Halloween

So you say it's nigh on Christmas? (I didn't know you talked like that.) No matter, I am still posting about Halloween even though it's almost December . We've got pumpkin carving, school Halloween parades, and trick-or-treating to talk about!
We carved pumpkins the week before the holiday. I didn't get one because I know that we always end up carving much of the kids' pumpkins, and I didn't want the added stress of doing my own! Joseph was dedicated to finishing his "Tardis" carving though.

Serious Joseph

Jonah wanted a tiger, so I helped him carve it, then he added some of his own embellishments. Josh and Elora carved almost their whole jack-o-lanters by themselves!



The night before the big day, Joseph was making some treats for his class party.



He had some left over chocolate, so he made me a special treat too. It was pretty tasty.



For Halloween Elora was going to be a fairy princess; we were using her wings from two years ago, her tiara from when she was a flower girl last winter, and a dress she's owned for almost four years now. It used to be a lot longer on her, as you can imagine! I decided to curl her hair up the night before. Yes, mothers of other girls will be shocked to know this is the first time I've tried curlers in her hair, even though I'm said I was going to do it for Easter for several years now. She was very excited about it.
Unfortunately, her hair didn't really dry at all that night, so it was pointless! I did curl it a bit with a curling iron that morning, and she says she got lots of compliments on it at school- most days we usually braid it.

miss fancy pants

When it was time for the school "parade" though, I brought things to put her hair up and it wasn't that curly anymore. She still looked pretty cute!





Doesn't she look so cute next to all the scary guys!

Joshua got to be batman. I tried to convince him to wear his superman outfit again, but it was only half-hearted, as I knew he'd worn it two years in a row already. So he's the only one who got a costume from the store. Lo and behold, he was one of four batmans in his class! And he was happy as a clam about it too, so I'm just glad he fit in.

look at my spider rings mom!

Jonah got a superhero cape, belt, mask,  and arm cuffs for his birthday; we combined these with his Superman shirt, and he was happy about that. Last year he was Superman too, but he was wearing his pajamas then, so to him this was a completely different costume! Eli we put in our trusty lion suit, that has been worn by everyone from Elora on down. He looked pretty cute in it too!

Joseph was a sheriff I guess. Walking the cute boys around the gym.

As for myself, I haven't dressed up for Halloween for several years now. But this year I was feeling adventurous, and I figured I could wear something that wasn't too obnoxious but still participate. I had the idea that I could wear one of my favorite skirts, my glasses, some tights, and some of my favorite pairs of black and white shoes from my highschool/college days. No one here usually sees me wear glasses, so it would look different to them; also, the only time I wear a skirt is to church, and that would stand out too. To complete my "school girl" outfit, I snagged one of Joseph's ties! Luckily, he had one in the color I needed that was still tied , because I have no idea how to tie it myself. In the end, I really looked just like myself from about 10 years ago, but no one here would know that!



When I showed up to Joseph's school, his teacher's aid (an older Lakota woman)  cackled and said, "You're a school girl here to see the teacher? Hahaha!"
While I hadn't wanted too much attention, Joseph went around pointing me out to all the other teachers, telling them, "Hey look, I'm robbing the cradle!" All the highschool kids kept eyeing my shoes too, like they'd never seen anything like them.
They have a costume contest each year for each of the age categories, and for the adults. THey didn't announce the winners at the school like they usually do, but then next day Joseph says it was in the announcements. Elora and I both won a prize: I got third place for the adults, and I think she got second!
Oh yeah, while we were at the school, I took pictures of this high school student, just because I thought he looked cool.

The Crow. For real.

That evening we set out to trick-or-treat. The day before it had been balmy and warm, but of course this night there was a biting wind! Elora and I were freezing in our skirts.  The first year we were here we drove up to Faith to get our candy, but since then we've decided that they get plenty just going to the houses here where we live. Sadly, a lot of the kids who live here do leave for the night- some travel the two hours to Rapid so they can get a better haul! Even though lots of the families are missing for that reason, all the teachers are here still, and the kids get plenty. (Seriously, we're still finishing it off!)

knock knock!

I love when the sky looks like this in the east, so we got plenty of pictures.

Elora has an awesome bag that grandma made when she was small.

trick or treat mom!

I hope you had a good Halloween too!

The Glider Footrest thingy

So we have this glider stool thing. We got it for free, and there was a tiny little tear in the fabric when we got it a few years ago. Since that time, the smallest little people at our house have picked at the little hole,and torn it alittle bigger. Then the littlest one of all got kind of mobile,and the stool was his favorite thing to play with. He accidentally tore the hole reeeaaallly big. Then he kept pulling little pinches of stuffing out,so that every day we had to put the stool upside down so he wouldnt' mess with it.

Well, I decided this was getting a little ridiculous, since we couldn't even put the stool upright to use it correctly. I didn't want to throw it away (even though, as I said, it was free). So I decided to fix it. One day when we made the big trip to the city, I perused the utility fabrics at Walmart, and found the perfect one for our living room.



It took all day, but I think it turned out nice! After my amateur apholstery job was dry,Joseph put the stool back together for me. The stupid base was made of particle board, so the original holes for the screws were stripped, and Joseph had to reposition the glidy part. So if you look at it straight on, it doesn't look exactly right, but from the top, it looks pretty nice! And at least we don't have to turn it upside down anymore.

Photos at Seven

It's that time of year again, our annual birthday pictures for Elora. Our big plan was to go to the school playground and take pictures around the toys; unfortunately there were people over there when the time was best, so we fiddled around taking photos out in the fields nearby until they all left. For the last two years Elora's wall photo has been in a yellow grassy field so I didn't want to go that route, but darn it, those were some of the best shots again!

The glasses were an issue again, because half of the pictures that would have normally been okay, I threw out because of the reflections obscuring her eyes. But no way would I have her take them off, I don't want her to think they're not pretty.

 Also, I wish I would have done her hair cute. I always forget that people usually do their girls' hair up nice for photos, but I never think of it until too late. I'll always think it'll look nice and natural just loose, but really, it looks kind of messy. It's silly, because I usually braid it or do something nice for school. Oh well.

 

I love the top right one here.

I like the ones by the fence even better, but they're still really similar to last year. 

 

I love the top right the best: so cute!

While we were walking along the fence, we found a cool animal skull! I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if it is a cow or a horse, but both Elora and I thought it was pretty cool. We hung it on the fence, and Elora wanted to have her picture taken with it, just for fun. A girl after my own heart.

That one in the upper right is a little foreboding! She better watch out.

Then she got acting goofy, so we knew we were done in this spot!

While we were still waiting for the playground, we did a few miscelaneous shots around, but most of them weren't that great. Elora had fun taking them though. It was her idea to do the serious face to the left.

Finally we got to got check out the playground. Of course, it wasn't that optimal light time anymore, but whatcha gonna do? First we went around random toys, just so Elora would be happy that we took pictures by everything.



Too busy, but Elora was happy! Best composition: bottom right. Best face: bottom left.

Standing by the swingset is kind of cute, but we already have too many photos on the wall with a slanty element, so I won't use it this time.

What I really had my eye on was the bright red-orange swingset. I thought it might look cool with her pretty blue sweater. The first few pics I took her face looked great, but I was still figuring out where I should stand, and I don't really like how she's just straight on right in the middle of the shot.

Top right is probably best here.

When I figured out the best place to stand, she was already tired of standing there, and was acting so silly. I really like how she fits in the frame on the top right, but she's got such a goofy face. Silly girl.

I could see using the top left or bottom right here.

By now it was starting to get too dark, and we had begun walking back to our house. Then I saw the light shining on this brick wall, so we decided to take one last group of shots. I know a brick wall is so cliche for portraits, but these might be some of the best ones we got! She was laughing and moving around, but we still managed to capture a few. When Igot them home, I was messing with effects in photoshop. At first I loved  the manipulated photos best, but now I'm liking some of the plain ones better. It's highly likely I'll use one of these for the wall (unless I decide to use a slide one, since that was my goal all along.) Which do you like?

 

Top: I like the left, Middle: I like the right, Bottom: undecided

In this last group she started getting goofy (and I was trying not to get mad, since the sun was almost down and I'd just found the perfect place to stand!) I love her laughing in the middle shot, though I don't like how her glasses cut right across her eye.

 

 

The light was about gone then, and we had to head home, but we had fun while it lasted!

 

 

 



So, since I'm sure you wanted to know, out of all of these groups these are my favorites (as of this posting; it might change tomorrow):

 

 

 

Do you have any that you like best?

Elora is seven!

October is an awesome month, made even more marvelous by the fact that Elora turned seven! Can you beleive it's been seven years since this cute little girl was born! She was so excited for her birthday. We had a pink cake with pink frosting, and she chose to have autumn leaves on  top.

 

We used Disney Princess decorating Gels. So exciting.

 

 

 She got to help decorate around the edges, and by adding sprinkles.

 

what a pro!

 

 

 Lovely, consitdering it started out like this:

 

 



 

 

For Elora's class, we decided to make Halloween cupcakes again. The frosting was supposed to be red (Elora's favorite color, and also like blood.) But instead it turned out a magenta pink. Then we made little bones that I found on pinterest. We were going to do crossbones, but it just wasn't working so we just did one. So yeah, her class was probably confused at the cupcakes, but at least Elora liked them!

 

 

We bought Elora a new coat this year, because the one she got for her fifth birthday has a very broken zipper. I bought a zipper to try and fix it, but realized I had no idea what I was doing so I just bought a new coat. It's a very pretty coat, and was deeply discounted, but I was sad that it's not nearly as warm as her old coat, despite its snuggly appearance. The coat offerings online before October are decidedly sparse. And the sleeves are actually much longer than they look here; we had to roll them up once so it would fit better.

 

 

 

Grandma got Elora the best present: a bead weaving kit! The very next day, Elora made an awesome bracelet! Good job Elora.

 

 

 

 

 

We capped off the celebrations with a nice game of Jenga! Happy Birthday, Elora!

 

yes, the kids are all in their ghetto pajamas