Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween, Rhett had a great idea for matching costumes, but in the end, we decided to just let the girls choose what they wanted to be. Again, we went frugal and shopped at Goodwill. You can buy treasures at Goodwill! We found these cute little dresses--Summer wanted the black, so Claire got the red. We had two witch hats, but Summer wanted to be a cat, so we made some ears for her and made up her face with a nose and whiskers. (The bat was painted on her cheek at the ward party.)



And here's our scary witch, Claire, with a big wart on her nose.





Rhett and I saw this idea on the internet and thought it was pretty funny. We just used freezer paper to make the stencils, then painted the bones on. Rhett's a surgery gone bad, and I'm . . . well, pregnant!
And here's a clip of the girls eating their candy from the Halloween ward party. They had people set up in each room so the kids could go from door to door and say trick or treat (as well as other games and activities). The girls thought it was the best thing ever. They were so intrigued with everyone's costumes, with the spooky decorations, and especially with people just giving them candy for saying "Trick or Treat!"

We also went to our local library's Halloween party. They did fun little games and gave out little trinkets for the kids. That's where Summer got the black cat on her face, and Claire got a white ghost on her arm. We also did a little spider on Claire's face for this party.

I rationed the candy out for a few days, and then today, we just decided to let them eat it all at once and hope they got their fix for a while. I'm not sure if they are satisfied or if I just put them on a huge sugar high. We'll see!



Have a Happy Halloween!

Halloween Preparations

I've never been much of a Halloween fan, but this year, I've really gotten into it. I think it's mostly because the girls and I have been busy decorating and learning about the holiday. Our first couple projects were about pumpkins. We made these stained glass window decorations . . .and then made these paper plate pumpkins. Summer did the two on the left; Claire did the one on the right. I let them paint the plates, then I cut the eyes, nose, and mouths out, and they glued them down wherever they wanted. (I helped Claire a little with the gluing, but I did ask her where each piece went.)
We'll also be carving pumpkins this weekend with dad.

The next week, we did ghost projects. Our first project was our ghost mobile made from suckers and paper towels. The girls drew the faces on.


And then we did a ghost patch of rocks with dad. These are my favorite. The girls and dad painted them white, then glued on the eyes and mouths that I had cut out. I love how they all turned out.

This week, we'll hopefully get to make some bats, black cats, or skeletons. I'm not sure yet.

We also learned this Halloween song. The girls are singing along to this clip on YouTube (which they have a hard time taking their eyes off of). I printed the pictures and the girls colored the props for the song. We love this song and sing it all the time.


Up Next: Halloween Costumes and Parties

Some Things They Say . . .

So I know I said I'd do a Halloween post next, but I thought I'd throw this in real quick next to the Summer and Claire post.

Claire's language skills are increasing so rapidly. I love how she and Summer have conversations together. It is so much fun to listen to them. Claire also tells us stories or recalls things that happened. It usually goes something like this: "Bonk. Head. Over there. Fall." or "See. Doggy. Guys. Walk."

A while ago, I was driving in an unfamiliar area and I was mumbling to myself about how to get to where I was supposed to go. Summer asked what was wrong and I responded, "Oh, I'm just not quite sure where we are at." Claire called out, "Oh maaaan."

And yesterday, I picked the girls up from Nursery, and as we were leaving, Claire spun around and said, "Kank you guys!"

She has also picked up a funny little thing where she hears Summer say "No thank you," so she says, "No kank you peas." (No thank you please.) So we'll be passing around the beans or the broccoli at the dinner table, and she pipes up, "No kank you peas."

School has been soooooo wonderful for Summer. I don't know what we would have done if she couldn't have gone. She is learning so much--socially and educationally. And she's getting lots of reinforcements at school for the things we do at home. Now it's not just crazy parents that want her to be polite (etc.), but she sees that her friends and teachers do it too, so it's now okay to say please, thank you, and no thank you. She also can identify quite a few letters. "S" for Summer, "O" for Olivia. "P" for Porter. "X" for Xandra. "B" for Burnadette. "C" for Claire. "R" for Rachel. "G" for Grandma. "M" for Mom. "D" for Dad. And she knows the rest of the letters in her name too. We are proud of her progress.

The other day, I came into our office and she was typing on our computer. I said, "Summer! You're not supposed be typing on the computer!" She turned and looked at me, and then said, "But I'm checking my oatmeal!" (email)

We were getting gas and "Bring Back That Lovin' Feeling" was on the radio. I was singing along, and Summer said, "Mom, I don't know this song." I said, "Yeah, it's kind of a song for old people." (No offense to you "old people" out there.) She said, "Like you? Are you old peoples mom?" I laughed. "I guess," I said.

Summer and Claire

I was getting ready to do a Halloween post when I realized I had a few pictures of the girls that I wanted to share. So stay tuned for the next post--it will be all about our Halloween festivities. As for now, I don't know why some of these were taken, but I thought they were cute.

Summer

Claire

Dad had fun one night with the girls' hair. We tried and tried to get Summer's to stand up without Dad's help, but I could never get the picture taken at the right moment before it fell over. So he's helping it out just a bit.

We love our girls!

Reports on a Birthday, the Fair, and The Belly (plus a Cute Kitty)

We had a fun time celebrating Rhett's birthday last week. I made these Black Bean Chocolate Cupcakes. They were delicious! Wow. Better than a chocolate cake mix. And super easy too. Thanks Heather for the recipe! (We've also made them again since Rhett's birthday! Mmmm!) For our party, we played red light/green light with the girls. I just sat on a chair and when I held the green balloon up, Dad and the girls would run towards me, but when I switched to the red balloon, they were to stop. Claire got a little distracted, but Summer had a great time playing with Dad. It was a lot of fun.

Back in September, we went to the Spokane County Fair. While we were wandering around, we saw a booth where this guy would tear with his fingernails out of black paper any kind of silhouette you wanted. He had a whole portfolio of Superman, birds in trees, Abe Lincoln, etc. So we had him do the girls. Can you tell who is who? We thought it was pretty amazing.

As an afterthought, we also had him do me too:

And as we're nearing the end of this pregnancy, here's a couple pictures documenting my size
Finally, Summer got invited to her first birthday party on Saturday. It was a dress up birthday party, and she wanted to be a kitty in her black witch dress. She was so excited about it. But me? I dropped her off, came home, and just bawled. Maybe it's my pregnancy hormones, but here's another first for us, and I'm sappy when it comes to the girls growing up.

Clips for a Special Guy

Claire loves the "I'm so Glad when Daddy Comes Home" song. She sings it all the time. Here she is singing it.

And here's a special message for Dad on his special day. (Boy do our girls love hats!)

We love you so much dad! Thanks for all your hard work and sacrifice for us. We couldn't ask for anyone better. Happy Birthday!