Trick or treat report

So, we did "real" trick or treating this year, not just the "go to the relatives and show off the cute kiddos" trick or treating. The kids LOVED it, and were soooo good. They said thank you every time, and their costumes were a huge hit. We actually had people stop us to take pictures of them! I hope they're not on some sicko kids costume site now, but the photographers seemed normal enough. All the other kids age 6 and under ran up to see Dora and Diego. So, it was worth the $60 plus shipping for those danged costumes I guess.

Since I totally stink and forgot my good camera, I had to resort to a point and shoot I happened to have in my purse. I'll get those developed and scanned someday, but for now, you'll have to live with the paragraph version of the highlights of the night:

-One little girl was dressed as Jojo the Clown and she was adorable, and also wore glasses, so Emma was enthralled and had to touch Jojo. Thankfully Jojo was nice and liked Dora, so they stood touching each other for a bit.
-We only saw one other Dora and one other Diego (but they weren't together) and the kids loved that. Tinkerbell and princesses seemed to be a big theme this year, along with your standard pirates, superheros and monsters. But there was a super cute Harry Potter who I think did a spell on my mom and I!
-The kids helped give out candy after they got bored, and they loved it. They would chase down kids to give candy to, much like Miss Sophie B!
-Ethan accosted some kid in a Spiderman costume who was not appreciative of Ethan's sudden love for Spiderman. I've never seen Ethan give two hoots about Spiderman before, but suddenly he was enthralled by this poor kid.
-The funniest part of the night had to be when Ethan was handing candy out to kids, and some bigger boy took the candy Ethan offered him, and Ethan turns around to his two grandmothers and I and says, loud as can be, "He not say thank you!!!" My own Mr. Manners. And Mr. Manners was sure to say "You're Yelcome" to all thank yous received. A child raising victory!

Happy not really Halloween but trick or treating anyway day!

I seem to remember that when I was a child, Halloween was actually ON Halloween. Now it seems they move it if it's on a weekend night, if it's on a church night, if the day ends in y, or whatever. So we're trick or treating tonight. SOMEONE, who I believe was my MIL, thought it would be "cute" to teach the kids to say "Trick or treat, give me some candy," which Ethan turned into "Trick or Treat, give Ethan Emma candy!" and Emma kept the original, though hers was shouted at about 30 decibels. So last night we practiced the proper trick or treat techniques, with the threat of having to give back the candy if it's done improperly. I think that I have them under control, and now the speil goes ding dong (that's the doorbell), "Trick or treat", with a prompt thank you after candy is given. Fingers crossed.

Since we're going to my MIL's subdivision tonight, and the kids will be all cracked out on sugar, I'm posting pics from a less saccarin induced coma night, when the kids went to their friend Will's birthday/Halloween bash at Billie Bob's. Bad Mommy forgot to take pics actually AT the bash, so you'll have to take my word for it that the kiddos were cute, including the birthday boy dressed as Thomas the Train, which enthralled Ethan. (Side note- WHY are those things so darned expensive??)

So for your viewing pleasure, Dora and Diego.

Happy Halloween, y'all!

Being poor makes you crafty...

As most of you know, I took a new job a few months ago, and in the process took a pay cut. Not a hugely significant enough one, but enough that I had to cut out most unnecessary spending. It's a balance, I have retained a bit of sanity for a while, but I'm broke. However, my daughter is a complete diva, and longs to be a ballet dancer. Since I can't justify lessons for a two year old, I started searching the 'net for ballet themed stuff. Enter, THE TUTU. Now, I know that Princess Emma Ballerina would die for one. But people making these jewels charge $20 or MORE. So I started thinking, tulle cheap at the Wal-mart. Elastic is super cheap. Mommy has some sanity left in the evenings to actually be creative. And VOILA, Princess Emma Tutus was born. (Ok, so that's the dream name of my tutu company if I could actually sell these things). This is my first attempt, pink and green sparkle tulle. She hasn't modeled it yet since I can't give her something without giving Ethan something, so it will probably be a Christmas present. But I'm pretty proud of it. The next one will be pink, green, yellow, electric blue and purple, and I'm think of making it long and probably poofier. This one is about 12 inches long and uses almost 2 yards of tulle.

Are you totally impressed yet? Yeah, I didn't think so. But I'm proud of it. Maybe next year I'll set up a booth at the Pumpkin Festival....Princess Emma Tutus goes regional!

Mommy guilt and the power of Ebay

I never realized before I had children just how strong mommy guilt is. Had I known as a child, I could have totally used this guilt to my advantage, unless my mother is immune, which I believe she may be. Except the time she broke my finger, but I digress.

Mommy guilt is causing me to actually bid on a freaking McDonald’s toy on Ebay.

First off, you will see what a bad mother I am because my kids eat McDonald’s Happy Meals once a week. It’s their "thing" with Nanny on Fridays. Well, out of those danged Happy Meals come 34859384 useless toys, many of which are too old for them or just plain stupid (like the random black catlike thing with the bug eyes, I don’t even know what that thing is, how are the kids supposed to know?). But every once in a while we hit a Happy Meal jackpot, like when they have Hotwheels, or the Shrek talking toys, or the Madame Alexander mini Wizard of Oz dolls (ok, I liked those better than Emma did). In this case, it was a My Little Pony figurine. One I have since found is called "Skywishes with Gazebo." Notice that last word...gazebo. A cheap little pink and orange stand for the pony named Skywishes. Known to Emma as her pony box.
Insert Mommy frantically trying to clean out the toy room crammed with junk. Out went some random toys into the garbage, and some baby toys into the yard sale pile. I came across some cheap plastic thing with no apparent mate, and it went into the garbage pile. Oh, how I wish I could take that moment back. At this point I would dig through the garbage can for it had this not been over a month ago.

About 2 weeks ago, Emma starts asking, "Mommy, where my pony box?" while showing me Skywishes. I have no idea what the heck she’s talking about. But she kept repeating it, daily, several times a day. Finally I asked her what it looked like, not knowing myself what a pony box is. She tells me it’s pink and orange and her pony stands on it, and shows me the approximate size. Somewhere in my brain, I’m having a vague recollection of seeing an object of that description. That night, I search the toy room, but alas, no pony box. That nagging feeling of knowing where this box was kept gnawing at my brain.

Even Ethan was getting in on the game, as he would ask where Emma’s pony box was. One evening, while watching a Nascar race, he told his daddy that he needed to talk to Jimmie Johnson. Daddy asked why, and Ethan replied, "So I can ask him where Emma pony box is."
This was serious.

So I was travelling through the Walmart toy section and looking at the My Little Ponies when it hit me- the random pink thing that I didn’t know what it was. Oh my goodness, I had tossed the pony box. Panic stricken, I did the first thing a mother does when confronted with another, "Mommy, where my pony box?"

I lied. It was a good one, too. I told her that Swiper took it. That sly little fox, Dora’s arch nemesis. I was home free, only Daddy knew the truth. Until Emma, in her two year old way, started dwelling on this fact. "Mommy, I don’t yike Swiper. He’s mean to me. He took my pony box. Is Swiper going to take my pony too? Did you lock Swiper out? Swiper stole my stuff. Swiper take my stuff to his tree. My pony box in Swiper’s tree."

Geez. Why does she have to be this smart? She was seriously distressed by this turn of events and in fear that tomorrow, she might wake up toyless and Swiper would have a tree full of loot.
So I came clean. I told her that Mommy was a bad girl and accidently threw out the pony box, and that mommy would get her a new one. I admitted my lie and vowed not to lie to her again. After all, she’s smarter than me. She seemed to grasp the concept that the pony box was in the trash and Mommy was a bad girl. Daddy offered to spank me, which was quite helpful as usual, while he continued to chuckle about the whole thing.

So that brings me to now, where I am currently bidding on a freaking plastic McDonald’s toy. Heck, I’m thinking of getting her the whole set for Christmas, but of course the pony box will come out early. All for the bargain price of $15 and a chunk of mommy’s pride.

On a side note, I'm totally going to start hocking my kids' Happy Meal toys on Ebay. As long as it's not a pony box.

Possibly bad news...

Well, we returned to the pediatric opthalmologist today, and the bad news is that Emma's weak eye is only being partially corrected by the glasses. The worse news is that her vision in that eye is getting weaker (don't ask me how they know that on a 2 year old, I'm not sure). So, that means continued glasses for now, and 3 hours of patching of the good eye per day. Thankfully the patches go over her glasses and not on her skin. Then we return in a month, but the doctor's current prognosis is...surgery. The sooner the better, as the weakness is possibly causing her loss in vision. Egads.

So say a little prayer for us. We'll be going back for another consultation at the end of November and if the word is still surgery, we'll be seeking a second opinion at that time to be sure that it's necessary and that it's the best time to do it, since she's so young. Unfortunately the surgery would NOT correct her vision, just the weakness, and would help the vision not to get worse. She may grow out of the need for glasses but we're not sure at this point. So anywho, that's where we stand, blog world. I'll post more pics soon, I have some super cute ones.

I should be mother of the year...

Ok, not really but I bet it got you to read this entry. My current mother of the year qualifications are (1) I did not get tickets to the WVU/Mississippi State game even though I could have because the kids have a birthday party to go to which will have real hayrides with real horses and pumpkin carving, I couldn’t bear for them to miss that, even though they never would have known, and (2) I will be taking them to Billy Bob’s Pizza Wonderland for the second time in a month. For those of you who missed the last post on this, it’s like Chuck E. Cheese but way better. One dad at the last party called it Vegas for kids.

So here are some pictures from the last trip:

Ethan looks confused for some reason. Maybe it's because the concept of sharing is not a natural one for him, and there was a kid riding this ride with his tokens who let us hop on for free! Thanks little boy's mommy!

Driving the Mac truck. Twin powers, unite!
More twintuition driving...Ethan's not so big on "watching the road." YOu can see he's way more interested in the prizes.
Emma on the one kid ferris wheel. This is a pretty neat little ride.
Ethan chillin out. Love this pic! Sorry I didn't edit to get the red eye out. I never edit my pics, I just forget. (as if you couldn't tell!)
So the first trip was a hit and they behaved very well. We didn't get much ball pit time because there were some thug kids there whose parents, despite the 50 signs saying otherwise, were no where in sight.

On another note, when did we get so popular? October has been CRAZY for us. So far we've gone to, been invited to, or have upcoming 2 kids' birthday parties, a housewarming, a Southern Homes living party, a kiddie fall party thing, the Pumpkin festival, and an adult Halloween party. I think I'm ready for November!

Hot pumpkins

Let's see if Blogger will let me publish this the THIRD TIME. Am I the only one who constantly has this trouble?



So, for any of you who read my blog roll friends, you’ll see that Jonathan’s Mommy and Jonathan, Desperate Housemommy, Hailey and Max, and the whole Twinkie Clan went to the Pumpkin Festival this weekend. It was great fun, even if it was hotter than the hinges of Hades. The biggest disappointment to me was that the kids didn’t get to wear their super cute Halloween themed clothes. Ethan’s is a glow in the dark skeleton shirt (but he also has one with a mummy that says "I love my mummy") and Emma’s has a cute little witch on it and says "I left my princess costume at home." Here’s a plug for Children’s Place, and since my MIL works there part time, my kids are pretty much a walking advertisement for them.



Here's the best I could do at a pic of them together. It's one of the best I've gotten in a while, but it looks so weird to see them in shorts and t-shirts amongst all the fall stuff!

Enjoying our pumpkin ice cream. Man, those lines were long but so worth it!
Like Jonathan, Ethan dreams of being a farmer. This is compounded by the fact that Gramps has a John Deere super duper mower, and Gramps is pretty much a hero round these parts. Here's Super Big E and MawMaw on the giant John Deere.
Emma Doo on the giant tire.
E on the giant tire. About this time the Carmichael Equipment dude started walking around us so we felt it was time to leave. We don't really have a need for giant tractors in the subdivision.
On a final note, the kids are going to be Dora and Diego for Halloween, since that's all they talk about is wanting to dress up like Dora and Diego and yell "Trick or Treat!" So I ordered the costumes on Friday and paid a pretty penny for what I'm sure will be really high quality polyester, and they tell me that the costumes will arrive on or around OCT. 25! WHAT??? So, 20 days? Um, these are Halloween costumes, maybe you should have informed me that you had super slow shipping! But I'm hoping they were just giving me a really long estimate, or they're going to have an irate Mami on their hands if those costumes don't arrive.

You know you want it.

Ok, so Dyson is giving away a PINK vacuum. You know you want a Dyson, and particularly a pink one. Myself, I cannot afford to actually BUY a Dyson, so I settle for my dirt devil. But oh, how I could clean with a pink Dyson. So click here, and if you win it, can I just borrow it for a day??