The Claw

Miss Sophia has been enamored with the "Claw" toy machine (as we call it) at the grocery store for quite some time now....really ever since we won a pony at our old favorite Dillons when she was a toddler!  She is always asking if she can have money to play the game and try to win a stuffed animal.  We are teaching her that if she wants to spend her money she can...but she is learning that it takes quite a bit of money (50cents) for each turn....and really the game involves nothing but luck!  Well....this week...during a trip to the store...she decided she wanted to try her luck again...she brought her own dollar and with a "few" more donated by yiayia....she asked me to try to win something for her....

And believe it or not....we DID IT!  Here's our special new friend...maybe next time I can get the pink bear that I was actually aiming for!:)

Had to catch a picture of J in his new warm fire truck jammies.  He runs around in them shouting wee-er, wee-er, wee-er (trying to sound like a fire engine of course)!

And because life at our house has been a bit chaotic the last few weeks to say the least... I have neglected to schedule a haircut for this little guy.  Here he is after "stylist" Daddy had some fun with his hair and brows!!

Praying the chaos settles down a bit....so we can turn all of our attention to the holidays right around the corner!  I have a feeling our Elf may be coming back to visit us soon!!!
Happy Weekend!

Crafty Turkeys

We did footprint ghosts for Halloween...so of course...we had to use our handprints for our turkey art!  Both of the kids thought it was pretty cool that we got to paint their hands and each of their fingers a different color!  I remember when Sophia used to hate to get even finger paint on her hands.  Wow...she has come a long way!  

We had a 70 degree day in November today!! So after we finished our project we got to take some pictures of the final product outside!!! Little J was pretty proud of his work....I think he was even starting to get the patterning concept around the border by the time we glued the last few squares!! :)

And isn't my Sophia just a beauty... She just gets prettier and prettier the older she gets.  I didn't capture how blue her eyes really are here...still need that practice in full sunlight!!!

You probably would never guess that these two bickered all weekend long from these pictures, huh??? You probably wouldn't know how J shut the door over Sophia's foot and left a nice little scratch,  or how Sophia tattled on his every move....oh my.....  But truly...they do love each other.   There were lots of "let's have a car race together," and let's dress up in costumes together...(sad I didn't get a picture of Sophia dressed as a princess and Joseph proudly wearing a bow and headband in his hair!) 

They can be at each other's throats at times...but for the most part, it is pretty obvious how much they treasure one another.

I'm not too excited about the week ahead...flu shots tomorrow and then I am expecting to be off of my feet for a few days....I'm pretty confident that the hubby can hold down the fort though.  I've bathed the dog, attempted to clean up any clutter, and somewhat cleaned out the refrigerator.   I had intentions of making a few "make-ahead" dinners to freeze (as any good mother/wife would do)...but instead, I of course got side tracked by a new recipe I HAD to try for these....

Oh well.... at least they will have cookies, right?  Happy Monday!

M is for....

So proud of his work!  I am proud of him too...even though sometimes he points to it and says..."A" is for mouse!  HA!!! I think we might need some more practice!!!!

Our Rootin' Tootin' Halloween 2010

I am a little behind in my blogging...and so many fun pictures to share!!! Halloween week was filled with lots of fun little things...and we were thrilled that Sophia had a few days off so we could have her home with us for a few days!  Back to the grind tomorrow....but for now...some pics from the last week.  As I type this I hear Christmas music already playing on the radio....I love Christmas music...but am feeling some anxiety about all the "need to do's" on the list as the holidays approach.  Wasn't Christmas just a few weeks ago???? Oh my goodness... I just can't believe how quickly time flies and how much these little ones grow in such a short time!!!!

Sophia had her class party last Wednesday.  They made some cute vampire lolli's and played a fun "Guess the Ghost" game.  The kids had fun with the game and devoured their Blue Chip sugar cookies in no time flat!!!

Here are a few of Sophia's table mates...Cooper and Lauren.

Mmmmm......wish I could get my sugar cookies to taste as good as Blue Chip!!

We celebrated Sophia's SIX and ONE HALF birthday on Thursday!  Can you see what a good mommy I am...just a Pop-Tart for breakfast....but at least I wrote 6 1/2 on it!!!

Later that day...we packaged up some home-made cookies and made some BOO bags for many of our neighbors!! OOOOOHHH it's so fun...ringing the doorbells, leaving a surprise, and running!!!

I'm not sure what they were screaming in this picture....I just remember they were pretty excited to start delivering the surprises...and not too thrilled that I made them stop for a picture!!

On Friday.... we had our pumpkin carving day!!!  Sophia drew how she wanted Mr. Pumpkin to look....and both of the kids had fun watching me cut the shapes out!  Sophia loved to play with the seeds this year....a big change from a few years ago.  Joseph....of course, tried to put a seed in his mouth...(like everything these days) and then decided he did not like to touch them.  Sophia spent a good 30 minutes rinsing of the seeds in the strainer during J's nap.  Wow...getting those suckers free of oowey goowey pumpkin stuff is hard....even after rinsing them...there was still lots of orange on them...so we opted to not roast them.  Need to try again next year!

Ta-Da!!

Later that afternoon...we headed to My Gym,  where Joseph takes gymnastics for a costume party and play!  There were quite a few Woody's but only one Jessie!  My Jessie loved hanging from the high bars!  She thought it was fun to see where her little brother gets to go for class when she is in school!

On Saturday...Sophia insisted that we bake her favorite cupcakes....she is not a candy lover....so I have always made cupcakes for an "after trick-or-treating" treat.  She remembered this tradition, and requested that I make the same ones this year too.

Finally the big day!  Brett and I wanted to join the fun this Halloween.  We had seen adult Woody and Jessie costumes at Sophia's Trunk or Treat.....but never had a chance to go looking.  So we headed to the party store on Halloween..probably not the smartest thing to do with the kids.  It was crazy there...and of course no good costumes left.  So... we decided on something easy...and the kids loved the wigs!  Hippies are always in style, right??? :)

Here I am with my favorite trick or treaters....like how Sophia is showing off her school picture??? We had them cut and ready to give to all of our relatives who stopped by for some treats on Halloween night!

Here is J....fueling up for the big night!  Thanks for making my pizza so yummy, Thea!

PEACE!  The wig was pretty perfect for Brett...don't ya think?  He's been wanting more hair for quite some time now...and boy did he get it!

I can just hear my mother saying "GET YOUR HAIR OUT OF YOUR FACE!" when I look at Brett in this picture!!!:)

Whew!  We did it...now time to celebrate with a cupcake!

Hope everyone had a Halloween full of SWEET treats and surprises!!! After a bout with some bad luck at our house....car accident, broken phone, broken dishwasher, crashed hard drive, a hit and run, and the ever present sinus infection....I'm praying for a smooth and....accident free holiday season!!!!

Trunk or Treat

It was a NO SCHOOL day for Miss Sophia!  YAY!!!!!  Always love those days off...but oh my....by the end of the day today..I needed a good dose of tylenol!!! One minute they were playing like best buds and the next they were arguing over someone else's finger touching their spaghettio.  Oh my!! Oh and then there was the tri-colored permanent marker incident on my nice (used to be painted white) desk.  Oh well... I've been wanting to repaint my desk anyway;)

We spent the day making shape monsters, an idea I found on one of my favorite blogs, taking a trip to Walmart for some Halloween candy and decorations, and then decorating our still  "rental" car for Sophia's Trunk or Treat party at her school.  She  was soooo excited about this event...as we had to miss last year's when she was sick.  I am soooo thankful that the rain held off so we didn't have to miss this year too!

Sooo glad these little guys got to wear their costumes tonight.  Halloween always comes and goes so quickly.....so I'm glad they got to have some fun in these costumes for more than one night.  I must admit... I was not thrilled when they wanted to be Toy Story characters ( I love the movie...but it just wasn't my idea of a wildly cute and unique costume).  But once they were dressed.....I changed my mind.  YEE-HAW.....Yodel-eh-he-hoo!!! Aren't they the cutest Jessie and Woody you have ever seen????? (even after they get permanent marker all over my house??????)

Here are just a few from the evening...

It should be a spooky week!!!  Nite...nite...

Halloween Preparations

Halloween is less than two weeks away.  The kids have their costumes and are getting excited for the big day.  We have been trying to fit in some fun Halloween crafts this week while there is still time!  Sophia has had a cold and had to miss her soccer game last weekend because she had a slight fever.  She was pretty upset...this little girl doesn't like to miss a thing!  So....I quickly pulled out some paints and the two little artists got to work.  Here is J working on his letter of the week....He looks pretty serious about this art work stuff, doesn't he??? Don't let it fool you.....He is the fastest painter I know.....I think he was finished painting in less than four minutes!  

Sophia could paint all day!  She is such the artist and oh so creative!  Here is her pumpkin!

Next up.....I finally decided to bake my apple pie....and Sophia ALWAYS likes to help with the final decorations...She cut out the leaves out of the pastry for the top of the pie!  And oops... I forgot to take pictures of the pie before we cut into it.  No worries....I have to admit... it wasn't my best.....I tried something new with the apples...and it wasn't my favorite....Still trying to work up to my mother's pie perfection!  Her crust is amazing...I don't think it can be beat!!!

Another fun Halloween craft that has become a tradition in our house are these cute little lollipop ghosts, made out of white chocolate.  Sophia LOVES them... and this year... she helped trace them with a pastry bag filled with melted white chocolate onto the wax paper.  J attempted to put the chocolate chip eyes on...but really just ended up eating them and mushing them between his fingers.

On Monday, we headed to Omi and Papa's for our annual pumpkin painting!  Sophia really worked hard on her pumpkin.  She used paint, pom poms, and googly eyes to decorate it.  She also made some spiders out of pipe cleaners and a haunted house with Omi and Auntie E.    Joseph attempted to paint and managed to dump his entire paper plate of paint onto the floor the second I walked away from him.  go figure!  He was probably a little more excited to play with the toys at omi's house than he was about painting his pumpkin!  Maybe next year....

Here is how the infamous pumpkin turned out

Here Omi and Sophia are working on the haunted house...

Here is Joseph proud of his little pumpkin I helped him with.

Omi and Sophia having fun with the spider they created!

And finally... today.... we made these cute little ghosts!  Can you tell what we used to make them????

Don't you love how Willie wants to be part of the action too??

Finally getting a BIG smile from the little guy!

Kissing his pumpkin...this little guy LOVES to give kisses.  I don't think he could be any SWEETER!

Whew!  My little goblins have worn me out already this week!!!