Halloween 2010

This year, since Halloween was on Sunday, we celebrated on Saturday. I opted for the homemade costume again this year for Abi. My mom made her's last year, and I was just planning on buying one this year, but I was looking and couldn't find anything that I liked that was her size. Besides, everyone wanted too much money for their costumes anyway. I don't know why, the material on them is usually paper-thin or mostly foam.

Anyway, I was thinking of what Abi could dress up as, when we took a trip to the dollar movie to see Toy Story 3. I thought that Barbie would be kind of cute and pretty easy. So, I searched online for legwarmer patterns for babies (she ended up dressing up as "Workout Barbie") to get some ideas and made up a sweatband pattern to match. The result: one pretty cute baby who wouldn't leave the sweatband on for more than a couple of minutes. (sigh) Why do we parents even bother? Oh, yeah. Because it's cute. Anyway, here's what she looked like.

...and a back view

Abi is still a little young to really understand Halloween (but really, how many people know the "true meaning" of Halloween, besides dressing up and getting candy?) but Kevin took her trick-or treating anyway to a few houses. While she may not understand Halloween, she does understand candy and when people start giving it to her by the handful, she thinks it's a pretty sweet (get it "sweet") deal. So, needless to say, she really enjoyed herself.

Kevin and I weren't as festive. He threw on a Red Sox shirt and was a Red Sox fan and I wore normal clothes and went as Barbie's mom.

Another fun thing about Halloween is the time Abi gets to spend with her cousins. Savannah and Karina came over to our house to visit dressed up as a horse (yes, it's a horse, not a cow) and a white tiger. Uncle Aaron thought they all looked so cute he wanted a picture with them.

Uncle Aaron, great with the kids, and yes ladies, he's single! (wink, wink)

Savannah the "horse"

Abi has a hard time keeping her hands (and face) off baby Karina.

Later we went over to my parent's house where all of my siblings and Abi's other cousins were. Mel found a cute little pumpkin princess costume for Riley and Rowan was "Woody" from Toy Story.



We all wanted pictures of the kids and thought it would be cute if they each sat with a pumpkin, but since they all can get up and walk on their own, it didn't quite work out how we would have liked. This is what I got.





Not exactly what we had in mind. The only way to get them to hold still for a few seconds was with candy.

Riley was concentrating SO hard to get that last piece of candy out of the box.

Angela came over to my parent's house a little later so my mom and sisters could see Karina. Abi was excited to share her "daddy-side" cousins with her "mommy-side" cousins.

Rowan wanted a turn holding the baby (love that face).

Abi introducing Riley and Savannah to each other.

Riley's pretty happy about it.

All in all, I think that everyone had a great time. I hope this will become a tradition for us every Halloween!

Wanna Project? I Suggest One of These.

Today I was brainstorming on what to get for Abi for Christmas, because, I'll admit it, we're poor. So, Christmas is really all going to be about her. I was thinking if things that she likes; playing outside, coloring, but she really loves to watch her two favorite shows: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Wallace and Gromit / Shaun the Sheep (he was born from Wallace and Gromit, so I'm counting them as the same thing).

You can find Mickey mouse stuff at the store (though not as much as Disney Princess or Dora the Explorer, ugh), so I thought it would be really cool if we could find her a Gromit toy, because he's her absolute favorite. I have never seen them in the store, so I thought I'd look online. There's not much luck there either. Well, not in my price range anyway. A 7" bean-bag toy of Gromit on Amazon costs $39.99. Yikes. I don't think so.

So then I got to thinking, "well maybe I could make one." So I started searching the web for any patterns I might be able to use. Lo and behold I found this website (it's also listed on my blog list). She (or at least I'm assuming it's a she) has the CUTEST little animals and characters that she has crocheted. They are a-freakin'-dorable. She even has a few free patterns and guess who's one of them? (Insert angelic singing here) GROMIT!! The best thing about it is that this pattern in approx 17" inches tall. And so cute! Just look at him!

Isn't he adorable?

I am definitely going to do it, now that I have finished Abi's Halloween costume, but that's another post.

Chili Night at the Schmidt's House

Last Sunday was our Schmidt family "third Sunday" dinner and we had a chili cook-off since it's October and the perfect time of year for chili. I forgot our camera, so there aren't any picture contributions from me. Hopefully someone else will post some on our family cooking blog. That's where I'll post the recipes I used for our chili and corn muffins we brought.

I'll just sum it up as delicious and lots of fun. We played the game "Hedbanz" afterward. (Yes, that is how it's spelled) It's where you have an identity, thing or location on your forehead and you have to guess who or what or where you are using only "yes" or "no" questions. That was fun too. And I have no pictures of that either. Slacker.

New Cousin!

The same day we went to the park was also the day Abi got a new cousin. Kevin's sister Angela and her husband Jon had their second child, Karina Shizu. Here's what she looks like.





Big sister Savannah, who's only 14 months old, thought getting a new baby sister was pretty cool.


So cool in fact, she started to walk the same day Karina was born. That was exciting, though her mommy was in the hospital and didn't get to see her first steps. I felt so bad for her. I think I would be really disappointed if I missed my daughter's first steps. She showed her mommy and daddy that night at the hospital, though.


We didn't go to the hospital to see cousin Karina because cold and flu season has just started and the hospital would not allow any children under the age of fourteen in with the newborns unless they were immediate family. Kevin's mom told me that the hospital almost wouldn't let them in with Savannah because they thought she belonged to her. They kept questioning her and saying, "are you sure your not the mother?" Uh, hello. Yes, I'm sure she's sure. Anyway, so we didn't see Angela and the baby until they came home a few days later.

Abi wasn't really sure what to think at first.

Then she got the hang of it.

While we were all mesmerized by the tiny-ness of the new baby, Abi and Savannah eventually lost interest and played in the baby's bouncy chair instead.

Which is something they do on a regular basis, even at our house.

I just think it's so cute how they both have to be in it at the same time. So cute.

Anyway, the girls would play, then, occasionally walk over to the baby, jabber something in baby talk, give Karina a kiss on the head, then go back to playing. It was cute. New babies are so much fun.

Day at the Park

How ungrateful am I? Our computers get fixed, and do I catch up on my blogging? No. Oh, well. Here I go. Last week (I think) Abi and Riley had a play date at the park by Riley's house. It was a park that I had been to before as a child, but never knew where it was, so the minute we pulled up to it, I had flashbacks of being there with my grandma. Anyway, Melanie and I both brought our cameras and took pictures. Here's what I got.

This is what happened when we tried to get them to pose next to each other on the bottom of the slide. There's just too many distractions at the park.

This one might be my favorite.

Computers are fixed; it's a miracle!

No, seriously, it is a miracle. Neither of our computers had been working for sooooo long, way before I put up that post. I was just about at my wits end at that time, so stressed out about everything. I didn't know what to do or how to fix them without spending a fortune. I was, honestly, freaking out inside about them. I was racking my brain thinking, "who do we know who is a computer whiz?" "Who will look at these pieces of junk for free?" The answer the entire time was sitting next door. Our neighbor, who Kevin has been friends with for a long time turns out to be a computer genius on top of being a really awesome guy (and not geeky at all). He fixed both of our computers and upgraded the software on them and adjusted everything so they would work properly. I cannot express how relieved and grateful I am to him. We are so reliant on these stupid things that my whole world comes crashing down when they do. Thanks Drew! You are AWESOME!!

Computer Crap

So the reason I haven't been blogging much is our computers are both on the fritz. Our newer computer (which is only about a year old) shuts off without any warning. I thought that maybe it was a fan issue, but now I'm not sure. We haven't had any time or money to take it somewhere to get it looked at. It's times like these that I wish we had more geeky friends who would look at it for free. Our other computer, which is one that I bought ages (it seems) ago hasn't been working for some time. It freezes up so bad that we just have to shut it down. We just bought some more RAM for it to see if maybe that would help, but nope. So we have two laptops and neither work. It's frustrating. Especially since I need email for work, not to mention things like paying bills online, or banking, or blogging. Stuff like that. Kevin's pretty frazzled about the whole thing as well. I hate technology.

How am I blogging now, you ask? Well, we occasionally borrow Kevin's parents' laptop. This is one of those occasions, though I feel like we rely on them for so much right now. This is just one more thing. Like I said, frustrating.