halloween hullabaloo

Deep sigh..... I am compelled to explain the sorry nature of these Phineas and Isabella costumes. Its long. You don't have to read it. But I have to write it.
Here is a brief synopsis if you choose to skip to the pictures:

1. For halloween costumes, avoid characters who wear everyday-type clothing, so that your children don't look like the kids whose parents just spray painted their hair a different color and called that a costume.

2. No matter how nondescript their costumes turn out and even if your children are the only ones who have any idea what they are dressed as, as long as THEY think their Phineas and Isabella costumes are awesome, you have succeeded.

Halloween was an interesting learning experience for me this year. On very limited resources, I opted to make the kids halloween costumes to save a few pennies--which, in the end, is pretty much all I saved. To my relief, they both wanted to be Phineas and Ferb characters. Phineas and Isabella both wear everyday clothes, which means they should be easy to make or find, and then can be transitioned into their daily wear when Halloween is over. 

Pfft. 

I had some left-over white jersey cotton fabric that I could make into a t-shirt in an evening. Cheap and easy, right? Wrong. I had a pattern from a previous project, but hadn't used the shirt pattern from it yet. It was clearly intended for average-sized children with obese necks, and it turned out to be a boat-neck on him. So, I had to unstitch all of it, cut it smaller and higher in the neck and then adjust the neckband thingy. If time were money, this t-shirt just went from free to swanky. Whitney was anxious to have her Isabella dress made, so I forged ahead with her dress before painting the stripes on the Phineas shirt. I opted against using a pattern this time because it would be a simple jumper, and patterns are highway robbery. It turned out great, but it took the majority of my evening hours the next few days, so I found myself spraying the stripes on Stu's t-shirt the night before the trunk-or-treat. Big mistake.
I was really proud of the final t-shirt product. It looked like a sturdy, well-fitting, unassuming little shirt. The next morning, Stuey excitedly tried it on... and immediately dropped gogurt all the way down the front. The paint was so fresh that attempting to clean the gogurt off turned the whole shirt into a big orangey mess. (It was fabric spray paint. I should have just used acrylic. Lesson learned too late.) So I raced to Walmart to find a short-sleeve white shirt at the end of October. The only one I could find was on sale (yeah!) but was 2 sizes too big. (boo!) I took it home, washed it, dried it, taped the heck out of it, and sprayed it just sparingly enough to get each splotchy stripe barely painted on before the can coughed and sputtered to a stop. Ugh. You can witness the resulting disaster-of-a-costume pictured above. (And if you're wondering, yes, Spencer was Ferb, and yes, we did in fact spray paint his hair green and call that a costume.)
In the end, Stuart looked like a 3-year-old in an oversized t-shirt, Whitney looked like she was dressed for church, and Spencer looked like "that" kid. But they drank deeply from the well of Halloween joy this year. And what else matters?
My pride.
Nothing.


Here are a few more cute pics:

All 3 were so riveted by the video, they didn't even notice that I was taking pictures.

She's really been into ninjas lately. I love that she gave herself red ponytails and a bow.

rain, rain, come again. seriously.

Whitney and Stuart celebrated the first significant rainfall we've seen in 8 or 9 months by turning hundreds of splashy circles in the driveway last night.

I believe this has been the hottest, driest summer on record in Texas since they started recording in like the 1850s or something. Its very possible that they're using our front lawn as the gauge.

However, Austin has these big beautiful green things to stand under for shade. Tris? Tres? Trees? Yes, that's it. Trees. Seriously, Lubbock, you gotta try some of these. They're awesome.

Angel face.

He chews tough gum.

I love this picture. He looks like he just got caught in the formula jar.

And this is a picture of my husband looking particularly dreamy and intellectual.

back by popular demand

So, at long last, we have a home again! (And with it, a home computer again. Sorry about the long absence.) In the mean time, we've been staying with Michael and Jenner and family, taking the extended vacation of a life time. Six weeks. Man we love and owe you guys BIG TIME. 

Some of the fun included many a visit to the neighborhood splash pad:

Whitney honing her water charming skills.

This is Stuart's adoptive brother and BFF automobile while we stayed with the Michael Porters. He named him "Honkey." Never left home without him.

"Taking turns" with Honkey took tremendous emotional effort.

The girls sunbathing.

Cole, Stuart and Honkey experimenting with water trajectory.

This is Whitney and Macy acting natural. Macy won that game.

Here's Spencer, lovin' him some splash pad.

We also took a handful of trips down town to the Austin Children's Museum and visiting daddy's new therapy office, splashing at the neighborhood pool, jumping endlessly with cousins on the trampoline and going to a magic show at the elementary school. 

I must say, I think we caught a glimpse of the advantages of communal living. I think we had a pretty good thing going. Jenner and I alternated cooking week to week. We were both able to leave the kids home napping or playing while Rob and I house hunted or Jenner had car pool duty or RS meetings. And once the kids were all in bed, we got to watch movies and eat treats and play cards every stinking night. I may or may not speak for everyone when I say we were sad to see it end. 

ta-da!

Guess what we did yesterday!

"for he's a jolly good fellow!"

"hail the conquering hero!"

"I am the greatest man that ever lived!"

And etc.

I just can't get enough.

What do you call narcissism of your own children? Cause I've got that. 

I'm not sure if I caught him from enough angles to really appreciate what a tasty little face this is.

Are you seeing it?

He just discovered a new-found sense of independence sitting in his Bumbo. He is one happy boy in that thing. For now.

Stuart the Birthday Dude

Stuart has been talking about and planning his Thomas the Train birthday party at Wagner Park for about 372 days, since his friend Paul's Thomas birthday party at Wagner last summer. This was a veritable life-long dream come true for him.

Lubbock... Harrumph. I can't think of too many places where on a beautiful sunny June morning you could conceivably cancel an event because of the wind. We had to scrap the Thomas table cloth because it was flapping so violently that we couldn't even tape it down with two people, multiple table weights, and packing tape. Whatever. It came in handy when it came time to light the candles. We couldn't even light the lighter, let alone the candles and Stuart started to cry. (And can you blame him? He's been envisioning this moment for 372.) So Tara and I wrapped the table cloth in a half-pipe around Rob, Stuart, and the cake just long enough to get 5 of the 6 candles lit.  I think Stuart picked up on the fact that this was a birthday miracle and didn't make a fuss over the one that wouldn't light. 

Phew. Disaster averted.

I know. The hills are sagging and the lettering is askew. It was my first attempt at decorating a cake, so ease off. And you may be wondering why Thomas and Percy are floating in the sky. If you'll note in the picture above, they're each holding three balloons for Stuart's third birthday which, obviously, carried them up into the air. Duh. And also because Stuart insisted that they both be featured on top. The boy knows what he wants.

Spencie's baby blessing

love! love! love!