My two princesses

Olea and Genève
and for historical purposes:

Olea 2005 Halloween (16 months) Genève 2010 Halloween (18 months)

I made the dress for Olea, didn't use a pattern, it worked anyway.

I was glad it could get some use again. It was hard to get off Nev, she didn't want it off... and she fits it much tighter than Olea did.

These two girls are so different in every way and what an interesting life it makes. They are both so precious to me and I learn so much from and because of them both.

Halloween Spider Costume: Make your own

It's not new, and it's not genius, but it's what I did and it worked out perfectly, so I'm sharing.

Spider Costume for 3 year old
Need
*Black pair of sweats
*Black adult microfiber tights (light weight, and they end up being the right length)
I had a pair lying around that had a hold in the toe, no good to me, perfect for this.
*Crochet cotton size 10 in black preferrably
*8 plastic grocery bags

Take tights and cut them in half at the crotch to waist band

With each separate leg: Serge (with cutter) halfway up the leg to close off the top part (part with the crotch part) and cut into two pieces (leaving the lower toe piece open ended.

Then serge the two parts with the crotch part closed so it makes them into tubes

Put the tube on your arm inside out, grab two plastic bags in your tube covered hand and pull the tights down over them.

Tada! stuffed, just enough, not too heavy.

Then about 2-3 inches from the armpit on the sweater sew the open end of the tube to or into the seam line (I just did it on top since I was in a hurry and it looks fine)
Do the same on the other side on the other arm, it's nice to make sure they are even side to side though.

The pair of sweat pants we had had pockets so I sewed the lower set of legs onto the back side of the pocket opening, leaving the pocket open access.

The legs will flop so grab about 20 inches of crochet cotton in black and thread on a needle tie a double knot and starting on the inside seam of the sleeve go out and catch the fake leg leaving about 3 inches of exposed string, sew and knot a few times to the fake leg that hangs below it. Knot it and cut. Do the same on the other sleeve and fake leg. Using a double knotted thread again sew the lower sweater fake leg to the fake legs on the pants, do on both sides. This moves the legs together-ish and keeps them semi-up. Only leave a few inches of thread between the legs.

All told, it took about an hour, and that was with having to re thread the serger because I ran out of thread, cinching up the waistband on the sweats and other such things.

Zurich was afraid of his costume at first. But after watching a Halloween Super Why episode, me putting on my Fantasia hat and me telling him that he had to wear his spider to go to Olea's school he put it on, tested it out and then said, "I lobe it Mom!"

and later "Can I walk like a spider?"

Sure, kid, break a leg, you got plenty.

The process of Learning and letting them learn.

Good thing we weren't going anywhere this day.
Nev dressed herself.

(Totally a deadpan model expression on her face in this one)
And the process of dressing herself:
Dump out all the clothes,

look through them

find a shirt (one of the first ones pulled out of the bin)
put it on

do the same with pants
But I love this child, because she cleans up when she is done.

6 hours on Thursday

Found this post that had been left as a draft... because I couldn't upload pictures at the time. Figured I'd gone to the trouble, now it's posted.

Sept 30th
Midwife first. Sat next to a lady who just had her first and it was also going to be her last. Here I am at least 7 years younger than her with my two youngest, and another in my womb, my oldest in school. 4, her eyes get really wide and you can tell she thinks I am nuts. (It's only 4). They call me back and Zurich goes in to a fit. Nev figures something must be wrong so she copies him. The two of them are fussing and trying to climb my leg to such an extent that I can't even get up and in the trauma Nev disperses her pouch of crackers all over the room. As I finally am able to getup, I tell the lady. "It's not always like this." Baby is in good shape though and I feel hugeoushious already.

Zurich doesn't like the chiropractor. I've been going for me. Zurich has never actually been in the room when I've had adjustment. Something freaked him out though and he screams incessantly when we pull up. I thought on Thursday we were going to be able to handle it, but he fell and scraped himself up nicely in the parking lot right before going in. ALAS, we survived. Thanks to a nurse who had a tray full of dollar store toys.

Then to the post office to mail a batch of packages, one was over seas, so I had to stand in line. The Post office worker was super nice when we finally made it to the counter, and I had both kids sitting on the counter, Nev even had a smelly diaper by then. Zurich was investigating the variety of stamps and she offered to stamp his hand. Look what they got:

A few other mini stops and then to Costco. On our way out Zurich screamed his head off from the back of the store to checkout because he wanted a digger toy truck.
Gas up and Home, James, home.
Home in time to be there for Olea and send her off to a play date with a friend. After seeing her awesome mustache sticker, that she was SO excited to show her dad.

Unload the van.
Zurich makes a tower out of some of the groceries.

Put Nev down for a nap and Zurich in front of a Thomas the Train movie and I get a default nap on the couch. 9:30 am to 3:30 in town makes for a long day.

Day off and some fall fun

So Olea had fall break last week. The first day we spent in town... so to make it up to the kids on Friday we made rice crispy treats, two batches.

The first batch I added food coloring to it after adding the marshmallow to the cereal, making for a nice variation of colors, not just orange. The second batch we added crunchy peanut butter and Reeses pieces.

Then we pressed it into cookie sheets and I let the kids use Halloween cookie cutters to cut them into shapes.


Then from way back in my memory archives I had an idea from first grade to do some creepy Fall Halloween trees.

I watered down (a lot) some black tempra paint and gave the kids straws and let them blow the paint around into "tree" like forms.

Then I let them choose paint, stamps or markers or pre-cut leaves to add fall leaves to their trees. I had to do one too.

Then we hung them up because that's what you do when you create something.

Nev was napping of course, keeping up with Zurich and Olea was hard enough. :)

5k

I look at this picture and I'm surprised, I don't think I look that pregnant yet... because I feel bigger. This last Saturday I ran another 5k, this one was to benefit a local family who's father has brain cancer. I ran with my friend, Kim who invited me to do the couch to 5k program with her. We figured we had to do at least one 5k together after going through the program. It was really nice to have someone to run with this time. It was pretty cold and this course had more hills. I feel dumb we didnt' get a picture together, this is the best I have, she's behind me in the blue shirt.

After ward they had cupcakes. I had one... or two, I'm pregnant, give me a break.

I won a pair of super short NordicTrak shorts... I do not think it would be considerate of me to wear them.

I'm 6 months pregnant now and though I'd like to keep running as long as I am able I don't think it would be prudent to do any more 5ks. I've slowed down a bit and that's fine, my goal was just to keep running the whole time.

Too Young to have an Opinion

The last few days when I try to get Nev dressed she has protested a pair of pants, a dress or a shirt. I almost didn't win this morning trying to get her dressed for church and held my ground because it was the last piece to her outfit and we were in a time crunch.

I admit, I love the different ways a child's personality emerges, but at the same time it can be exhausting and cute.
I have heard myself comment to her as she walks away from me half dressed saying, "no," to me that "you are too young to have an opinion on what you wear."

But really she's not.

So I usually give in to a switch, these liberties are small and unimportant and yet give her a sense of control that is an important skill for kids to start learning. She often tries to put on a pair of pants or a shirt by herself, this is more than her older brother does, so I am apt to encourage her to get this skill down, one less thing for me to have to do. :)

Tonight when Gary was trying to get her ready for bed he remembered me telling him that she has preference and likes to exercise it, so he let her pick her own jammies. He told her to "go show Mommy," and called from the other room that she'd picked her jammies. She was so proud of herself when she came in to show me her outfit, a pink long sleeve shirt and lime green shorts. Looked comfy enough to me so we put her to bed in it.

Click on over to see what I did to "save" a pair of her favorite pants.

After General Confrence

After watching General Conference all weekend (a few weekends ago) Nev found a little book with a dark cover and white pages that I had sewn together for Zurich a while back and carried it around the house using it as her choir book and singing. She doesn't talk much but she is very observant and listens very well. She understands way more than you think and follows directions better than her two older siblings.

in case you didn't know

Zurich shows me an empty pez dispenser all pulled open, "More canny Mom?"
"I don't have any more candy for you, son." (which for the record, was a small lie... I had more and even knew where it was but I wasn't going to give him any right before lunch).
"Mommies HAVE canny!"

He's right, you know. Mommies always do have candy, we're just not always willing to share.

A worm

The other day Gary and I walked the kids to the library. About halfway there they all got really excited about a live earth worm. Nev was the first one to touch it I think. It was slimy. I don't remember that about them... Anyway we let them watch it for a while before moving them along. It was so fun to see their different reactions. Nev would scream with delight when it moved and back away and then come back to it. Zurich would comment on it and make observations not bothering to touch it. Olea listened to us tell things about it and asked where it's head was etc. I had dissected one in 6th or 7th grade and remembered a few things.
Oh, the things kids delight in. Sometimes our knowledge, or what we think we know, we miss the many cool things there are to see and wonder about.