Let's See....

Here we are, on my 34th Birthday.  Wow.  34 seems really old.  But it's not.  But it is.

I've been a bit behind in the blogging.  Last weekend (deer opener) Jay was "up north" in Morris area for another lack luster year of hunting.  Ella & I traveled to Worthington to visit Grandma Alice, Grandpa Gary and Grandma Dianne and Grandma Deb.  It was a nice weekend and we had fun seeing everyone. 

This past weekend was a little crazy.  Grandma Jolyn was in the hospital unexpectedly Thursday night and released Saturday night.  She was having extremely high blood pressure.  Thankfully they seem to have it stabilized now with medicine.  This week we're taking turns staying home with Ella and then next week it sounds like Jolyn will be back to the routine.  We want her to rest up and keep herself healthy!  Especially to have the energy to keep up with Ms. Ella!

I spent the weekend shopping like a maniac with my mom & sister in town (Shakopee) with family and friends.  It's the annual craft sale weekend!  It was fun.  I think we all got started on the Christmas shopping and I scored some sweet deals at Macy's on Saturday!  And we ate - A LOT!  I've definitely caught the buzz of the holiday season already.  Like I kind of want to put up the decorations already....but I won't!  It's SO early....sort of.  My Pinterest boards are filling up with fun decor ideas and the desserts I've got to try!!  I can't wait!

Birthday dinner (and maybe a delicious treat?) tonight.  At least there's that.

And since I don't have any pictures that relate to the post....

 

 My birthday buddy today!

It's your thing....do what you wanna do

Hope you are all voting today - it's your right!  Don't waste the opportunity!

I am SOOO excited to vote tonight and proudly display my red "I VOTED" sticker.  For those of you who already voted, I'm so jealous.  You get to rock your red sticker all day!  Lucky!

Our brief Halloween excursion

We had a good, but short, Halloween night last night.  Ella was so excited about going, but once we were out and about, she asked (literally less than 3 houses from us) if it was time to go back home yet!?!  So....I don't think she really liked the darkness maybe (?) not sure, but oh well.  We handed out snacks to the other trick-or-treaters at home, and it's always fun to see their costumes!  Here's a few of our little cupcake!

Ella's Pre-Halloween Festivities!

Friday was the Harvest Party (let's be honest here....HALLOWEEN PARTY!) at preschool.  I was one of the parent volunteers, so I was able to hang out in the classroom for the party and took a few pictures

Do you see her?  HA!  She refused to stand next to the little boy dressed up like a "pirate" according to Ella (really he's a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - who knew those were still around?!).  So I had to convince her that she was standing next to that bear you can see on the bulletin board.  OMG.  She is hilarious.  Then it was fine to stand there!  Her teachers were Thing One and Thing Two - so clever!

 Trick-or-treating through the school office.  She was so excited (and found it hard to maneuver around the other kids with her big ol' cupcake!

 My favorite picture in the costume....so far!

The party consisted of a few stations of activities.  Ella had fun helping me make this scarecrow.  

She named her Anna (like everything else - they are all named Anna!)

Friday night we headed to the middle school for a Halloween Walk.  We had a long wait but Ella did great.  Here's a few pics of the event (wish I would have taken her coat off - but it seemed like too much work!)

Ella's obsessed with dumping out her loot, counting and sorting everything and then putting it all back in for "safe keeping" she tells me.  :)  Hoping for a warm-ish Wednesday night for actual trick-or-treating!

Weekending....

Happy Weekend!  I can't believe how fast it went (like always).  Here's what we've been up to!

Earlier this week we picked up our pumpkins from the farmer's stand in Farmington,  Just like last year, Ella is obsessed with the goats.

Friday Ella & I headed to a "make a bear" event at the library.  Ella named her bear Anna (and note, every thing that doesn't have a name is currently getting the name Anna from Ella).  :)

This year we decided to paint our pumpkins instead of carve them, so today was the day!  Thanks to Pinterest we decorated Ella's pumpkin like Hello Kitty.  I think it turned out great!  We had fun putting it together, anyway!  I wanted to do a Chevron pumpkin, but then it was taking too long, so it got one "swiggle" according to Ella.  And Jay's pumpkin - the Starbucks coffee logo.  :)

The 2012 Halloween Costume (play-by play)

Are you getting ready for Halloween - have you chosen the costume(s) yet?!  I worked on Ella's Halloween costume over the weekend.  Her choice this year - a cupcake!  HA!  She sure does love her "food theme" (last year she was a cheeseburger).  I thought I'd give you a little play by play on this one.  I found a semi-tutorial online a few weeks ago, but I sort of had to wing it as far as how to make it all come together.  

I started with a small plastic laundry basket (a whopping $1 at the Dollar Store) and cut out the bottom

 Wrapped it in batting and secured with safety pins

 I used hot pink flannel for the base of the cupcake (the cupcake liner, if you will).  

Again, I just safety pinned it together inside

 This picture was my original plan to just stuff and pin on the "frosting" of the cupcake, but that didn't really work out.  I had to pull out the sewing machine and basically sew a simple tube with the stuffing inside.  I then used the seam of the stuffed tube to pin to the top of the cupcake liner (see below)

 TA DA!  Cupcake.  But wait...it gets cuter....

OMG!  Don't you love it?  I sort of secretly wish I'd made an adult sized one for me!  I think it turned out great, but those pink ribbons for straps aren't going to work.  Still need to figure something out there.  The cupcake sprinkles are just pom poms that I hot glued on.  Can't wait for Ella to wear it for Halloween!

P.S. I am linking up this costume idea at a few blogs I follow, check them out! here and here

Weekending!

We had a relaxing but busy weekend filled with baking  some new bars that got rave reviews (no pictures this time-they went too fast!) crafting and decorating for fall/Halloween.  The highlights:

Playing in the leaves!!

 Add "TA DA" here.  :)

Feeling crafty, I made a new wreath for the front door yesterday so I thought I'd share (still need to add some embellishments - maybe sparkly beads?)  I cut strips of burlap in two shades and pinned & hot glued to a wreath form. 

I am loving the way it looks!  I have a few other cute new things around the house, but didn't get any pics to share.  Now that the house is decorated (and Ella's Halloween costume is almost ready to go) my anticipation of the upcoming Holiday season is starting to grow!