Project 52 {44}

My favorite thing about you:

Your stick-to-it-ivness.

Both f/2.8 ISO-100 

Kids in general are a fickle creature.  Not my kids.  When they make up their minds thats it.  Done.  It took a long long time to train them into this, but we're finally confident in our choices. It used to be, with Kale especially, they would get a choice between A and B, they'd choose A and immediately regret that decision and go with B.  Drove us nuts.  Make a decision and stick with it.  Deal with the consequences (however they may fall), and live with your choices.  Yeah, sometimes that meant drinking milk, when you meant to pick juice, but someday it could mean something a lot bigger.  I want them to be critical thinkers, really weigh the outcome of the options they've been given and when they finally make a decision move forward with confidence. Many times in life there are no do-overs.  

What in the world does this have to do with their Halloween costumes?  I'll tell you.  Haley picked this out two years ago.  She wanted to be a devil last year for Halloween, but we sat down and talked about the fact that it might be the only year she could go as Emily Elizabeth (with Atlas as Clifford the Big Red Dog), and she decided to concede, on the condition that this year she could be a Devil.  This year rolled around and months before she knew what she wanted to be (and thankfully left the details up to me).  She got some mixed reactions (here in the land of Focus on the Family) about being a devil from some pretty important people in her life, but she confidently held strong to her convictions and never once wavered in her choice.  

Kale also knew months ago that he wanted to be a ninja.  Easy choice since he is a ninja.  He'll tell you:  "It's okay, I'll protect you, I'm a ninja" comes out of his mouth nearly everyday.  So in the middle of September we were wandering through Target with Grandma and he saw this costume.  I was wary of him picking one so early, and I didn't want him to see something down the road and regret his decision.  He didn't.  Not for one second.  

Someday they'll have to pick a college to go to (God willing), and a major, a spouse.  Serious life decisions.  I want them to weigh their options, make informed choices and never for one second regret the direction they pick.  Pick what's right for them, not the pressured choice or the easy choice.  They're the ones who have to live the outcome.  

Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?

 . Styleberry . Wicked Kate . Adventures in Mommyhood .  Lucas & Mahina . Heather Marie Portraits . Something Insightful . Truly Dedicated Mommy 

Can I link you too?  Leave me a comment.  

A little witch and a turtle

So this year we started talking back at the end of August/early September about what in the world the kids wanted to be for Halloween. Kale was always going to be a turtle, the kid loves them and this is likely the last year he's going to just allow me to pick out and make his costume so I found a pattern and went with it. Haley on the other hand... well, there was a point where she was going to be a Strawberry Shortcake/Alice in Wonderland/Cinderella/Witch. I'm really glad we were able to find a focus there because I can't even imagine what that costume would look like otherwise.

Last year I managed to make Kale a really great dinosaur and subsequently learned that following a pattern is definitely not rocket science... at least not for a kids costume. So I figured this year that I could make two costumes if I started early enough. By the end of September/early October I had patterns and supplies and was off and running. Originally I bought a pattern for Haley, but realized that she had a black shirt and tights were only $5 at Wal-Mart so all I had to do was find her a hat, and sew her a tutu.

Here's the great thing about making your kids' costumes: I could make them as warm and modest as I want. Hence, Kale is head to toe fleece because typically, out here in Colorado, it's like -25 degrees and snowing horizontally. Or so I hear, we've been here for three of them and each one has been uncharacteristically warm - like no coats necessary. But just in case I keep my kids as warm as humanly possible. For Haley, I made her skirt a bit longer than a lot of witch costumes out there (and we just won't even talk about some of the older kid costumes coming down the pipe in the coming years). I did this for two reasons, one, a longer tutu is cute - it gives it a bit more room to fluff, and two, this will fit her for a long while - instead of using an elastic waist (hindsight that might have been better but...) I did a satin ribbon tie so she'll be able to wear this thing for a long time.

Yeah... Blah blah blah. Here's what you're waiting for: the pictures.

This is at the zoo. This is the second year we've done their Boo at the Zoo and really enjoy going around to see the animals while we trick or treat at stands set up by lots of local businesses. Below them are the zebras and "G-Raffes", the tree is there for the vultures but it was a perfect scary backdrop.

For actual Halloween we went to our friends' home - they live in a "Socially Superb" neighborhood. My little girl makes a great witch. Also, we found her a kid's sized hat but it didn't have anything on it, and it really needed something so we got this feather boa stuff and I had to hand sew it to the hat - tedious and there is still a ton of purple fluff roaming around my house, but it really completes the outfit.

No, she is not capable of making a normal face in pictures. I think we used them all up for the wedding.

My Dude-a-Turtle. If you asked him, he was a Scary turtle, but mostly he was just cute and mildly uncomfortable with that shell on him. I wish we got a picture of him from behind, it was a really cool shell.

And the family picture. Jeff really wanted to be The Cat In The Hat, but thought this up at the last minute (I'm sure I could have made him an awesome one too). So we found the kids' dress-up costume, tied it around his neck, pinned it in the back and threw a giant afro wig up in the hat to make it stand up - Done! Cat In The Hat. Now, you can't tell in this picture, because, as usual, I'm overtaken by kids, but I'm wearing a pair of Haley's fairy wings, and her tiara from the wedding, my hair was all loopy and cute.

I've decided that once my kids no longer want or need my costume creating services, I'm going to hire myself out... costume sewing is just fun. Also, while the kids got a ton of candy, there were not nearly enough Butterfingers to pay me for making their costumes - bummer. Oh, and BTW, this year we carved some super awesome pumpkins, I could describe them, but honestly... Boring. We did these the Thursday night before Halloween and I stuck them outside thinking we would just get pictures with the kids on Halloween night when we lit them up. Yeah, Friday was hot and the darn things just melted. They literally look like they melted, all of the faces, and designs just fell from the heat. This is especially sad because four of the 7 we carved (we had a total of 9), we grew ourselves in our garden. We didn't even light them up they looked so pitiful. Note to self for next year.

We're raising runners!

We started running a bit more than a year ago and it's kind of stuck. We go do a 5k in downtown Colorado Springs, it starts and finishes at our favorite Irish Pub. We also did that little run back in June. Aside from my personal goals and benefits, I really wanted to set a good fitness example for my kids. I want for them to grow up in a fun and active environment, I want this to be their normal. I want them to spend time outside running and playing and enjoying it as it's something that's taken me till my late 20's to fully embrace. Yes, I was athletic growing up, I loved to swim, but now, I love lots of things and I want my kids to start out being diverse in their activities.

Being that the kids are 2 and 3 there aren't a lot of "organized" things available to them beyond maybe a tumbling class and some soccer theory. So when we heard about the Venetucci Farms 5/10k and the accompanying kids fun runs, we were in! I ran the 5k that morning with a friend and we paid the $5 each for the kids to do a 400m dash. It was a quick lap, Kale was one of the final finishers, and Haley tripped, but they both crossed the finish line with a huge smile on their face and really enjoyed themselves. It didn't hurt that they both got first place ribbons and a pumpkin for running either. We had a great day at the farm with the kids getting some great fresh air and a bit of exercise.

At the starting line... you can see us at the top left of the picture.

Boys club off to a strong start!

And Girls Club coming around the last corner. We went last weekend to support some of our friends who were competing in the Denver Rock n Roll Half Marathon and I couldn't help but look forward to the day when Haley will run on of those too and you'd better believe it'll be Girls Club running there too (which means I'd better get a bit faster and stick with this thing).

Boy's Club finishing the race!

So the rule at the pumpkin patch was, the kids could only pick a pumpkin they could carry out of the patch, they both really pushed that limit. They carried it a good few feet, then they might have got a bit of help (shhh...).

A family picture and again, getting both kids to look at the camera is never easy. This is the best we could do.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is lots of fun when you have two kids big enough to trick-or-treat! We took them to the Boo at the Zoo last week and they had fun practicing - Haley loved to go up to people and tell them "Trick-or-treatin'" like she needed to announce what she was doing and then they would give her candy. But by tonight she had the whole thing down. Since we're still working on getting a consistent MaMa or DaDa out of Kale, we just let him walk around with his pumpkin, and hold it out to people - they knew what to do.

Haley decided to go as her current (as of the day we went shopping, and luckily today also) favorite princess; Belle. She got to have her hair curled and had a pretty headband to wear just like the real deal. I think we are in for a few years worth of princess costumes.

Love Kale's costume?! Yeah me too... I made it, all by myself! I even put a zipper in it and stuffed the junk out of the tail and spikes. One thing about Colorado is that you never know what the weather is going to be, but this time of year you can bet on either cold or wind (sometimes both), so I wanted to know that he would be warm. the entire thing is made of fleece and I think it turned out pretty great. He loved wearing his costume, even the hood (but wouldn't you love to walk around in a fleece one piece outfit).

This is the pumpkin I made. A couple of years ago we found little glass beads that you could inset in the pumpkin and now all of my pumpkins use them. It makes them glow beautifully. I also scraped some of the skin off to make the name glow.

Jeff's pumpkin, classic and cute.

The kids' pumpkins. Kale's says boo (yes, that's the one he was trying to pick up at the end of the last post), and Haley decided that she wanted polka dots on hers. She has a real fear this year of lots of things associated with Halloween and most of the regular Jack-o-lantern faces fall in that category. We tried to find something that would be on her "good" list and that pretty much always includes things with polka dots on them, oh and we added "squirrels" (or swirls) to it too.

One of my pumpkin lanterns out front of the house. I had four of them all lit up along my walkway. Hope your Halloween was as happy as ours!