Halloween 2016

This year for Halloween Kendall and Brielle decided to be Odd Squad agents after their favorite tv show. I quickly learned that the best and most efficient way to make the costumes was to buy real boys' suits. With help from Amazon I found some very decently priced ones that were perfect. So many people loved them that I might be able to sell them next year as costumes instead of consigning the suits! Score! All that was left was to make the official looking badges which is what Etsy is for!

Lucy and Ethel live on!

The girls eagerly awaited trick-or-treaters.

Kendall and Meredyth

Hallloween 2015

Halloween this year was definitely a washout. I shouldn't complain since there's been absolutely no rain since our slab was poured back in June. I know how excited everyone else is for the much needed rain, though I sure wish it hadn't come just in time for Halloween fun. Our church festival was rained out, which meant my bff, Jennifer, and I have to put our Lucy and Ethel costumes on hold for next year.

Brielle wore her costume to Kendall's class party so ensure she would actually have an opportunity to wear it. She was one cute Minnie Mouse!

Pretty much everybody decided collectively to move trick-or-treating up a day so Friday we did get to go collect some good loot and candy with Grayson, the nice dinosaur.

Boo Dat!

This year Halloween costumes was a family act. Brielle was originally planning to be Jimmy Graham so she and Daddy Drew Brees could together be the Crescent City Connection.  But alas she was a cheerleader along with her sister.

Brielle doesn't cooperate in pictures these days.

Well, she'll cooperate if it's on her terms.

But here? No to dat!

We went to a local church to trunk or treat.

Kendall had a great time collecting candy. And I'm so proud of her because this year she wasn't scared of the costumes.

 

Brielle was a little stingy because she thought everyone was trying to take her one lone Twix instead of giving her more.

She was mighty proud of that Twix.

I'm sure next year will be a whole new ball game for her.

BOO DAT!

Little Princesses

For Halloween this year Kendall and Brielle were Cinderella. After getting all dolled up we headed over to a trunk-or-treat at a nearby church.  And they both had a royally good time.  Kendall for the first year was not scared of costumes and Brielle enjoyed her favorite past time as well:  watching everybody else.

Before loading up in the carriage driven by Prince Daddy, we snapped a few pictures.

Happy Fall, Y'all

As we say in the south, happy fall, "y'all". October has been a fun and busy month. I actually put out some fall decorations this year. Though the fall was always my favorite season, especially when teaching kindergarten, I just never have seemed to take the time to decorate for it. This year, I decided to finally do something about it. I found this great pumpkin idea from Southern Living, and I loved it so much I had to make my own. I got the smaller pumpkins at the HobLob, then I filled in with candles and pine cones that I already had. The arrangement is sitting by the front door, and I pass it every time I go to Kendall's room. It makes me happy every time I see it.

Last week Kendall and I went shopping with Gigi. I really wanted to get a good picture of her on the hay bales that were decorated all cute with pumpkins, gourds and mums. But these days Kendall is WAY to "on the go" to stop and pose for any picture. I've just had to settle for action shots these days. She waited a while to start walking, but I just realized that she had decided she wouldn't do it until she could do it right. She has been off and hasn't looked back. Bye bye crawling. A few of the pictures did come out cute, though.

She loves pumpkins these days. She's showing it here to Gigi, who was trying to get her to look at the camera.

Notice she's no where near the hay bales now. A store front window caught her eye.

Oooh, gourds! She always makes this face when something looks interesting. (Again, not on the hay nor looking at the camera. Sigh)

Pumpkin.

She took the gourds and ran off with them at this point. We had to reassemble the lovely fall arrangement before we left.


For Halloween, we went to Paga and Gigi's church to go Trunk or Treating. Just about time to put on her "love monster" costume!

Oh, look at that sweet little monster! It was hilarious to watch her waddle around all over the place in that thing.

Time to use her cuteness factor to score lots of candy for Mommy and Daddy!

It didn't take Kendall long to figure out the concept of getting candy. Good thing she didn't realize it was to eat. We'll have that to look forward to next year. Hopefully these nasty allergies will be gone by then.

Kendall had an absolute blast that night. Don't be fooled, though, by this sweet picture of her adoringly holding hands. In no time, she realized she could do this all by herself and we spent the rest of the night keeping up with her. She just wanted to be big like all the other kids around.

Swinging by to see Papa for a quick picture.

Kendall caught up with her friend, Ann Riley, who is a mere twelve hours younger than her. We were all in the same hospital at the same time when they were born.

Back at the house with cousin Savannah.

Scary Stuff??

Scary??? Nah! But awefully doggone cute if you ask me. Kendall begged (ahem) her Gigi for this loving monster costume while out shopping one day. She insisted she would not leave the store until her Gigi bought it for her. Though I find that story stretched and a little hard to believe, I will not deny that (A) Kendall has a strong will and a mind of her own and (B) Gigi has a weakness when it comes to Kendall and especially when it just looks so plain cute.


Here's the full effect so you can judge the cuteness factor for yourself. I especially like the little claws on the feet. Though Gigi would like to believe it's a bug costume, the claws are a dead giveaway that it's not. So we agreed to call it a "love monster" costume. Either way it's adorable.

Now, I'll tell you what is scary. The fact that Kendall loves to rummage around in the kitchen cabinets. She's quite the little meddler. WATCH the glass vases!

Again, a little scary that Kendall has already perfected the art of letting it be known when her rights are infringed upon and her feelings hurt.

Ooh, yeah, scary hair-do kid!

I guess she can be a little scary after all if she wants to.

Cute, But Not Scary (OK, Maybe So)

As promised, here are the pics of Jennifer and me (aka Lucy and Ethel). I hope no one lost too much sleep these past few days waiting for me to dig them out.

I learned that nobody makes an Ethel costume, so I had to improvise. It's amazing what a trip to Goodwill can accomplish. As for the wig, it was originally a Marilyn Monroe looking do from Target. After two bottles of Aqua Net and several packs of bobby pins you see the results. Not too bad. Hey, I did impress another Lucy fan bystander. She asked me "WHERE did you find an Ethel costome?! Can I borrow it??"

The next year, Jennifer and I schemed up the idea to dress as different episodes. Here's the Candy Factory costumes:



We have another year to think up another one.

So Cute It's Scary!

Our church did not have its annual Harvest Festival this year. Boo! (That's "Boo" as in "I don't like it. Not good", not "Ha! Ha! I scared you!" Being that this blog refers to Halloween, didn't want to confuse the context.) Since Halloween fell on a Friday night there was too much competition with high school football games and weekend plans. I hope we have it again next year. It's really a blast. My friend Jennifer (Aunt JenJen) and I have an annual tradition of dressing as Lucy and Ethel. (She, along with my sister and I are avid Lucille Ball fans.) And we said all along that the baby would be Little Ricky this year whether I had a boy or a girl. That made total sense to us. She would be my arm charm for the night. Gabe's kinda glad we didn't have it this year; he didn't want his daughter dressed up as a boy. But there's always next year! She'll be able to beat a drum and say "Babaloo!" by then. I would post pics of us a Lucy and Ethel, but I need to find them first. I know you're all dying to see them. So all that to say that Kendall had to settle for just a bib this year.