Buzz and Jessie

Way back in September I shared the plans for Michael and Sophie's Halloween costumes.  Since the forecast for tomorrow's trick-or-treating is not camera-friendly, I costumed up my buddies on this 50 degree afternoon and snapped some photos.

















These were all taken at our new house.  In most of the photos our property ends where the kids are standing.  More on that when we come up for air.  The whole packing-moving-unpacking ordeal has been kicking our butts!



Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Fruit Cups

To keep them busy and out of the way, I'll be taking the kids to a Halloween party on our moving day next weekend.  Since spending any amount of time cooking in the next week is unlikely (I also have a desperately-needed hair appointment and parent-teacher conferences in the middle of all of this), I opted to bring this make-way-ahead option.

I spent Friday evening following the directions at Crab and Fish and am pleased with the final product. These are a combination of Dole pears, peaches, and mandarin oranges in 100% juice.  I'm not sure if this always is the case, but the expiration date on the peaches in all three packages was notably easier to remove with rubbing alcohol than the dates on the other fruits.  Although this whole project turned out to be much more time-consuming and expensive than pretty much any other dish-to-pass, doodling while catching up on shows in my jammies was probably a better choice for my sanity than baking something in the midst of moving.

I linked up here:

Homecoming

Last night we went to my school's Homecoming parade.  With another busy weekend of packing and Mike's birthday ahead of us, we skipped the game to get the kids (and us) to bed at the usual time. Michael and Sophie had a blast, and I think they finally believe me that I'm a teacher who teaches really big kids.

Speaking of preparing for the move, since this process has been a long one (the sellers are using their 30 days of occupancy), and the kids don't really have a concept of what two more weeks means, we made a countdown chain a couple of nights ago.  It was a great between dinner and jammies activity.

It really speeds up the pajama and tooth-brushing routine to have tearing off a link as a reward!

When I went in to work yesterday, one of the classes had decorated a hallway with chains like this.  Their chains and ours are all for "home coming," I suppose.

Apple Picking

We should probably be packing.  However, yesterday was an orchard day.  It just was, and packing would have been an insult to mother nature.  And doughnuts.  Must not insult the doughnuts.







The kids' clothes just came home from my MoMs club's mom-to-mom sale.  You know you're buying from friends when you don't even feel the need to wash the loot first. :-)  I tried to convince Sophie to wear her new jeans instead, but she wanted to be fancy.

Their shoes are new as well.  They were delivered on Friday, and I thought for sure they looked too big when I opened the boxes.  Nope! My kids are just getting bigger faster than I realized.

Toledo Zoo 2013

Remember these from the fall of 2010?



We hit the Toledo Zoo over Labor Day Weekend that year.  Funny, the kid's didn't remember. :)



We went back last weekend.





Did you notice that the bear is different?  When we walked up to get our pictures last weekend I thought wasn't that bear furry last time?  Apparently, yes, he was.

Did you notice what isn't different?  Mike's shirt!

Buzz and Jessie Costumes

With our move likely taking place just a couple of weeks before Halloween, I thought I'd better get thinking about costumes in this calm before the packing/unpacking storm.  I suggested dog and cat or Woody and Jessie from Toy Story 2 to Michael and Sophie.  Sophie was all about both ideas, but Michael insisted on Buzz Lightyear instead.  Sophie will be Jessie.

After some eBay, Etsy, Pinterest, and Google Images exploration, here's what I came up with.

Buzz Lightyear

Buzz PJ top - I bought jammies similar to these on eBay, but he'll wear just the top for Halloween.
White sweatpants - They'll be warmer and look more like a costume than the PJ pants.
Winter boots - In a few weeks I'll do the yearly winter gear stock-up, aiming for white or grey boots for Michael with the costume in mind.  Buzz's toes are green, but I think this will work fine.
Inflatable wings -  Michael tried the wings on this morning and was thrilled!  Luckily he was cool about taking them off to be stored safely for over a month until our first Halloween event.

The Buzz costume parts are all re-wearable aside from the wings, and the whole thing requires no DIY, assembly only.

Jessie 

Red hat - A cowgirl's gotta have a hat.

White shirt with a yellow bandana - It's not exactly Jessie's look, but it will be cute and more functional later.  The shirt was only $6 from Old Navy and the bandana was $2.

Red boots - I didn't intend to go for boots, especially since they'll hardly be seen under the jeans and chaps, but red cowgirl boots were staring right at me when I went on the Old Navy site to get that white shirt.  They were on sale and look like this:

I'll do my best get $15 worth of use out of them, perhaps swapping out the jeans for a denim skirt and white tights for one of our Halloween events.  Knowing how much my girl loved her brown suede boots last year, I suspect they'll get additional wear.  With all of that in mind, I just couldn't resist the splurge.

Jeans and cow print chaps - This is the only DIY-ish part of the pair of costumes.  Here's what I've done:

I bought 1/2 yard of "dalmatian" fabric from JoAnn Etc. (already 30% off) with a 40% off coupon.  It came to just a few dollars, and there's a lot left over, which is good in case Sophie outgrows those jeans this month.

I just traced around the legs of the jeans Soph will wear, from the crotch to the bottom, adding a little "tab" at the outer ankles for fringe.

I cut the non-fringed sides and bottom with pinking shears (seemed cowgirly to me) and the top and fringe with regular ones.

I traced the edge of a big plate and cut to get the rounded top edges.  The straight lines looked too severe when Sophie had them on.



I may or may not sew some ribbon onto the backs of these to tie them onto Sophie's legs with.  Pinning with safety pins in between the two layers worked fine but really isn't a ton easier than whipping out the sewing machine for a few minutes.  We'll see.

Those are all the ingredients and major steps.  You'll have to check in next month to see the costumes in action!

Those Matching Monkeys

Well over two years ago I pleased myself with a Janie and Jack purchase of coordinating outfits for Michael and Sophie thinking they would wear them the following spring.  My peanuts didn't grow as fast as I thought they would, but we finally got a little use out of the outfits this year. I had to get a few pictures before the kids grew right out of them and/or the weather changed.




Recognize the bench, bridge and gazebo?  That little village has become one of our favorites for family photo shoots.  It's right by the park with the paci tree, so we bring along play clothes to change into, and we can bribe the kids with, "You can play at the park after you sit right next to each other for a few more pictures."

The summer when they were three

As all seems to be progressing well in our purchase of a new house, this is probably the last summer we will spend in this one.  The season somewhat unofficially ended on Friday.  I went into work to get my classroom organized, and the kids went to their child care center and started in the preschool classroom.  They're in the same building with the same kids, some they've known since they were four months old.  But they're in a new room with new teachers and no diapers.  Big kids.

I'm going to miss this summer, the PB&J roll-ups at the picnic table after gymnastics and the remarkable disappearing act that a pint of blueberries can perform in one sitting.  I'm going to miss tricycles in driveway circles and serving up lattes (water) and bagels (pretend) from the deck stairs.  I'll miss the jump-hugs Michael has perfected that nearly knock me over and Sophie's daily need like mine for socks before getting snuggly-wuggly with stories before nap.  I'm going to miss the library mid-morning and driving to have lunch with Grammie while listening to Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.  Silly old bear.

I'm going to miss the summer when Michael and Sophie were three, just like I mourned the ones that came before. I know this ache well now, and I know it tends to soften as summer gives way to fall, and we fill our time together with a new season's worth of memories.

Go Tigers!

Earlier in the week it seemed Michael, Sophie, and I would be spending Thursday, our last full day of summer vacation together, going to the dentist and doing laundry.  The dentist part held true (and went great), but in the afternoon the kids and I joined Mike at the Tigers game.  Laundry can wait.

It happened to be a Kids Day at Comerica Park, so my lucky ducks got to run the bases after the game.

I could just eat that proud little face!

Michael and Sophie also rode the carousel at the stadium for the first time.  It was too cold the one and only other time they've been to the park.  It took actually seeing the carousel for them to believe me that the whole thing was tigers, no horses or anything else.  At one point they thought that meant only one kid could ride at a time. "We have to take turns on the tiger, right Mama?"

Up at 636

With some extended family in town, we journeyed to my uncle's house for an afternoon barbecue.  The house he lives in was my grandparents' home for over fifty years, where my mom and her four siblings grew up, and where my bother, cousins, and I played as a kids.  It was pretty special to see Michael and Sophie enjoying that yard as we did.

Watching the bees with Uncle Joe

Hide and Seek

Peek-a-boo!

Get ready...

...get set...

...fly!!!