.Halloweeeeeeeeeen

Halloween… one of the few days each year that I truly wish would last for more than one single day. I vote for Halloween week! Who's with me? Come on! I am obsessed with dressing up babies in cute costumes and walking around the neighborhood all night with hundreds of other kids all around. It's a blast. People open their homes to you and greet you on the street with smiling faces… it just never happens at any other time of the year around here. On second thought, maybe I just need to move to a more friendly city?

Anyway, we had a really good one this year. Alice was a strawberry (possibly a watermelon with those seeds tho?) and Ames was spider-man (his superhero of choice these days, obviously).

Air had fun photo-shopping my photos, as he does so well.

Ames is super awesome… and hilarous. Just like the real spider-man.

    

Alice was waiting so patiently for her turn. She's the cutest.

 

We got to have the Caddys with Rhys, Tamera and Jake, and Grandma and Grandpa come trick or treating with us this year. It was a party! Seriously though, this is the best night of the year. (sadly I missed Jake in this photo since he was a bit late (picking up our pizza)… but he was the cutest little ewok!)

By the end of the night Ames's paper mask had turned into a disintegrating paper mache spit ball around his nose and mouth from his moist breath. He still refused to take it off for any amount of time while we were out. So funny. (thanks to Air's dad for the great description)

Finally we got home and rolled in all the riches all around us (Pocahontas), while we watched some shows and hung out. We also were so lucky we missed the rain by seconds. Blessings!

*****

Have a look at this year's pumpkins:

Mine was a heart made of geometric shapes… and stuff…

Air's was a Hobbit hole… fully furnished

One more thing! I need to show you our Halloween crafts/decor (Air's the artist):

 

THE END.

.Alice is 1!

On Alice's 1st birthday I made cake and another cake and wrapped presents and more presents, but it still never hit me that my tiny baby is a 1 year old until pretty much the next day, when I looked at her little face and said, “Hi my little one year old… woah”

We had the family over for the party! Aaron made burgers and fries then we played for a bit. Everyone wanted a turn to hold and chat with the little birthday princess.

Cake time!

Alice wouldn't hardly touch the cake until we handed her a spoon. Then she was all about feeding anyone and everyone.

  

She dug in! (I admit I drew the eyebrows for her)

…and then she had a quick bath

Present time!

 

Thank you so much to everyone who gave Alice gifts, she was pleased as punch with everything. She was so pleased, in fact, that she kept exploding with excitement, as she does.

*****

About the cakes:

I wanted Alice's cake to be a bird theme since we always call her our little birdy, with her fluffy hair and perching toes. I'm not good at using fondant or sculpting or anything… so my idea was to have Air scan and photoshop some birds off some fabric that I love, print them onto cardstock, and I cut them out and strung them up to look like they're flying over a forest.

I know it's very random, and the trees and white frosting make it look like winter… but it was all I could come up with, and I think it turned out pretty cute.

The little ‘cake smash’ cake was fun… the rosettes are the simplest, most forgiving way to frost a cake around. All you need is that 1M frosting tip and you are good to go. I used a strawberry shortcake flavoring for the pink frosting too. YUM

*****

About the crown:

I love felt and I have lots of it. I looked at some images of felt crowns online and came up with this one. It was a mixture of a few other ones that I liked. My Momma helped me sew it when she was here back in August. I embroidered the name on the front. The final touch was the lace at the bottom, which I think pulled it all together pretty nicely. I was going to put more flowers on it, but once I got this far I decided it looked nice and simple and feminine.

*****

About the nose picking:

What is the deal with my children and picking their noses lately!!?? hahaha