Parties, Fun and a house......oh my!

Sariah wanted to be Tinkerbell this year so we decided that our family would be Peter Pan themed and I of course took it upon myself to make the costumes. Man, what an endeavor. I wouldn't have been able to finish them if I hadn't of had the help of my mom. She came down here a couple of weekends ago and bless her heart, she sewed her little brains out! But they all turned out fabulous if I do say so myself. We have entered our family into a few contests and are hoping to win a few things for our new house.

Spence costume was made using a Simplicity pattern. I made everything including the hat, boots, ruffles and the coat. This was, by far, the hardest sewing endeavor I've had to tackle. Even with my two years sewing Lagoon costumes! The hardest part was getting the top part of the coat to fit Spence just right. As many of you know, he's an extremely tall man with little "pudge" (especially since he's lost 20 lbs this year!) so I had to use the XL size for his "lengthiness" but he's definately not an XL in the "wide" area. It was fun to find the braid and the buttons that totally made the costume work all together. And I do say, he makes a very sexy, Captain Hook!

The approximate cost of his costume was about $75 for the whole thing-a-ma-jigger. Not to bad, especially since it's tailored to him (I probably would find one that had too short of arms....well, too short of everything) and I couldn't find just the coat for less than $50 on the internet. Plus, I have had the fun and craziness of constructing it and the pride in seeing the finish product.

For Sariah's Tinkerbell I used an adult small size green dress, took it in, cut off the bottom, put sequins and rhinestones on it and called it good. My grandma gave Sariah the slippers for her birthday so I just put elastic on them to keep them from slipping off her feet. The wings I picked up from Savers for $2.50. She has the perfect blonde hair for it! Total cost of the costume- $12.50.
Eli's Peter Pan costume was the easiest. I got a shirt from Saver's for $1.00 and cut it up and made a collar. The belt came with some corduroy pants he has had for a while. The leggings are Sariah's (size 2T) and the hat was made from cheap felt sheets and a red feather. Total cost for Eli's costume... a whopping $2!
My Wendy costume was made using a Simplicity women's nightgown pattern. It was for a shorter style so I just lengthened it and instead of buttons on the fron (like they had it) I converted it to a zipper on the back. I then added a thick ribbon to the waist and it was done! Total cost for my costume was about $17.00 (mainly for the pattern and lots of the pretty fabric).



So all in all, our costumes turned out great and thanks to Joann's coupons it ended up being a pretty reasonably priced Halloween this year. If anybody wants to borrow them for next year (given you are roughly the same sizes as us), let us know. We'd love for them to get good use!



I had to finish these costumes for a Halloween party we were invited to. We had an enjoyable night. Thanks for inviting us, Nielson's! You guys throw a "spook"tacular event!



The day of the Halloween party was also Sariah's birthday so earlier in the day we had a party at the park. I had everything planned out that I would get there an hour early (it was at 10:30), get a ramada (it's Thunderbird park-they have tons of them) set up and things would go smoothly from there. Boy, did I have it wrong.



Well we left an hour early but I had to pick up a few things from Walmart and blow up some balloons. Before I started to do my "quick paced" shopping, I dropped off the balloons at the customer service to have them work on them while I was shopping. I came to the check with groceries in hand and the manager was just handing them off for someone else to do them. She said it would just be a few minutes so I took my groceries out to the car-where Spence was waiting with the kids- went back in and waited, and waited, and waited........and waited. For 25 minutes!!!!!!! I kept saying to myself, "How long does it take to blow up 8 balloons?", "Should I just leave?", "I'm going to be late!" but I kept a smile on my face. I think they could tell I was a little peeved because they kept saying "I'll go check and see how your balloons are going".



Well, we didn't get to the park until 5 minutes before the party was supposed to start and as we pulled up I could just tell that it was going to be packed and we weren't going to even get a table. They had this baptist church that took half of the ramadas. By that point I was in tears and so frustrated that things didn't work how I had planned. I had such great support from the parents and my husband and it turned out to be a great party. We found a nice spot under a tree, given we didn't have any tables and chairs, and we had the party there. The kids didn't care. Sariah didn't care. She had fun. And that's what matters, right?



The kids played on the playground, sat in a circle and painted pumpkins, and hit a pinata full of fun surprises. We had some of Sariah's favorite foods like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, veggies and dip, raisins, goldfish crackers and pretzels. We also had Capri Suns. After the pinata we cut the cake (which was absolutely perfect-made by my friend Amy) and opened presents. Like I said, Sariah had a really great time. She didn't understand why I was crying and now I look back and don't know why I did. I just wanted it to be perfect for her and it turned out to be.

Eli's past time was playing with the balloons. Eventually all seven ended up flying away.Eli playing with the pumpkins

The beautiful cake my friend Amy made. It was Funfetti cake with vanilla frosting and was absolutely delicious and very perfect for Sariah. Thank you Amy!

Eli eating bread mixed with grass and leaves. Yum!

Left to right: Back-Gianna, Jessie, Bella, Sariah, Josh, McKay, Gabe, Eva

Front- Eli, Lydia, Eva, Audrey, Jay, Hailey

Sariah and her friend Lydia

So another form of news is that I have been accepted into Maricopa Community College's nursing program and will be starting in January. Hurray! I am so excited! The only downfall is that it's not the program I was hoping for (either the weekend or weeknight part time program). Instead it's the full time day program for four semesters. When I called to ask the school what my schedule was going to be they said to plan on Monday through Friday 8-4 but when asking current students their schedules they said it varies and sometimes you only have classes two days a week. Pretty much, I have to be flexible. With that schedule, it looks like Spence might have to be Mr. Mom sometimes. He asked for all closing shifts starting in January and there might be a few nights where I'll need to get a sitter for a few hours but I'm not too worried about it. I'm sure it will all work out. At least I hope it does! But since Spence will be Mr. Mom during the days, it means he will have to take my place teaching Sariah's preschool class. Here's what we did the first week. He got a little on the job training and taught the kids how to make icecream (for our lesson about dairy products) It went really well, the kids really enjoyed him.....and the icecream.

I love this picture because it shows how beautiful and long Sariah's hair is. After 3 years we still haven't cut it. Don't know if we ever will :)!

Middle of October and still playing in the water. Gotta love this weather!

One more thing to note, our offer on our house was approved. We did the inspection and all went well- a few minor bumps and bruises on the house but nothing major (it's to be expected for a nine year old house). We are finishing up the final paperwork and our closing date is set for the 15th. Wish us well. Please pray for us. We think and are almost for certain that this house is the one for us. After six years, it's about time!

Hope you all are doing well! Have a fun and safe Halloween holiday! We love you all!