Happy Halloween!

We've been celebrating Halloween around here the past few days and here are a few pictures of what we've been up to.

We spent the Monday before Halloween carving our jack-o-lanterns, like we always do. M didn't want to touch the pumpkin guts at all but C enjoyed every minute. I bought a miniature pumpkin for H and he was happy playing with the seeds for a very long time. It didn't take long for the seeds to end up in his hair though!

Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year and we didn't want to go trick-or-treating on the Sabbath, on Saturday night, we took the kids to a Trunk or Treat activity at the church. There were a ton of people there - I handed out candy to over 200 kids in less than half an hour. Our car was parked across the "street" from Nolene and Clay's car, Jess's cousin and her husband who just moved to Edmonton, so that was fun to be neighbours for a few minutes!

I often put a lot of time and effort into my kids' costumes but this year, I just didn't feel like it. So I bought costumes for H and M. S wanted to be a cheerleader which was great since I had sewed her a cheerleader skirt when she was 6 so I just had to add a simple panel to the waist and it fit her just fine. Topped it off with a dollar-store t-shirt and bought her some pom-poms and she was good. C wanted to be a skeleton and since that's what H was too, I thought it was a great idea for them to match (so cute). But I didn't want a gory skeleton costume for him and I didn't want to spend hours shopping around for one in his size that was similar to H's (besides, storebought costumes always rip so quickly). So I decided I would spend some time making one for him. I used an online tutorial for making a skeleton costume using freezer paper to make a stencil and then white fabric paint. It took a few hours but I'm happy with the result (and so was he!)

The fact that they all ended up colour coordinated was a complete accident!

We went to a Halloween party on Friday at which costumes were mandatory for the adults too so I got to see Jess dress up in a costume for the first time in years. Here's what he came up with: (that's the same tuxedo he wore on our wedding day!)

H is completely obsessed with dinosaurs these days. Also other animals that roar such as bears, lions, and tigers. But mostly dinosaurs. C has a 16 inch tall hard rubber t-rex and H has claimed it as his own and takes it to bed with him. He also has numerous smaller dinosaurs that he likes to take to bed with him and after I tuck him in, I'll often hear him roaring away in his crib as his dinosaurs talk to each other. I'm really wishing I'd made him a dinosaur costume instead, that would have been the cutest thing in the world but maybe he'll still love them next year...

Other things that have happened in October:

C started his first hockey lessons. He spends an hour every Saturday basically practising his skating, trying to kick a soccer ball around on the ice, and playing British Bulldog. Hopefully he'll get to play an actual game soon, he'd really enjoy that. I'm really amazed at how quickly his skating has improved. The first week he went out, it had been a couple of years since he'd been skating and he could barely stay standing, let alone move around. But after a few short weeks, he's out there skating his heart out and he barely even falls down now!

Also, I bought some PhotoShop actions from Paint the Moon, a SAHM blogger and photographer who does amazing things with PhotoShop. And I've been wasting/spending a ton of time playing around with them, they make editing photos so much easier and really fun too. Here are a few of the pictures I've edited.

And this one is the biggest difference between the before and after (and no, I don't remember why he had green lips, probably a marker or something):

I think I went too far on his eyes. There's this one action called "Sparkle Eyes" that whitens the whites of the eyes but I think I turned it up too high, he looks kind of freaky. But besides that, I really like the picture so I'll have to redo it with less whitening in the eyes.

Family Picture

As a very last minute request (Jess's favourite), I asked him if we could do a family picture since our last one was over a year old and H especially has changed a lot. But it was starting to get dark outside so he had to do some tricky lighting stuff to make the lighting look warm and natural (he ended up cutting up a plastic tomato carton, colouring it yellow with a marker, and taping it over his flash and it worked perfectly!)

We asked our 6-year old neighbour who was outside playing to come over and push the button on the camera and play peekaboo with H. C was being a bit of a turkey and refused to smile very much or even look at the camera (he was mad I was making him wear his handsome argyle sweater vest out on our front lawn where all his friends could see him). So, this was our best shot. I was tempted to photoshop his face so he was looking at the camera but we decided perfect wasn't what we were going for anyways.

I haven't decided which colouring I like best yet:

Original:

Faded:

Vintage:

Black and White:

Opinions?

And, here are some funny outtakes:

I love Jess's face in this one (doesn't he look scary?!?)

Pinkalicious and Other Fall Happenings

M's absolute favourite story these days is Pinkalicious, followed closely by the sequel, Purplicious. The girl in the story also loves pink and also has straight brown hair with bangs and M really relates to the character. Well, a few weeks ago, S was asking if she could bake something sweet (she loves to bake, her specialties are chocolate chip cookies and brownies) and M asked if she would bake pink cupcakes, just like in her story, Pinkalicious. S agreed and she even made them from scratch since I didn't have a mix, and they decided that M should dress up as a princess to eat her delicious pink cupcakes. Here are a few pictures from their pink and purple princess pinkalicious cupcake party:

M was so excited to start a new year of playschool. Fixing her hair that morning was a joint effort: she insisted that the turquoise clip on the side was absolutely essential to her outfit...

M carrying her new inside shoes:

Some of the beautiful fall colours in our backyard:

This one isn't from our backyard, this is Family Home Evening at the playground:

As H has gotten older, he's turned into a really great sleeper. If you tuck him in and give him a few stories to read, he's happy to go to sleep.

Where's your nose?

And one morning, when I went into his room to get him up, he was still asleep and this is what he looked like (and yes, he sleeps with a pink blanket - it's one of the hazards of having older sisters):

We decided to buy a 3 month attractions pass at the mall so we've been going there at least twice a week to try and get our money's worth! Here are some pictures from Galaxyland, as well as C at the sea lion show:

We just celebrated Thanksgiving with a delicious dinner at my mom's house and after we were done eating, the kids got into the dressups and Jess got this picture of C impersonating Batman:

Finally, here are a few of the projects I've been working on in September:

I bought this vinyl decal from my cousin Carisa's etsy shop and applied it to a board of wood that I painted a linen colour with black on the edges:

I also pulled out my Grandma White's punch needle embroidery tools and made this sign (although I was really bummed that the glass cracked when I was putting the finished product into the frame - it's an unusual size so it would be hard to find another frame, I'm going to have to get a piece of glass cut for it):

I also sewed this coat for M. I absolutely LOVE this pattern, it's hard to see all the nice details in this picture but it's a fully lined swing style coat. I've already bought fabric to make another one for her but instead of corduroy, I found a good quality thick red wool so it will be warm enough for winter.

And, this is a hat I crocheted - for M, I made it with wool and made it too big and then felted it so it would be nice and snug for the winter. H's is just acrylic and will be good for fall (he really didn't want to model it for me...):