Halloween & Birthday Fun

I know it's actually still Halloween, but our celebrations ended yesterday. We had a party with the playgroup on Thursday morning, Andi got to wear her costume to dance on Friday, and a ward party/trunk-or-treat on Saturday afternoon. Here are the kiddos before the first party. I know, Sammy's not really dressed up, but that's as good as it got with him this year. Andi loved being a fairy, because she got to wear "dust". Jeni, remember those glitter brushes we bought each other for Christmas back in the day. That was Andi's sparkly fairy dust ;)

I didn't even get a picture of Andi & Thad in their costumes together, and I took zero pictures at the ward party. I was busy chasing Sammy away from the cupcake walk, and trying to keep track of Andi who was running around like she owned the place, while Thad was being mobbed for pictures. Everyone wanted a picture with Jack.
Friday was also Sammy's birthday, but we waited till Sunday evening to celebrate. We had both sides of the family over at my parents house for cake & presents. 

The birthday boy and his airplane cake.

Enjoying the cake ;)

The first toy he opened was a top that we bought him, and that was all he was interested in the rest of the night. I let Andi open his other presents and try to entice him with them, but he was glued to the top.

It was a very fun evening, and we feel very grateful to have so many of our family members around us to celebrate with.
This is just a picture of the kids and Thad playing out back. They both attack him when he gets home and demand his attention. So playtime becomes creative, trying to play with them both.

Today was also the primary program at church and Andi did really well. She said her parts with no help, and sang. . . very loudly. . . maybe too loudly, but what are you gonna do? It was a success, but as I am in the primary presidency, I am glad it's over.

Halloween Prep

Yesterday was one of those days that makes me feel accomplished. Not that we did anything grand, but we got a lot done. Two Dr.'s appointments for Sammy(the finger Dr said everything was perfect), two store's, made cookies with Andi after school time, carved pumpkins, and made fairy wings. Like I said, nothing grand. The carving was interesting this year as Andi wanted a princess pumpkin and wanted to do it all by herself; and Sammy was interested for about 3 seconds, and then would run off and come back a few minutes later to check out the progress Thad was making.

No this is not Sammy rolling up his sleeves to get to work. This is Sammy trying to pull his sleeve down because he was not going to stick his arm in that thing.

 

Andi hard at work, she actually did pretty well.

Sammy inspecting the final product.

He only really became interested in the pumpkin when Thad put the candle in it.

Andi with her pumpkin. Can you see the eye lashes? and no that isn't a mustache it's lips!

Close up of the princess pumpkin so you can see the crown I helped Andi glue on.

Thad has been working on his Halloween costume for about two months now. It took a while to get all the parts and paints ordered. His company has a costume contest every year with a prize and all, so of course Thad has to win. So here is this years home made costume.

Pretty sweet right?! He can see through the eyes and mouth, and he actually has a hard hat mounted up inside the head to keep it stable.

Finishing Touches

Okay, now the room is done for reals. I had one picture I wanted to hang in the wall, but knew it would look odd if I didn't have anything else, so I spent the last few days coming up with more wall decor. My very talented friend Callie makes these great signs(and bows),but I wanted something with a little more dimension, so I got those little wooden letters to spell out Sammy on the wall and modge-podged some cute patterned paper on to them.

 Cute, but too bland on the tan wall. Then I got to thinking of the stripes Callie has been using on her boards, and I painted over the paper. Love it!

So then I re-discovered this quote that is in his baby book that I just love, and decided to frame it. So I painted an old frame, found some cute paper and a mat and voila!

So now everything is on the walls and I realized I completely ignored my airplane theme, but I still love it.

And this week it hit me how close the holidays are. I had a mini panic attack when I realized I had NOTHING planned yet. Not even a single gift idea. For some people that is not a huge problem, but Thad and I like to make the gifts we give to our siblings and parents and usually by now we've got it at least half done. Luckily, inspiration hit after some blog browsing, and we have a plan, and supplies, and the kids room are done so now I begin the Christmas projects.

Sammy's Big Boy Room

The room is done, and Sammy has slept in the big bed twice with minimal issues. Thad was convinced that it was going to take us hours to get Sammy to stay in the bed and that it would be a huge ordeal, just because that is the way Sammy is. But Sam surprised us. He didn't come out of the room at all, just stood at the door knocking and calling "Dada!" but once I put him back in bed he cried for a minute and then went to sleep. Nap time today was a little more eventful, it took about 40 minutes to get him to go to sleep, but overall I am surprised and impressed with how well he is adjusting.

Corky came over today and painted the airplanes on the wall, and I love how they turned out. There was  a bit of a  fiasco when Sammy got a paint can open all by himself and dumped it on the carpet in the front room. In case anyone want's to know, goof-off in the yellow aerosol can get's paint out of carpet. It does leave a greasy film, but that can be removed by resolve carpet cleaning foam. Write that down, it might happen to you one day. Anyway, I love the planes.

You might have notice there is no dresser in the pictures, and that's because Sammy has the smallest room in the world, and it wouldn't fit. So now it's in the closet, and the toys that were previously stored in baskets in the closet are now under the bed where he has easy access to them. There are a few finishing touches to do, like hanging a couple of pictures, but other than that I think I'm done with my projects in the kids room for a while.
phew!

Forgotten Pictures

When Thad takes pictures on his camera, they usually sit there for a while before I ever see them on the computer, and then I forget to blog about the events that go along with them. So here are a few I found on his camera this weekend from the last few weeks. We took the kids out to feed the ducks at hart park a few weeks ago. This was Sammy's first time and it was all we could to keep him out of the water. Apparently this is his excited face.And yes, he's eating the bread he was supposed to be feeding to the ducks.

Thad also had a fishing trip last weekend and as he was preparing, he decided to let Andi in on the fun. Here she is fishing in the water feature in the back yard. As you can see from the line tangled in the palm fronds, it went well.

I think we can officially say that Andi can read, and I mean more than just two letter words. She reads all the books that came with her homeschooling kit, and the Dr. Seuss books, and tries to read every sign in every store or along the road. Last night I found her reading stories to Sammy and Pokey in her room.

Sammy's big boy room make-over should be finished this week. Exciting pictures to come!

Still Sprucing

 Check off another project on the list! Thad made the bed I have been wanting for Andi's room a few weeks ago, and then I painted it, and then it sat in the garage for a while. . . but it is in her room now! The sick part is that now that she has this big girl furniture it makes me want to re-paint and make a new, more grown up quilt. But I'll resist, especially since I now have to re-finish her old bed for Sammy's room and find a dresser and finish his room. 

Sammy's finger has had this massive scab on it that we have had to keep bandaged since they took the cast of several weeks ago. Well, Sammy yanks the band-aids off a couple times a day and Saturday the scab came off with the band-aid. I was totally freaked out because I wasn't sure if he had yanked it, or if it was just time for it to fall off, but the finger looks really good, and he is glad to not have to have the band-aids anymore.

Thad went fishing this weekend, we had two brithday parties to attend, general conference was on, I started making a small quilt for a friend out of her old team t-shirts, and today I really really need to just forget the projects and activities and clean!