happy halloween and the band of pirates.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

have you ever noticed that my poor husband is the one who has to either shave or dye his hair...or wear a ridiculously ugly wig?!  this year was busy, busy, busy.  there was no time for making costumes.  no extra money for ordering online (and gasp, would i really do such a thing?)  so...dig through the dress-up box, raid closets and come up with something that EVERYONE in the family can pull off using ONLY items we ALREADY have.  the only thing i splurged on was the before mentioned ridiculously ugly "Jack Sparrow" wig $7.99 at Walmart. gotta love that!

i rubbed some black eyeliner in under chris' eyes (you know, going for the Captain Sparrow look)...however, chris sort of just ended up looking like Ozzy, and quite frankly i couldn't wait to get him home, yank that wig off his head and clean off those eyes.  it was spooky.  (as is this really bad picture of my family trying to look like the misfit band of pirates we were going for...just look at those poor little faces...)

the kids played dress-up as pirates for about the whole month before the actual shin dig.  they just couldn't get enough.  there were various assortments of ways we could assemble our costumes.  brady was a spectacular pirate at school.  i mean really, it was quite impressive that we had everything already in our closets!  

the boys upstairs played pirate all month as well.  it made for lots of fun treasure hunting, map making, and "ARG ye matey!" talk all around the house!

                 

and what do you do when the festivities are all over, costumes have been thrown back in the closets and jammies have been donned?  daddy hurries and gives the kiddos a piggyback ride to bed!!!  

                     

on a side note:  i made delicious canned pumpkin.  i just couldn't bare to see all of the lovely pumpkins on my porch go to waste, so before the frost hit and claimed them for good i hurried them inside and started scooping the guts out of them.  now, there is a disclaimer here.  it is not recommended that you can pumpkin, due to the density of the flesh; however, after many hours researching this particular subject and finding many homesteaders who home can pumpkin year after year with no problems, i decided to go ahead and try it.

it was a messy project and somewhat time consuming, but i think all in all worth it.  i plan on growing my own pumpkin patch this year and can't wait to make pumpkin-flavored goodies all fall and winter long!

halloween family portraits.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

after we went to the museum we took some family pictures at our friends' house in front of their weathered fence.  it made the perfect backdrop, especially in black and white.  i love having family pictures throughout different times of the year so i can display them along with other holiday decor.  this is going to be a new tradition!

(i took these pictures of the kids and just couldn't decide which ones i liked better- color or b&w.  both have qualities about them that i really love!)

 man, i have cute kids!  just sayin'............

king tut.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

brady begged and begged for about 6 months to visit the exhibit here at our museum of king tut.  finally, right before halloween we all were able to go as a family.  i had just made brady's mummy shirt for halloween so he was so excited to wear it to see the mummy!  our kids love the movie Night at the Museum, and ever since have fallen in love with museums, history and exhibits.  we will definitely be visiting museums often!

                             

             

                

The Golden Throne and Ceremonial Footrest

Majestically flanked by two leonine heads (representing the sacred mountains if the eastern and western horizons) and with armrests of winged serpents wearing the double crown, the Pharoahs' marvelous golden throne was found in the Antechamber.  Before it lies the sovereigns ceremonial footrest of inlaid wood, decorated with representations of the cheiftains of conquered enemy lands who are "under his feet."  Cartouches on the armrest bear Tutankhamun's name in it's earlier form, Tutankhaton, suggesting that it may have been his coronation throne.  The throne is fashioned from gold-plated wood and inlaid with glazed terracotta and semi- precious stones.

 Ceremonial Chariot 

Constructed of bent wood and leather to be both sturdy and lightweight, it is overlaid in gold foil . This is a lavish chariot reserved for state parades and royal processions.

 

               Ceremonial Regalia                Ceremonial Flabellum
                          hieroglyphic symbol of life                       providing the Pharoah with both shade and
                                                                                        breeze in the arid desert climate was a noble
                                                                                        station like that of a scribe.  this would have
                                                                                        been fitted with ostrich plumes.

 Pharoah's bed

Made of gilded ebony, strung with an elaborately woven mattress.

the artwork throughout the museum was absolutely beautiful with  bright colors and painted painstakingly on papyrus sheets.

when we were done with all of the exhibits at the museum we printed off each of the kid's names in hieroglyphics.  they thought it was the best souvenier to remember our visit with king tut!

halloween 2012. vampires and mummies and ghosts. oh my!

we've been feeling a little spooky around these parts.  

brady begged me to decorate their bedroom with spookiness.  he likes all of that creepy, crazy stuff...until it's time for bed and lights out.  he can often be caught swapping scary stories with grandpa graf, and it has resulted in his deciding to share a room instead of having his own.  

i saw that glint in his eye and said okay- as long as it wasn't TOO scary.  nothing gross.  nothing bloody.  no zombies or decapitations.  he did manage to get away with a few vampires before i drew the line there too...

it all started with the door.  he and liv began coloring halloween-themed pictures and doing activities at school.  mind you, it wasn't even october yet.

                 

in case you can't read this.  it's actually quite funny. apparently, brady really didn't want anyone who wasn't invited to come into their room!

do not enter

or zombies will attack

or spiders

or mummies

or bats

or aliens

or vampires

or werewolves

or ghosts

or goblins

so do not enter. and if you do, you will not believe it.

once the door was covered it creeped into the bedroom, wound it's bony fingers around their bunk bed and exploded, lasting until a few days after the actual All Hallow'd Eve, when i finally reclaimed their bedroom to normalcy.  

i am sure zach is grateful.  i wonder what he thought peering into the darkness every night.

and olivia- she promised that she LOVED it.  but every night she sneakily crawled into bed with me and wrapped her monkey arms and legs tight to my back.

of course once we decorated their room their cowboy pillowcases just looked plain silly.  mommy was also plain silly when she suggested to brady and olivia that we could go to the fabric store and pick out halloween fabric to make special pillow cases.  this was especially silly because mommy had a million other things she was supposed to be doing.

the look on two kiddos faces when they woke up the next morning to these on the couch was worth it though...

Olivia's: 

Brady's:

the backs:

and who can have a spooky room, and spooky pillowcases but not a spooky outfit?

thank you Pinterest, for giving me the idea of how i could do a mummy.  i didn't particularly like the one that i saw online so instead of gauze i used some scrap white felt and scrap green fabric.  i already had the googly eyes and a leftover "boo" from liv's pillowcase.  i decided to make the whole body of the mummy, and not just the face like what was online.  we used one of brady's play shirts turned inside out.

olivia's shirt came out SO cute.  I had bought her some striped tights and a black tu-tu imagining that i was going to make her such a shirt as this.  i will toot my own horn, in that this was entirely my own creation- made with scraps of felt and pillowcase fabric!

zach's outfit was a lucky find at my favorite thrift store for the kids- Once Upon a Child.  it was EXACTLY what i had been wanting to make, so imagine my thrill when i saw it just waiting for me on a rack and for only $3!!!  It matched Olivia's tights perfectly and saved me a LOT of time!

we got LOTS of use out of these outfits.  i made them the 2nd week of the month so Brady wore his shirt about two times each week to school.  he said other kids thought it was "the coolest." {yes, i am still a cool mom who can make cool things!!!}  Olivia wore her tu-tu and striped tights every chance she got.  and when she did i coordinated zach with her as well.  so whether or not he liked his, he sported it often as well.  

some more art work:

(thanks to my friend, Charlotte for giving me the idea to upload and do digi scrapbooks of the kids artwork!  No more binders and bins full of crumpled papers!  instead they get to feel so special seeing their artwork on the computer and later on i'll surprise them with their very own books full of their best works of art!

Brady's-

 


               

Olivia's-

olivia did some of the scary faces above in brady's section, but i'm not sure which ones.  she also did most of the papers on their door...

pumpkins-

we didn't get a picture of the pumpkins that they carved but they were adorable.  chris carved with the kids while i was at a young women's activity and i got to come home to a surprise waiting for me on the doorstep! they had lit the candles inside of their jack-o-lanterns and had them waiting for me!

these silly pumpkins were also inside waiting on the counter! they gave me quite a laugh!  brady's is on the left and olivia's is on the right.