Everyone's Smilin'

I got a pic tonight of everyone in costume. And look...no one is rolling their eyes but everyone is SMILIN'! It's a Halloween miracle. 

Where's Waldo? Oh, there he is, right smack in the middle of the M&M's.

I got the inspiration for the girls' costumes here. There wasn't a pattern or instructions so I totally winged it which probably took me 5x as long, but I think they turned out super cute and the girls love them. The Silhouette machine that I won came in SUPER DUPER handy with the lettering!!!

Our dress-up fun begins tomorrow and I believe we're in good shape! Yay!

Another Amelia

Yesterday was "Famous Americans" day for all the second graders at Abbey's school. Each student had to do biographical research on a famous American, make a presentation poster, write a biographical speech and deliver that speech while dressed as their character.

My little sweetie chose to be Amelia Earhart.

She read books about Amelia, did some web research on Amelia (thank you, Wikipedia), and last weekend our family watched the movie Amelia.

[The movie was pretty good, but we had to fast forward through a few parts that were "inappropriate" for kids. Inappropriate is Abbey's favorite word of late and she's found many ways to insert it into conversation which completely cracks me up. She told me the other day that my jeans were inappropriate without a belt.]

Back to the project...

It involved a costume. I know you're not keeping count, but I sure am and this was the FOURTH costume that was required of my second grader this year. One, two, three, four.

I believe I've shared with y'all (ad nauseum) that I'm challenged in the costume department.

I hate stress more than I hate coming up with costumes though so I started looking for some Amelia Earhart garb almost as soon as I got the teacher memo. I had no luck at the thrift stores (though I did find something else that I'm excited share with you soon!) so I started searching online.

I bought the aviator hat, scarf, and goggles for $8.99 on Amazon and that was the best $8.99 I've spent in a long time.

We had a last minute crisis with the leather jacket I'd arranged to borrow, but John found this one (at Goodwill) and saved the day.

So, meet our little Amelia Earhart.

Whew, am I glad that project is over! I asked her teacher (begged her, really) to assure me we were finished with second grade projects for awhile. She sorta laughed. Hopefully we ARE finished with costumes though.

BTW, I did have a brilliant costume plan at the beginning of second grade. I wanted Abbey to be an Indian (I should probably be politically correct and say "Native American") for Halloween. She could then re-use the costume for the Thanksgiving play. And she could keep re-using it and be Tiger Lilly from Peter Pan for Fairy Tale day, and Sacajawea for Famous American Day. Brilliant, eh? Except she looked at the Indian costume I wanted to make for Halloween and burst into tears saying it wasn't "pretty enough". Shot my plan to pieces. Sigh.

I promise I have two other children that I take pictures of. Seems all I've posted lately are pics of Abbey. I need to remedy that soon (because I have a middle child who keeps count of stuff like that!)

Oh, and one more thing. Marie Curie was granted honorary citizenship yesterday (I guess) because she was one of the presenters at Famous Americans Day. Maybe it's just me, but I sure thought she was Polish.

Happy Thursday to you!

Little Red Riding Hood

Today is Fairy Tale Day for my second-grader. They're concluding a unit on Fairy Tales and they get to dress up and have a Fairy Tale ball at the end of the day.

CUTE!

I've said it many times before but I'm challenged when it comes to costumes. Bottom line is that I just don't like figuring it all out. I did better with Halloween this year and honestly put some thought and planning into it. When Abbey mentioned that she wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood I decided to give it a go.

This post on Janna's blog was good inspiration. By the way, Janna's blog is amazing. She is one talented girl!

I bought a pattern (.99 at Joann's. Score!!!) and some red felt and spent last Saturday making this cape for Abbey.

I'm not a perfectionist (hallelujah) but it turned out better than I expected and wasn't too hard. I really only got confused on the hood part of it.

Abbey loves it. Isn't she the cutest Little Red Riding Hood you've ever seen?

Y'all have a great Friday! I'm off to book club, errands, and a Fairy Tale Ball!

We're up to our eyeballs...

We're up to our eyeballs...
...in SNOW!!!

Here's the progressive view from my front door.

Yesterday morning...
Yesterday afternoon...

And this morning...

We have over a foot by now, with drifts even larger.
It's CRAZY.

I opened the door this morning to discover that one of my neighbors had shoveled our driveway and sidewalk for me. Have I mentioned how much we love our neighbors? I was going to have to get bundled up and shovel since John will need to get in the driveway when he arrives home from the airport. My neighbor knew he was out of town and shoveled for me. HOW GREAT IS THAT? (Of course, it's still snowing and I shoveled again, but it was much easier shoveling the second time!)

See?

Sorry I don't have more pictures. It was only outside for a little while and it was so cold. Plus, it was snowing sideways and I could barely open my eyes! The kids enjoyed it though...

Playing in the snow is fun, but I hate the mess! All of these clothes, hats, gloves are in the dryer right now in preparation for Round 2.

So...I told you we were crafty yesterday. Here's one of the ghost garlands we made...SUPER cute! Abbey is wearing Will's Davy Crockett coonskin hat--that cracks me UP!

To make the ghosts, we modified these instructions a little bit. We made several to hang on the banister as well! Cute.
I brought our pumpkins in on Tuesday night when it started snowing so they wouldn't turn to mush. Jack-the-beagle won't leave them alone. He's almost gnawed the stems off of two of them. Grrrrr..... I think we're going to carve them tonight!

My very creative friend, Jen, made this pumpkin bowling set. She let me borrow it for Abbey's party at school tomorrow. We're also going to do an eyeball relay--hence the eyeball picture at the top of the post. Ever tried bowling with a "ball" that isn't round? It's hysterical.
I'm going to make some caramel apples for Abbey's book club that meets tomorrow after school, and I still need to bake a few things for our neighborhood Halloween carnival on Saturday. I wish I had taken a picture of my black/orange stripey pretzels. They turned out super cute!

And I (finally) finished everyone's Halloween costumes. The girls changed their minds umpteen bajillion times, but they're pleased with the final results and I am too!
Abbey is a veterinarian (click on the pic and read her name tag. Will is a gnome (still trying to talk him into letting me make him some bushy eyebrows), and Sarah is a hippie. I think they look GREAT!

Just got a text from John. He's about 25 miles from home. Those last 25 miles are probably the most treacherous though. So ready to see him. I'll be back tomorrow with the last of my Anniversary Week Giveaways!