Halloween around the house

We took the kids on a week long vacation to Florida, so this is the first time in more than a decade I haven't done my 13 days of Halloween on the blog!  I have to say I feel like I have totally  missed Halloween this year because of that trip.  I still have some of the stuff up in the house, the costumes were ready to go before we left, and I managed to squeeze in the pumpkin carving yesterday, but we've missed a lot of my favorite stuff. 

 A few new additions (I missed the best time for the flea while we were out of time) - the two feather trees.

 And a giant repro skeleton.

 The black tree is up this year instead of the orange. Next year I am hoping to put them both up.

 It was SUPER hard to settle on lights I liked on this tree. I really wanted white, but finding white on black wires was impossible. I tried multi - orange, green and purple and hated them. I settled on a candy corn light.

This is a new addition too. I bought the treat bags on ebay thinking I would use them on the tree to add more brightness to the dark tree. Then I decorated the tree and forgot them. When I remembered them the tree was too full to get them on there!

Back tomorrow with this years costumes (it is BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR here this year). And soon with some vacation photos.

Hapde burfday Jack, 13!

My Dearest Jack,

13!

I never thought we'd get here if I am being honest.  The years just keep on rolling. Some things, some things stay the same. You are nearly as tall as me now. You are gaining independence (yahooooo!!!). Last week you were yelling at me about my refusal to do "second grade math" and I had to remind you I gave birth to a human calculator. LOL

I am sure college is just right around the corner.

There isn't much that is worth saying on the internets at this stage in life, but I love you kid. You still amaze me every single day and are still my one in a million.

Love,
Mom.

zoo birthday fail

 Every year I take the boys to the zoo near their birthdays and take their pictures in this hippo in the childrens zoo. This year I am feeling SO RUSHED for time but I hurried us down there to get it done. When we arrived the childrens zoo was closed!!!! So, birthday beetle it is for this year.

 And yes, I have told Jackson his photo WILL be on the blog making this face.

Pumpkin patch

If they ever all smiled and looked at me at the same time I might die. LOLOL

Halloween mantle

 I wanted to try something different (and easier!) on the mantle this year, so I piled it up with some blowmolds.

I love the crowd on there!

The dress

 We went to my great great Aunt's 90th birthday party on Sunday. I was rummaging through Samantha's closet for something for her to wear when I passed this dress.

It's been hanging in her closet for 6.5+ years.

Before that it hung in my laundry room for a few years.

As I put it on her I told her that I bought this dress for her before I was even pregnant with her.

You see this is *the dress*.

I bought this dress in a goodwill one day when Jack was about 4 or 5. I was smack dab in the middle of an infertility nightmare - having one miscarriage after another. I was sure I was never going to manage to have another baby. So why on earth would I buy this dress? I don't know really.

I had been having some email conversations with a friend who was also smack dab in the infertility nightmare and she mentioned something she learned in therapy called "magical thinking." It stuck with me, because that is a real thing...thinking that somehow buying a book or a bottle will cause you to lose a pregnancy and never have a baby. It lasts a damn long time too. Like forever. For me it lasts until the moment the kids are born.

So, I see this gorgeous SIZE 5 GIRL dress in a goodwill and I carry it around a bit. I ponder it. I stew on it. I commit and buy it.

I bring it home. I hang it up. It taunts me a little.

Will it ever get used?

But I hang on to that hope. I cling. I pray.

And 6.5 + years I have a little girl to put it on. A little girl who declares it "the loveliest dress ever! It's very old fashioned mommy."

 And I pull over on the way to the birthday party to take her picture because here we are. Three kids, one dress, 9 years later.

I spend a lot of time these days telling others they are not forsaken. I will have a canvas made of her in the dress, because once, long ago, I was not forsaken either.

Frankenstein treat bag

I've been working frantically trying to get a bunch of sewing done. I was working on the kids costumes and when I pulled the treat bags out of the bins I realized that Grant's was totally wrecked. I had chosen wool felt when I made it and the first Halloween it rained caused the felt to stretch horribly. On one of my many trips to Joann I grabbed a remnant of green felt and decided it would be a Frankenstein bag replacement. I was having a hard time deciding on what face to give him when Grant jumped right in. He chose the face, helped do the cutting, placed the features, and dug in the rick rack and chose a color for the scar. A joint collaboration! 

(Some of you may remember the owl bag I made for Jack a million years ago - he has used it every year!)

Flea Market Sunday

It's a bit of a joke around our house that I do NOT like change. I would almost rather have to run from a bear than face change. I was doing so good blogging! I was scheduling posts and really getting my groove back finally. Then I had to update my ipad. And I lost the blogger app because it's never been updated. Then I had to replace my ipad when the home button broke. Then my laptop updated or something and all of sudden I COULD NO LONGER LOG IN! This caused an epic freak out.  I have obviously managed to log back in, but I have to find a way to blog again without access to the app anymore. 

OY.

 Flea this week:
nice ornaments. I've never seen those bumpy ones before.

Four feedsacks for a pittance and a toy sewing machine.