My children have already decided what they want to be for Halloween this year. Christopher wants to be Batman and Sophie wants to be Spiderman. We bought her that Cinderella dress because she was starting to get into dress up clothes and thought it would be perfect for Disney, but she insists that she wants to be Spiderman for Halloween. Thankfully that is what Christopher was last year so she can just wear it instead of buying her a new one. Yes, it has the built in muscles, but she wants to be a male superhero so does it really matter? I think the blond curls and pink and white tennis shoes will keep anyone from being confused.

I've never had a problem with Halloween, but what I do have a problem with is spending so much money on a costume that will be worn once. If I'm going to spend $20-30 dollars on something I want to be able to wear it again. Especially if it's on the kids. (I don't buy smocked clothes for a reason people! Well, and my mom can make them so why would I?) Christopher told me that he wants to be a blue Batman and after much discussion over the color that Batman actually is (unless you go old school, he IS blue and gray) I realized that I could make this for much less than the $30 it will cost to buy it. Christopher does NOT want me to make it. He feels very strongly about this. So do I.

What would YOU do? I miss the days when you made up your own costume! That was so much more fun than just running out and buying one! In fact, I think I quit dressing up when people quit making them up. I'm torn and think that I may have to get Brandon to help me out here. Actually, wait. He will probably be on Christopher's side because he loves buying them costumes. He buys his own to match. Maybe that's what I'm afraid of. I'm just hoping and praying that having a sewing machine will pull everyone over to my side this year. Fingers crossed.....

My sister made the kids some things and sent it to them this week. One of them was an Auburn shirt for Sophie. I put it on her yesterday, but she poured chocolate milk all over it on the way to school (after wetting her shorts and having to put pants on) and so when we got to church we had to change into one of our backup outfits (that's three changes in an hour). I had to wash it out in the sink b/c I was not going home any time soon and didn't want it to stain. Thankfully it all came out. (I hate ruining clothes before you even wear them!!!!!!) SO, today we tried again. She looked so cute and when we got to church I heard her saying a little cheer in the backseat. I was so proud!

(Just a warning, I'm really loud! She's really quiet. I took this with my phone.) 

Is it easier or just more fun to empty the dishwasher in a bathing suit with two purses? I've been trying to make it more interesting. Maybe that's the trick.

I bought my first sewing machine back in March and haven't made very much. I could count on one hand the things I'd made. They were mostly square. I bought it because I had seen some fun crafty things that looked simple enough, if I just learned how to sew. I don't really care to make clothes. I'll leave that to my Mom and my sister. They are much better at it. (And I'm totally cool with that!)

I signed up for a sewing course online a couple months ago and it just finished. They had 27 projects, plus videos to teach you how to use your sewing machine. Like I said, it just finished and I had only made the first project. It was napkins. My machine has been giving me a little bit of trouble lately and so it's hard to get motivated to keep going when it jams all the time, but this weekend I was determined to start on project #2, a gift bag. Typically it takes me at least two weeks from start to finish to make anything because my children do not like it when I do things just for me. Someone ends up in my lap or needs me to fix the movie or get a snack or wipe their bottom. While most of you are finishing your projects in an hour or less, I'm not.

Saturday morning I cut out my fabric and that afternoon I sewed it together. The whole thing. I couldn't believe it. (Maybe kindly threatening Christopher during Sophie's nap should become a habit....) And today during nap time I cut out AND made the next project, a shopping bag. First time I have ever cut and sewn a project within 2 hours. A miracle. I'll be quiet now and just show you the photos. I had bought most of these fabrics to make pillowcase dresses for Sophie, but she is not the least bit interested in wearing one so I decided to use it for myself instead of buying more. Here they are:

One sided napkins with a zig zag stitch. They also teach you double sided with ric rac between, but I don't have any ric rac and don't want to buy any right now. I had a little trouble with my machine jamming so it was a real challenge to get these done.


The gift bag. I don't like the way that she wanted the ribbon installed because it doesn't make sense to me. It's supposed to close at the top and then the ribbon comes out of a "button hole" that you hand sew AFTER you have folded it over and sewn together the top part. I prefer to have some trim above the ribbon part. But we live and learn new tricks and then adapt to what we prefer. Right?


My shopping bag. This was something I've really been wanting to make. I learned how to do the little rectangle with the "x" in it to reinforce the handles. She even taught a little trick about how to do this an easy way. I think we now have our new library bag! (I haven't set foot in the library since the little threatening letter I got a few weeks ago about books that were a week overdue.)

I'm looking forward to my next little project and feeling much more comfortable with sewing. Especially since my machine sews with much more ease than it started out. (It didn't want to pull the fabric along and you can't sew if the fabric doesn't move!) Not sure what changed, but I'm glad it did. Hope you all had a great weekend too. We are about to head out down to some water. Not sure if it's next to our house or on the other side of the bay but we are getting out!

This morning started out with me finding the kids turning the coffee maker on. I heard them come out of their room. I waited for them to come get me. (It's my favorite time of the day, as long as it's not before 6:30 in the morning.) They never came. I heard them go to the bathroom. They never came. I heard them playing. They never came. I finally got up b/c I knew the longer that I waited with silence as my background, the more they were going to probably be in trouble. I walked into the kitchen and there they were on the step stool turning the coffee maker on. I asked them what they were doing and they said they were making coffee for Daddy. It was very sweet! Now I need to tell you that they are probably the only 2 and 4 year olds that actually do know how to make coffee. They got a new filter and put the grinds in there without hardly spilling a single one. The only thing they forgot was the water. That's Brandon's part so they didn't know about adding the other most important part. (Honey, all you need to add is water in the morning and you will be good to go!)

As soon as they finally understood that Daddy wasn't home they decided they wanted to paint. This is one of the hard parts of being a mom for me. Making messes inside. (And if you saw my house you would think I was a liar b/c it's always messy.) I also don't like that paint is usually wasted. I would prefer they use every single drop that I give them, even if it's one big dark purple blob. But this morning I decided to let them paint. And it was fun, with very little mess. Other than Sophie having to go wash her hands about 5 times while painting because she kept getting paint all over them, and she wasn't finger painting. Here are the little artists at work:

Christopher painted a dump truck with a bumper and an exhaust pipe (the dark line) and a handle to open the door. Right now he prefers his suns to be green and/or blue. He included an rather large orange flower as well as a road with a dotted line included. (He's been asking a lot of questions about the white and yellow lines on the road and what they mean.)

He painted a blue line across the very top for the sky, but I tried to explain and show him that the sky can be the whole background to his picture. He really wanted white clouds so he went back to add those later.

Sophie wanted to paint flowers. She usually only wants pink, purple and white paint. Imagine that?

Her painting pretty much always becomes one color. And soaked in paint. She was upset when we stopped, but I was afraid the paper would tear and then we would have a huge mess on our hands. That did not go over well with her. But it had so much paint I have no idea how the tape was holding it up.

We have our second basketball game in the morning. Yesterday in practice they played a little practice game and Christopher actually got in there and played. I was very proud of him. We showed Daddy an example of what he learned when he finally got home. Fingers crossed tomorrow will go better than last week. Hope you all have a great weekend!

The kids have said some really funny things lately and I realized that I have not posted them on here. I thought you might find it as funny as I do, plus I want it on here to always remember.

Sophie has started wanting to carry a purse or push a doll stroller or wear her princess heels when we go run errands together. My first thought is no because it will only slow me down, but then I remember how adorable she is and that it will probably make me laugh, which I can always use. Here's a conversation we had this particular day:

Christopher is not lacking in his funny comments either. (I have to preface this by saying that this is my second year to be a craft leader for MOPS at our church, so my kids have frequented the local craft stores more than any child ever should.) The other day we were going to get lunch and go to a park with some friends. I asked the kids what they wanted to get to eat and this is how that conversation went:

We signed Christopher up for basketball this year. We couldn't wait to get him started into sports, mostly because he loves playing them, not because we are sports crazed and insanely competitive people (well, I'm not), but because it just seems fun.

We taught him to kick a ball as soon as he could walk without falling down. (We also didn't know when you started to teach them these things and figured why not now?) Brandon bought Christopher his first t-ball set when he was about 18 months old and he can crush the ball so hard now that it sails across the backyard and over the fence, occasionally it will go over the roof. He started golf not much later and surprised all of us when he could actually hit it. We had to take the kid-sized driver away when Sophie was born so we could avoid any possible injuries. But basketball, now this is a sport we have never covered.

Our very first practice did not have all the coaches, so everyone went out and played around. He was so overwhelmed by all the people and noise that he cried. I was finally able to get him to at least touch the ball and bounce it back and forth with me. The second practice I made him do it by himself and he still wouldn't even touch the ball when they tried to hand it to him. Third practice Brandon, Sophie and I stayed in the lobby thinking that if he didn't see us he would do better. He touched the ball. Fourth practice he tried to play a little and I was so proud.

Now, I had a feeling how the first game would go, it would be funny. The kids have never scrimmaged and like I said, Christopher has never seen the game played and now he would be in front of lots of people expected to play a real game and he is extremely shy. (And I sympathize with this because I hate to be in front of people too. Brandon, not so much. Sophie takes after him.) The great thing about Upward sports is that they are not in your face competitive and give each child equal playing time. (They also have devotionals too, it is through the church after all.) If your child has never played on a team before it is a great way to introduce them to the whole concept. At least I think it is. Christopher got to play as much as the kid on his team that scored about 9 or 10 points and looked like he'd been playing for all of his 4-5 years of life, but Christopher never touched the ball. Even though someone tried to pass it to him, he kept his hands at his side or in his mouth (gross!) and stood in the middle of the court watching everyone else play and trying to figure out what in the world was going on.

Waiting for his name to be called so he could run all the way across the court... in front of everyone... all by himself. At first he barely walked and then did this silly, hand flopping run across the court. Awesome. (Be patient, be patient, give him time.)

Saying a prayer with the other team before the game. (I'm wondering if they picked these colors because we live in Gator country or that's what all the Upward programs are wearing.)

We are hoping that soccer and t-ball go a little better.

I hope that all of you had a great weekend. We certainly did. Brandon was actually home 4 days b/c they have family day on Fridays of a 3 day weekend. Not sure why, but I'm not complaining. Especially since this is only the second time in 3 years that he has actually gotten this day. Friday we hung out at home. Saturday we had the most awesome yard sale. Saturday night we went to dinner with our new pastor and his wife. Sunday we went to church, either napped, folded clothes or went to play frisbee golf and then went to the house of another friend from church and had dinner and visited. Monday we worked around the house, took the kayak out, then had dinner and went to bed.

Want a funny story? Brandon fixed the lawn mower for me last weekend b/c I have had a very hard time getting it to start and would have to go to the male neighbors for help. He didn't like this and I didn't either b/c now I'm down to one neighbor. Plus I hate playing the helpless victim role. Well, he fixed it and I was thrilled and so proud of him to taking care of it for me.

Sunday we decided to clean up the backyard and mow the weeds. (Remember, we don't have grass in FL, just weeds and more weeds.) I started the lawn mower and started to cut the grass when all of a sudden it made this funny, muffled pop noise and shut off. I took it around to Brandon, who was cleaning out the van from the yard sale, and the hose thingy popped off. We put it back on and he said it needed oil, so he went to get more. He goes out to finish the grass b/c the kids and I are busy doing something else, when I look outside and see tons of white smoke. He's laughing so hard that he tells me to get the camera. (Note: this lawn mower has been a problem pretty much since we got it... never by used, even if it's a year old.) I take pictures with his camera and my phone and immediately post it on FB that we are getting a new lawn mower. It's running great, just smoking like crazy!!!

We leave it alone, have lunch, take naps, go out in the kayak and then after we hose the dog, kids, boat and everything else down, he decides to see if it just needs to burn off some spilled oil or if it really needs to be replaced. He starts it up and the smoke starts filling the yard. He lets it keep running. The kids and I are just laughing with him b/c the smoke starts to fade and then he tilts the bottom of the lawn mower up, sets it back down and the smoke starts all over again. It keeps coming and keeps coming and I'm starting to think that the neighbors will worry the house is on fire, but remember, we only have one neighbor and he can see out his window we are fine.

After several minutes, the kids and I go inside and I look out the front window to see someone from down the street walking away and the base police are coming down our street. I am practically doubled over laughing at this point and look in the back yard at my husband finally cutting the grass b/c the smoke has stopped. I walk to the front door and see the police have parked between the houses and hurry out to see what is causing the smoke and I only laugh harder. They walk up to the fence to see Brandon cutting the grass and he stops and I can see a huge grin on his face. He tells them what was causing the mess and they leave. I'm actually surprised that nobody called the fire department. It was that bad!



What a perfect ending to a perfect weekend!

(Oh, and I bought a new Oreck vacuum yesterday. I love it!!! Thanks Caroline for the tip. I wasn't ready to spend the money on a Dyson so I went with something that has been equally as loved. I think the photo I copied to post about it is what messed up the blog yesterday so I just deleted it.)

This morning we had our second attempt at our yard sale. I will just say that it was a gazillion times better than last weekends! I cannot thank Joia enough for letting us come crash her driveway and let us hang out for about 5-7 hours this morning. Brandon also wins the husband of the year award for the hours and the time that he put into this sale. I feel like I had the easy part by getting the items together and pricing them. (I owe you that chocolate blast blizzard honey!)

I think the combination of the rest of the town deciding to have a yard sale and the gorgeous, and eventually toasty, weather also helped a little too. I'm not sure when the first customer arrived, but the kids and I showed up with doughnuts at 7:45 and it was a steady stream of people until about 11:00. We were starting to pack things up when more people showed up and we finally said our goodbyes at 12:30. We sent half of our leftover "goodies" down the hill to Goodwill, or "Big Will" as Christopher calls it, and the other half came back home.

The best news is that we how have much less stuff in our house AND we have enough to buy a deep freezer and a vacuum. Not sure that we will actually buy both, but just knowing we could is pretty fun! Hope you are enjoying your weekend!