive" this fire truck! Also important to note, Abe had a really awesome hat but refused to wear it.
Elexa picked out the cheapest costume ever -- that's Daddy's little girl!!
October 30, 2009
What Can Brown Do For You?
Dang, that’s a lot of crack! Oh but in case that wasn’t hilarious enough, Toby somehow undid his diaper and pooped EVERYWHERE. About 25% stayed in the cockeyed diaper… the rest was plastered to his left leg and pants (notice the brown). I wish I could attach a smell to this post.
October 23, 2009
Our Kids’ Latest Talents
Elexa can make balloon animals! I am beyond impressed. Here she's showcasing a pink dachshund and a yellow giraffe. And obviously, she is having a blast.
Abe is a genius. Not only is he a master at lining up the fridge magnets, he is a mathematician! Look behind him -- the last line of the fridge magnets says "QED." I'm sure you already knew this but in mathematics, QED stands for the Latin phrase quod erat demonstrandum (meaning "that which was to be demonstrated"). Mathematicians add this notation at the end of a mathematical proof to indicate its completion. So I don't know what all that stuff above the QED means but I have to assume it's revolutionary.
Toby makes confetti! Ok, ok... he actually just ripped up some toilet paper. I know it's not as impressive as the balloon animals and the mathematical proof but give him a break! He's just a baby!
October 20, 2009
Ghost Family Night… Boo!
First, we made ghost sculptures out of salt dough.
We displayed the finished product on the mantle, after forming them, microwaving them to harden, and adding faces.
Next, we decorated these super spooky ghost pumpkins.
We finished the night off with ghost cookies... the easy Pillsbury kind! The kids didn't mind that they weren't homemade one bit!
September 30, 2009
Back To School Family Night
(We are quite tardy with posting this, but please don’t give us detention.)
This year’s Back To School Family Night was crayon-themed. Here are the highlights:
The table is all set for the party. Note the baking tray in the corner, filled with old broken crayons rather than cake batter.
The crayons, recreated as car crayons after a little cooking.
They're off on the crayon hunt... which was amazingly similar to last year's pencil hunt, but they still loved it!
Toby joined in by wearing a crayon cut-out as a hat. He's also sideways. I tried twice to flip this pic and am now giving up. He looks nice sideways, don't you think?
We created a lovely crayon chandelier.
For dessert, we attempted to make edible crayons... white chocolate dipped pretzel sticks, but they weren't quite as cute as we'd envisioned! They were still yummy
September 29, 2009
Why CVS Rocks!
I have been doing some major couponing. I’ve always been annoyed by coupons, thinking that they were a waste of time and I’d end up buying things we wouldn’t usually use or need. What I’ve learned over the past couple months is that, although this can be the case, it also doesn’t have to be. I’ve seen our grocery bill at Meijer’s go from averaging $100/week to $60/week… That’s a savings of over $100 a month! The biggest area of savings, though, has been with toiletry type items… Because CVS rocks!!
Here is a picture of what CVS paid me $6 to take home today… yep, you read that correctly.
- Bounty 6-pack big rolls paper towels
- Charmin 16-pack double rolls toilet paper
- 2 Bounce dryer bars
- Cover Girl foundation
- Cover Girl tinted moisturizer
- Almay mascara
- Dawn dishsoap
- Store-brand shampoo
- Store-brand conditioner
- Pantene shampoo
- Pantene conditioner
When the man behind the register first rang up my order, it totaled over $60. With the coupons I had, that total went down to $14 THEN I received $20 in CVS Extra Care Bucks (basically like gift certificates to CVS – you earn them based on your purchases and can use them to buy whatever). Thus, CVS paid me $6 for the items pictured above.
And, yes, I am such a mom for being excited about this!
September 28, 2009
Slumber Party
“Sometimes life is just so crazy, but often times that is the exact time that the kids need you. I have shared this before so you can tell it impacted me, but I heard someone challenge me as a parent to not only take my kids on my adventures but to enter theirs. So often I assume my kids are enjoying life because they get to live with a family that lives for adventure. That is one of the reasons to have Family Nights. They allow us to enter their world. To get out of adult mode and play with the kids.” – Heather Whittaker
With Eric traveling a lot and the move, I’ve been a slacker with having scheduled, organized, planned out family nights. I’ve used busy schedules and my level of exhaustion as an excuse. (And the one family night we did have, I still haven’t blogged about! Oops! Coming soon, I promise.) Heather is right, though… that is the exact time my kids need something a little extra. AND it’s the simple things, really.
Eric got home from another trip to Tampa Friday and Elexa mentioned in the car that Daddy had promised we could have a party. My head went a little nuts at this point. To give you some perspective: we had just left the Halloween store with only about half of the costumes needed for the kids, were super late getting dinner so on the way to McDonald’s, and still needed to grocery shop. By the time we’d get home, it would be at least an hour past bedtime and (if I’m being really honest) I was ready for adult conversation, not a princess party.
But I had an idea! It was so, so simple but Lexa and Abe thought it was so, so cool. They were so excited! Here is a picture of the party…
Slumber Party in Abe's Room!!
My kids think it’s fun to share a room for a night… go figure! The ground rules were that, since it was the weekend, there was no set bedtime but they needed to stay quiet enough to let Toby sleep. (Sorry, Tobes, it’ll be a year or so before you get to experience the joy of the slumber party!) They played on the floor and read books to their stuffed animals. We honestly didn’t hear a peep. By the time I checked on them between 9:00pm and 10:00pm, they were OUT!
September 26, 2009
Best Website Ever
www.peopleofwalmart.com is my new favorite website. It’ll make you laugh, I promise.
September 8, 2009
Second Grade
Elexa is loving second grade! This is the most enthusiastic she’s ever been, in fact. She comes home from school and when asked how her day was, we hear answers like, “awesome!” and, “the best day EVER!” Sounds good to me
on the first day, waiting outside our house for the bus
