Dear Seam Ripper

We are no longer friends.
I mean it.
Your ex friend,
Abi

Checking it Twice

Trying to get Claire to commit to some things that she wants from Santa this year. Last year her list was excellent- easy to find, fun to buy, mostly in square boxes for simple wrapping.
This year Nick's list has been the simple one. I have an abundance of ideas to fill his stocking and then some and his pile of gifts just keeps growing. He even drew his list for Santa this year. (If I find the picture I'll share it)
Claire drew a list as well. She drew a car, a house and some blocks. :/ Santa needs a larger sleigh and a bigger bank roll.
Merry Christmas!

My Very Own Bathroom Makeover

My sister hosted Thanksgiving this year.

 We had a great time bowling, hiking, baking, eating, laughing and just enjoying being around people who completely 'get' us.

She and her amazing and handy hubby redid their bathroom for the occasion. (mostly because it needed done and this would force them to finish it in a timely manner and not put it off in favor of more fun ventures)

You can see the progress and the final (super amazing!) product on her blog HERE.

Her bathroom came out so nicely that it inspired me. 

Enter the wreath.

What? you say, your bathroom is not decorated with a gigantic twig wreath for the holidays?  

How grinch-like. 

Why is there a gigantic twig wreath in my bathtub? 

Glad you asked:

This summer I went garage saleing with the same sister and she got some great finds and I got a wreath for my new house. (that is no longer) But I still have a door at my now home so I planned to hang it when I arrived home from Thanksgiving as a sort of kick-off to my decorating efforts; but much to my dismay I was greeted with the most festive of live pine wreaths on my front door when I staggered home late Monday night. (thank you upstairs neighbor) So there it hangs... wishing it had a home, but knowing it will have to go back in the closet for another year... or to someone else's door... we haven't decided yet. 

Are you decorating? Cleaning in preparation? In need of a wreath? it's kinda sparkly.... 

Nothing to See Here

Ok- Halloween is over and I didn't post any pictures of the kids in costume (Izzy the pirate and a dragon) or about the bat seen on the way to the Halloween dance that Daddy took C to. OR pictures of our awesome pumpkins that I carved (even though they were made of what we can only imagine was concrete since it took me 2 hours to carve C's tiny pumpkin)
I didn't post about our first ever official playdate and how I am so glad that I got married young or else I'm sure I'd still be single because I suck at the whole dating thing...
I don't have any pictures of hubby and myself from a wedding we went to recently (sans kids) where we looked amazing!
There are also no comments about leaving our kids with strangers a babysitter for the first time ever. And how much I wished my mommy lived a tiny bit closer to us so she could be the one to tuck them in for me.
I might get around to posting about my new obsession with going hiking- not hiking itself - just the idea of it... and the poor timing of such a desire since it is cooling off quickly here and hiking in the snow holds no actual appeal to me.
There was nothing to say about the glowing review C received from here Kindergarten teacher at Parent Teacher Conference this year.
There is no mention of hurricane Sandy or our fiery adventures from that night. No mention of the fact that I got to call 911 twice in one night and did not see any fire/police men at all.  Nor video posted of said fire or large waves captured by my lunatic husband. Or the assurances for distant relative that we are completely fine and did not even loose our cable or power for a moment.

I went to the storage unit today- to get the Christmas decorations out because we will be using them here and not in the new house as we suspected we would just months ago. That was more difficult than I expected. Seeing all the boxes packed and ready to go, labeled for the rooms they were destined for no longer. I thought I was over this whole not moving thing, turns out I've just been ignoring it.

In true holiday spirit J is sick. This year he chose to do it preemptively and with a Dr's note. Too bad for him it's just a sinus infection and he'll be healed in three days with antibiotics just in time for the fun to begin!  (he is not contagious)

C is planning her first invite-multiple-friends-to-her-house-to-do-something party for next month. I'll make sure to post about that (let's say in Jan?)
N is practicing for Christmas by discovering all the toys that went into storage and are now slowly returning. It's like Christmas every day here. :)

 So now you are caught up and hopefully I can keep it that way.

My Little Monsters

My Little Pumpkins

 We carved pumpkins  this weekend. Because C was convinced that we were the only people IN THE WORLD without a Jack-O-Lantern on our porch. And she reminded me of the fact for the past week anytime we passed a house with pumpkins.

This year both kids put their hands in the pumpkin and for the most part cleaned out their own pumpkins. YAY!

Supermom

Yesterday was one of those days when I could read those 'I-make-my-own-bread-while-my-6-kids-play-educational-games-with-homemade-play-dough-in-organic-homemade-outfits' blogs and not feel like a complete failure as a mother. For a brief moment I was part of their crowd. I made a sensory box (ok a box filled with beans and construction trucks that I found while cleaning my bedroom).

But the read piece de resistance- I DIYed a Halloween costume. Claire is now of the age where she has opinions (on everything). So of course she picked a pirate princess from her favorite Disney TV show to dress up as for Halloween. In the past I have kept their costumes more generic, less commercial but nothing could sway her from being Izzy for Halloween. So I looked up the costume. Here it is:

Simple enough. Pink shirt, purple pants, strange shoes for over your shoes and a bandanna with a wig. 

Now guess the price. No really. 

$82! 

I waited to see if it would go on sale. Bad move, apparently Izzy is the hot costume this year, and the price went from ridiculous to downright absurd. This weekend I could not only not find it in C's size but the one or two I did find were upwards of $100. for a costume she will wear 3 times? Enter sewing machine, several youtube tutorials, and rummaged and reclaimed fabric.

4 hrs later I had this:

Pretty good for my first attempt at a shirt + first puffed sleeves + made my own pattern. Plus it cost me $0.(that's right you can be amazed- call me super mom)
So C is done and now N wants me to make him a crocodile costume. I'm not so sure about that one. :/
Stay tuned for the next DIY where we make something you can't even imagine DIYing.

Apples Apples Everywhere

 We went apple picking! And have been eating apple ever since. We picked them down low, we picked them up high- and we ate them (a lot of them).

 We went with some dear friends of ours the Niccodemmi's - They have a name similar to Aunt Ami's- you just start doubling letters and you just - can't - stop.

Don't worry- we took Jimmy too this time.

 We picked a TON of apples and I have so far made Apple Pie (plus two pies worth of filling in the freezer) Apple Sauce (3 made, 1 1/2 left) And I just bought some pork since I hear pork and apples go well together. (any recipes are welcome)

Happy Birthday!

 This past weekend we celebrated.... and celebrated .... and celebrated C's 5th Birthday. She had a cake from Brooklyn's finest bakery with Grandma and Grandpa Bill. it looked like a bouquet of flowers with butterflies flying all around it. (it was truly spectacular in truth)
Then we opened gifts. We got some great school clothes and a few toys and a bright yellow rain coat!

 The bonus of having two sets of grandparents in the same town is two parties! So mommy tossed half of the flower cake that didn't get eaten and made a new cake, complete with a sprinkle filled number 5 and Cinderella candles.
Again we opened gifts. We had a mystical theme for this one completely unintentionally. She got fairy wings, a unicorn pillow pet that lights up, fairy stampers (which we haven't stopped playing with since we opened them) and stompies!
This girl shares her mother's love for 'As Seen on TV' gifts.

Nap Time

In Kindergarten C needed a nap mat. The school suggested a beach towel- umm no. I have been in schools and seen their old, cold linoleum floors and how often they are actually cleaned. So a beach towel on the floor wasn't going to cut it for my princess (yes I am choosing to be 'that' parent). 

So I went on a hunt, the mat had to be roughly the size of a beach towel but more plush and completely washable. Originally I thought I'd just sew two towels together with some batting in the middle. But then I found this gem. (I wish I had a pic of it all rolled out but I don't) It is a bath mat- for the worlds largest bathroom from what I can tell. It is slightly narrower than a beach towel and a tad bit longer. It is  plush but not too plush- completely machine washable- not too heavy- like I said perfect! 

Except she had to carry it to and from school and fit it into her cubby- it needed straps!

 So straps it got.

Please excuse my face- I of course waited till the night before to mat had to go to school to sew these things on. But check out the ribbon I found: lime green whales :)

I sewed the straps on and attached some velcro to secure it. 

If it hadn't been so late I would have made C roll it out and lay on it for a final shot before it went to school BUT again- midnight and all. 

We'll see how well it holds up- she used it yesterday and said it was good. 

I think it is Excellent and wish there was nap time in my day.

on to the tree skirt- I have a few months to complete this one... I'll keep you updated.

Somewhere in the Neighborhood

 We found a new park near our house today. It is right by the bridge and it has a brand new playgound- with an awesome water feature we are going to have to check out sometime before it gets cold again.

                                               

 We checked out all the park had to offer- Spectacular views, a kayak and canoe launch in case GB and Pappi decide to drop in with their boats. 

  Plenty of bugs.

 And most importantly lots of laughter and smiles.

Kindergarten

We started kindergarten. Ms. Baim is our teacher and we really like her. So much so that today (the second day of school) we came home and began collecting all the things 'My teacher needs'. Mostly they were craft supplies (things already on the school supply list), glue sticks and sequins of course and then there were the paper towels (also on the list) but why C? 'Because she used all of her's to clean up the sick of that kid in my class'.
So I guess today went pretty well for us. We made a monkey and we were not the sick kid, or the kid who was crying or the kid who peed her pants. I'd say we are off to a great start. And looking forward to a great year.

In Other News

I try to keep this thing less of a pity party - sob fest and more of an upbeat view on life I tried as long as I could not to post this post. But some things in life don't come with an upbeat twist or a sarcastic cover. So here goes.   We are not moving.    At the last min. my husband's boss' decided that they didn't actually want him in NC and bam-O! We are not moving.  We were able to get out of our contract with the builder in NC for only our current life savings. And hope to get out of the contract to sell our current home equally as un-sued. So cancel your plane tickets and put on hold your plans to visit because we are staying put.
It has been very hard to give up the dream home we were building. Harder still to hear that they were pulling the tile out of our master bathroom and kitchen. The plan is literally in pieces. We are slowly picking them up one at a time, brushing them off and trying to figure out how this puzzle goes back together.
For now J still has a job, everyone is healthy (not always the case through this thing) and we are still a family with two wonderful and oblivious kids. Claire is excited for the start of Kindergarten in a week and a half. and Nick is looking forward to having all the toys to himself for a change. It's been a whirl-wind summer and it can't end fast enough for me. Fall is coming and I am eager to see what it brings.

From FL With Love

We've been gone- now we are back. 

I vowed to take more photos with my 'actual' camera this summer so that my kids will not think that everything in the years 2011-2012 was pixelated like a cell phone photo. I think I did ok on this trip.

We saw some wildlife.

Went to the beach.

With the added bonus of a jelly fish encounter. (She's fine- and a complete trooper.)

We went to the pool,

 

 

and perfected our swimming. (more to come on this later)

 

 We ate (everything- as the scale tells me now). We even made our our own donuts

 We went to the Children's Museum of Naples and HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with a day or two to kill. We drove daddy's car and tried out some careers.

And of course we picked up just a few oranges.

 

We celebrated Grandma's Birthday.

And played with all her toys.

 

After all that fun it was time to fly home... 

It would be a complete lie if I said I wished we were still there, but if I said I wished we hadn't gone that would be a lie too.