Brad Paisley

I'm so behind on posts and things I want to share/document that when I get the time, I'm just going to randomly pick a folder, and (assuming it's something I feel like writing about) that will be my post topic. Tonight, it's Brad Paisley! Brad happened to be in town on my birthday--what a great way to spend the evening! We've seen Brad a few times before--he always puts on a fantastic show. Last time, we were in the 4th row! This time, the 7th! Here are a few pictures from the night.

He had two opening acts. Justin Moore was the first. He's had a hit song or 2, but I couldn't tell you the name of one. Here's a picture if you're interested.

The second was Miranda Lambert. I'm not a huge Miranda Lambert fan, but she did a pretty good job.

Finally came Brad. The stage was set up with a center catwalk as well as one on the left and right. There were steps on the left and right catwalks so that he could walk down into the crowd, and then through the crowd over to the other catwalk to get back on the stage. So that was neat. When he was on the floor, at the end of the catwalk, he was probably 6 feet from us. As always, his show is the best. He's a fantastic musician and singer, seems so down to earth, and has a great sense of humor. If you ever get a chance to see one of his shows, we would definitely recommend it.

Blair's 4th Birthday!: a bunch of sickies and a pink poodle party

Blair's birthday was on a Thursday. Wednesday night, in the middle of the night, she woke up throwing up. It continued Thursday morning, she had to miss school where she was going to take birthday cookies, and she spent her whole special day in bed with a fever, watching movies with the occassional cheerios and gatorade. She did perk up for a special present though--the long-awaited-for Cinderella dress! Even had enough energy to try it on.

Her birthday party was on Saturday and after going back and forth through the vast multitude of party themes--Snow White, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Shrek--she finally decided on a dog party. (How she got from princesses to dogs, I'm not sure, but we were running out of time, so I took the dog idea and ran with it.) I found some pink poodle plates on the internet, Jeremy--yes, Jeremy!--made her poodle cake, and I think he did a fabulous job. :) In addition to typical human party food, the "puppy guests" had white and brown bones (finger sandwiches) and pink bones (rice crispy treats) to munch on, along with raw hide (beef jerky), and puppy chow (chex mix). I had some puppy-related crafts planned, but didn't have enough energy (see story below) to get them ready before the party. It all worked out though, because Blair and the girls spent the whole time playing dress up, while the boys just ran around being boys. She received some great gifts, and had a blast, so it was a huge success!

Too bad I can't say the same for me, though. As soon as the party started, I felt like I hit a brick wall. All I wanted to do was lie down. I struggled to even get comfortable on the couch while the party happened around me. Before our guests had even left, I sneaked back to my room to lie down. I initially thought I had just worn myself out doing too much party planning, but after the second round of vomiting, it became evident I had caught Blair's stomach bug, and I spent the rest of Saturday throwing up. Jeremy came down with the same virus in the middle of the night, so we both spent all day Sunday in bed. Thank God my parents were in town and were able to take over the house and kids for us that day. I'm not sure what we would have done otherwise. Thank you mom and dad! (Looking back, we realized Reid had initially brought it home from school earlier in the week, but only complained of a stomach ache and never threw up or ran a fever, so we didn't take it too seriously. Until everyone else in the house got it!)

Tent Time

Hello! Welcome back to me. :) It's been a long time. I have a lot of updating to do, so I'll try to get to it all eventually. But for now, I thought I'd break myself back in with a quick and easy post.

Remember making forts as a kid? It was fun but so annoying when the tape kept falling off the wall and wouldn't hold up the blankets. Well, here's our fort. Take a couple of old sheets (or Goodwill works well too--$2 per sheet!), some grommets, and some hooks in the wall, and you have an instant fort!

Blair was thrilled with the blue and white checkered sheet because it looks like her Dorothy dress (see next picture). And we actually had those same Charlie Brown sheets when I was little, so I was excited to see that one at Goodwill!

Inside the fort, they set up a living room area and are sitting watching their pretend tv.

Uh oh! Our first Tess casualty.

This Thanksgiving, give thanks that you still have your eyes. Both of them.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Fall is in the air and on the ground!

Our trees don't provide many leaves, so after my neighbor raked up hers, I went over and asked if I could have them. An unusal request, I'm sure! :) So I hauled them over to my yard and put them in a big pile.

Reid especially was super excited to see the big pile of leaves in our yard when he got home from school.



What happened to Blair? The leaf pile ate her!
Blair is not normally one to jump around outside (she's more of a calm and composed player), so I was surprised to see her diving in and rolling around the leaves.



Sloane was not at all interested in the leaves so this is all I got of her.

















Then we went to the backyard to play and I decided to get a few fall pictures of the kids. As usual, my "few pictures" ended up turning into a complete autumnal portfolio. My poor kids...me and my camera... Oh well, they'll thank me one day.

Trick or Treat: Halloween Night!

The kids had a great time trick or treating Saturday night. We went around with friends, as we always do. And even the adults got in on the costume fun. I was the Jolly Green Giant this year. You can't quite see all the details in the picture--there are leaves on the top toga part--but I'd like to think it looked better in person than it does here. And Jeremy once again channeled his inner Thor.

We also celebrated with Mike Tyson (including his famous facial tattoo!), Kai-Lan, Kai-Lan's mom, and a 1970's Ben Wallace.

I made Reid and Blair "practice" trick or treating a few days ahead of time. I know it sounds stupid, but I was determined that they were going to be the polite kids going up to everyone's door. I know that can sometimes get forgotten in the excitement of running from door to door, and I got really tired of reminding them at every house last year. So I told Reid and Blair that they MUST say "Trick or Treat!" (it irks me when kids come to the door and just hold their bag out waiting for candy--unless they're small and can't quite say it yet, of course), and they HAD to say "Thank you!" And if they didn't say thank you, I was going to take the candy back out of their bucket and put it in my own. And I am very proud to say that the practice worked! They remembered to say both phrases at every house, and they didn't beg and choose which candy they wanted out of the candy-giver's bowl, which seemed to be another problem last year. I told them to take what they were given and be thankful for it. So after one house, Reid told me with a big smile, "Mom, I just got one piece at that house but I don't even care, because I'm thankful for it!" Yea, he actually listened to something I said! (And at the houses where he got to choose his own candy, man, you'd think it was Christmas morning!) And Blair announced after every house, "Mama, I THINK I said thank you!"

Sloane walked most of the night and had so much fun. Her little ostrich legs couldn't quite keep up with the big kids, so every once in a while, I'd have to pick her up and run one house ahead of the big kids so she would be there to go to the door with them. It didn't take her long to figure out, though, that if she went up to a door, they'd give her candy, so when I would try to pass up a house, she'd point and pull towards the driveway! She walked the whole night with one hand holding her bucket and one hand holding a piece of candy. And I am proud to say that she even said Thank You when prompted...well most of the time.

After trick or treating, we all went to another friend's house for a Halloween party. It was geared equally towards kids and adults, with all kinds of themed food and drinks. The house was decorated from floor to ceiling, complete with a smoke machine and strobe light in the garage. They had games in the garage for the kids, then went outside for spooky story time followed by smores, then back inside for a movie (Beetlejuice!) and popcorn. Kids and adults alike had a great Halloween and were worn out at the end of the night!

One more set of pictures...
The kids got to wear costumes to school, but we decided to wear old costumes for ease of wear (and to keep them hole-free--Spiderman ended up with 2 big rips after a day to school last year). :(

How to make an ostrich jockey

Since several people have asked, I thought I would explain how the ostrick jockey was made...it was really pretty simple. I wasn't confident that Sloane would actually wear it (becuase, you know, 1 year olds kinda do what THEY want to do), but I wanted to make it anyway, so I kept telling myself I would start making it but then quit when it got too difficult or when it was taking too much time. Afterall, I didn't want to spend all my time making a costume that she would never wear. But it never got very hard so I just kept on going! She fought me everytime I tried to get her IN the costume, to which I replied by sticking candy in her face to keep her happy--yep, great parenting skills here--but once it was on, she didn't fight it at all.

Anyway, it's made by taking a round donut-shaped pillow and wrapping it with feather boas (3 of them). (Actually, I used one of those neck pillows that people use when they travel...you know the ones that are shaped like a small boppy. And then filled in the open part of the "mini boppy" with a another small rectangular pillow. Just pinned it all together.)

Then take a pair of shorts overalls and pin the donut pillow to the outside of the overalls, about butt high. The idea is that she won't have to have any shoulder straps holding up the pillow because it'll be pinned directly to what she's wearing.

To make the fake legs, cut the legs off a pair of old jeans and pin those to the overalls, and drape them over the pillow/ostrich body. (I shortened the fake legs and pinned a pair of shoes to the bottom of the fake legs for Halloween night. I'll post those pictures later.)

For the head and neck, take a wrapping paper roll, a wadded up plastic sack, and a cardboard cone and tape them all together to form the shape of an ostrich's head and neck. Cover it with a pair of pantyhose (I used trouser socks), and glue on some eyes. Find a way to stick the neck inside the donut pillow. (I happened to have a little hole in mine where the mini boppy met the rectangular pillow where the neck could just slide right in.) The neck kept wanting to fall over so I put a ribbon around it and pinned it to the overalls so that it looked like reigns. After adding a couple white feather puffs around the neck and at the butt, the body of the ostrich is complete.

I dressed Sloane in another pair of trouser socks on her legs (they ended up being more like thigh-highs on her) so that it looked like ostrich legs. Tights would work well too, but I had trouser socks on hand. I cut out 2 claw shapes out of felt and taped them to the tops of her shoes, and put a safari style hat around her neck, and there you have it...an ostrich jockey straight from the outback, mate!

Actually, probably one of the easier and quicker (maybe 5 hours?) costumes I've made, no sewing involved really, just lots and lots of safety pins. And all I had to buy were the boas, the white feather puffs, and extra safety pinns--about $13 in all! (Oh, and to clarify something on my previous post, I did not make all of the other costumes--I updated that post with the details.)