Are your legs cold?

Chloe's aren't because she is so rocking the leg warmers. This outfit was so epic that I had Greg take a picture. I love this girl. She is so creative with what she comes up with.

She would've loved the 80's. And we would have totally been friends. And I love that this pose just came out of her.

Oh and one more note: That is a shirt and not a dress. It is just a size 10/12 but she decided she didn't want to wait until then because she could wear it now with leggings. Ha ha.

His/Hers

We've had some family visiting this week and although our sleeping arrangements worked out just fine, there was that little detail of all sharing one, small, bathroom. Everything was ok until 3 people needed to go to the bathroom all at the same time. Poor Chloe was downstairs with a panic face waiting for Grandpa to come out of the bathroom. Later, before bed she was talking to me about her future dreams and aspirations:

"Mommy, someday I want to have 2 bathrooms in our house. One for girls and one for boys. Just like they have at stores: with one toilet and then a wall (stall). Then we'd never have to wait to pee."

Way to dream, Chloe.

9 Months Old!

Guess who is all grown up now? It's Gavin. Our super cutie, super dangerous, getting into everything boy.

Here are some things he can do now:

• Crawl fast
  
• Push himself up to standing
• Climb the stairs
• Unplug things
• Sit by himself in the tub without flopping over everywhere
• Eat hard veggies like cucumbers and red peppers
• "Talk" to us. He grunts to get our attention then laughs and laughs when we look and he does this funny seal noise when he gets really excited. We'll have to get a movie of it.
  

Looks like it is time to rethink our toy and bookshelf storage.

Matchy Matchy

It is funny to me how many people from our college ward still have so much in common with us. I like it. It is fun to peek in on the lives of old friends and acquaintances. One of the things I like to see is when other families do themes whether it be from fun colors in family photos to Halloween costumes. It is something I like to do but I'm not going to lie, it takes a lot of work (sometimes too much). This last Sunday, I had the girls dress in their "Halloween Church Outfits". Does that seem so oxymoron or what? I loved it though and started thinking that maybe I should start a holiday hair clips collection for them.

Obviously we were going for purple and black.

P.S. Isn't that such a cute witch painting? My friend Jeanette loaned it to us for our party. We named her Ruby.



So did you Halloween dress up for church?

Trick or Trout

Trick or treating was fun because Tati was finally really into it. She was so excited and still marveling at the concept that people gave her candy for absolutely no real reason other than she asked for it. And that doesn't work so well for her at home. After each house she would excitedly tell us what she got, "Mom, that lady gave me a KIT KAT!" "I just got a LOLLIPOP!" but it was louder and more crazy voiced. We knew she was starting to tire out when she stopped telling us what she got all together and finally announced that she was tired. Still, these fools made out like bandits. I decided that this year there would be no suckers though. Is it just my kids or do other kids suck those lollipops FOREVER? I feel like I can see cavities forming. So I just let them keep all the chewies and chocolates. It is still more than they can eat. Chloe told us some rumor of a "Candy Fairy" who takes all the extra candy and leaves a toy present. Chloe was incredulous too and upon further questioning, her friend convinced her by saying, "Well, it is real because the candy was gone and there was a stuffie there." We can barely keep up with the tooth fairy around here. Has anybody ever done something like that?

Gavin went up to a couple of houses but then he fell asleep and that was it.

Tati loved all the attention she kept getting as a squid. She is our attention seeker child for sure. BTW, I got that squid costume last year after Halloween for $5. I just couldn't resist it. I bought a 2T because Tati had been so small and I figured it would work well for the future boy I was planning on having. It fit her great this year although it was a bit high waters. She wore thermals and stretch pants underneath it.


After we got home we did a "Spooky Bath". I got the idea from one of my blogging buddies. You put glow sticks in the bath tub. Melanie, I could see you guys doing this too. Then make a bubble bath. Our bubbles died out pretty fast and I went a little light on them because I was just certain that Gavin would eat them all up. (Side note: My children's under parts get very irritated by things labeled "Bubble Bath"--even the Johnson and Johnson ones. Their doctor said they just have very sensitive parts.) Anyway, they loved the spooky bath. I tried to take several pictures but my smart camera is obviously way smarter than me. It kept beeping and telling me that it was too dark for a picture. Then you try and get 3 kids to be still in a bathtub and not move a glow stick. Yeah, it is impossible. I tried with a few different lighting options like the hall light, etc. but this was the best I could do. I actually really like it.



Our kids love bath time. They only ever get out because we force them too. They don't even care if the water is cold.

Costume Parade

I remember how fun it was to dress up for school in my costume when I was little. The kids are only allowed to wear their costumes for part of the day here. I get it but at the same time it makes it a bit crazy for the kids to put all their gear on alone. We've decided to have Chloe just come home for lunch, get dressed and then go back to school in her costume. It makes it so much easier. Anyway, after all the kids get dressed up, they go to the gym for a big costume parade. It happened to fall right at nap time so my crowd was a little touchy but overall they had a great time. Anytime Tati can hang out with the big kids, it makes her day. And Chloe is always so good at making her feel big and included. She sat next to Chloe with her class:

And even walked the stage with her. It was so cute. Tati was actually a little timid, which is so unlike her, but when it was all over, she was SO happy. Chloe was pretty stoked that Madam was dressed up like a pirate too although she divulged that she thought her own costume was much better.

There were claps and cheers throughout based on the age of the students and their various costumes but the person that got the most applause was the janitor, Mr. Manny. Chloe calls him the "guy who cleans up the school". It was so cute to me, and heart warming, how every kid just LOVED him. Chloe said he's really nice and funny and he always gives the kids a high five. The kids lined the catwalk with their hands up to get a slap from him. I'm sure Mr. Manny didn't aspire to be a school janitor but he sure has made a great and positive impact on these kids and I, for one, was really touched.

I didn't dress up just because I ran out of time. And Gavin didn't wear his parrot outfit but he did wear a pumpkin costume. This was his spare that I bought for $2 at Dollarama. It was pretty cute but he hated it too. Let's hope that he'll grow into dressing up.


And here's one of Chloe at her classroom party right after the parade. Guess that wig didn't last long.

You're a Halloweener

3 pirates+1 kraken+1 parrot=
Happy Halloween!

We had a fantastic Halloween. I love Halloween. This year we cut our costumes down to the wire for sure. I knew what I wanted Gavin to be but I still hadn't sewn it because I was working my butt off on the trick or treat bags.

Poor Gavin's still wasn't done (and isn't now either but it will be by next year). Anyway, I had heard that Winners (the Canadian version of Ross Dress 4 Less) was having their Halloween costumes on sale so I rushed over and found this devil costume. BTW, I think it is mean and wrong to dress cute, little babies up as devils. I also bought some costumes to have for dress up stuff. Gavin has a Batman and a Superman costume now for when he grows up.
Update: Here is Gavin's bag. (finished 11/19)

Anyway, we took this costume and converted it into the parrot costume. I'm pretty doggone proud of myself for thinking that I could convert it and for pulling it off. Gavin, on the other hand, HATED IT! He especially hated the hat.

We also had our first party ever at our house. It was tricky because our place is too small to really have too many people over like we wanted to. So I just invited the people that I go walking with to just try it out. It was a total success so now sky is the limit. Well, in all fairness, it was crazy crowded but it was fun. I can't wait to start having more parties. The girls thought they had died and gone to heaven having some of their friends over and party food with no limits. They weren't even cranky at all. Well, that is until everybody left and we started getting them ready for bed then the sweets and the late hour caught up with them HARD!

Anyway, here is a shot of our dry ice freaky punch. The dry ice was fun but kind of over-rated. Next time we're going to spend money on a weird state of matter, we might as well opt for liquid nitrogen.
We made these super fun eyeball cupcakes and I also made some bugar popcorn. (Caramel popcorn that I made green.) I'm not usually a food grossifier but it seems pretty fitting for Halloween.

I also got Greg to do something fun with a pumpkin. He used his drill. BTW, the idea on the internet said to use glow sticks and if you do, you need several of them. A candle works MUCH better.



We also attempted to do a Photo Booth. Yeah, that didn't work out too well but it was a good learning experience for next time. Here are some shots we took of our fam in the photo booth.


We also had a costume parade at Chloe's school. I'll put that on the next post.