Post Halloween Carving

Who says you have to carve your pumpkin before Halloween? Not me!

I kept putting off buying a pumpkin this year. I don't know why. Laziness I guess. But it worked out because Halloween week my mother-in-law brought us a couple from her garden. So then of course I kept putting off the carving--I was waiting for a good time when we could all participate as a family. But we finally carved one! Hooray!

Charlie pulled some of the guts out, but he mostly helped design the pumpkin's face--picking shapes, sizes, etc. Emmett warily ventured to put his hand in the top of the pumpkin, and when his hand came out with one pumpkin seed on it we cheered and said he helped, but that's about all the help he had to give. The boys enjoyed watching, and we had a good time.

Halloween 2014

I love Halloween! The costumes, the candy, the fun. LOVE it!

I've known for months what costumes I wanted to make for the boys. And I've had it in my head as to how I was going to make them. I even started buying the supplies a couple weeks ago. So why did I wait to start making them the day before our church Halloween carnival? I don't know if I'm just crazy and like to torture myself, or if I know that I thrive under pressure.

Oh well. Long story short the costumes were not complete in time for the church party. So Charlie went in the same costume he wore last year, and Emmett went in the "costume" Charlie had the year before last (a white t-shirt of mine and a white pillowcase--ghost costumes are so easy).

Ghost Emmett & Darth Vader Charlie

We had a good time. When in crowds and around new people, Emmett gets kind of clingy and shy, so he wasn't enthusiastic at all, but I think he had fun. Charlie had a blast. You can see his giraffe face paint. He wiggled a lot during the painting because the brush tickled, but it turned out pretty good considering. Emmett and I watched Charlie get his face painted, but he freaked out when I sat him in the chair. Emmett did not want to be painted.

The church carnival provided a few games and crafts and a trunk-or-treat. Walking around the parking lot, Emmett was more interested in the people than the candy. And being shy around strangers (and not much of a talker to begin with), he flat out refused to say trick-or-treat or thank you. We're working on it.

Now, when I say Emmett gets shy and clingy, around strangers . . . that typically means he glares at them and needs to be in physical contact with me. The glare is a pretty good one. I wish I had a good picture, because it is quite hilarious. He tilts his chin down and glares from beneath his brows as if to say, "Who are you? Why are we in the same vicinity? You're stupid. Leave me alone." Emmett is not one of those friendly kids. Frankly, I kind of love it about him.

I did finish the boys' costumes before Halloween, though, so they were able to wear them trick-or-treating.

Diddy Kong Emmett & Donkey Kong Charlie

I got two white long-sleeved t-shirts, removed the sleeves from Emmett's, and Rit dyed the various parts brown or red. I had been hoping to find plain sweatshirts in red and brown and detach the red sleeves and replace them with brown ones, but I had a hard time finding them and by the time I started looking it was a little late in the game to order them online. Oh well, this worked. Then I just fabric painted the stars and tie. I originally thought I'd do a fabric applique, but again I waited too long and didn't want my first fabric applique attempt to be rushed.

Then we put on our glow sticks for safety and headed out the door. One of the first homes we went to had tombstones in the yard, and I said, "Oh no! Someone died here!" Charlie stopped short and did not want to go up to the door. I'm a bad mom. It was hilarious. Then at later houses, he would ask if anyone had died there. At the end of the night we came home with an excellent haul of candy, and I don't think either kid was too traumatized.

I even threw together a costume for me! At the library where I work, costumes are encouraged, so I wore my costume to work and the rest of the day, too. I haven't dressed up for Halloween in a very long time. It was a lot of fun.

Scarecrow Katie

I put my costume together the day before Halloween. I crocheted a necklace and put tassels on it, and I took an old burlap sack that had dried beans in it and sewed wide yarn stitches in a circle around it so I could pull the yarn tight and make the hat. Add those items to a blue t-shirt, jeans tucked in boots, and a rope belt and wam-o! Scarecrow costume.

And here's one last picture of the three of us.

Unfortunately Chad had to work, so he wasn't able to join us. Maybe next year!

When Mom Feels Sick . . .

I don't know how it works at your house, but at my house when mom feels sick the rules kind of go out the window. Not totally. It's not like I'll let my kids get away with murder, but a slight maiming? Yeah, I'm not going to stop that.

This week I had this weird 24-hour bug. It crept up on me one night before bed when I started feeling achy with some chills. The next day I felt pretty awful. After downing some meds, I managed to get myself to work where I spent the next five hours debating whether or not I should go home. When I got home, I crashed. I got some lunch in my belly, took more meds, then laid on the couch watching TV.

We did that most of the day. Hence the following photos:

When mom feels sick, we eat lots of snacks in front of the TV.
(We had Fruit Loops and Goldfish before the applesauce.)

When mom feels sick, we find potatoes in the kitchen,
bring them into the front room, and take a bite.

When mom feels sick, we peel labels
off canned goods and rearrange the pantry.

The potato thing was pretty hilarious. Emmett just plopped down next to me on the couch with a potato like it was an everyday occurrence and took a bite. He wasn't too impressed with it, so he took it back to the kitchen and came back with a different potato. He just held it. Watched TV and held a potato. Weird kid. And now I have a random potato hidden in my sack of potatoes with little tiny teeth marks.

I don't have regrets. I'll deal with the tooth potato when I find it. And one day when I feel like opening the naked can, I will have an adventure. Parenting and being sick is the worst, and I think I did a pretty good job supervising despite it (I even have photographic proof of said supervision). But then I'm not one of those moms who feels guilty for the occasional super lazy day. Balance. Some days are super fun. Some days are super lazy. Most days are in the middle. :)

Fun with Perler Beads

A while back I decided to buy some Perler beads so Charlie and I could have a fun craft to do together. We work on this while Emmett naps. I like doing crafts, and I'd like to share that hobby with my kids. Creating is awesome! Also, fine motor skills have never been one of Charlie's strengths, so I figured this would be a good craft to help him work on that.

I started out with buying a bucket of a variety of colors, like this. Charlie doesn't really care about what colors he has, and he's not quite ready to really follow a pattern or create a pattern of his own. I've been able to make a few things with the color selections we've got, but for projects that use a lot of the same color, I'll probably need to buy additional beads. I'll also need to buy some bigger pegboards. Here are some patterns that I want to make for Charlie:

Captain America & Batman

Superhero or other brand specific toys (like Nintendo) are typically expensive, and this is a good, cheap alternative. And Charlie gets very excited when I make him something like this. And by very I mean that he will be thoroughly entertained for at least the next hour playing with it. At least.

The first time Charlie and I sat down to do this, we spent some time sorting the beads by color, and he did pretty good with it. Then we started putting the beads on the pegboards. He did ok, but he didn't understand what the end result would be, so he lost interest and didn't really have enough beads on his pegboard to make anything. I made a rainbow heart.

The second time Charlie did much better. We sorted some more before we got started. Charlie put a good amount of beads on his pegboard. I still had to help him finish his project, but he did very well on his own. And I made him a Pokeball. He was thrilled!

The next time we invited a friend and her mom over to do beads with us. Also a success. We had a good time and both kids were pretty successful in making theirs--still needing some help to finish.

We did some more yesterday, and I made Charlie a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Michelangelo at his request. While I was looking back and forth at the pattern, Charlie took a look, dug around for some beads, and said, "You need two pink for his tongue!" And handed me two pink. I was surprised and impressed. I think next time I'll have him help me build one from a pattern. Maybe he's closer to being ready for patterns than I thought.

The word of the day while working with the Perler beads yesterday was "loseable." Charlie kept saying, "These beads are loseable." Over and over and over. It was a little annoying, but I didn't know a word to teach him as a replacement. After all, these beads definitely possess the ability to be lost. What other word for that is there?

Summer Fun

We've had a couple adventures this summer and had some good times, so I figured I'd share.

The Living Planet Aquarium

We went to the aquarium on a rainy day with my sisters and their husbands and kids. Overall it was pretty fun, but the building was PACKED. And frankly, how busy it was pretty much ruined it for me. There were a lot of cool things for the kids, including an open tank to pet stingrays and sharks. But there were people two deep and shoulder to shoulder, so participating meant waiting forever or shoving your way in. There is also a really cool tunnel under a large tank, so you can walk in and be surrounded by sea creatures. But again so many people it was a little claustrophobic. Charlie liked seeing the sharks, sea turtle, jelly fish, penguins, otters, giant snake, and more. Emmett was also really fascinated with watching all the fish. They had a good time. I'm not sure it was worth the $26+ for me and the boys to go, but if I could get a discount and get in on a day/time that is less crowded, I'd do it again.

This Is the Place Heritage Park

This was so much fun! I was a bit of a grouch the day we went, but overall I had a great time. It was easy to spend all day here with all the cool things to do. We didn't do everything, but we did get around to the petting zoo (which wasn't too impressive, but the boys loved it), pony rides, train rides, and doll making. With each ticket, you get a wristband with three punches for the special activities, so we had to pick and choose anyway. But I was able to let the boys use my punches, so they could do more. There was also Indian jewelry, panning for gold, and some kind of printing craft (which I wanted to do but didn't figure it would be child friendly). There are also a couple areas for the kids to run and play: a play city with kid-sized pioneer buildings and a splash pad (not a pioneer experience, but great for cooling off). You can even minimize walking by taking the train around the perimeter of the park; it has about five different stops. This was totally worth the $19 for me and the boys to get in. I want to go back.

However, I was a bad mom the day we went there. I figured we'd be in and out of buildings enough that sunscreen wouldn't be necessary. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Charlie and I were fine; a little pink the next day but it wasn't a big deal. Emmett got burnt to a crisp--literally. My boys get red faced easily when they're active outside, but when Emmett's face was still lobster red after his bath that night, I knew he was burned. Then he had a rough night's sleep that night waking up several times. One time when he woke up I took him to the kitchen to get him a drink of milk, and when I turned on the light, I realized the skin of his face was falling off. It was like his burned cheek had turned into a giant blister that popped; it was oozey and gross. Eventually it turned into a nasty scab. He's all healed up now, but his cheek and nose are scarred. I'm hoping the scarring will go away to with time, but we'll see. I'm never going to assume sunscreen is unnecessary again.

Swirl Drop Flowers

I used some birthday money (thanks, Mom!) to buy myself cake decorating supplies in the form of a Wilton Decorating Basics Student Kit that included 12 decorating tips, 4 standard couplers, 2 featherweight bags, 6 disposable bags, 6 parchment triangles, 1 flower nail, 1 cupcake nail, 1 decorator brush, 12 flower template stickers, 1 spatula, and a practice board with stand and patterns. I think it was a pretty good deal.

I was so excited to get it! So the week it arrived, I made some sugar cookies and decorated them with swirl drop flowers. (PS: When does making cookies with kids become fun? Because I sure find it frustrating, but Charlie loves helping.) I liked the idea of a small project to start practicing; I didn't want to try tackling an entire cake right off the bat. I think I chose well.

It was fun. And they turned out pretty pretty if I do say so myself. I did run into a snag that I was concerned would be a bigger problem then it turned out to be: the tip to make the swirl drop flowers (Wilton 2D) requires a large coupler, and my kit only came with standard couplers. Weird, right? I was too excited to be deterred, so I just put the tip in the bag without any coupler. It worked. Not ideal, but successful. I definitely prefer how the coupler holds the tip in place, so I will be getting one eventually.

Since I had never made sugar flowers before, I wasn't sure what kind of frosting to use. I was reluctant to try royal icing because I've never used it before and I didn't have the ingredients. I've worked with buttercream before, so I used a Wilton buttercream frosting recipe I found online. As some of the comments suggested, I used all butter instead of half butter and half shortening. I wasn't sure about consistency, but I knew I didn't want it too thin, so I only added 1 T of milk instead of 2. The frosting turned out delicious! And while I'm no expert on the perfect consistency to make sugar flowers, I think it worked out really well. But I am definitely interested in suggestions!

To make the flowers, you rotate your wrist and squeeze out frosting at the same time. It's only a little tricky. When I went slow, more turned out wonky than almost perfect. But when I got in a groove and went a little quicker, it seemed more turned out almost perfect than wonky. I don't know; what's the best way to establish muscle memory? The thing I need to do better next time is to stop squeezing before I pull the frosting away. You can see that some of the flowers are a bit spiky, and I think I jumped the gun and pulled the frosting away before I stopped squeezing.

Now, as I was looking stuff up online to get ready for this attempt, I happened upon one of the most amazing frosting tricks ever! I'm serious. It's genius. If you don't believe me, check out this video--the good part starts after the first minute:

I tried it with this project, and using this trick made cleaning the frosting bag almost non-existent! I only had to clean a tiny bit of frosting out of the tip of the bag. It was so quick. I will do this from now on. (And I think I'll store my leftover frosting wrapped up in plastic wrap in the fridge or freezer for future use--it'll just need to get to room temp and then it's ready to go!) I had been debating the whole reusable vs. disposable frosting bag scenario. After all, the disposable ones are super convenient--and I REALLY like things to be easy. But why continuously pay money for frosting bags? This new trick has solidified my choice: reusable. Yes, the trick requires some plastic wrap, but it's not like the stuff is expensive. I think it's a perfect compromise.

Kittens

My entire life I have desperately wanted a cat. Twice a year (on my birthday and Christmas) I would plead with my parents to give me a cat. Apparently I got really annoying. Anywho, it worked. . . . According to my mother, that is. Because I got a stuffed animal cat (NOT taxidermy--that'd be creepy) almost every birthday and Christmas. Oh well. I survived my childhood even while being denied my greatest wish.

Eventually, maybe high school, my mom proposed a compromise: if I stopped bugging her about getting me a cat, when I owned my own home she would buy me whatever cat I wanted. Deal. So I put my desire for a cat on the back burner. I could wait until I was done with college and all that anyway.

Well, guess what? I've owned my own home for a few years now. And yes, I've been seriously considering taking her up on that offer. But I've never owned a cat. What if, as my mom thought, I got a cat and decided I hated it? I've seen that happen with people. They get a pet, and then a little ways into it they totally regret it. I didn't want to do that--to me or the animal.

Eventually I found out that the Humane Society has a fostering program. Cool! So I got as much information as I could about the program, and Chad and I took a few weeks to think and talk about it. And then we decided to go for it. And that's how we came to foster these two beauties:

Abby (8 weeks) and Olive (5 weeks)

They are both girls, but they're not from the same litter and not even the same age. It's important for kittens to stay together while they're young so they can develop important social skills. A kitten who is isolated from other kittens too early may be more rough during play with humans later because they didn't have siblings to play with to learn how much claws and teeth can hurt. So the Humane Society put these two together, and they're good friends.

I have learned a lot since bringing these two home!

1. Kittens are difficult to contain. We were told we'd probably get kittens around 6 weeks old. And Chad and I assumed that being that young they wouldn't be very skilled jumpers or climbers yet, so we cleared out some space under a desk in our kitchen for the kittens. We were planning on letting them have the run of the kitchen but blocking off their access to the rest of the house using a child gate. It worked great for a half a day! They were content to explore the kitchen for several hours. But eventually Abby climbed over the gate and then Olive followed. So we attached cardboard to the gate thinking they couldn't climb up a shear wall. But almost immediately Abby jumped over the gate but poor Olive was left behind. So we laid down one of the benches that goes with our kitchen table and put the gate on top of that. But almost immediately Abby jumped over the gate. Apparently an 8 week-old kitten can jump over 4 feet. Impressive. The only solution left to us was closed doors. We kept the kittens in a bathroom during the night and let them explore the house during the day. We did keep our bedroom doors closed those; I especially didn't want them to have accidents in the boys' room.

2. I really like having cuddle buddies. No surprises here. I was confident about this going in, but I could really get used to having a soft ball of fluff purring in my lap while I'm watching a movie or reading a book or playing a video game. It's nice. I'll miss it. I think Charlie really liked it too.

3. Sure, kitty litter is gross--obviously--but it's not too bad. Throughout the day we'll check the litter and scoop any poop we find. Then about once a week we dump the old stuff, clean out the box, and put new litter in. And yes, there is a pet odor combined with a litter odor (the litter has a "fresh scent" which is a bunch of malarkey but then I don't think it's possible to manufacture a truly fresh scent) in the bathroom where we keep the litter box, but it's not an overwhelming, disgusting, permeating-the-entire house odor. It's totally manageable.

4. Kittens can easily get confused about where to dig, squat, and bury. We have a bean bag chair. It's a chair I've had since I was a kid, and I've kept it around because I thought the boys would like it. They don't. Oh well. But the kittens sure liked it! Except they seemed to think that they should dig around and do their business in it. The bean bag chair has been thoroughly cleaned and put away. And accidents have decreased dramatically.

5. Balls of yarn are not just for cats. Sorry for the grainy picture--it's Charlie. But I think that about covers it. For whatever crazy reason, he calls it his "paint." Weirdo.

6. While kittens have dangerous claws and teeth, they don't always use them--even if they feel threatened. Part of the appeal of keeping the kittens in the kitchen was that we could keep them away from the kids. When we realized containment wouldn't work, I was afraid for Emmett. He's 16 months old and doesn't understand things like "gentle" or "don't poke the kitty in the eye." You know, somewhat important things like that. I imagine the kittens feel for Emmett what the citizens of Japan felt for Godzilla. When they see him coming they try to run away, but when a clear path of retreat isn't available they get this look like they're thinking, "No sudden movements. Maybe if I don't move, he'll lose interest." Of course that's their downfall. But even when Emmett has gotten his amazingly strong little hands on them (pulling tails, poking eyes, throttling choke holds, and other general rough grabbiness) I have never seen either kitten even swat a paw at him. Abby got stuck under a bed with him once, and while he tried to drag her out by half squishing her, she didn't react at all. I've been surprised.

7. Kitten hair doesn't get everywhere. I think we've all been around those pets where if you pet them or they rub up against your leg for even a brief second you are immediately covered in massive amounts of pet hair. I've been pleasantly surprised. I've only seen kitten hair in the bathroom where they sleep. And when they get up after snuggling on my lap for extended periods while I pet them, they leave no hair behind. No hair. None. I honestly don't know if it's (1) some kind of fluke, (2) their youth, (3) cats in general, (4) I'm more blind than I realize, or (5) I found magic kitties, but I was anticipating significantly more shedding than I've seen.

Overall, it's been a really good experience. And while I've decided that I enjoy having an animal in the house, I'm still not ready to commit to a pet for the next 10-20 years. But I think that if I were to get a kitten to keep in the future, I'd want to start by fostering the entire litter, so I'm in a better position of picking the best one. :) Not all kittens are created equal. And when the Humane Society says a kitten is "litter trained," they mean that while shut in a small environment at the shelter, the kitten uses the litter box. Your house is an entirely different story.

Our time as foster pet owners has come to an end, and it's time to take these beauties back to be adopted:

Abby (11 weeks) and Olive (8 weeks)

We might foster again. It's been an experience I'd like to repeat. We've got a lot going on in the next month or so, but after things get back to "normal" we may try again. I'll keep you posted.

Emmett's First Haircut

For those of you who may not know, getting myself ready for my boys to have their first haircut has been . . . for lack of a better way to say it . . . an emotional experience for me. And yes—the first haircut is all about me.

It begins with my mother and father making comments about how my kid looks like a girl. I find this extremely irritating. And the more they say it, the less I am inclined to leave my child alone with them, because I start to worry that one day, I'll come back to pick my kid up and all his beautiful baby hair will be gone. Tears. And then I will hate my parents. Really. Forgiveness would be a far off hope. And I don't want to hate my parents.

Then after I've been getting this treatment for a while my husband (who has probably been thinking the same thing for a while if not as long as my parents, but who knows me and is patient with me) starts agreeing with them. For a few more months—ok maybe SEVERAL months—I will stay strong in thinking that no, he doesn't need a haircut. But eventually I give out, and about a month or more after I've silently started agreeing with them all, the haircut finally happens.

So, after a very long time of getting myself ready for it, Emmett finally got his first haircut.

Before:

See the beautiful, soft waves? And this picture doesn't' show it, but in some of the longer waves you could still see the dark tips from when he was a newborn with dark brown hair. Beautiful.

It's also lots of fun to do stuff like this, too:

Good times. But not long after this moment, the crying started. If you're an avid reader of this sporadic blog, you may recall that Charlie's first haircut did not go so well. Emmett's went a lot better. but there was still a lot of this:

See the big tear? What a sad adorable boy. But don't worry. It got better:

Snacks. The ultimate distraction. As long as I kept giving him these, he did great. So, a big shout out to my brother-in-law for leaving a giant bag of Honeycomb in the pantry when he moved out. Oh wait. Do you want those? Well, then hurry over to get what's left (hopefully you're reading this because if not, I will not remember to tell you—sorry).

We are very fortunate that my mom has a friend who cuts hair. My mom and her friend swap their skills: my mom will do sewing projects for her, and then she will do my mom's hair. For the last sewing project, my mom and BOTH my boys got haircuts. So instead of being butchered by me, Emmett's hair came out looking great! Charlie, who is used to my butchering haircuts, also looks wonderful.

I certainly have attractive kids! But then that's no surprise.          ;)