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.

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 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.

He created a game. It has a cover and when you opened it up it had the seen where he drew out the game screen.

Then he had all these buttons – the start, the stop and the the shooting buttons that would shoot different things depending on which one you pushed. He demonstrated this for me.

My favorite part though had to be the pockets he put on the back. One pocket held a spear and a sword and then other pocket was for a spare battery. I loved this!!

We don’t own the handheld games nor does he play video games, so it is not something he sees everyday. I just loved the creativity in all of it – and the pockets – I so heart those pockets.

This was in late July and we were entering a phase where he was blowing me away on a daily basis. Creating and teaching himself to read and spell. It is such an amazing thing to get to watch him grow into this amazing boy and I feel so very blessed to have the opportunity to do so.

Oh Tyler.

The way you immediately went off and set about on your mission interested me so.

What really struck me is that later when your dear friend and sister decided to spend a good while sliding down the natural water slide, you chose instead to scuba dive. And for the next 40 minutes you would dive down with your swim mask and swim around near the bottom as long as your breath would allow. Each time you surfaced, you exclaimed, “Mom what rare and beautiful fish are down there!”. Later you would request oxygen tanks.

You had no interest in what they were doing – you were so very much engaged in what you wanted to do. You became more of an individual to me that day. Finding your own passion, finding your own bliss. I so enjoyed watching your exploration of that small pool and loved just how much wonder it held for you.

That was such a good afternoon. And later that night you would blow me away again with a wonderful art creation. You are blooming right before my eyes!

I love you so much my sweet, sweet, boy.

And so we did and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves! So I guess I might be getting more after we use up what we have. Sometimes I fall into that trap of attaching certain activities to ages forgetting that it all depends on the child. Maybe Tyler just wasn’t really ready for it then or as interested?

Then it was Quinn’s form. Since Tyler had picked a fun stitch, I let Quinn take a look, Of course she picked the complex decorative ones and of course she wanted a different one on each side! We got through it and hers came out great too.

It was fun and I am glad I included the kids..and they say they want to help me finish the rest. I think we will stick to one fancy stitch this time though!