Halloween Overload - and it's not even Halloween yet!

Want to know a great way to overstimulate an almost 18 month old? Take him to a location that he's forced to dress up in and put him in a crowd where kids are screaming and he's surrounded with hundreds of people. He'll have fun for a while but then throw himself on the ground screaming after about 30 minutes.

Want to know a great way to bring out the many moods of a 3 year old? Dress her up two days in a row, in a costume that has a wig nonetheless, and send her out to get so much candy at her three halloween events that she can't even lift hte jack-o-lantern. The first one she'll be so overwhelmed because things are just merely a little different (ie - her school party), the second, she'll cling for dear life to here Daddy's fingers because she's surrounded by hundreds of people, and the third event she'll finally warm up to the idea of games and have a blast....the same event where her sibling is on the ground throwing a tantrum.

Want to know a great way to put a huge hurdle in front of someone who's on a diet? Have two young kids...one who is allowed very little candy, and one who can't eat anything but small M&M's and Smartees because he still doesn't have all his molars. Out of the two gazillion pieces of candy you'll bring home during the three Halloween events, you'll still have one gazillion, nine thousand, nine hundred, and two pieces left. How's that for temptation?

Halloween...it's a mixture of feelings for Darin and me. I loved going out as a kid and trick-or-treating. LOVED it. I also loved the thrill of being scared. As a teen, I thrived on scary movies, haunted houses...the whole bit. Darin, not so much. Besides the fact that now days, you just can't trick-or-treat the same way, it just seems to have phased out. The good news is a lot of communities and churches have different festivals and such.
So Zoe went as Dora the Explorer.  Her favorite single character is Dora, while her favorite group of characters is the Princesses. 

Ethan - well he went as two this year.  I bought him a horse costume (I know, not the best, but I bought them both at a consignment place).  He, however refused to wear the horse for yesterday's events, so I switched gears and threw together a fireman costume from a firefighter rain slicker we have and a fire hat Zoe got at school a few weeks ago.  It worked for such short notice.  Today for the church event, he actually allowed the horse on.  Moods!

Zoe had her little school party yesterday. That was a blast for her....after the first hour. It took me over 30 minutes to even get her in the classroom. They dressed up, and apparently she got a little nervous seeing all her friends dressed up. I never could get her to tell me what she was upset about. But she cried...and cried. Finally, she heard they were doing circle time (exactly what it sounds like), and she wanted to go. They went trick or treating throught the campus in some of the buildings and then came back for a halloween party. Stupid mommy didn't think to take her camera for those, so hopefully I can snag some pics from one of the other mom's. I did get a few however when I went to pick her up. Get a load of these! These are the four little girls who have grown up together in church. Now they all go to the same preschool together.

Even before the second event, Zoe decided to sift through her stash of candy.  Look at all this!  This doesn't even begin to describe how much is in this house now after three events! 

Next was our community event. It was overwhelming, mostly to Zoe who just wasn't sure what to think. Ethan was safely nestled in his stroller and had a good time looking around. Dora was there, so the two Dora's got to meet each other. Elmo, Ethan's favorite character for the moment was there as well. He kept squealing, "Elmo. That Elmo!!!" So sweet! Thrown in are a few before pictures.

Dora, meet Dora!

 

And last but not least was our church's festival. This is where Ethan and Zoe switched moods. Zoe loved the games and had a ton of fun, while Ethan....well, didn't. He had fun in a bubble machine, but after that grew boring, not much was left.

So Halloween 2010 comes to a close. Until next year....Boo!

Can we say awkward?

Well, if you know me at all, you know I like change.  I chopped off my long hair when I started teaching.  I chopped it even shorter in a "Mommy makeover" just two weeks after Zoe's birth.  Over the last couple of years, it's just gotten shorter and shorter, short enough to spike up in the back.  I guess I'm getting tired of the pixie cut.  I long for long hair again, so here we go again.  Though this might take a little longer than the 15 minutes it'd take for me to get it chopped off.  No, this, despite my best wishes might very well take up to 2 years.  *Sigh*  But I'm committed to doing it.  Through this "journey", I'm going to document what my hairstyles will be from short to long, documenting all the awkwardness along the way.  Oh, and awkward it's been.  Sheesh...who knew that growing out your hair would be such a difficult task!?!?!   Guess I didn't think that one all the way through. 

At the beginning of September, this is what look I sported.  It was short, sassy, and easy.  I never had to worry about the wind messing it up or frizzy hair days.  Long ago were the "bad hair days" I had to struggle with when I had longer hair. 

And this, getting into awkward stage 1 was when it right at the beginning of October.  Probably a good half inch longer. 

And now, finally, this was today...just a couple of days until November...and just coming out of awkward stage #2.  I'm finally getting to where it looks almost identical to what it did when I cut it after Zoe's birth. 

So much progress, but yet SO, SO, SO, far to go.  Not sure what will happen from here...so tune into awkward stage #3 next month.

And yes, if you are noticing that my face looks a little thinner than in the first, it's because I'm still on my weight loss journey as well.  I am now 7 pounds from my ideal weight...according to health charts.  I'm fitting into pants from college - have dropped 2 pant sizes, one shirt size, and...well, let's just say there's another size that just can't possibly drop anymore without putting me back in a training size.   Ahem...

I'll spare you from pictures of my weight loss.  I'll just show you the before and after once I get to my weight of 1*5.  :)  Makin' you wonder??

The Big Easel

See this big easel? 

  I got it free on a yahoo group called Freecycle.  Someone was getting rid of it and I was the lucky one who responded first.  It has a magnet board on the other side.  Lucky for us, we have a whole set of magnet letters and farm animal magnets with a Leap frog Talking toy.

Little Miss Zoe has been interested in how to spell things and writes her name all over the place.  She knows how to write Ethan's name too.  So I had her write both and then told her what letters to write for her last name.  She only received help on the "s" and originally wrote the "c" backwards, but wrote the rest on her own.  This is what she wrote.  Look at that face...she's so proud of herself!  Not too shabby for a 3 year old.  She wanted to write "Happy Birthday Daddy" on Darin's Birthday card and was so proud when she gave it to him.  It crossed over the whole card, but it was written. 

So after mastering writing the names, she wanted to draw pictures.  This one cracks me up.  The one on the left is me.  The one on the right is Darin.  She drew his legs and arms the same exact length.  Not sure why, but it's really funny looking.  She HAD to put every single body part (well, she left out one) on each person.  She added shoulders, knees, hands, a whole face, neck, belly button, feet, and even eyebrows.  Goofy girl! 

She made a birthday cake with me earlier this week.  We made it from scratch (pumpkin spice cake), so she got to help me measure and pour all the ingredients, even got to crack the eggs which for her consisted of her knocking it on the bowl and shoving her finger through the egg shell.  I'll try to post some pictures of her cake adventure....and that it was. 

Baby Choir

A couple of Sunday's ago was a big first for Zoe....a first for me too.  She's in baby choir this year...well, it's been dubbed baby choir, but really is just the preschool choir for 3-5 year olds.  They've been working hard to teach them a little production that they got up on stage to perform.  Forgive the TERRIBLE videographer.  Ahem.  I was too focused on her and not on the videoing. 

Spaz Baby

Uhh...whoops.

Well, this "whoops" wasn't from one of the kids.  This was a mommy whooops.  Nothing that won't be fixed in just a matter of weeks, but still a whoops moment. 

See, it started one cold and rainy day (yeah, I wish...cold is not what I call 80's in October) when I was looking at Ethan's shagginess on the back of his head and thought, "he needs a haircut."  So out come the clippers and scissors.  I've used clippers on him before, so he's used to it.  I sat him up on the counter and got started.  Started just trimming the back, like I've done a half dozen times.  It tends to get bushy quick while the top of his head is growing...or was...but is very sporadic. 

Thing were going great, that is until Ethan whipped around causing my clippers to go up a little too high.  Well by then, I wasn't going to leave it looking lopsided, so it went from a back trim to a full haircut.  I have to take part of that blame too.  I didn't pay much attention to the guard that I put on there, and I put one that was shorter than I wanted, so I probably would have done a full cut anyway to keep it from looking blunt. 

So to make it worse, I thought I could use the clippers and keep his bangs.  Yeah - didn't happen that way at all.  They're gone. 

So here is the before....

Loved those little whispy bangs.

And here is the after in the back.

And the after in the front - excuse the half shut eyes.  I promise I don't drug him.

Different shot of the "after"

I guess it was appropriate that he got a full cut.  He'll be 18 months in just two weeks, and this cut makes him look like a little boy.  I sure did love those little bangs, though.  Good news though is this will let his hair grow all at the same time.  All those little wispy bangs were totally random.  Some were long, most were not.  His hair was slow to grow in and it was a little stringy.  I'll let it grow again, but this time it'll come in fuller than before.  Doesn't he look so big!?

Wordless Wednesday

"Reading" their little Bibles before bedtime - and in no this was not staged.  :)

Little pumpkins for my big pumpkins

I truly am a small town girl now when I say that I look forward with great anticipation to our annual community pumpkin patch.  What has Arkadelphia done to me, y'all?  See, I'm even using words like y'all! 

Last year, our little guy was only a few months old and unable to enjoy much.  This year, he's almost a year and a half old and he still wasn't able to enjoy much.  I say that because he couldn't stay still.  Not. For. One. Second.  I say that with such sarcasm because I wasn't the one who had to put up with him.  Being a mom with a camera and and itch for fall pictures has its advantages every now and then, you know.  :)  So I took Zoe, who apparently had her moody side show up just about the time we got to the pumpkin patch, and stayed until we finally caved and let her play on the playground.  Sure...what parent doesn't want to take their kid to a once a year pumpkin patch and do anything but play on the little playground located at the community center?  That's what I wanted to do....ahem. 

So the itch for good family pictures soon dwindled once realization set in that there was just too much going on for my busy body children to sit still enough to look at a camera.  So this is what we got. 

Our "family photo"

Snapped with the line, "I bet you can't tell me how many fingers I'm holding up!" 

Not sure how I lucked out on this one. This is one of my favorites ever...and imagine how much better without that nice little price flag sitting above her head.  :) 

Bottom line:  Both kids had fun...or semi fun.  Miss moody played a few games.  Ethan, well, I'm not sure what he did.  But they had fun, and that's what counts.  :)