Mom's turn: Halloween Extraordinaire!

Christina had a fabulous time on Halloween night; Samson, on the other hand, had a less than stellar occasion. He was my baby heffalump – that’s as close as I will get to ever actually owning one, so he has to deal!! Teeny was a Jamaican this year, courtesy of our cruise and her island shopping spree last year. She loves to dress up and pass out candy to the neighborhood children; unfortunately this year there weren’t that many visitors. So she watched a scary movie marathon in between shouts of “trick-or-treat” to help fill the night. Then her daddy sneaked around the front of the house, banged on the window behind her while screaming, and scared the bejesus out of her!! I’m wondering how many scary movie marathons there will be in the future now!! DADDY!!!!

Mom's turn: Homeschool Craft Fair

Today, Teeny and I had a “home ec” day – or craft bizarre! She has been working diligently on knitting a scarf, because I told her when she finished she could make the matching hat. And voila, the finished product and the hat was started as promised. Of course they are in her new favorite fashion colors of pink, black, and white – what better way to be stylish for the winter season! Now…if we only had a ski trip planned since the weather never quite gets cold enough in good ol’ south Louisiana to wear the fabulous set!

Next, she worked on special Halloween treats for the children she babysits in the neighborhood. She’s so thoughtful it makes my heart burst!

She handpicked “big” candies for each one along with plastic toys to match each of their likes or dislikes (taking special care not to scare one little girl in particular). Then we made the “itsy bitsy spider” tags so she could remember which bag was made for which child as they came by in creepy costumes.

After that, we started working on cards for her friend’s present. Her friend was turning sweet 16 and has a boyfriend who is away at military school. So Teeny thought the perfect gift would be a beautiful glass pen and ink set to go along with some hand made love note cards since she’s always writing to him. She worked on these for two days deliberating over colors and patterns (not too girly) and sentiments (no too smooshy or lovie) and came up with five gorgeous cards;

a simple "hello" with lots of layers:

bonjour

thinking of you, handpainted with a special water coloring pen:

thinking of you

miss you, embossed in shiney gold:

miss "u"

key to my heart, using an old cell phone charm she had been saving for "something", and this seemed perfect:

key to my heart


friendship

all stamped with Hand Stamped on the back in her signature Japanese style, of course. Her friend told her that is was her favorite gift! What a sweet compliment for all of her hard work.

Pumpkin Patch

scar

she is having fun.. i swear

This year I was extremely ambitious picking out a pumpkin pattern to carve :-D
I picked Scar, from the Lion King, to carve. Well instead of having two shades of orange, he had three.
There were parts you cut out completely, then there were parts that were just pumpkin and THEN there were parts that you just shaved off some of the pumpkin skin. I was going to get my dad to do it.. but he is a little bit of a wimp when it comes to pumpkin carving. ;-)
Just kidding. He has helped me with many fabulous pumpkins in the past. He was just out of town. My mom was awesome though and did a very great job, and scar looks amazing. We also made roasted pumpkin seeds, like we do every year. You clean up the seeds put them in a flat pan then sprinkle some Tony's on them and bake them on low heat till they are golden and crisp.
Very delicious.

Mom's turn: Spooktacular Sports

Soccer Dad

Soccer Mom

Christina had a soccer tournament, the 14th annual Halloween Midnight Madness, in Mandeville this weekend. She played three tough and very physical games matched up with older teams, so today she was moving slowly and recovering with an ice bag! We had a great time and the team even made the Time’s Picayune (unfortunately I don’t subscribe, so if anyone has a spare copy, please share). We were there for 12 hours on Saturday – the girls even painted their faces for the late night game.

our goalie, Dani

Teeny was uncooperative, so we ganged up on her and held her down!! HA, no match for a team of determined, giggling girls. Look at those beautiful blue eyes!

Sunday was not as long, just one very early morning game.

Samson was NOT going to be left behind on Sunday!!

I spotted a drifter in the middle of the game – a scissor-tailed flycatcher; he was a long way from home. They are the Oklahoma state bird which was fascinating to me since that is where I originated from and never remember seeing one as I grew up! I’m including some information and other people’s pictures, as mine is not very good. Unfortunately I brought the wrong camera for both night time soccer games and bird watching! Afterwards, Travis surprised us and took us to a fabulous little French bistro, Café Lynn, for brunch where we each tried something different and delicious: rabbit in a red wine sauce – the special, crab meat & 4 cheese cannellini, and jumbo lump crab & Swiss omelet with three different desserts to follow!! THAT’S the way to celebrate!!!

one of her many tournament trophies!

tournament shirt...a MUST have at any tournament

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

From its long tail to its famous "sky dance," no other Oklahoma bird is more striking and identifiable than the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. It was officially adopted by the State Legislature May 5, 1951 as the Oklahoma state bird. The common name is derived from its former Latin name-Muscivoria forficata, meaning "flying"-"scissors" and "to devour." In Oklahoma, scissortails can be found on open prairies, along tree-lined roads, and along roadsides perched on fences, limbs and in isolated trees. They consume a great number of grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, and other ground-dwelling insects making them economically important and popular with farmers and ranchers.
Soon after the birds arrive in the state, the males begin their famous "sky dance," a popular site along roadsides during spring and early summer. After climbing about 100 feet in the air, the male makes a series of V-shaped flights, and then plunges down in an erratic zigzag course often somersaulting while uttering a rolling, cackling call. The performance has been described as "an aerial ballet of incomparable grace." Nesting usually takes place in an isolated tree 7-30 feet above ground. Often two broods of 4-6 each are raised during the summer.
Scissor-tailed flycatchers are easily identified by their long scissor-like tail, which may reach nine inches in length. During flight the bird opens its tail like a pair of scissors and folds or closes the "scissors" when perching. The nape of its neck and its back are pearl gray, and the breast is white. Wings are sooty black with a touch of scarlet at the shoulders. The principal threat to scissortails is poaching. A great number of birds have been killed by poachers who wanted only the bird's tail.
http://www.birdsofoklahoma.net/State%20bird.htm

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1170/536647403_5f960473e3_o.jpg&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/mcaliens/536647403/&h=908&w=1226&sz=109&hl=en&start=43&um=1&usg=__Fm2wFyC8NIUQsrUThF7dRKyIIl8=&tbnid=GkgBYk3PgL3XSM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3DScissor-tailed%2BFlycatcher%26start%3D36%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

spooky fun

Spider web

dreads.

beware...

Me and trevor

Trevor putting up spider web :-)

Halloween is probably my second favorite holiday. I get really into it! This year we definitely have the best house on the block too! My mom helped me go all out and get tons of sweet decorations! We got more spider web, a big spider that moves a chopped off head that is really creepy, a talking vulture, and a spooky spirit thing. We also have some of our cool decorations from last year like, a fog machine and a strobe light. Trevor helped me put most of the decorations up. He is going to come over for hallween and we are going to watch tons of scary movies! It is going to be so much fun!

This year for Halloween I am going to be a Jamaican. I know I resemble one so much! :-D
I have the outfit from a couple years ago when we went to Jamaica on our cruise. It is a shirt, skirt, and hat. I even figured out how to give myself fake dreads.

My mom suprised me and took me to the 13th Gate as well. She curled my hair and everything.

it was not exactly what i thought it would be...but it was kind of cool :-)

Going Purple

I have posted a few blogs about dying my hair. Well all the times they have been pink. I decided to try something new and dye it purple instead of pink! At first, I was not a big fan of it, but it grew on me. Most people like the purple more than the pink. I took a lot of pictures of it and fixed them up on the computer.

Mom's turn: I had a bad day...

So I started off this Tuesday like all of the others for the past three months…at the doctor’s office. He told me that my foot was not responding to the injections, said surgery (again) was the next option, and scheduled an MRI. Wonderful! So feeling rather blue, I called my hubby and cried like any girl might do. He was my knight in shining armor, as always, and after trying to encourage me long distance (he was in Miami for work) he sent me roses with a beautiful sentiment on the card for a smile. That definitely made the day better.

Then to finish the day, my Epiphyllum oxypetalum, or Lady, bloomed a tremendous showing just to make me smile and have sweet dreams! With seven fabulous blooms, Teeny got 3 in her room and I got 4 in mine (after all, I do fertilize ;-D) to fill our dreams with sweet smelling and wonderful visions all night long. There is one lingering bloom waiting to open tomorrow night just for Travis’ return!

not a more perfect nightstand in history!

Mom's turn: Hostess with the Mostest!

I have been going to Ginger’s monthly hostess club for quite some time, now. Besides the wonderful food and great company, she always comes up with the most awesome scrapbook layouts! Here is the one she had for October. I downsized everything for an older 8 ½ x 11 album, and it turned out precious!!

The pumpkins were made with 3 ovals that I cut using my Creative Memories cutting system; the leaves were detailed with that handy new technique I learned in my floral class - who would have thought I would use that again.

and finally was the tearing technique...giving it that rugged, outdoors feel.