from October 31, 2010

This year I wanted to keep Halloween easy. I thought the best way to do that would be to buy costumes this year instead of make them. That proved to by much harder as the kids could not make up their minds. Quinn wanted to be a three-headed purple monster. Hmm…they don’t have those in the catalog. I looked for a Purple People Eater, thinking hey, a one-headed purple monster would be close, but still no luck. Tyler wanted to be scary…Mommy was not so excited with the blood dripping stuff.

Going to costumes shops didn’t really help…and they are really expensive. It came down to the wire as we headed to a store one evening determined to come home with costumes for both kids. Quinn immediately stated that she wanted nothing in the girl’s section. No problem.

Finally, Tyler decided he didn’t want to be something scary and we ended up with this knight gear. I told him that I could make him a cape. Quinn decided she wanted to be Darth Vader. That is funny because she has not seen the movies – just an old 70s Pop-up book and Daddy’s figures. But hey – I talked her into getting a mask and light saber and I would make her a cape too!!

Done and Done!! And those capes – no sew except for the ribbons to tie them! Woo-hoo! Tyler picked out two kinds of awesome silver fabric, one looking like chain-mail. For Quinn – black was an easy choice.

So another Halloween down! Quinn looked awesome and I loved the way she walked around with the light-saber sticking out. I have a video of that to share with you. Tyler was standing a bit taller with his knight costume on. He was happy to show me various fighting stances.

The way Quinn walked and held her light saber was incredibly hilarious. She is this tiny thing…here is a video of her heading to one house. You will catch a glimpse of our valiant knight.
YouTube link (faster and easier to watch):

Click on the image below to view my copy – only do this if the YouTube one is unavailable because it will load much more slowly.

Just had to post these fun pics. A cool lego creation by Tyler, “this is kind of like a R2-D2 robot. Quinn came downstairs dressed like this – I forget now what she was dressed up as. She is so creative and so funny.

A few weeks ago Tyler and Daddy went to the IMAX to see a short film about the Hubble telescope. This was actually Tyler’s first time in a theater. It was under an hour, so we knew he could handle it. I didn’t realize the film was in 3D – that was probably a bit much for him, be he seemed to enjoy it. Except for the scary parts where the space shuttle took off. That in 3D? Man, I would be scared too!

Quinn was definitely not ready for this, so we decided she would have a date with Mommy. I was really puzzled as to what we could do. Leave it to Daddy to mention the painting pottery place! So that is what we did.

She picked out a horse and decided that she would paint the body green with a purple head and tail. We worked on it together and she did really well!

She loved explaining to everyone how we had to leave it there to get fired and glazed. We picked it up a few weeks later. Sadly Mr. Horse has broken all 4 legs since he was being played with. More on that later….

Quinn has this brilliant talent for being able to turn any object into a toy. It can a curse though as things like this can end up broken. I need to find some glue and we will attempt to get him mended.

After that we headed home for some lunch. Then we did some of her favorite things – watercoloring and playing. I played with her for a while which is something I don’t usually do, so she was having fun asking me to pick animals and whanot.

I do love watching her play. She and Tyler are very different that way. She has a rich imagination and can fall into play so easily. Even sitting in a carseat – it comes so easily for her. Songs, stories – I love to listen in.

I think I am always so in awe of those moments with Tyler and grab the camera because they are infrequent. This year I am trying to help him get into that mode a bit easier. His sister will be a big help there….if he will just let her drive for 5 minutes!!

We had a great time and I really enjoyed some one on one time with my sweet, sweet girl. She now wants to return to the pottery place to paint “all the things she likes there”.

Today turned out surprisingly good! At first my kids were cranky about the errands I needed to run…and then all the “gimme” stuff. But I was in a craft mood, and being in art stores, well, we did pick up some fun artist markers for them.

Then in JoAnn’s while I was waiting in the fabric cut line, I let the kids go look around the kids area. Tyler brings back this bead thing where you decorate a peg board and iron the result. A friend brought one over to the house a year ago, he loved it then and had been asking to do it again. It is more creative than most things there and is great for fine motor skills so I acquiesced.

All afternoon, he made things and so did Quinn. I finally made myself sit down and knit. And there we were, all working on our crafts, singing to the songs on the radio and cherishing this cloudy, rainy Friday. Really, it was heaven.

After while, Quinn moved onto other things. Putting a hat and leash on her cat Skiddish, cause he is always going places. And then she decided to put her fish on a leash as well, but it needed tape she said because the leash was too big.

….and then onto drawing with the new artist markers, crushing peanuts to somehow make robots, onto play, and then a Mommy-imposed sweeping session (those peanuts were getting cleaned up!) before we ate the best meatballs ever for dinner!

Some days the play and creativity just come so easily…and some days it just isn’t there. Today was like a fountain gushing ideas.

Today is Friday, but Daddy is in Oklahoma for an arts show and so it is a bit different today. I was feeling a bit lonely actually. The universe sought to solve that by having me and the kids run into my brother at the store and then at the playground, run into a childhood friend who lives in my hood! We got to chat for a while and catch up. That was nice.

And the weather was amazing and our walk was heavenly. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera. I did snap this shot of the incredible clouds when we returned home. Also below are all the creations made by the kids today.

It was a great day! Looking forward to the big adventure the kids and I have planned for tomorrow!

The puzzle was completed! Hooray! It was a 400 piece family puzzle and really worked out great. Quinn already wants us to go back and get the fairy castle one and I think in a few weeks I just might!

The other picture here is of the kids resting. Near the end of these hot summer days the kids were pooped. And a few times, I would find things like this – the kids deciding themselves they needed to rest. And so hear they are laying on the floor in their room listening to stories on CD. It was pretty cool that they were acting upon those needs without me asking them to do so. They are growing up.

It hit me the other day that this girl has a very strong art thread running through her. She draws on any surface available to her without remorse. “It was there, it was blah, I added some color” is all I can assume goes through her head. One of her favorite canvases is herself. She will use our face pencils, markers, pens – whatever art supply is closest to her when inspiration strikes. That is our budding artist…who might be covered in tattoos one day!

We were really blessed with a beautiful summer – we didn’t hit those oppressive 100 degree temps until August. A few degrees may not seem to make a different, but it really, really does. Here are pics from one Monday in July – full out outdoors while it is still tolerable and lots of play indoors.