all our ducks in a row

Oh! We are talking about pumpkins. Pumpkin treat buckets.

At least I thought so, till about 5 seconds ago, after I started typing here.

The costume is done besides some minor thingies that still need to be finished,

but the sword is in two pieces.

But it truly must have a hex on. As soon it is on Soren he runs of like crazy jumping in his beds. Perhabs  I should make him PJs? But he is all wired up in it.

We still need find all the right garments for all the costumes, but the major items are in the house from hairdos, to ears & tails, to clothes and headsets and mic, ...... so we will manage for Saturday somehow.

P.S. If you ever want to buy a colored treat bucket, don't wait for the last week. You will be out of luck. Believe me. Ours is oooooooooooooooold.

not quite halloween yet

Thanks to Nutella, Prego and Nestle we finally made it to collect 4 ! empty glass jars after two weeks. I couldn't believe it, but we suddenly didn't use any glass jars. I already saw our craft idea washing down the drain even we had the orange and black paper and glue all ready, just only two jars until yesterday. So today we finally went to work. This is so easy and fun to do that we truly have to start collecting jars next year a lot early to get to make a few little ghosts, too. The girls already have more ideas.

Here is my running and hiding costume model. I finally got started. In the picture it just in the first stage to see if Soren actually would fit in it and after some candy bribing I finally got  it on him and he took off on me.

Can you guess what he is supposed to be in his not finished costume yet?

Yes, that little sneak ran around for half an hour before I got the costume back of him.

Breadbag

Everybody who knows me personally also knows that I am no fan of american bread. The only way I eat it if it is not freshly baked it's toasted. I admit I am spoiled. If you know German bread you know why. There are so many different breads and "Semmeln" or "Broetchen". My kids usually prefer the plain bread here, but they also love it when we bake bread.

Just the smell of freshly baked or still baking bread is heaven and how the taste. Especially when I use one of the few bread mixes that come with me from Germany until we run out and look for a recipe from scratch again.

Until know I kept the bread in wrapped in a plastic bread, but that was just not the best solution. Just in case the bread should ever last for more as three days in would easily start molding and that would be a waste. So I thought about a fabric bread bag. I even found the perfect cotton fabric in my stash. *lol* Leftover fabric of my living room curtains from my very first apartment in Wuerzburg, Germany.

Well, my sizing was a very generous estimate. I easily fit two of my one pounder breads in it.

a little bit more rain after a sunny weekend

It is raining. Again. Which is perfectly fine. Soren is flying his rescue helicopter throught the house with the dinosaurier attached - the dino is bigger as the helicopter. The washing machine is runningm the dishes are clean, but of course there is still lots more to do. I even found the picture of the falloween costume yesterday, I just never copied the description - what was I thinking - not much, obviously. But we should manage. It is "just" a Halloween costume worn in the darkness of the night and my not speaking tod won't be complaining. His sisters will be ignored if they should voice anything else besides approval for the yet non existing costume.

I guess it time to start digging for the fabric while cleaning up the garage.

By the waym ut was not raining yesterday, just cloudy, but not enough that we did not look for the shade of the trees after a while in the sun in the Silo Christmas Tree Farm close to Temple.

The kids had fun to dress the farmers, going on a hayride, the kiddie train, through a little maze, letting the ducks race, hopping and jumping in the hay, playing teether ball and in the petting zoo. There were a few pumpkins around, too. *lol* But we skipped the pumpkin painting - I don't really want the wet paint anywhere in the car.

Did I mention we had another yummy picknick with Rhianna's soft chocolate chip cookies and Tina's fresh cake filled with pecans . These are just the dessert after the sandwiches and veggies and dips. We could have said no to the bees.

Just one tip for future visits: If you bring a not napping strong willed toddler who loves animals more as anything besides food. Pay for the petting zoo right at the beginning and stay there the whole time while sending another adult of with the rest of the kids for the other activities.

More pictures of this small session you can find HERE.

i know i have it saved somewhere

i seriously do and i am searching for it. the halloween pattern for soren's costume. if found the perfect costume for him. i knew it when i saw it  and he just proved it to me all the last months. even leland loves the idea and that means something because usually he doesn;t care too much about these things. okay he woukd mind if i dress his littloe big boy up in all pink for halloween, but doesn;t that happen in our house on a daily basis anyway. lol. so, now i am digging through all my summer pictures to fin d the two pictures i took, one with the cistume and one with the description on how to sew it.at least i already have the pattern on hand which i copied out of the burda magazine. but have a look what i found instead and for sure didn't post yet.

- Karin summer 2009 -

- Soren summer 2009 -

- Karin & Chiara summer 2009  unedited photo -

chiara's last soccer got moved to noon today and my schedule for today is a little bit messed up because the time for soren's nap is just missing. i have the feeling we all will suffer for it and get to feel the terrible two's today. onthe other side it was nice being home this morning and having an extra hour trying to get something done , but half the time is already over just by searching for now. so i will keep looking otherwise we need a last second costume for soren, because we really only have girly girly costumes in our halloween box for now.

Can I live without the yearly dose of pumpkin?

YES.

But we do it anyway. Every year. And the kids have a blast. From the little ones to the big ones.

Well, yesterday we planned on going to the pumpkin farm. Usually we to Marble Falls every year. We changed plans and found one in the opposite direction, but either way both farm are an hour away from us. After it was a decision on a whimp - is there an expression like that? - we were just running late considering getting a nap for the little ones before leaving and we changed plans and found a small church pumpkin patch closer by and moved pumpkin farm plans to next weekend. We still had enough chances to take pictures and the kids had tons of fun including ending with a picknick on a near by park. the weather was just perfect for it.

- Soren tried to rearrange the whole pumpkin patch. -

Happy Pumpkin Time from us to you.

Busy Postman

Last week the postman actually rang my doorbell and delivered all my mail right to the doorstep including the bills and unwanted advertising and also package from Pam Haag  all the way from Iowa .

Pam is my friendship bag swap partner and such a sweet generous lady who spoiled all of us. Take a look at what she mailed to me. Thank you so much, Pam.

She send two of the adorable bags because she couldn't choose which one. And also made a notebook holder which is just beautiful. The kids got each a little crafts kid and socks and were all excited.

I think we can skip xmas now, because it already felt like it. LOL

My little package with the friendship bag went to Lene in Denmark.

Jeg taler ikke dansk, men jeg kan stadig sende en STOR "Hej" til Danmark.

I hope the translation program didn't make a complete fool out of me.

There is a reason for everything ...

...

even for extra high gras in our yard. It is just nice for taking pictures before being chopped of from the lawn mower. And  truly with the wind blowing through the high gras it is just something beautifully naturally that it hurts seeing the yard like it is right now. Short. Ok. I can move my eyes to the ditches and find LONG gras. lol. I have nothing against a well maintained garden, but a touch naturally is just the specially something. Unfortunately it is not happening it this yard, but perhabs someday in our garden. Still last Thursday the last day before the last down pour started I  got the camera out while the kids were playing in the back for a little while before the gras had to go.

P.S. That was two days before we would have needed extra warm clothes on the soccer field. Brrrr. 50* and Chiar was wearing here her bikini. Crazy weather.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBlue Jeans

Well, I started a new  project. And now I am stuck.

For the last projects I pretty much used only supplies I already had. A few single ones found it's way in my shopping basket, but I have not been in a fabric store for months. Mmmm. Might be time to go. Also it is fun to RECYCLE. Especially to make something new out of something old and to find ways to prevent filling up the trash can. I had fun lately making more reusable party decorations. Saves me also time to go and trying to find the right ones when we have "special" ones right here as long as the kids love them.

Back to today's and yesterday's project. I digged out the few jeans out of my yardsale box and cut them up. Now I am stuck, because I have no more until I have a chance to go finding some more to recycle next week.

But I do like the result so far. It looks like fun.

P.S. If you have any old BLUE jeans, send them my way. We still need to add some more circles.

Now we only already have one problem before it will even be finished. The quilt was supposed to be a picknick blanket and I made the mistake to say that loud, so the kids want to have it, but I already found a new perfect place for it. We will see. First we need to find more jeans.

a little bit of sewing - birthday crown

Well, I got something done on time. Even a little bit early, because it is not even November yet. I amde Chiara a birthday crown. She doesn't know.  Bella got a peek while it was in pieces and Soren of course knows, but he won't tell.

It is made out of felt with some stabilizer, some buttons for decorations and elastic in the back, covered with fabric. It was a first try.

Soren of course was also good sports to test out the sizing, because I can't show Chiara if it is supposed to be a surprise!

My little helper is actually pretty good lately, beside making a mess - lol - he is all into foam stickers, but today he got into BEANS. Big ones, little ones, white ones, black ones, red ones and green split peas - all for his indoor sand box which he turned in a "creative" cooking experience.

But what are you supposed to do at rainy weather?