Crap-ola Camera

Here's Charlotte and I in late November of 2004. I eventually had to sell off this couch I had growing up. I also had to get rid of my two Ingres posters I picked up from the MET (place I love)! They were both a great deal at $5.00 each. When I sold both of my Ingres women at a garage sale, my husband remarked "Those two wives had to go, they were always bugging me." Haha honey, very funny. Honestly though, we just didn't have room.

Again us with a picture taken by the crappy camera. This is in the Fall of '04. My Dad bought Charlotte this uniform style outfit. It's been a favorite of mine ever since.

This was an unusually cold September Sunday in '04. Look at the beautiful Autumnal leaves.

Nothing beats the style of smocking, the style that real princesses wear.

Charlotte is approaching 3 months here. I love the little bracelet around her ankle. Has she grown up too fast or what!

October 2009

The Loot

This picture came out blurry, but notice the full size candy bar from Anne-Louise. I was very impressed by what my daughters received.

My kids just poured all of their candy out in the front hallway as soon as they walked in the door. Richard got home just in the nick of time to take his daughters out, you can see his school stuff there on the bench.

Charlotte got the most full sized candy, but strangely enough went to the same houses as her sisters. Let's just say we recognize bias when we see it.

This guy was a Dad accompanying his kids on his way to catch up with his wife and family. I had to get his picture because he was a character from Scooby-Doo! We both agreed that Halloween is for kids, and by kids I mean 12 and under. Seriously I had to turn away adults with cleavage and beards (*#@%&)! Anna Quindlen wrote an excellent article about this years ago. I actually gave candy to a 12 year old sister and not her 14 year old brother. I don't know about you but as soon as my hormonal changes set in, I felt a little uncomfortable standing on a door step asking for candy next to sweet-faced six year old's with no zits. I notice that there are now Halloween costumes being made for pre-teens, that look a little bit tramp-ish in the girls section. Just because they make costumes for 14 year old's does not mean they should be out on Halloween night, trying to collect candy.


I hope you enjoyed my soap box stance.

We've got bowls ready to go. Considering the past week absolutely zero candy appealed to me. However, I do miss Oh Henry! bars from Canada. We highly recommend the 150 piece candy bags for $14.00 from Costco. I got this little table for free along with a vintage bed. I look forward to painting it and adding some other features come Springtime.

October 2009

Halloween Gear

Here's Claire completely peeved that the party hasn't started yet. My husband and I were just too exhausted to even think about carving the pumpkin.

I picked this pirate costume up last year right away. It was a pretty good deal. I loved the bolero jacket and the pink-ed up look. My daughters all wear each others costumes.

This little girl had her cackle perfected. I bought this witch costume for only $5.oo two years ago. Anne-Louise told us that she wants to be "a witch all of the time."

I thought this was rather clever of Anne-Louise, she stuck her hat on the pumpkin to make it look like a "pumpkin witch."

Here's our amazing bat Claire. I like to have our costumes well taken care of and worn by the other siblings. My husband and I really debated about letting Claire out, but she showed no signs of being sick. Nothing gets in the way of that girls party. Plus, we knew I'd have my hands full taking care of Adele during the evening. None of our extended family could make it down to help out. We averaged well over 300 hundred trick-or-treat'ers that night.

On another note it was upsetting to me that our household wasn't really up and running yet for a wonderful photo shoot of the costumes we won and received from Kathleen of Grosgrain. But like I said earlier, we have on-going plans. We hope to do an upcoming photo shoot and many more to come.

October 2009

Richard Teaching

Our ward has given Richard a "Sunday Only" calling. We love our ward.

Wisdom Teeth Women

Anne-Louise tells people that her beautiful eyes are from Target.

Charlotte can always be counted on to be the best example in her classroom.

Adele just thinks that these Sunday pictures are somebody's idea of a sick joke.

This 20 minute skirt pattern is from Grosgrain. I will use it again and again. However, I probably look like a dork with my shirt tucked in.

Look closely at my necklace, those are my wisdom teeth. I got them taken out two years ago and knew I could use them for something Halloween-ish. When my kids start losing their baby teeth I 'm going to string those up on this necklace too. Crafty and gruesome, my kinda' combo for Halloween.

Side note: On Monday morning I woke up with the dreaded swine flu. Yesterday, Thursday was my worst day ever. So, that's the reason for the delay in blogging. All of my kids have had it and Claire is in the tub (yes I am right here with her), with Motrin in her tummy. Her temp has been recorded at 103.6, but is is coming down fast, phew! She's the only kid I know that can be playing as though nothing is wrong with such a temperature. The Thermo-scan and I have become best friends. We have very special on-going plans for our "Wonderland Dresses." Expect a delay in the photo shoot. And once again, thank-you to Kathleen of Grosgrain and all of her wonderful viewers!

P.S. My eyes are killing me.

October 2009

Bat Girl

October 2009

Costume Party

Here are the BluBabes doing a little trick-or-treating inside the store.

Claire is a bat for Halloween. She seems to really enjoy the part. They colored their own paper bags to use for candy collecting.

Charlotte was in fine form wearing her pirate costume.

These girls were so excited to see their dad. He was able to stop by for just an hour. This guy is gone from 6 a.m. to 10:3o p.m. every night working on his MPH and working for his family.

Here they all are lined up with their costumes on. I was really thrilled this past summer when I picked up Adele's costume at a garage sale for only a dollar. We think she makes a pretty good skeleton.

October 2009