Lots of Halloween Goodness

 So, first thing. This is a mini book I made a while back to submit for Simply Handmade October 2010 and it was chosen! Oh I was elated about that. I put a lot of love into that little book. It was so much fun to walk into Hobby Lobby and see that issue on the rack and search out my project.

Second thing. Cute kids at Halloween. As you can see, Ava was a strawberry and Zane was Leonardo the ninja turtle. He was really excited about his costume and had already worn it some. He loved the little knives things. She didn't really care what she was since she's not into much character stuff except for Dora really (she still doesn't watch TV although I sense some princess love beginning). But she does kind of like Strawberry Shortcake so I suggested a strawberry from a catalog and she went for it.

 

 

Zane got mad when they had gotten their costumes on but it wasn't quite time to go yet. We went outside to snap some pics and he whined the whole time. So, we went a little early. I think we caught some of our neighbors before they were quite ready but I thought what the heck I hate to curb his enthusiasm much more. We did the trick-or-treating and got home and Zane wanted to try and scare the kids when they came to the door. But he was already stripped to his undies like usual so he had to yell boo from behind the stairway. Then Ava got in on it. And the trick-or-treaters thought it was funny.

Third thing. Halloween decorating. We didn't get back from Hawaii until the 25th so I never got much out. But then when we got back and I had not put my Dept. 56 Halloween village out, I was feeling bummed. Life is just too short not to enjoy special stuff like that each holiday. Only one small piece was broken and that was done by me. We pulled out all the Halloween stuff and did a marathon decorating session one evening. My son was beyond excited about all this. He was a maniac. I could hardly get one thing done before he was stringing something else out. We did a Halloween tree, put up the village, got out the electrostatic ball thing, the huge cat head, blinking ghost. He insisted we make a ghost from a toilet paper roll and toilet paper. So we did. Zane wanted to carry the cat head on his head into the house from the car and my dearest husband was smart enough to grab the camera and make him do it again. Is that photo not the coolest? Oh love that. Oh yeah, and earlier before vacation we made Halloween cupcakes and he went wild about that too. It's so nice to have a little holiday nut to do stuff with. So then on Halloween day we carved a pumpkin. Zane got cranky and whiney when I wouldn't let him use the tiny saw.

So I guess the only other minimally interesting tid bit about Halloween was that I bought a sack of Kit Kat and ended up eating 90 percent of the bag myself. And then I bought another bag. Ava liked the suckers the best. Zane just liked it all, especially the pop rocks.  Ava tried to sneak his pop rocks since she didn't get any. She would ask me to open them when Zane wasn't looking and i would say, Ava, those are Zane's and she would turn her head to the side and smile and lean in close to me and repeat what I would say in a whisper (a new habit of hers). I only gave in once. Oh I do so love Halloween, don't you?

Her Little Blankie page

I made this page using Jenni Bowlin's October kit. This is about Ava's little yellow blanket. This blankie was a baby shower gift for our first child but he didn't need it. When Ava started sucking her thumb I decided to try and give her the blankie and see if that would comfort her enough to stop using her thumb so much. Yeah, you're right ; ) it didn't. But it did give her a very very special friend. This blankie has been everywhere: in the car seat each time, to mother's day out, to the grocery store, on vacation to Six Flags or anywhere else, riding along in the stroller, to McDonald's, just outside eating an ice cream sandwich, always had to be on the back of the high chair when she sat in one, stuffed into cabinets and hidden in toys, and of course, each nap and bedtime. The little yellow blankie isn't so yellow anymore but more like cream. I had a blankie I used FORever - way too long in fact, like beyond toddlerhood. Zane still has his blankie as well but he leaves it at home now. Just a little sentimental topic I guess.

Day in the Life of Zane

So this was a page about a typical day in my son's life. I guess the most memorable thing about this day, for me, was that he was so very extremely excited when I showed up at the playground to take photos of he and his friends. They were all running and I could hear his little voice carrying all over the playground, "hey look guys, it's my mom, hey guys, my mom's here," over and over. But the kids were just being kids and running carefree and weren't listening to him. So I got inside the fence and he came over to me and I said I wanted to take some pics with is friends. He tried to rally them around, but still, they were running wild. So I said, well, let me just take a few of you first. He got on the big toy and had the saddest look on his face. He was so disappointed. He just looked off in the distance and didn't smile. A few of the kids ran by and I called a few of them by name and asked them if they would like to be in a picture with Zane and they were all so happy to get in and pose for me. And then, you should have seen the look on his face - he was beaming with pride. I don't know why that touched me so, but it did. I didn't include the photo on this page of him with the kids cause i didn't want to put other people's kids online, but I did put it across this page on the facing page in his book.

This was also the day we got P.F. Changs and ate it outside on a blanket since our kitchen was being painted. He loved that too. He said we loved food from China where people eat with sticks. Then he asked if we could "take our lunch break" outside again soon.

And I found out today I'm going to have two pages published in Scrapbook Trends April issue!