Happy halloweenie

This year Halloween was rather de ja vu as both girls decided to wear costumes that they have used before. Since we have a huge trunk of dress up clothes I was quite happy with the idea. Of course I expected nothing less from Rosie as she is absolutely opposed to any kind of change so why on earth would she want to wear something different.

Lily put together a witches costume from 3 different costumes and was very happy with her end result. Initially she was going to be an angel but somewhere along the line that idea flew out the window.

They both went to school dressed in costume and at the very last second Rosie got nervous because she was scared her teacher would look to scary. I talked her out of her tree quickly and off she trotted. They have strict guidelines for school so I knew she wouldn't get scared.

Super Girl

Not so wicked witch

spider and warts

This evening Auntie Sally and Uncle Andy took them to Build A Bear so we decided to trick or treat there at the mall and stop at some friends houses on the way home. By the time we got back here it was late so we did a few minutes outside before they were obviously way too tired and ghastly so I whisked them away to bed.

Rosie with Sandy ***

Lily with Big Bear

***The reason Rosie called her bear Sandy has nothing to do with the storm and I tried to talk her out of it but then she told me why she had chosen it I melted, it is a mix of Sally and Andy.

Whatever will they think

Halloweenie is not a reason to decorate your house in England, in fact the only reason one might decorate ones house in England is for Christmas. We do not live in England anymore and therefore we do decorate our house for Halloween (and any other occasion that we can find).

The girls do most of the decorating, it isn't necessarily done the way I would like it done but it is done how they like it done so I am learning to deal with it.

Hopefully My sis' is arriving today and she will walk into house of crazy Halloween decor, I bet she will think we have gone stark raving mad.

this little table is now also covered in gourds

every single mirror downstairs looks like this.

Lily's pumpkin display

Ghosts ascending the stairs.

Our downstairs bathroom has been turned into a house of horrors and there are lots of other little spookies all over the place.

Life is a masquerade

Halloween is just around the corner and the girls have had their costumes picked out for over a month but tonight they decided they needed to be absolutely sure they had made the right choices.

They scurried off into the toy room and buried themselves in the dress up box. Every single one of the 99 million costumes that we have came flying out but for some reason the things that held them captive tonight were the masks.

I was busy cleaning out closets so I wasn't really paying to much attention to them but I walked past when they were playing with this one.

A few minutes later Rosie wanted me to take her photo looking like this.

Once the box was completely empty and the floor was covered in feathers and sequins they both decided they were 100% happy with their original choices. Oh Goody. I thought it would be a great time to see if we could part with a few of them......silly me.

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday I woke up and just felt like I had been hit by a bus.I can't say that anything was wrong, I just felt yucky. I knew I was going to have to suck it up as we were meeting our local FCC group at the Pumpkin Patch. I think I was more excited about it than the girls were. Lori had found a farmers market that had a pumpkin patch, a corn maze, hay rides, caramel apples and a plethora of other fall treats. I have never been to a corn maze but have seen them on T.V. and could not wait to take the girls, I also knew they would love the hay ride. So suck it up I did and off we headed north, for an hour.

First thing yesterday morning the temperatures were in the high 70's and it was beautiful but by lunchtime they were back into the mid to high 80's and it was HOT. I let the GPS guide me to the farmers market and once we turned off of the main highway we were in the  middle of nowhere. All of a sudden I see cars everywhere and flashing blue and red lights. Apparently the world and his brother had decided to go to the farmers market and the cops were directing the cars in an out. The place was mobbed. We parked the car in the street and walked in and as luck would have it we found our group in the crowd of people instantly. The girls were very excited to see their friends. Due to the mob scene we decided we needed to move the troops immediately and start covering some ground.

First up, the hayride. I spent a whole lot of time explaining a hay ride to Rosie. I told her how she would be sitting in a trailer on a big pile of hay and that we would be pulled by a tractor, etc etc. WRONG! No hay to be seen anywhere at all. After a few minutes of riding around a soon to be U pick 'em, field sitting on a seat in a trailer, Rosie lent over to me and whispered, "is it okay if I'm not having any fun?" I couldn't help but laugh. She said it was a little bit of fun but she thought she would be jostling around in a trailer full of hay. Me too little Pickle, me too.

Little pumpkins ready to head out on the hayride

Lily and E_Man. He is such a sweet guy.

While the kiddies waited for the trailer to pull up they were able to play in the bouncy castles and with other stuff.

Rosie pumping water to race her duck

getting a little help from her friend

Lily found the ducks a bit dull but the rock wall awesome

A troubling trio.

Since the hayride was a bit of a bust I couldn't wait for the corn maze. Marc, Lori and I all walked in together. Lori and I kind of stopped and stared. Aren't mazes tall and blind? Not in Fl apparently. It had been virtually trampeled. Oh well, never mind. THe kids took off and made fun of it and Marc cracked really bad jokes that made Lily giggle and we walked around and posed for photos and left. Strike 2. Now for sure we are really laughing only I am starting to feel really ill so it is getting harder and harder for fake it. Lily is catching on to the fact that I feel ill so I am trying really hard to be cheerful. Neexxxxt, the pumpkin patch. Nothing could be wrong with the pumpkin patch right? I mean it's just a pumpkin patch. Well unless they have sold out or nearly sold out. Oh what the heck.

Cheese!

And that was all that was left of the group by the time we got to the pumpkin patch. 

WE headed into the farmers market for a minute and bought a cold drink, then I bought the girls a caramel apple before heading back to the car where I blasted the A/C and hoped I would survive the hour+ drive home. I still feel like yuck today. I think I am fighting off whatever it was that Lily had. I was tempted to gulp down some of her anti nausea meds but I didn't. I have no energy at all and I don't like it one bit. I have to have energy. it's my trademark and it pisses everyone off! If you are down in this neck of the woods and a week before Halloweenie you decide to head to Bedners to go on a hayride and to the corn maze, DON"T. Stick to the tiny church run pumpkin patches, you won't be disappointed.

Trees, not just for Christmas anymore

It has now been established that in our house the decorating of a tree is just not for Christmas anymore. The girls love making these tiny little trees for any possible festive occasion and already have designs in their heads for Autumn/Thanksgiving.

If I had a huge house I would decorate like a maniac for all occasions but that would mean that I would have lots and lots of storage space but I don't. I am tempted to check out our crawl space, hmm maybe that's a project for my sister and I in a couple of weeks.

Lily is becoming quite handy with a can of spray paint

supplies

These little doo dads are meant to be filled with coloured sand but we coloured them with markers

Spooky.

I halted the decorating once we were done with the tree. I think next week is early enough to ghostify the house for Halloweenie. This is it now until Christmas as far as decorations are concerned because as soon as one set comes down another goes up. Before I know if Norman the Elf will be swinging from the fans again and cuasing chaos.

halloweenie

This morning I woke up earlier than usual to make sure that everything was in place for Halloween and that Jacob would have no problems at all dropping the girls to school in their costumes. I woke up at 5.30 and had absolutely everything ready for them, EVERYTHING.
Before I left the house I even did the red glitter in their hair so that Jacob wouldn't have to deal with it. I trotted out the house at 7.10 with nary a glance over my shoulder cos I knew everything was done. I asked Jacob to send me a photo of the girls when they were dressed so that I could see them.

I hadn't been at work many minutes when I received this.....
Do you notice anything a bit off with this picture?



How about the fact that Rosie's costume is on backwards?
I couldn't believe it when I saw it. HOW, HOW? How could he have dressed her backwards? LOL
That fact that Lily didn't notice baffles me. I actually think that might have been her first act as a devil! ( in all fairness to her she was rather self absorbed with her own costume and cuteness) Along with the photo came a text that read "Rosie said her costume hurt her throat and took it off once she got to school". In hindsight all I can say to this is, "well DUH"

Rosie's class had a character parade and the parents were invited. I missed this also because I was at work but thankfully these photos made me feel much better!

Hmm, no hat.

I love seeing all her smiles at school this year.

It's time now for a costume change so that we can go trick or treating.

Another post later and hopefully everyone will have their clothes on correctly.

Jack o Lantern

I detest the smell and texture of pumpkin inners. Something about them really creeps me out. A few years ago I purchased a fake pumpkin from a craft shop and carved that and have been using it ever since.

The girls naturally love to have the real deal and love all the slimy grossness that are the pumpkins guts. Thankfully this year Rich-Rich was at the helm and I didn't have to touch even one snotty little seed. He found our pumpkin carving knife a tad wimpy and returned to the table with a knife that could behead a beast.....but all went well. He wasn't happy to see my little red camera make an appearance again so I chopped his head off in nearly all the pictures just to keep him chipper. Darn.

Such determination

egads
a helping hand

Barf

love that face
blech
Master pumpkin carver with wimpy knife



Thank you Richie-Rich for the help. The girls are already sad that you are leaving soon.

It's Halloweenie time, I'm allowed to be evil.

As we near Halloween I have decided it is all right for me to be a little tricky, verging on evil. I don't think my cousin knows that this blog even exists and he certainly has no idea his face is now plastered all over it. Of course he wouldn't know he is plastered all over it as all my photos have been taken from afar and the zoom pushed to it's limits. BWA ha ha ha ha

Last night we, no no no, make that I, decided we should force him to encounter the American tradition of the pumpkin patch. So we all innocently hopped into the car heading to a supply store for Lily to buy some more bits for school and once we were done I said, Oh I have a wonderful idea.

He wasn't impressed. He was fabulous at helping the girls choose their pumpkins and has offered to carve them with them today (photos to follow I am sure) and he even wandered around for a good 15 minutes until he noticed this little itty bitty baby, of 2 months old, dressed up as a witch, complete with huge witches hat, and he went off his rocker. I found him standing by my car shaking his head in utter disbelief. I told him he should be glad there weren't any dogs in costume. He just rolled his eyes.

I managed to sneak a few photos.

This photo was taken from a really long way away. It's my absolute favourite of Richie-Rich.

he's making sure it doesn't crush her. So sweet!

My little pumpkins

lets get this one
(i only had my phone with me and it doesn't take the best photos, hence the headless scarecrows.
sweet girl
No that wasn't our wagon but they would have loved to buy that many.

Nothing is sacred in this house

It's October so that can only mean one thing, Halloween. We started to decorate the house or at least the girls did. I pulled out the 2 huge tubs and they went to town. I still don't know why I let them do this as it makes me go stir crazy as they squish all the stuff in to their favourite places as opposed to spreading it out all around the house. I'm a little surprised to find that the the soap dispenser and towels made it into the bathroom and aren't placed on the hall table or somewhere else just as odd.

We made ghosts this year out of tissue paper and polystyrene balls and little witches that looked like they have crashed landed, splato style. Fun stuff.

Here are some of the tamer areas of the house. As Halloween gets closer I am sure you will catch all of the orange hell.

Poor Buddha. He is so very, very old and never escapes a season without a little added flair.

Why use one when you can have eight.
just a few of the ghosties that are haunting our house.

Twick Or Tweat.

Twick or Tweat is Rosies way of saying those infamous 3 words that produce candy! Both girls had a lot of fun last night and even though we only went to houses of people that we know they still managed to fill up their buckets to the top. I even had to "reuse" some when we ran out. Some snot face kid or kids decided it would be fun to take the candy and the bowl so when we got home I had to re-do it all. Thankfully I had plenty and it wasn't until after 9pm that we ran out completely.

There were not as many big kids this year as in the past and that worked really well for Rosie as she gets so scared. Lily also enjoyed walking around the neigbourhood with Daddy, while Rosie and I stayed home.

My little trick or treaters.

Ready to go

Lets go Mummy.
Rosie's new friend
handing out the candy