It's Halloween!

I Love Halloween at work. Even better-this year Heidi Anne got excited about it as well. She's been telling us all weekend how you are to say "Happy Halloween! Trick or Treat. Thank-you!" In that order or else you get told by a three year old "You're NOT doing Halloween Right."
I think the best part of Halloween has to be our office. We really get into the costumes-many teams do themes together. On top of that there is a best costume award for guys and gals. 
This year I tried to be a paper doll. My plan was to get some poster board, cut out a pattern, and then decopougue it with fabric. Sounded fun, not to mention, fairly simple, unique, and cheap--right?
Well, Round 1: With decoupage failed Horribly! It either didn't stick OR it would curl the poster paper.
Ding, Round 2: With acrylic paints it should have worked...again it rolled and curled to the point beyond use.
Dong,Round 3: Gave up on poster board-got some foam board. It was too stiff. (Yes at this point I felt like Goldilocks and the 3 costume attempts.) I figurded in the battle between flimpsy and stable-stable won. At last with the help of a hot glue gun and some ribbon, I made a sandwich board version of a paper doll. Most kids knew right off the bat what I was trying for. Later in the day I ran into a co-worker, who had the same idea as I did. Only-Her's WORKED. Sooooo......

What I Was Trying For.....

What I Ended Up As

I think Heidi Anne treated the Trick-or-Treat more like an Easter Egg Hunt. She would go from desk to desk and exclaim "Oh!! Another One!! Thank-you!" Then she would spot another desk with a bowl of candy and dart there before Char could catch up with her. Every single time she got a piece of candy or went to a desk with a treat she would say "Oh! Another One!!"

Look! Another One!!

As I said before-We really get into Halloween at work. These are just a few pictures of them. 

Darth

Where Did Daddy Go??

The Penguin

Heidi Anne Interrogating My Boss on Her Outfit of Choice

Death vs. Darth--It's On Like Don King Kong!

A Yeap-Yeap--If You Have to Ask-You Missed Out on Childhood

 This is Kay-Bug all ready for her school's Halloween Party, she is Cinderella (LOVE the dress!)! The one in pink is Heidi Anne as a Ballerina. What I think is super funny is the fact that these pictures are taken nearly 100 miles away, however, these 2 little girls are so alike-they strike a pose in nearly the exact same way.

Cori (a Fairy)  and her baby Johhny (A Gnome)!

Maja Cuddles Johhny

He's Just Soooo Cute!!!

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It's Turkey-I Promise

I learned from Wikipedia that it takes about 24 cats to make a fur coat. This is outlawed in the US and Europe, but is common elsewhere. In addition, there is a region in China that kills about 10,000 cats per day (to eat) and is estimated that Asia as a whole consumes about 4 million cats per year. I told my cats this and they seem to be taking it well.

I Love Our Pumpkin Walk Tradition

We have gone to the Pumpkin Walk every year since before Heidi Anne was born (In fact I was pregnant the first year we went to the Pumpkin Walk). So I guess she can honestly say she's never missed a Pumpkin Walk in her life.
 All the displays below are made from pumpkins, gourds, squash, and people with a lot of time and talent. These are our favorite displays from the walk. The walk normally lasts about 1 hour to see all the art work / carved pumpkins along the trail. Some people wait an hour just to go walk an hour. But it's one of the highlights here in the Valley that pretty much everyone looks forward to.

 

Bambi-Now Remember All Pumpkins-Neat!!

 

Heidi Anne got so excited when she saw this one. It's Angry Birds or sometimes called "Mad Birds-Arrggg". She kept telling us they were going to "Shoot" at any moment. When they didn't move, she started to cheer them on to "GO". She was very disappointed she wasn't able to watch them knock down the buildings.

Rapunzel

I liked this one-because they had to use fake snow this year. It seems like the last few years it's snowed by now. Also it's Calvin and Hobbs. Who doesn't like them? When we fished our little walk we had our traditional Pumpkin Shaped Pizza. The only things that could have made it better according to Heidi-Having K-Bug with her and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

The Pretty Tote

While I didn't get a picture of the tote my sister and I had made, my sister did. Now I get to show and tell you about it!
First, we painted the tote black. Then we did decoupage with pretty, sparkle paper (I choose dots since it's supposed to hold sewing pins). I don't have a picture, but she even came up with the great idea to decoupage the bottom of the tote on the inside, very detailed.
For the finishing touches we wrapped a red ribbon around the edge of the tote (remember how Nana LOVES red) and it just made everything flow so nicely. My sister kicked it up a notch by making the pretty flower. See, I told you it was tempting to keep it.  :-)

Nana's Birthday

Ballerina-Just Finished a Spin

 **Side Note: Nana's favorite color is red, hence the post color.** Anyways, Nana really wanted to see Heidi Anne in her Ballerina outfit. Since we aren't going down to the Valley for Halloween, we let her dress up in it for Nana as part of her birthday gift. Besides, what little girl is going to pass up a chance to wear her Ballerina outfit at every opportunity? Oh, how she LOVES it.  Like the hair? My sister did the bun before we left her house from painting pumpkins. I think it gives it that finishing touch.

Hugs for Alice

Heidi was so excited when her cousin Alice woke up from her nap and was able to play. That made it so she played with ALL of her cousins in 1 day. She was on cloud nine. She would play peek-a-boo with Alice with the tent. Heidi Anne even shared Ana Rose with Alice, now that is love.

Where did she go--(Insert Giggles)

There's Alice!! (Insert Full Force Laughter)

We got to watch Nana open her surprises (learning time for Heidi Anne that not all gifts are for her) it was quite the shocker. I think for being 3 she took it pretty well. I made Nana a box to hold her pins in (she loves to quilt and sew so I  thought a cute little tote with her favorite colors would be handy for her. It was the craft project my sister helped me with (she's the master at those types of crafts-I wish I had her talents). I didn't get a picture of it-but it was so cute I wanted to keep it. Which I think is the sign of a good gift. She also got some things for her running hobby (I don't know much about running), and Hotel Rwanda (the movie-not the place) and a certificate for her Traveled to 100 Counties club. Oh, and the whole family was there (minus Millie but we'll forgive her ;D ) 

Heidi Anne and Alice-Best Gifts Eve

At long last we got to eat the cake. We had to tell Heidi a few times that it was Nana's turn to blow out the candles'-Not Heidi Anne's. She wasn't to happy at first because she had been practing on the way to Nana's house. But once we told her she was still going to get cake and ice cream-all was right in the world again. 
I wish I was three sometimes, when all it takes to right a wrong is some carrot cake and vanilla ice cream.

Being Reminded NOT to Blow out Candles

Ready to Help--Just In Case

Wheeler Farm Farmer's Market

Rye, Kai, and Heidi

Yesterday (well all weekend come to think of it) Heidi Anne had a blast! She got to see ALL of her cousins in 1 day. It started with a drive down to the valley. She loves these drives because she gets to watch a movie or sing along with the radio. This time it was Tangled so she sang along with Rapunzel.
We planned on meeting at Wheeler Farm, thinking it would be quite and we could just let the kids loose and stroll around. Well, apparently there was a huge Farmer's Market going on that day, which is 100% dog friendly, seriously we saw a Great Dane to a mutated mutt (a.k.a chihuahuas).

K-Bug--So Pretty

We just wandered around looking at the products offered and letting the kids explore. Then someone told us about the pumpkin hunt. It was like an egg hunt-but with pumpkins. So we took the kids over. If your plastic pumpkin had a number on it you got an extra prize. So many kids showed up (they counted 100) they had to break it up by years and limit to 1 pumpkin per kid. Sadly, Rykken was just to little (by a few months) to play. But he was a great sport about it. If nothing else-he looked adorable.

Girls, wait!! I want to go too......

They did their pumpkin hunt, at first they were holding hands and wouldn't let go of each other to go get a pumpkin. Heidi Anne did get a little prize. Yeah. After that we went and "feed" the ducks. I say "feed" because we didn't have any bread, so the geese were mad at us. So Char and I started to act like we were tossing pieces of bread to the birds. Needless to say they were very perplexed. (I am positive my sister thought it was horrible yet hilarious at the same time.....)

Buddies-See? Not Letting Go!

After the duckies we explored a little more. They went and played at a tree house, which they loved. To our surprise it easily held 2 little girls and their moms without issue. They don't make them like that anymore! I would sooo love to make a tree house for her! (We might do a PVC pipe or something...but that's another day). As we were exploring we discovered our little crew were becoming tired and hungry. So we headed to my sisters house so they can get some lunch and paint pumpkins.

In the Tree House--BEST FRIENDS

They had a BLAST playing together. Which was great, since I needed my sister to teach me some awesome crafting skills. So the girls were playing so cute together-and Rykken was playing "How fast can I get into that??". Oh I LOVED it!! My favorite quote of the day had to be when I checked on the kids, I asked "Are you playing nice?" Heidi Anne replied "K-Bug and I are being nice, but we are being siblings to Ryerye." I guess siblings a lower then cousins on the totem pole?

RyeRye-getting so big

After Rebekah helped me with my project we painted pumpkins with the kids. Sadly, no pics. We were all painting, thus we all got messy. However, Rykken painted his pumpkin blue, he then promptly painted himself blue as well. Very detailed I must add.  K-Bug painted her WHOLE pumpkin a pretty rainbow, pink, blue, more blue, purple, there wasn't a speck of orange left. I made a spider, all black with eye and some pipe cleaners for legs. Char made the Joker (he even added green yarn when we got home for the hair). My sister started an Angery Bird family-she started with the pigs. Heidi Anne did abstract art with hers-just shapes here and there. Totally fun. Just one of those days were I wish we lived closer so we could do this more often!!

Little Heidi Anne

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Things to consider as your little girl picks which Disney Character to emulate for Halloween.....

Rain Drops to Teddy Bears

 Heidi Anne did the funniest thing yesterday during the big thunderstorm. She got her teddy bear (my old bear Rusty-it’s hers now) and Ana Rose, climbed up on her toy box to look out the window to watch the storm. As she was watching it she was singing: 

“Rain drops go away,
Little Heidi wants to play,
Rain drops, rain drops,
Go Aways!"


Not 100% the right lyrics-but it made it even sweeter. She also sings Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, (Teddy bear turn around). Twinkle Little Star, Row Da Boat. 

We've recently found out her favorite games are the Hookie Pookie and Duck, Duck Goose. She tries to get her dolls and Ana Rose to play with her, and gets very cross with them when they don’t play right. “Momma-they won’t chase me!” 

She loves too read, too! I don't mean just being ready to, which we read at least 30 mins a day-and that’s a bad day. She loves to have the American Girl books read to her-we’ve read a few of the books (she likes Kristin and Molly)-we read about 6 pages a night-so it takes 2 ½ to 3 weeks to read 1 book.  
But she likes to READ to us. She can read some words, but she can "read" all of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Polar Bear Polar Bear, and Cow Loves COOOKIES!!! I’ll record it sometime. 
 They don’t stay little for long do they?

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My Census form came back AGAIN!!!! it says failed to correctly answer a question, the question was "DO YOU HAVE ANY DEPENDENTS".? I replied " 12 million illegal immigrants, 3 million crack heads, 42 million unemployed people, 2 million people over 243 prisions, and 535 more in the US House and Senate". Apparently that was the wrong answer....