and They're Off...

I admit it.  I go overboard on lots of things.  One of these things is Halloween.  I start thinking about my children's costumes months in advance.  It's super important to me that they don't have a costume that some other child is wearing.  That's just me.  It's a big deal to me to be unique at Halloween.  So I usually torture myself and my mom into making sure every little detail is perfect and unique.  Since I just started this blog here's a little trip to Halloween's past...

Celia's first year she was a butterfly.  I couldn't just order her some butterfly costume off the rack.  No, each piece of this costume was made by me.  I literally glued each of these white sequins to this little black onesie in a perfect pattern.  It took me FORever.  I found these wings online, but they were a little too big for a 6 month old so I took them apart and cut them down then I attached the antenna to them so she wouldn't have it on her head because she hated stuff on her head at the time.  And all the white on the wings?  Sequins that I attached by hand.  Oh yeah, and I searched forever for these striped tights.  You get the picture.  SO cute though, right?

Next up.  My mom and I sort of came up with this idea together.  We wanted something super unique.  There is no child's Cruella Deville costume out there.  My mom made every stitch of this thing.  It cost a ton by the time we were done with all the details for it.  It took me forever to come up with the right way to do her hair.  I thought of all kinds of options including coloring it.  But these feathers were genius.  She didn't even know they were in there.  Notice the cigarette holder.  My mom searched and searched online for one that was small enough for her and found the "perfect" one.  This costume was especially cute when you put her next to my husband's dalmatian.  She won 2nd place at the neighborhood costume contest with this one.  Yes, 2nd.  We were totally robbed.

 

Last year Celia started to get her own opinion about what she wanted to wear so I let her pick.  She LOVES animals so she wanted to be a tiger.  I tried to think of how I could make that unique and came up with the idea of a family circus.  Mark and I were clowns, Celia the performing tiger and our new addition, Kye, was the cutest ring master ever.  My poor mom worked tons on these costumes.  She literally made that top hat for Kye.  It took her forever, but she did it for me because she knew I would want it perfect and they don't make top hats in baby size.  Did I mention I love my mom?  Of course, most of this is her fault anyway.  She and my great-grandma made all my costumes growing up and I can't remember ever losing a costume contest at school, seriously.

Yes, that's a ring of fire.  I said I was serious about Halloween.  And if you're wondering we missed the costume contest last year because we had family pictures scheduled for the same time and I couldn't reschedule them.  Total bummer.  I am certain we would have won.

So this year...  Celia got to pick again.  What did she want?  An animal of course.  She has been into horses for a while now so she decided she wanted to be a horse.  What could I do to make a horse unique?  Well I couldn't make her some boring ol pony.

Introducing "Our Girl Celia", #7, and winner of the 2010 Kentucky Derby, with our little Jockey, Kye, owner, myself and Mark of course.  I have always wanted to go to the Kentucky Derby and wear one of those silly hats.  Well now I got my chance.  It's hard to see but Mark and I have official owner badges around our necks here.  Yes, I researched what those would look like and designed them in photoshop.  (Special thanks to my neighbor J. for helping me get this family shot here)

And this year I actually did something I have never done before.  I bought Kye's costume.  Shame.  But it was really cute and so much easier on my mom.  She did still have to take it apart and tailor it to his little body.  And we added the purple #7 patch on his arm.  All the details of the Kentucky Derby had to be there.  Thanks Mom! 

Celia's of course is all handmade by my mom and myself. 

Check out her little hooves and tail.  Too cute.

I had a very hard time getting my family to take these pictures this year.  They did much better last year.  I tried to get a shot of the 2 kids together and this is what I got... Kye taking off as always.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

the Great Pumpkin Search

Instead of taking our annual photo op at the pumpkin patch this year I opted to take my camera along to the local plant nursery to get some shots of the kids picking out pumpkins.  I didn't get a ton of pictures.  But the kids had a good time looking for pumpkins.  They especially loved all the little pumpkins they had there.

Kye of course loved running around the place.  This is what Kye looked like most of the time.  Of course this is always what Kye looks like...

And him making his self at home.  What am I not supposed to sit right in the middle of this display?  So "Kye".  I honestly did not pose him in the middle of these pumpkins.

And Celia with her little pumpkins that she has carried everywhere even to school to show her teacher.

Happy Fall All!

 

the Perfect Day

You know there are some days when everything just seems to go...right.  The weather is perfect.  The kids are in great moods.  Even the birds seem a little chirpier :)  We had one of those days this past Sunday.  It started out with playing the front yard with some of our neighbors (again I live in the most perfect neighborhood in the world so this is not unusual).  Then Mark and I decided to take the kids to Denny's for a big yummy breakfast.  We're big breakfast fans at our house.  The kids took great naps then it was time to go over to our neighbors and watch the Texans win another game.  The kids were in awesome moods.  Kye was in such a great mood he was running around giggling and then falling in the grass and laughing hysterically.  I was sitting on my neighbor's patio watching this and realized I really needed to run and get my camera.  I am so glad I did.  I got so many cute shots of the kids.  So what if Mark dressed Celia that day.  So what if we never brushed their hair.  It didn't matter.  I captured them in their true form. laughing, playing and having a great time with their best pals.  WARNING:  there will be many pictures in this post and you might get sick from the utter sweetness of these gorgeous children.

So the faces of this adorable little monkey is what prompted me to run to my house and get my camera:

And this next one if one of my all time favs of him.  I think it's because he looks like a little mini-me in it.  I am pretty certain I could go to my parent's house and find a picture of me at this age that looks nearly exactly like this one.  I may just do that on my upcoming visit.  I can't decide whether I like it better in color:

or black and white?

Kye wasn't the only one I captured through my lens.  Here's the sports star, Mr. C getting in on the action...



 Seriously, we do not make ugly children in our neighborhood, only ridiculously gorgeous ones.

Of course I did not miss the girls.  Celia and her BFF, Miss E...

Like I said GORGEOUS...the next ones are my favs of the night...

Miss E and Celia are the absolute best of friends.  They have to see each other everyday and one minute they are hugging one another and the next they are pushing each other down.  They really act more like sisters.  I LOVE this shot of them...

Can you handle more?

And last but not least to show at least one adult got in on the playing.  Surprise surprise it was Mark.  He seems to always be the one running around with the kids.  Kye was looking for his belly button, oh what fun...

Note:  we're never moving from the best neighborhood ever.  What a great day, the perfect day.