Happy Halloween!

We had a full and enjoyable Halloween Week. 

This year the boys were sharks. Even though I bought the supplies at the end of September, I never seem to be able to carve out the time I need until the last-minute forces me to make the time. I worked on these Sunday night after the boys went to bed. I really like how they turned out. Good ol' hoodies and felt. I also used some very heavy stabilizer to make the teeth and fins stand out. The eyes were buttons.

Monday, October 28th:

Chatfield hosted a Trick or Treat Street that evening, hence the Sunday night sew-a-thon. Reid tried his on first:

 Aiden went straight for blood as soon as he tried his on:

In my classroom:

Their favorite number is 18, because that's Peyton Manning's number. I did help them draw the eights, but they're getting better at writing.

 Aiden did that swirl on his own:

Tuesday evening:

Helping me make meatloaf:

Aiden has been wearing a patch at times to help strengthen his right eye:

On Wednesday evening, the boys' preschool held a Fall Festival. The local firemen brought over their fire trucks which of course was a big hit:

Inside the preschool they played games. My phone' battery died just after these pictures so I used Eric's phone to get more pics of the evening. Just haven't gotten them off of his phone yet.

David sent a picture of Eva opening a couple of gifts I sent to her that week. I made a bag for her using that Trick or Treat Tote pattern. I used duck cloth in school bus yellow and pink reflector ribbon that I purchased from Purl Soho. It turned out cute.

My mom went to visit David, Kelsey, and Eva at the beginning of November and sent me this picture:

I also sent Eva this weenie dog shirt I spotted at Kohl's. It was too cute to not get. As an added bonus, it appears that she can share it with her puppy-brother, Stooey:

On Wednesday night, we carved pumpkins:

On Thursday, the boys had their Halloween party at school. Eric and I volunteered to help, but it seems that they don't usually have parents help because we were the only ones there. Oh well. It was still fun to see all of the kids dressed up.

Thursday evening:

Insert Jaws theme music.

It was very blustery on Halloween (Casper worthy), but the boys made it to quite a few houses. We walked down the path to my mom's cul-de-sac and did those houses first. Then we connected back onto our street which circled around to our house. I think we probably went to a couple dozen houses. The boys started complaining about being tired about 2-3 houses away from our house, so it was the perfect route.

Always fun to easily be able to include Grandma's house on our route:

 

I originally started using hoodies a couple of years ago, because I figured they would be good for bundling up underneath. The last two Halloweens (monkeys; dinosaurs) have been so nice that we haven't needed the layers. This year we definitely felt the chill.

Reid requested suckers, while Aiden usually picked chocolate:

I bought some orange string lights on clearance at the grocery store. It added a nice touch- two thumbs up from Reid:

A little humor from the subject that I've found most grad students fear the most- Statistics! 

BOO!

I hope all of you had a good Halloween. It was fun to see everyone's pictures of Trick-or-Treaters as they were posted on FaceBook.

Trick or Treat Totes

Howdy! 

We're still here. Fall semester is always so tough. We go from Labor Day to Thanksgiving without a break, which makes for three challenging months. One can only work so many 60-hour weeks without going crazy, so I stole two hours on Thursday night and sewed these cute Trick or Treat Tots that I found on Purl Bee's blog. As I wrote on Facebook, it was nice to create something that didn't involve Word and Equation Editor. While I'm a whiz with both, creating worksheets, tests, and quizzes really doesn't fulfill my creative needs. The totes turned out cute and Eric reported that the boys spent most of the day filling them up and taking things out. That was good news since they tend to reject my hand-made goods. What really drew me to this project was the use of reflective ribbon. I had never heard of that before. I did add a few inches here and there to make room for more candy, but I was very pleased with the pattern and techniques that were used. To save time I ordered two kits from their website. However, because they sell the reflective ribbon separately these can easily be made without the kits.

Please, think happy thoughts for us. We've been sick with colds for the past few weeks. Because we were sick, we postponed our flu shots and now Eric seems to be coming down with the flu. I have two evenings/nights of parent-teacher conferences Wednesday and Thursday with five full days of teaching. I think Grandma's going to get called in from the bullpen quite a few times in the next couple of weeks. See you for a Halloween report, if not before. I have some cute ideas for the boys' costumes and have already bought the supplies. As long-time readers, you know felt and hoodies will be involved. Uff da! 

I think I can... I think I can... I think I can...