Toy Story Halloween

To infinity and beyond!

Serious Woody

Angry Alien!


Archer is definitely not a fan of the alien head...I'm not sure we'll even be able to convince him to put it on again.

QOTD

"Bryton bonk-headed me!" - Preston

The Latest Projects!

B's new shirt (I have almost conquered sewing knits...just one small pucker around the neckband of this one!)

And Preston's jeans. They're a little big, but he can keep them up at least!

"Scary Pumpkins"

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins tonight! Since John has this random (and serious) pumpkin seed allergy, I got the privilege of scooping out all the seeds. Exciting. I'm not really a fan of carving pumpkins - especially the scooping/cleaning out part - but the boys had so much fun that it was worth it. The boys both declared that they wanted "scary pumpkins to scare away the monsters" so that is what we attempted (and the boys said they were definitely scary - Preston carried his around and tried to scare Jasper with it for a while).

We didn't actually end up with any pictures of the finished products though. Hmmmm. Well, I had pumpkin gunk on my hands so don't blame me!

Preston illustrating the "strings" on his hands...he decided that I should get the stringy part out while he just got the seeds. Lucky me!

B was basically in awe of the amount of innards. Impressive.

And Archer did what he does best (besides climb): eat! He really wanted to be in on the action though. Next year, Archie!

There is such a thing...

...as too good of a climber!

On the Ice

We took the boys over to Riverfront Park in Spokane today. John promised Preston that he could go ice skating for the first time and he LOVED it. John was exhausted from trying to keep him upright, but Preston was ready to stay until the rink closed. He declared that he wants to go ice skating "every single day."

B didn't even want to give it a try:
"Mommy, I don't want to! I'm pretty sure if I would do that, I would fall!"
"Okay, B, you don't have to...maybe next year?"
"Yes, maybe when I'm 4 I can do it."

Fall Boycott

I think our raspberries are boycotting Fall.

Despite the fact that our first frost has come and gone, and it is now nearing the end of October, our raspberries are continuing to produce! No complaints here, especially not from the boys who are picking them clean daily.

Definitely my kind of berries. I still refuse to admit summer is over too.

Sneak Peek

Halloween 2009

The Chipmunks!

Since I got my new sewing machine, I thought I might make the boys' Halloween costumes this year...until B decided he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear and Preston wanted to be Woody (well, they both wanted to be Buzz Lightyear until John told him that Woody gets to carry a gun). Both boys have been pretty into Toy Story since our trip to Disneyland in January. They LOVED the Buzz Lightyear ride and they ask to go back to Disneyland at least once a week...it's starting to wear on me - time for another trip?!

Anyway, here's a sneak peek at their Halloween costumes. Preston's is still being pieced together since the costumes we found for Woody were pretty much hideous, but you get the idea. (And Archer wouldn't keep his on long enough for a picture, of course...hoping he'll be cooperative enough to at least let me get one picture of him at some point!)

The Pumpkin Patch

Hunting for the perfect pumpkin. Requirement for Preston: he had to be able to carry it back to the cart. Requirement for Bryton: it had to be orange. (Note: child in stripes above is not ours, but the other 3 little monkeys are.)

Boys in the cart! Their favorite part. Although obviously Preston is a bit smitten with his pumpkin!

Daddy power!

Sandwich Bread!

I've blogged before about how I use the master recipe from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day for the majority of our breads (pitas, garlic bread, etc.), but I've used it to try to make plain old sandwich bread and it was just okay. We eat vegetarian at home, so it's not like we are huge sandwich eaters anyway. I love a good veggie sandwich, but the boys (John included) mainly stick to grilled cheese or PB&J, with the occasional chickpea salad (think tuna salad without the fishy taste) thrown in.

Anyway, it's difficult to find a homemade bread that will stand up to spreading refrigerated peanut butter on it but apparently it can be done! I tried out this new recipe yesterday and it was a huge hit. It's by the same authors as Healthy Bread in 5, but it is a bit less...HEALTHY. Tastes delicious though! I did sub a bit more whole wheat flour for part of the all purpose flour (ended up doing about half and half I think). I'm curious about what it would taste like with all whole wheat, but I doubt it would've gotten the rave reviews unfortunately.

I froze half the batch, so when I have time I plan to make the breadsticks (or maybe just another loaf of the bread since it was such a hit).

QOTD

Me: "Bryton, do I need to send you to your room?" (he's a little trouble-maker)
Bryton: "No, I don't want to go to my room. Maybe you could just stick me in a box!"

QOTD

Completely out of the blue...
"The Taj Mahal is in Asia!" - Bryton

Sewing for Mr. B

I finished a few more sewing projects last week! Bryton is definitely a little more reluctant (sounds a little bit better than "stubborn" right?) to try on clothes. I made him a t-shirt and jeans, but it turns out the t-shirt was too big and actually fits Preston. Oops. But the jeans fit, despite the fact that I didn't use a pattern and just kind of went for it. Next time I'll make a slightly higher rise because they are a little low on the waist, especially because I made cuffs on the pants so theoretically he would be able to wear them longer. Now he'll definitely outgrow the rise before the length. He's wearing the pants today...I wish I could get a picture but he's unwilling. I'll try to sneak one later after he's forgotten that I was trying to take a picture!

The t-shirt was incredibly difficult for me. I'm guessing it's because of the stretchy knit material. UGH! Complete frustration. It ended up a little bit puckered around the neck band but after a few re-do's, I decided to leave it because...well...I gave up. I'll get it right eventually. Plus, I recycled fabric from an old shirt of John's so I figured that must have had SOMETHING to do with it. It couldn't be my lack of experience, of course. :)

I'm in the process of making him a pair of corduroy pants from the Japanese Pochee magazine. They look like they're going to be really cute, but they probably won't fit perfectly either since I can't get him to try them on (or sit still long enough for me to measure him!).

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QOTD

"Is this cow milk? I can taste some COW in here!" - Preston

QOTD

"Mom, what do you use DUCK tape for? I think you use duck tape to keep the ducks away from our house." - Preston

Project #1: Compromise Pants

My new sewing machine got here yesterday, and since I have a gracious husband, I was able to finish a project! He cleaned up dinner and put all 3 kids to bed so I could work on the "compromise pants."

I ordered this Japanese pattern magazine for kids called Pochee. It has super cute kids patterns and a surprising amount of stuff for BOYS. Rare. It seems like there are about 10 patterns for girls for every 1 boy pattern normally, but Pochee has it right...they give almost equal attention to the boys! Anyway, I told the boys to look through the magazine and pick out something they wanted me to make. Well, they basically chose every pattern in the book (seriously, the stuff is CUTE), but Preston especially wanted overalls. Now, I love overalls on little boys, but I think Preston is a bit beyond the "little boy" stage, plus I was trying to imagine how he could independently use the bathroom in overalls. I don't want to stifle my children's fashion sense...however...ummm...I just didn't see overalls happening.

I managed to convince him that these suspender pants are in fact "overalls" and I think he's in L-O-V-E. They are far from perfect (seriously, what was I thinking using a pattern WITHOUT ENGLISH INSTRUCTIONS for my first apparel project?!), and they still need a little work (the suspenders are too long), but they actually look like pants! It turns out I'm not very good at sewing straight lines - I need practice! As a bonus, they actually FIT him as compared to the multiple pairs of pants he has that are gigantic on the waist but short in the legs.

After I finished the pants, I found out the REAL reason he wanted overalls. He put the pants on, shoved his hands in the pockets and said "Now I have pants like A Pocket for Corduroy."

He picked out his own shirt to go with his overalls - I think he did pretty well. And he looks so EDGY with his collar up. :)

The Boys

3 Boys, 2 Mornings, 1 Car...

...and 6 sets of PJ's.

and 1 pirate sword (check out Archer's hand - dangerous!)

Finally

Okay, it's OCTOBER and we're still (finally) getting tomatoes.

Yesterday I finished picking the tomatoes and decided that I probably had enough to do either tomato sauce or diced tomatoes (I canned a few jars of tomato soup a couple of weeks ago). I opted for the tomato sauce since we use it more, but in hindsight, I probably should have done the diced tomatoes since it's easier to find tomato sauce to buy in glass jars. Oh well, the tomato sauce was MUCH quicker to do, and since I started this while John was still at work, I kinda needed something low-maintenance thanks to 3 little boys and 1 destructive dog. I washed the tomatoes, cut the bigger ones in half, and tossed them in the vita-mix. I seriously love that thing. It makes my life just a little bit easier.

Anyway, out of that gigantic pot of sauce, I ended up getting 11 pints. My pantry is filling up quickly! I'm hoping for another week or 2 of warm (by warm, I mean above freezing) weather to possibly get enough tomatoes for some salsa...yum!

Swimming & Boots

P&B before swimming lessons last night.

They HAD to wear their boots! They are slightly obsessed.

And Archer didn't want to be left out of the fun, so he dug through the closet, found 1 yellow boot, and carried it around like he knew exactly what was going on!

We got lots of looks at the Kroc.

Gray's Anatomy

Not the show (I think that's GrEy's Anatomy?), but the book.

Last night we went to Costco. Before we left, I made sure the downstairs bathroom door was closed and the dog was fed. If we leave the bathroom door open, she generally gets into the garbage and drags it all over the house (she isn't allowed upstairs so I don't have to worry about those bathrooms). Anyway, I generally make sure that the gate to the playroom is shut so she can't get in there and wreak havoc but apparently last night I forgot. Oops.

The boys had been perusing John's "Gray's Anatomy" book and had left it in the playroom. Jasper apparently spotted it and decided to have a little fun. As far as we can tell, that is the only thing that she actually destroyed, although she had plenty of fun otherwise as you can see! Keep in mind, she did all of this in approximately 1 hour...can you imagine what she could do with a longer amount of time?!

Retail Therapy

A few months ago, my sewing machine broke. Not really sure what happened to it, but after determining that it was unfixable, I decided not to replace it. It's not like I used it that much, and it had been on the fritz for a while so I figured I could just live without one.

Apparently not. The weather is nasty, and I'm ready to take on a few projects. So, after a couple of days of intense research and driving John crazy with sewing machine talk, I placed an order for this...a cute little Janome:I'm excited! Except that for some reason, my order is being subjected to "Security Authorization" by the "Verification Team" - whatever that means. Not sure exactly what they are planning to verify, but I hope they do it quickly! Maybe they think I stole my own credit card?!

Oh.My.Goodness

John just found this on our front porch...
need I say more?!

I feel like there are creepy-crawlies all over me!

The Pink Hat

October 1st. I'm not really a fan of October. September (at least this year) can almost pass as summer still, but October is FALL. Despite the fact that we are supposed to get 80+ degree weather for the next few days (yay!), it's still looming over me. I'm a summer girl. My ideal temperature is 80-90 degrees. Sunshine makes me happy. Fall, rain (unless it's accompanied by 80 degrees), ice, frost, and cold DO NOT make me happy.

Some people get all excited by sweater weather, falling leaves, and slippers...me, not so much. When John got offered a job in Hawaii, it was tempting PURELY BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER to me (logic won, obviously, since we are in N. Idaho!). By winter, I'm a little better. I've forgotten how much I love summer weather, and the snow sort of makes up for it as long as it isn't EXCESSIVELY snowy (I'm kind of demanding when it comes to weather, apparently).

Anyway, because today is October 1st and that made me a little sad, I started looking at pictures from past October's, and stumbled upon October 2008 where both Preston and Bryton were completely infatuated with a pink cowboy (cowgirl?) hat. It made me smile and I almost forgot that Fall is soon to be upon us.

Bryton

Preston

I'm pretty sure that these 2 boys can pull off the pink hat better than anyone else!