the adventures of pippi longstocking...

and her sidekick the elephant. 

Ella and McKenna dressed up in their costumes for three nights in a row and they loved every minute of it. McKenna's costume was actually one that I had bought for Ella when she was a baby but never ended up wearing. I made Ella's Pippi costume and we bent a clothes hanger into a headband shape with the two ends sticking out straight for her braids. I just braided her hair around the wire and they stayed put all night.
I honestly thought that by tonight they would just want to pass out candy but no way, tonight was THE night. We trick or treated till people were turning their porch lights off and we passed out candy till Bob cut us off. It was just the best night! 

I guess I should start with Saturday night first. 

We went to a Halloween festival that had bounce houses, lots of yummy carnival foods, live music and glow in the dark golf.

I pulled off a big chunk of turkey leg for Kenna and she never let it out of her hand.

On Sunday night we had a trunk or treat with our church and it was so fun! Our small group turned a trunk into Noah's ark. You might recognize the raindrops, inspired by Kristen from her twins 2 by 2 party.

They had so many fun games and activities for the kids to do. 

This one cracked me up! Throwing toilet paper into a toilet, ha!

Then there was tonight, Halloween! 

We set a table and chairs out front to show all the trick or treaters we were serious about passing out candy.

My sweet mom made a very last minute trip to come trick or treating with us and it was so great having her here. 

We ended the night with a delicious bowl of fire roasted chipotle chicken tortilla soup and baked pumpkin spice donuts.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! 

Weekend Wars and Happy Halloween!

Hope you guys had a great weekend.  We didn't do that much but Jeff worked a little and we had a little family time.

Nothing crazy, but super fun.

Al had a great weekend too, full of halloweeny activities so I will let her blow y'all away with her cute fam and fantastic costumes.

We didn't do much halloweeny but we will tonight!!

Ok, back to the weekend.

On friday I woke up to the this pic that avery drew and taped beside my bed,

Then Sassy drew a pic and insisted that I send it to allison because "she is just gonna love it".

I am sure its in a special language that only sassy and allison understand and I am not even going to try to get in on that.

Then we played outside.
and ben (or sassy) had gone through his draw-all-over-himself thing

Then we tried to extend our knowledge in the ways of the world and got a globe, some books and a map at the bookstore.


Just keeping the written word alive.

Avery loved the map.  And the globe, but she set up her teaching station in front of the globe and I overheard her telling sassy not to just "blurt out" and that the first color ever was purple.  She is full of information that I didn't even know...

We don't have it hung with in any cute way or with anything cute above it...I am working on that.
Right now its just up and they can see where all the pins are where our friends and family live.
(And the pins can easily fall on the floor or be removed and everyone can accidentally step on them. oh well.  no pain no gain.)
And now we have our vampire teeth in and we are ready for tonight..

Happy Halloween!! Hope y'all have a great and safe night!!

Biopolar link love

This list of links can show you how crazy my DIY brain is going lately...

I just found this new to me blog and I like some of her DIY...

Love this vase  DIY too.

How cute are these favor pyramids from Martha??

I want to try this herringbone stitch.  Isn't it gorgeous??  Sigh.
I keep asking y'all questions I already know the answer to.  Sigh. again.

Is this possible?? Could I actually make this???
On the complete other side of my brain I have been wondering what I can do to help with the horror going on in Africa and all parts of the world.  I saw this video and just could not even wrap my brain around the horror that these people deal with.
And then I read this post about chocolate and how some of it is farmed by small children.  It just broke my heart and I want to be apart of the solution.  I bought chocolate-less candy this year (which is actually my candy of choice) but I am not sure if that is the safest thing either.  I don't know but I do know I want to do the best I can to help...
OK, so I want to make all of the DIYs today and feel like I need to find out where they sell yellow leather...Maybe I will start on the knit one first since I have too much yarn already...

family fun

I would like to start off by saying that sweet McKenna is finally over the forever long stomach bug and feeling good again! Yay!

We spent this last weekend visiting family and it was so fun! We started the weekend off at the Dallas Arboretum with Bob's parents. Kristen, Lindsay, Aly and I took all the kids last year so I was excited to see all the cool pumpkins again.

Ella had a ball and loved all the pretty flowers and pumpkins but when I asked her what her favorite part was, she told me it was the rocks. 

Good thing she loaded her pockets full.

McKenna seemed to enjoy the arboretum as well.

We had a fun dinner at La Duni with Bob's two brothers (matt & jon) and their wives (alyson & allison) over the weekend and I'm so sad I didn't get a picture. It was the first time we had all been to dinner together without any of our kids. Hopefully it will happen again very soon! 

We watched the Ranger game with my family on Monday night along with some hotdogs, face tattoos, some intense smore making, stick on mustaches and blue snuggies.

I don't know which part was good luck, but I'm willing to repeat all of the above for the next game.

Winning Weekend

First off, I want to say thank you to my amazing cousin lins for the most thoughtful halloween package that she sent us last week-

How cute is that?! And the crochet book was so super cute and so thoughtful.  We just loved it, Lindsey.  Thank you for thinking of us and knowing exactly what we would love!
And are y'all on pins and needles watching Al perfect the cookies??? I just want to be there so I can try every batch!
Then, this weekend was amazing.
We got to go to the world series with my family and it was really so incredible.

(minus ben who was too overwhelmed to pose).
We got all decked out in our Rangers colors and pretty much just couldn't believe that we were there.

My gorgeous parents.

Jeff with my brother Michael who used to say all of the Rangers line up, when he was four, with the voice of the announcers and everything- "Ju-li-O Fr-an-c-O!"

Dirk threw out the first pitch.
It was pretty neat having him there cheering on the Rangers.  He couldn't stop smiling and he did the claw and was just so excited.
It was definitely one of my favorite parts.
Then the real partying started.

This kid flagged down the cotton candy guy before we had even eaten anything.

They loved it.
That was followed by a hamburger, corn dog, three hot dogs, fries, two pretzels, drinks,

popcorn,

and ice cream in a hat...
(who doesn't love ice cream in a helmet?!)
We get a little carried away when it comes to food. Especially at a ballpark.  Or the fair.

I may have been responsible for a lot of that eating...
Then ben got naked and sassy became the paparazzi.




Avery loved it.
She watched every minute of it, sang every song and clapped every clap.  She wore her pin the whole time and wanted to listen to the game in the car when we left.
Big fan.

Then it all went down hill and we had to leave early because we could not stand the heartbreak any longer.
 (And it was 10.)
My mom and I took the kids home and we were definitely sad to go.
The next day we celebrated Jeff's 31 birthday!!


With the world's biggest boston cream pie ever made!
My parents got him a gun and I set him up a hog hunt with Jennifer's husband so it was a hunt themed birthday.  Pretty sure he couldn't stop smiling from the new gun.
Hopefully he will kill a lot of unwanted hogs?
Then, on our way home we stopped at chipotle to eat and the kids wanted to sit on the stools.
We told them that they could only have water to drink and Sass hurled her body in defiance of that, flung herself off of the stool and landed head first on the concrete.
We were pretty terrified and went to hospital but then Jeff called our friend who is an ER attending, did a mini exam and decided we could go on home.

Such a scare, but if you are reading this, please pray that everything is ok and that she is not bleeding internally or anything...
Just breaks my heart and makes me worry.  But, Jeff is pretty thorough so I figure if he says she is gonna be ok, she will.  We have definitely been to the ER a few times in our day...
And on our way home the Rangers WON!!
WOO HOO!!
Way to go Rangers.  Let's do this.
Hope you guys had a great weekend and let me just say thanks Texas for pulling out a Cowboy and Ranger win today!!