"Mother of the Year"

Okay, sheesh, I know I do a lot of things that qualify me for the **sarcastic quotes ** "Mother of the Year Award", but this one takes the cake -- I took 1 (one), yep, uno, picture of Halloween this year. It happens to be of Todd in his classroom during his Halloween party at school. I have no idea how I managed to not take any pictures of the other two kids. What in the world was I thinking? Sometimes I amaze myself! The kids promised they would put their costumes back on and let me snap a picture tonight. FHE will be on awesome parenting skills. :)

They truly looked adorable, though I have no proof. Todd was a Newsie (who else LOVES that movie???), Kate was Shirley Holmes (Sherlock's lesser known, but highly intelligent little sister), and Jack was the ever popular dragon. We had a wonderful night. I love it when Halloween is on Saturday.

I also love the night Daylight Savings ends. It's the best day of the year, don'tcha think? :)

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a wonderful, fun, safe, and WARM Halloween! We've had temperatures in the high 60s and low 70s all week, but it looks like we might have some rain today. It just wouldn't be Halloween in Idaho without some sort of inclement weather. The kids have a costume parade at school today, so they got to wear their costumes. They were so excited!! I remember Halloween being one of the most looked forward to days of the year as a kid, so it's fun to relive that through them. Enjoy a few pictures of our morning. :)

A Few Halloween Decorations

Julie and my friend Amber inspired me to get my act together and get my house decorated for fall. The kids were very excited to help and it turned out to be a really fun afternoon.

These paper bag pumpkins were made from - duh - paper bags!! A couple of years ago I was in charge of centerpieces for our ward harvest dinner. The budget was $20 for 20 tables, so my friend Karrie and I got creative and made these with spray paint, curled raffia, and a little wire.


This little display is just a bunch of stuff that I've had for years . Most of it is gifts from people that I haven't known what to do with at the time. The vase is filled with curly willow from the neighbors bush and some silk Japanese lantern flowers I used for a shower decoration this summer.









This decoration was inspired by Amber Tribe, who did a mini version of this last year on top of her entertainment center. She just took a small pumpkin and stuck in a creepy branch that had fallen off one of her trees. Sooo cute! I used curly willow (again) and large, oblong pumpkins that fit in my urns. The orange berries and leaves are off a bush in my alley, the bow and green berry wreath are from Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree, respectively. I'm really happy with how this turned out. There's a matching one on the other side of the sidewalk.
This is the view of the front of the house now. I am especially happy that this will last from now until after Thanksgiving. I like decorating with fall decorations rather than just specifically Halloween, because I'm lazy (let's face it, folks!)










Up the stairs, wrapped around the banister is a cute orange berry strand (that you really can't see at all in this picture). Also, some fun orange lights, some creepy bony hands, the obligatory spiderwebs, and my personal favorite -- the little ghosty-girl. It's made out of a white, lighted paper lantern with a ghost face drawn on it, then covered with torn up cheesecloth. I added a bow on top of it's head because it just made me smile. Kate thinks it is her ghostly twin!! :)


Today we're going to make cheesecloth ghosts if I get really ambitious. But first, it's off to parent/teacher conferences.