Completion

I love when things are completed. Here are our Halloween weekend happenings and finally the end of some projects and parties.

Remember those paper mache balloons I made? Well, here they are completed and serving their purpose nicely as Power Ranger helmets. The boys loved these costumes! I loved making them cause it reminded me of when mom made my costumes as a little girl. I hope the boys have that nostalgia when they are older.

I made these, cake pops, for Noah's birthday treat for his class. I got the idea from Bakerella. Google it. She is awesome. And while my dipping skills are not in the same class as hers, alas they will eat the same. She was in TX signing her book. I was so close to going, but got distracted by.........

This. This is Kevin's office. He came home and said there was a competition to decorate the different offices for the kid's halloween party. Ok, put up whatever and have a candy bowl. Then he says, if his office wins he gets a day off pass. AN ENTIRE DAY OFF!! I immediately put Caleb in the car and we were off to the craft store. We built the pirate ship, complete with Pumpkin Head Pirate, stringy cob webs, treasure chest of booty and squishy rats. Let's hope he wins!!!!

We decided that it was time to invest in the future of the NBA. Noah shot 6/6 with no assists and had 6 rebounds. He is in LOVE!!! Happy Birthday to Noah!

To go along with the bastketball theme I made Noah a basketball cake. Or this is my interpretation of a basketball. Noah knew what is was and that is all that mattered!

Noah had his birthday party at the bowling alley. It was so much fun! Who knew they gave you a pin for all of your friends to sign?! It was so cool and is proudly displayed in his bedroom. He had lots of friends from school and soccer come out to bowl and share in his happy day! He even had a very special visitor, Mrs. Madl his kindergarten teacher came by for a few mintues! It was such a highlight! Everyone had a great time. Who knew bowling alley parties could be so fun?!!

After all the birthday festivities we were off to our church for fall festival. The boys got to trick or treat, play games, and top off all the birthday cake with halloween cupcakes, sugar cookies, and 2 pieces of trick or treat candy loot! Let's just say I am thankful for the weekend, and am so glad it is over! :)

6 Years Ago

6 years ago Kevin and I were blessed with this sweet boy. Thank you God! Happy Birthday to my boy!

Knee Deep

Wowsa! The fall time has stirred up the Jackson hive and we have been busy bees.

For starters; Here are Noah's latest sayings at soccer:

"I am Awesome! Seriously, I am the best player on this team!" This comes after scoring 13, yes 13, goals in one game. One of his coaches was quite pleased and finds Noah's comments funny. I am not sure how I am feeling about that.

"That tall girl was no match for me" Finally he gets some competition (this girl was g-o-o-d) and blows it off.

Needless to say we have had to have some talks about modesty, bragging, and hurting other's feelings. I kinda feel bad for Noah. He is an almost 6yr old with 3 soccer seasons under his belt, however, all of his team mates are 4yrs or young 5's that are playing for the first time. On the other hand, this situation sets itself up nicely for us to teach him a lot of good moral lessons AND for him to learn more self-control. Today, he expressed both, until the end of the game when he made the comment about the tall girl. Come spring he will be done with soccer and we will try his hand at basketball.

I am knee deep in halloween costume sewing and crafting. The boys chose to be power rangers (Noah orange, Caleb red). So far things have been coming together easily. The main parts of the costume are easy enough; shirts and pants in the colors requested. I made shoe covers that will make their everyday shoes looks like white boots. Today, however, I am trying to make the helmets. Oh my. Let's hope I did not spend two hours paper mache-ing balloons for nothing. Here is the progress so far (see pic). I ran out of the nice store-bought mache pulp from the craft store. So, Caleb's mold is made from newspaper strips dipped in a combo of water and mod podge. Let's hope that works too.

The boys wanted to play in the leaves falling in the yard. I raked them up and it took all of about 3 seconds to blow all the leaves back out in the yard. It was cute. Nice way to spend 5 minutes of this nice fall weather.

Caleb's school had their fall party on Friday. It was cute. The class sang songs, and we saw some of their normal day, and then they were loaded up on sugar (cupcakes, M&M's, gummies) and add in a little carbs (pretzels, cheese crackers) and then released to their mommies to take home.

YAY! So, on Friday Caleb's lunch consisted of those items listed above and half of a banana. The banana was all I could get him to eat when we got home. AND who wants fruit when you just ate a plethora of yummy junk! He got some goody bags and the pic is some of the things he got to bring home! FUNNY GUY!

I have been thinking ahead to Christmas and Teacher Appreciation gifts (plus I really wanted to make these), and picked up the goodies to make these drink coasters.

I have seen this tutorial and wanted to give it a try. Some turned out great. I think the simpler stamps worked best. Others, the stamp didn't sit just right or the ink is lighter in some spots. Oh well, it wouldn't be homemade if it was perfect and identical. I love them anyway and believe their recipients will too.

I also made some little pocket tissue holders. Sorry, no pic. I was able to make 7 of those little easy gifts in little less than 1.5 hours. If I can do it that quickly, an experienced sewer could prob do it in like 45 min.

Upcoming projects that will be finished before the end of November (I like giving myself deadlines - I find I accomp

lish more with this pressure):

Canvas painting of my kids hands - saw this online too and have to do it.

Tote bag that I bought material for a VERY long time ago. (plus I am on fabric buying restriction until my stash diminishes substantially.)

Knit a poncho (which I bought yarn for so long ago {big surprise} and found a finally trendy cute pattern)

Ok I better stop.

The boys ran The Spirit of Survival Super Hero Kids Marathon. I can't bel

ieve how great they did! The way this works is that the kids are given a log sheet and are supposed to complete 25 miles before the race day. It took us about 3.5 weeks to do this. We would walk/run 1-2miles at a time and have a rest day after a stretch of back to back walk/run days. It was slow going at first, but once the boys got it down, by the end we were running most of our 2 miles. The day of the race every kid participating comes together and runs the last 1.2 miles together all in support of cancer research. We got out there and the boys were so excited. They didn't realize how many kids were going to be there.

Noah got so excited, that he took off and ran the entire 1.2 miles. He only stopped at the aid station half way through. It was amazing. At the last .25 miles to go, I left him and sprinted to the finish so I could get a picture of him coming across the finish line. No sooner had I crossed the finish line, turned around and dropped to one knee and focused my camera, I saw him coming. Unbelievable! He told me he just decided to run and try to stay as close to me as possible. Literally my mouth was on the ground! Caleb soon came across to the announcers shouting "Folks that there is possibly the fastest 3yr old we have ever seen!". They both received medals from Superman. After all, this was a Super Hero marathon. The world had just witnessed Super Orange Man and Super Red Man (requested names by my 2 super heroes) complete their first marathon.

We have fall break, trip to Tennessee to a Titan's game, halloween, Noah's Birthday, Noah's fall festival, all within the next two weeks. Here to keeping our lives full and busy! It's a wonderful life!

A Little Family Time

A couple of weekends ago I got to go to California for one of my good friend's wedding. I got to see some of my besties from Alaska, which was awesome. I love seeing my gals and being able to travel and celebrate with my friends. Living in the lower 48 does have some perks! Here is Lori, Krista, and me at our table.

I must say that I am liking living closer to family. This past weekend we were able to drive down to Abilene for Kevin's cousin's wedding. (It is wedding crazy around here!) It was great seeing our boys getting to play with and know better their cousins too. It was a little difficult to get all the kiddos together in one picture when they were all dressed up, but nonetheless we got a picture with 3 of them together!

Anyway, at this wedding I saw the cutest wedding favor EVER! They were giving out little tiny jars of homemade plum jelly. They had a little set up with a table with a board that said the couple was "plum" tickled their guests could attend. How cute is that? Love it, something homemade (which will win me every time), and usable, and a great play on words. I was in love! I am banking that one for use in the very very very far off future (my boys!!).

Oh, and I guess my flintstone feet were just too much for my cute silver strappy shoes that matched oh so perfectly to my dress, for they broke. A break that was so bad nothing could hold it together for me to fake it for the rest of the reception. I was so saddened and yes, like any southern girl, I took them off and went barefoot. However, I stayed off the dance floor since it was covered in cute heels of cute little 20-somethings. Until, Noah wanted to dance and I really tried talking him out of it, until the last 30 seconds of this one song. Thank goodness the place was packed and my hubby came out for moral support, even if he didn't realize that that is why I thought he was there! And, it was one less thing for me to remember to pack to bring home.

Well, I just had to post this, cause who doesn't know that Bama is like the best college team in the nation?! Roll Tide!

And just look at the pride of my son holding that flag! A true Bama Man in the making!