Don't Judge Me

My mom loves Halloween. It's the one time of the year that she's regularly busting out her sewing machine to make costumes for my kids. And, let's face it, I am probably one of the biggest party poopers when it comes to costumes and creativity, so I let her do it. Nay, I encourage her to do it. It's a lot of fun for all involved and my kids get AMAZING costumes out of it.

This year was no exception. My girls got hooked on the Power Puff Girls cartoons (conveniently found on our OnDemand service), and my mom created these lovely costumes for them:



Miles even won a prize for Most Original Costume in his class (I included a picture of what the Mayor of Townsville is supposed to look like):




My cousin Myca also got into the spirit of things, and my mom made her a Princess Morebucks costume to match (she's a villainess in the series):


All in all, it was a very successful costuming event. My mom nailed it with the eyes and the wigs. But, given the untimeliness of their costumes, not a lot of people understood who they were. We did get to one house where the dad said, "Wait! I know who you are!" And very excitedly was telling them their character names. And then his wife said, "Oh, that means that they watch too much cartoons." Well phooey. How do you know that, lady I've never met? And so what if they do? I saw any number of Michael Jackson's, who was a talented artist, but one who was marred by several accusations of child molestations, so is that any more an appropriate costume for little kids? Or eighth graders who were wearing a JigSaw costume at school? And really, why does it bug me what this nameless woman thinks of my kids? The costumes were cute and my kids do well in school, so if I let them watch cartoons, so be it. And I really just need to let this one go. Venting done.

I hope you and your families had a nice Halloween.

My Best Friend's Wedding

My best friend Jill got married last weekend and it was a wonderful affair. Jeff and I drove up to Sacramento on Friday morning (stopping at Bravo Farms for breakfast, where I had chilaquiles---mmmm). It was such a wonderful fall weekend. The air was crisp and clear and a little sunny (though not hot, like the August weekend for the wedding shower and bachelorette party). It was even cool enough for the OWLS sweater to make it first appearance since it got shelved for the summer.

A few pictures from the wedding: http://picasaweb.google.com/marvelg/200910#.

What you won't see is pictures of the kids. Jeff decided that they're not going to any more weddings that they're not a part of. I think that may be distinctly unfair (if they're invited we should consider it), but I have to admit, the fact that I didn't have to chase them around the reception did make it more fun. It certainly made it more fun for Jeff:

Emily was very sad, though, for two reasons.
1) Upon hearing we were going to a wedding (not the first time this happened), she said, "I wish I was going to be a flower girl. Maddie, do you remember when we were flower girls?"
2) She was VERY bummed that I wasn't going to be at her Brownie meeting to run the meeting. My co-leader said that Emily was not happy that I wasn't there, which really makes me happy, not because I want her to be sad, but that she wants me to be in her activities with her.

Back to the wedding. Jill and Jacob had a very talented photographer, who was just amazing. Please check out her website for a sneak peek of their wedding album. (Their engagement session rocks, too.)

We had such a good time, and I really was saddened to have to go home. It's one of the first times that I really REALLY felt like I'm missing out being so far from my friends.

A Conversation with a Mom of FIVE Kids

She: I had breakfast at Norms with hubby & two kids.
Me: Isn't it amazing how calm a meal with two kids can be?
She: It's sooo easy. The waitress looked at us & said oh how sweet a boy & a girl...Im thinking to myself, yeah right I have 3 more in school. But I stayed quiet. I let her believe I only have 2, like normal people.
Me: Sometimes people ask if Miles and Bella are twins. I want to say yes, because it's not like I'll ever see them again, and it makes me look less crazy. :-p
She: We understand each other... We do look like crazies... Seriously who has 5 kids??? Oh well.
Me: Seriously, I don't have 5 kids. :-p So I don't know what you're talking about.

Though in all honesty, there really isn't much difference between 5 kids and 4. I'm not willing to find out if that's truly the case, but seeing as the diff between 4 & 3 was negligible, I'm willing to bet the same goes with 5 and 4.

It's good to know there are other people as crazy as you out there. And that we're friends. :)

Summer in 60 Seconds or Less

Just a quick recap of the summer:

1. Some sewing. I finished these skirts just in time for our family reunion in June:



2. Emily became a Brownie:




3. Bella had a birthday:



4. Maddie had a birthday:



5. We had a birthday party for both girls:



6. We went camping in Yellowstone:



7. I went to Sacramento for a wedding shower and bachelorette party:



8. We went to Sea World with our Girl Scout troop: (check out the bonus picture with the single bit of knitting I completed this summer)




Boy, I'm tired just looking at those. For more, please check out my Picasa pictures. :)

Exhausted

Will post pictures soon. I really mean it. I had a great weekend, but I can't believe how I'm just not cut out for this type of thing anymore. Here's a pic to whet your appetite, though, just in case you thought I wasn't doing anything this weekend, and just abandoning my husband and children:



Oh wait, that makes it look like I DID leave them for a weekend of reckless abandonment, doesn't it?

The Beginning of the End

That's how I feel about July. Especially this year. Summer just flew by. In June we had Emily's Brownie Bridging ceremony (where the Daisies became Brownies), Jeff and my 10 year anniversary, a family reunion, and Bella's birthday. In July we had Maddie's birthday, a birthday swimming party for Maddie and Bella, our Yellowstone vacation, and my birthday. And now it's August already. I am off to Sacramento tomorrow (yay!!!) for Jill's wedding shower and bachelorette party, then next weekend is our Girl Scout Sea World camp, and then school starts!!! How did that happen? Time is just zipping by. My mom said (years ago) that the reason why years seem longer when you get older is because they are a smaller fraction of your life. For example, when you're a baby, your first year is your whole life (not that you remember that year, but you get what I mean). When you're five, a year is only 1/5 of your life. When you're 33, then a year is only 1/33 of your life. Trust my mom to come up with a math analogy.

Anyway, pictures are forthcoming. Emily dropped and broke my digital camera on our second day in Yellowstone, but my mom and dad bought me a new one for my birthday. Luckily, I was still able to retrieve my few vacation pictures I took (Old Faithful!) and my father-in-law copied his pictures onto a flash drive for me. Hooray! I hope to get those done sometime.... Maybe next week? Ha!!!

Before I go, though, I'll leave you with a conversation with Maddie a couple weeks ago.

Maddie: Daddy, an ant crawled up my leg and bit me today. And I screamed.
Jeff: Does this mean you had ants in your pants?
Maddie: (sighs) NO. I wasn't even WEARING pants.

Maddie always gives her daddy a hard time. According to her, he is ALWAYS wrong. Snicker....

On My Way

For some R&R for the next two days. No work, no kids, and just time for me and Jeff. Life is good. See you in a bit!

Oh, and in case anyone didn't notice, I FINALLY put up new pictures of the kids on Picasa. I have pictures of Maddie's Kindergarten promotion ceremony and strawberry picking with our girl scout troop up.

And speaking of strawberries, I am baking some strawberry scones this morning to use the last of them up. We have had organic strawberries off the vine, strawberry shortcake (our go-to recipe for strawberry shortcake for YEARS), strawberry bread, strawberry ice cream (Smitten Kitchen's buttermilk ice cream recipe, with some chopped up, macerated strawberries tossed in), and now strawberry scones. Delicious! But with organic strawberries you gotta eat them up pretty quickly, and they won't survive while we're in San Diego, so here's to throwing them into a bunch of recipes!