Community Pumpkin Carving

Each year a group of students at the local College that Dave works at hosts a Community Pumpkin Carving day.  You can come and get a pumpkin and carve it there.  So not only do you get a free pumpkin, you don't have a mess to clean up at your own house after carving pumpkins!  Win-win!

This was actually the first year that we have gone to it.  I wasn't aware of it until last year and I assumed it would be super crowded and crazy, but it wasn't too bad!  There were plenty of pumpkins and while we did have to share tools, we didn't have to wait too long for them.

Its fun now that the older kids are able to carve their own.  They really enjoy planning out their design and cutting it themselves.  

Evy had fun crawling around with the pumpkins.  I couldn't resist taking more pictures of her with them.  I will spare you and only post this one!  She sure is a cute little pumpkin!

We carved a little pumpkin for her and she had fun holding the lid.  

Like most things she picks up, she had to put it in her mouth.  She actually thought it tasted pretty good and kept sucking on it.

Yumm!  A pumpkin Lollipop!

See how the Jack O' Lanterns turned out after the jump!

Halloween 2011

I usually like for our family to dress in a theme for Halloween, but this year the kids all had their own plans. We started talking about costumes and making plans at the beginning of the month, but we were so busy that I still ended up finishing things last minute.  I spent the day yesterday running to the store for last minute items, spray painting Tayden's costume and making treats to take in for Ady's class party as well as tidying up the house since we had a few friends coming by to go Trick or Treating with us and to have Hot Chocolate afterwards.  It was an exhausting day, but we got it all done!

Kyler wanted to be an FBI Agent.  That was easy enough!  All we had to do was head to the thrift store to find a black suit and shiny sunglasses.  We ended up not being able to find a black suit, but I did find a men's suit coat that worked well enough.  He found some shiny sunglasses at Goodwill and we got a Dollar store gun and spray painted it black.  He also wore Dave's Blue Tooth ear piece.  In the end we decided that he looked more like a Secret Service Agent, but it was close enough!

I saw the idea for Tayden's costume on Pinterest here.  As soon as I showed it to Tayden he was so excited to be a Lego Man!

We basically followed the directions found on this blog to make it except we didn't have the perfect boxes they had for the body.  We used a big Office Chair box that we had in the garage and cut it down.  We should have cut it a bit smaller, but, like I said, we ended up doing this one last minute.  Tayden loved it, but it was hard to get around in.  Almost every house had a lot of stairs in front (like our house) so I had to help him up and down all night.  

He attracted a lot of attention though!  Several people stopped by and asked if they could take a picture.  Some houses even said he deserved extra candy for that costume!

If we made the costume again we would make the body a bit shorter, but overall it was a success and Tayden loved it.

Ady wanted to be a mermaid.  I saw this awesome mermaid costume and I thought I would try making one like that.  It ended up not turning out to be as easy or as cute as I hoped.  I didn't buy enough green tulle (it takes a lot more than you would think.  I didn't even have half as much as I needed).  I should have known since I have made tutus before, but it has been a long time ago.  I had some Purple tulle on hand so I added that in to make it more full.  Since it was pretty cold out Ady wore a long sleeve purple shirt underneath and then I made a shell top with some big shells Tayden found in Lake Michigan a few years ago.  I added glitter and drilled holes in them to tie them on like a bikini top. I was really please with how they turned out and  Ady was all excited about them until Kyler called them a bra and then she was pouting and  not wanting to wear them.  I let her take them off after pictures but she was still quiet and seemed unhappy with her costume the rest of the night. I guess she just wasn't feeling it.  You can't tell in the picture, but we also sprayed her hair red.  It looked pretty in person.  

To sort of go along with Ady's mermaid costume, I thought it would be cute and easy to make an octopus costume for Evy.  I used some old tights of Ady's that had a hole in the toes, an old pair of knee socks and a pair of tights for Evy that don't really match anything.  I kept the waist band attached on that pair of tights and after stuffing all the legs sewed them all on.  The six extra legs fit on over her onesie.  I used the waist from the old tights of Ady's to make a hat.  I got the idea for that here. Here is a close up of the hat. 

I am happy with the way the costume turned out.  She stayed in the stroller all night, but you could still tell that she was dressed up with the hat and all the extra legs sticking out.  

On Sunday night Dave was cutting the boys' hair and also his own.  While he was cutting his he thought it might be fun to leave a mohawk on for Halloween.  We spiked it up and sprayed it with some purple hair spray that we had on hand.  He wore it to work all day and got lots of looks and comments. 

For trick or treating he changed out of his work clothes and ended up looking a little like he was dressed like the 90's.

This year I didn't dress up, I just wore some cat ears.  

We had a fun time trick or treating with our friends.  We had two families who don't live in town come with us.  One of the families had never Trick or Treated house to house before!  Their 16 year old daughter had only ever went Trick or Treating at the church!  I wish I had taken a picture of their costumes.  The whole family dressed as ninjas.  Their 5 year old daughter wore a tutu with her ninja costume and had a pink mask. It was cute!  

Tayden's teacher lives not far from us, so we were able to visit his house.  He gave Tayden an extra hand full of suckers. 

Everyone got plenty of candy and all the places we went to had good candy too!  Not much of the cheapo stuff that gets thrown out.  One house was even giving out full size candy bars!

The kids had fun after we got home handing out candy to people.  Kyler decided to give out all the stuff that he doesn't love.  (mostly sour candy - he is more of a chocolate lover)

 

Ady and Tayden sorted theirs all out by type (I always liked doing that too!)

  Kyler prefers the giant pile method.   

Linked up to:

Wow Me Wednesday  at Ginger Snap Crafts
Tuesday Time Out
Show me What Ya Got

Mommy's Little Pumpkin

All Bundled Up

I couldn't resist posting a few pics of Evy all bundled up.  She looks so cute in her fluffy hat and the poncho that I made for Ady years ago when she was a baby.  I am excited for the cooler weather and all the cute fall clothes!  I love babies all bundled up in hats and mittens!

9 months old!

I can hardly believe that Everly is already nine months old!

Evy is now crawling everywhere!  She moves from room to room a lot quicker than you expect.  Time to get a gate at the top of the stairs!  I love putting her in skirts and dresses, but they tend to get in her way, so we tuck them in in the back to help her get around.  

 

 She still prefers to stand rather than crawl.  She pulls up on furniture, toys, my legs, anything she can get a good grip on!  She only uses crawling as a means to get to the next piece of furniture to cruise around.  A few times she has decided to just stand up all by herself without pulling up.  Then she will stand there in a wide stance trying to balance.  She stands on her own for a few seconds at a time.  I am thinking she will probably be walking in the next month.  The older kids all walked fairly early too, so it will not be a surprise.

 

Besides eating flowers ;)  she is eating lots of foods.  She loves most fruits and veggies and all kinds finger foods.  She still doesn't really like a bottle, but will drink from a sippy cup .  She would rather drink from a straw though, so we have a toddler cup with a built in straw that she mostly uses.  She doesn't really love juice, which is fine with me, so she mostly drinks water, or occasionally soy milk.  She is most definitely allergic to dairy, just like the rest of the kids.

Evy is our most talkative baby at this age.  She babbles and squeals all day long and she looks like she really thinks she is having a conversation with me.  I love it.  She really seems to listen to what I am saying to her, so I talk to her all day long.  Its nice because I can pretty much talk to myself all the time and no one thinks I'm crazy ;)  She loves to give me great big smiles and laughs at me a lot.  She will sit there and clap at everything I do.  It is like having my own personal fan club following me around all day.  She claps for herself as well, when she figures something out.  It is so cute!  She is so much fun, but also very intense.  She is definitely my most difficult baby.  She is very moody and hard to distract.  She is determined to get exactly what she wants!  

She is still pretty shy with other adults, but she has finally warmed up to Dave.  That has been a huge relief!  She finally has realized that daddy is a lot of fun and wants him to carry her around and play with her.  She cries when he leaves the room now.  

She loves other babies and little kids.  When she sees them she starts clapping and squealing and tries to get their attention.  At church there are lots of babies and sometimes she tries to yell across the chapel to her friends.  One friend in particular is also very chatty and will start squealing back.  It is fun to see their little friendship blossoming!

I don't know her most recent stats, but we have an appointment on Friday so I will add that in then.

We mostly call her Evy, but she has many nicknames.  I occasionally do call her by her full name, Everly, but often I call her Ev, Ever or Evers.  We also call her baby, cutey baby,  or tooty baby.  My grandmother goes by her nickname, Tudie, and now I can see where that must have come from.  For some reason Tooty baby is a natural term of endearment for me to use on Evy. 

Sometimes I do get confused and start to call her Ady, but I correct it right away and end up saying Avy.  I try hard not to mix up their names, but it just happens sometimes.

She knows her name and looks at me when I call to her.  She definitely know who mommy and daddy are and will look at the right person when you say it.  She mostly knows who the older kids are by name as well. 

 We sure love this little girl!  Every day I look at her and I am in awe.  I feel so lucky to have her in our family and to be her mother.  Even though things can be hard and she is very challenging, I would not want it any other way.  I feel so blessed to have her to love and to be loved by her. ♥

Wednesday Whimsy: I've got my Eye on you!

Evy got a hold of one of the Googly Eyes that we had been decorating with and stuck it on her face.  

I couldn't resist re-positioning it and taking some pictures ;)

Striped Skirt

Over the Summer we were given a sack of hand-me-down clothes for Ady from a cousin.  Ady and I went through them and decided what to keep.  Ady doesn't like tank tops so she decided not to keep the one that was there, but I like the stripes in it so I decided to use the fabric for something else.  It is a nice stretch jersey fabric and was still in good condition so I didn't want to throw it away.  At first I thought I would take it in a bit and make a dress for Evy, but I decided that the way the straps were would be complicated to take in without looking strange.  I forgot to take a before picture, but here is a picture of what is left.  You can get the idea of what it was.

I started by cutting off the top part.  I cut it straight across.  Then I turned it under and sewed a casing for elastic.  I measured the waist of one of Evy's skirts and cut my elastic to that size, then fed it through the casing and sewed it closed.  

I had one long strip of fabric left so I cut it in half to make two flowers.  To make the flowers I sewed a loose stitch all the way across, then pulled it to make a ruffle on one side, then twirled it around into a rosette.  I sewed one onto the skirt and then decided to make another to sew onto a T-shirt.  I decided to make it into a pin rather than sew it on so the T-shirt can still be used under dresses. 

Here is the finished outfit.

I think it turned out so cute!  

It started out as a girl's size 7/8 tank top and is now a 6-12 month size skirt.

Since the tank top was a hand me down, the total cost for the project was basically free!  I had the shirt already, and it can still be used for other outfits.

Here is Evy modeling her new clothes :)

She isn't standing independently yet, so it was hard to get a good shot of her in the outfit.  She loves to stand hanging onto furniture though, so I tried some different poses.

This project was so easy!  I will definitely be on the lookout for other T-shirts and Tank tops to make into skirts for Ady and Evy.

2 little dresses

A few weeks ago Ady and I were thrift store hoping and came across a really cute women's skirt, but not in my size.  It had a nice wide waistband and I thought it might make a cute dress for Ady.  We also found a similar skirt in my size, so we bought them.  Now I am not much of a seamstress.  I can only do basics, but I am learning.  When I got home and took a better look at the skirt I bought to make into a dress, I realized that it wasn't going to be as easy as I had originally thought.  The pleating on it isn't uniform so it will be more complex to take in.  I will work on that one next. The skirt I bought for me was cute, but not extremely flattering, so I decided to use it for the project instead, since it was constructed the way I needed it to be for the dress.  

I forgot to take a picture of it before I started, but this is basically what it looked like, except I have already cut off the excess fabric.  First I had Ady try it on and we held it up to were she would wear it.  The skirt had a side zipper that I wanedt to utilize for the dress, so I kept that side intact.  I pinned it on the opposite side to were it would be in order to fit around Ady's chest.  I was worried that I might not leave enough for the seam allowance, so I ended up being a little too cautious and left a bit too much room.  She will be able to grow into it this way.  With the excess fabric I made straps and then the remainder was used to make a matching dress for Evy.

It needed a little something, so I pulled out some hot pink ribbon and sewed in onto the waistband.

There are definitely flaws, but overall I am so pleased with how it turned out.  There is no way I could have made a dress as complicated as this if I had started from scratch.  I will definitely be on the lookout for similar styled skirts at the thrift store to do this again.

I was hoping that there would be enough of the whole skirt left to make an identical dress for Evy, but it was a bit too narrow.  Fortunately the skirt was full enough that there was still lots of fabric available to use though.  I ended up going with a pillowcase style dress, loosely following this tutorial at Naptime Crafts.

Its a little big right now, so it should fit her for a while.  She wasn't very cooperative with trying it on over and over as I made it, so I had to do a lot of guessing.  Also, I was mostly working on it while she was asleep!

Isn't she cute?!

Here they are together :)

The total cost of the Project:

$4 for the skirt, I had the ribbon on hand, but It was probably about $2 worth.  

I did have to buy pink thread, so that was another $2.

So about $6 for 2 sweet little dresses!  Not bad!

 

I have always had a dream of making cute matching dresses for my two sweet little girls.  ♥