Trick or Treat

I'll be off to decorate the house real quick next.. but had to share our costumes. Pics. will follow.  Drew is captain hook. Beth his first mate, Tori a Vampire, Katie is Cinderella. I am not dressing up this year <sniff> I always dress up, but the wedding took me off my schedule.

Decorations are simple, a witch crashed into our house so we have her, then our jack-o-lanters, and finally some spider webs and two pumpkin tea-light holders that stake into the ground.  I've got a large bucket I'm going to line with black trash bags and then fill with dry ice and water.. should make it a little festive without requiring much effort. Which is perfect as my effort today went into setting up more campaign signs. :o)

 

 

45 hours straight, a little sleep and a big wedding

That's where I've been. I woke up Thursday morning took the kids to school and began the last dress and a half.  I finished the last dress, after two runs to our 24-hour wal-mart, for notions, at 6:45am Friday morning. When I then proceeded to gather my girls for school. Beth and I discussed options and agreed she got the day off. Tori and Katie "had" to go, it was their halloween parade. Drew went because he cried when I suggested staying home.  Tim took them to class while Beth helped me press dresses, and pack the 6 of us to leave. Tim stopped for errands he had. At 10 we went to the school to watch the great march of costumed kids.  Collected our Vampire and Cinderella, picked up Drew who was amiable about it, only because he knew it meant his chance to wear his kilt was coming fast!!!  Lunch, home, load the car, leave. We arrived at the hotel at 2pm, checked in, unloaded,  and I tried the dresses on the two out of town girls. long by 2inches on one, perfect on the other. Phew.  3 hems later, we had dresses. But that was done between rehearsals, dinners, and partying. Oh yeah, and I slept Friday night for about 8 hours. ahhhhh.  saturday morning we had breakfast of bagels, fruit, muffins, and mimosas, w/ chocolate milk for the kids. :o)    I began getting me ready, along with Beth. A. took all 4 little girls to the park for an hour of play then to her room to bathe and dress. Bless that woman!! After hair and make-up for all we got our bride dressed, and I nearly cried. She looked gorgeous!!!! We piled the lot of us into the limo and headed to the church.  We met the boys, M was in hiding, Drew in a kilt w/ tuxedo tie and jacket... oh my.. I nearly cried (again). He was sooo damn cute and handsome. He was a proud proud little man! All the grown-up men looked very handsome in their finery.  Then it was time. I lined up the girls and Drew took my place and they walked. I walked and then the music hit me full on and I cried. Bill was radiant (can a man be radiant and still be manly? I think so).  I took my place and the bride came down, and then the ceremony which was short, simple and absolutely beautiful.  From there we went to the reception which was held at a local yacht club, on the water, gorgeous afternoon. I cannot wait to see the pictures that were taken!!!  We did a grand entrance, the couple danced, then the traditional bride/father, groom/mother dance, toasts ( I toasted, and am told I did an incredible job) and cutting the cake. Then dinner was served and the dance floor opened. It was a lovely evening, The kids behaved very well. We got to visit with many many friends and distant family and it was a marvelous night. We returned to the hotel, tucked the lifeless bodies of our children into their beds and went to the pub to celebrate traditional Irish style, hehe. Then I slept!!!

And now my brother and his wife my sister(in-law) are on honeymoon in Paris. They'll meet the group of us in Ireland on Saturday. My big brother is all married and I'm thrilled!!!!!! Now I have to go pack.

pumpkins

It was hot. Like 100 degrees hot. My poor Coastal kids were melting fast. We did the petting zoo and then picked out our pumpkins, and left. Drew was RED-faced. Tori was whithered, and I was melting.. it was hot.  BUT, we did have fun. Katie will tell you all about the goats, sheep and piglets she got to feed and/or pet.  We each got our choice pumpkin for carving. The family carving party will take place Sunday next after our church's family halloween party. All of that is after my brother gets married on Saturday.  Should be interesting. We brunch at 11am, drop Tim at the airport, nap, party at church, dinner and carve pumpkins, bath, bed.  My parents will be here to lend strong hands (dad) and moral support (mom). So it will be fun.

I'm having a moment of nostalgia.. I guess. It's not sad, just an awww. type of thing. Tonight is Drew's last night in the toddler bed. This is good, he's so excited to have his big bed. As am I. But it is the last time this toddler bed will be used in my house for any of my children... I'll take a picture of him in the morning, maybe asleep.. otherwise pretending to be asleep. hehe

Speaking of which.. it's time for me to sleep.

 

 

Stuff and things

My best friend/soulmate/husband has been sent to Balitmore. He was gone the last 2 weeks, came home for a whirlwind weekend, and left again this morning. I'm not pleased.  I'm not the dependent can't-do-formyself wife.. but I'm also still a girl, and rather a princess.. and I want my man here, my bed is modest in size, but big when I'm alone. 

So to save me from total insanity I have planned to stay very busy. In just a few minutes my crew, + 1 (friend of Beth's) will head up to my in-laws to go to their local pumpkin patch for selection of THE pumkins for our home. Dinner, home, bed for kids, netflix for me. Gilmore Girls season 2. :o)

Tomorrow after sewing in the morning, I'm going to devote a bit of time to getting Drew's room ready for his big boy bed, which arrived yesterday. It's not a loft, or a captain's bed.. it's a regular old twin bed.. but it was free, and free is good. Some shifting of furniture has to take place and some things have to come out, but all will be done as quickly as possible, for no other reason than the bed is now leaning on end in my dining room. NOT working for me. I am, however, extremely grateful to my DGMIL, for the gift of the bed.

So, between sewing up the last of the dresses, making way for a new bed, lunches with friends and 4 kids, I should be ok. Besides 4 days is a snap compared to 12!!!!

sewing..

As I've mentioned before I'm making dresses for the girls for my brothers' wedding. which is in 8 days.  We're on schedule, and so far, all is going smoothly in the task.. very smoothly.. and slippery.  Tafeta. is an evil fabric for sewing.. especially if you are a modest novice sewer, like me.  This stuff slips and slides like you wouldn't believe. UGH! 

My mom's outfit is done. I believe my dress is also done, but my mil is making it. Beth's dress is 1/2 done. The little girls dresses are cut out waiting to be put together.

Jen's sewing service will be closed from 11/1- sometime later to let her eyes, and brain regenerate. hehe.

I leave 2 weeks from today for Ireland. WOHOO!!!! I'm only a little excited.... I've started my packing list. hehe

 

 

Sadly lacking...

In the sharing of photos. So here's a bunch with captions... enjoy

1) all 4 kids on the bronze sculpture at Sea Lion Caves. It was rather chilly, can you tell??

2) The Coast of S. Oregon, there's a lighthouse behind them yu can barely see it. We saw a wild sea lion in the water just behind the kids!!!

3) So this great animal park allows for petting, feeding, and otherwise close encouters of the animal kind with some amazing animals.. here Beth is being overrun by deer, rams, and goats as she has an ice cream cone full of food pellets. I did the same thing and it was sadly not photographed but a deer had it's front hoofs on my stomach.

4) Drew quickly discovered that if you aren't trying to feed them, goats are friendly to being petted. He begged to bring "stripes" home with us. They were best friends!!!

5) my 4 with mr. and mrs. Lion behind them. It was beyond amazing to be so close to such BIG CATS!

6) Drew w/ the help of Beth is petting an 8month old Lion Cub.

7) This Drew and another "please mommy" wannabe new pet. It's an opussum in his "pouch". He was kinda cute.

8) Here's me, and my new "friend"  That's Roxy the Fox. Her fur was Sooooo soft.

9) This is Tori and Beth saying goodbye to the Ferrets. Oh I'm so mean to not let them take one home. LOL

10) 3 very happy girls. L-R  Tori, Katie, and NanaKay.

What a day...

Yesterday was slightly hectic, and today is not looking any better.  I cut and basted my mom's skirt, she tried it on...not gonna work. That material will become a beautiful blouse for Beth. In the meantime, Mom and I have to go get her material so I can try again, it was close.. just a little too snug for my liking, and I cut it too close, damn it.

After that we went and ran errands, including the beauty supply store for Mom, I did find glow-in-the-dark nail polish, all my girls and I will sport this coolness for Halloween.  We tried Wal-mart for material, close but not quite right. We'll hit the fabric store later today, maybe.   After that we picked up the girls, came home grabbed books, homework, supply boxes, and headed to pick up Drew and go to dinner/take Beth to dance.  The dance studio is diagonally cornered to the Harp Inn, so we had dinner at the Harp.  Then hung out and I chatted with my parents while Tori and Katie did homework and Drew colored.  Worked well. We might try it again next month.

Today I get to attend the awards assembly for Katie, I don't know what she's receiving but I'll be there, armed with my camera. Then Tori goes to the Ped. Dentist for extractions, poor baby. She got one pulled last week at the reg. dentist, but panicked. Today they'll use nitrous if needed to help her through.  After that I'll pick up the other two girls, come home and snuggle with my applesauce and pudding eating Pixie girl. All this so she can be tortured with braces. I feel badly for her, but at least she'll have a beautiful smile when it's done.

ok.. I'm off to find the family room before the assembly at school.

A Big Thank you

Last week I signed up to walk in the 2006 CHOC walk the park. to raise funds for our Childrens' hospital.. thank you to ALL of my sponsors I raised nearly $400.00!!!!! You are all amazing thank you so much.

The walk was awesome,  I got sniffly a few times, seeing signs and t-shirts in memory of kids, in honor of kids, etc.  But overall C. and I had a great time. It was well worth getting up at 5:30 am!

My mom took my kids to church as Tim had somewhere else to be, they are at lunch now. I'm now off to nap!!! :o)

New things

Busy morning here, after dropping the kids at school I had orientation for my new job, I had to sign all the appropriate IRS forms, etc. I'm all set now. YAY! After that I met mom for lunch, yummy salad at Coco's. Then I ran by the Salvation Army thrift store just browsing, uh huh, sure. I left with a pair of jeans, a jean skort, and a pair of shorts for Tori which is good as she had limited selection in the shorts/skorts dept. Remember, Northern readers I live where it might be 75* or warmer on Christmas day, shorts are not uncommon year round!!!

After that I hit Target, I got the items I was looking for; b-day cards for my grandmother, and gloves for Ireland.

Thankfully after picking up my girls I get to come home and be home until I go get Drew. Then I have choir tonight.. I'm ready for bed now.

I'm seriously wanting a pepsi, and there's none in house, and Ive been doing well to have 1a day for a while now... ugh. Ok. whining done.

Another weekend

Friday night we celebrated my new status as fully employed with a trip to the pub with mom, dad, Tim, and my two friends C. and B.   C and I attempted to dance but the concrete floor was not liking our feet. 

Saturday was a bday party for a friend of Drew then the bachlorette party for my future SIL, we hit Burke Williams spa and each did a treatment, then we went to Tentation ultra lounge for dinner, it was good but not a new favorite, the food was delicious but the atmosphere was too loud.  We were going to stay and do our dancing there but it didn't work out so we went to our old familiar hang out, The Harp Inn, fun was had by all.  We nearly closed the Harp. :o)

Sunday was church, then youth groups for Tori and Beth,  Between those and lunch, I took a nap on the couch as Tim napped with Drew in our bed. It was good day.

Today I signed up for the CHOC walk through the park. It's a fundraiser for the county hospital near me.  It's a place I hold close to heart as my son was there for 4 days while the doctors and nurses worked tirelessly to save him, and then again for our early arrival Victoria when she came 4 weeks early and needed some extra help they were there for us. So next Sunday I'll be walking a 5K with C. to raise funds for a good organization.

Other than that, it's crunch time on the dresses for the wedding, which is officially 26 days away!!!