The Sora Costume!

It's all Noelle's fault. The story goes like this. I read Noelle's entry about finishing Brody's Where the Wild Things Are 'Max' costume, and I told Eli about it. The costume is amazing and I can't wait to see Drew's! Kudos Noelle! The boys and I got on topic of what to be for Halloween. I decided Jacob was going to be Yoda since about a year and a half ago, but last year I couldn't find him a costume. I got one for cheap this year. Seth wanted to be Indiana Jones which was perfect because he had purchased a whip already, his church bag is a Indiana Jones replica bag, and we already owned a hat from when Eli was 3. I looked around his closet and found pants, shirt, belt, and shoes that would work. I was getting so excited that I had two down and one to go with only spending $15. Eli's first and only idea is a video game character from Kingdom Hearts named Sora. We start looking for costumes and the cheapest Sora costume is 80 bucks! I was in shock, but the craziest part is I actually thought about budgeting for it. That idea ended after I thought it through clearly. The hard part is Sora is such a special interest character that the only costumes are hand made and usually for Cosplay. I know, I know, look it up, ultimate nerdy goodness. (Actually, a friend, Chris Byers, brought it up that my boys are all going trick or treating as cosplayers. Soo funny!)
So Eli says, " Mom, you could just make it. Brody and Drew are getting their costumes made for them by Auntie Noelle. Please."

Me being a stay at home mom with no current hobbies in process said, "I could try. Eli, mommy doesn't sew and doesn't have a pattern, so if it turns out bad we need a backup plan. How about Wolverine?"

"Okay. I like Wolverine. You already know how to do his makeup and hair. Right mommy?"

"Yup, and we have jeans, a t-shirt, and retractable wolverine claws."

"Ya."

So I started getting paranoid immediately. I started looking around the house and found a blue shirt, (hand me down) over sized black cargo pants, blue spiderman 3T pajama bottoms, his snow boots, and a 3T black hoodie. I was inspired for a moment and actually thought I could pull this off. I borrowed my mom's sewing machine, picked up a few accessories, bought some fabric, bought a hot glue gun, and got to work. I drew out a picture and colored it for a guide. I started with the easier things first. The gloves and the boots. I used hot glue for those two parts and they were finished in a couple hours. The shirt was next and that was very easy and it turned out well too. My last items were jacket, necklace, and pants. I did the jacket next. I cut it off and added white trim around all the edges, then started to add the lining to the hood. That was hard, but it worked out. I added shoulder pads on the exterior of the hoodie and hot glued the shimmery grey shoulder pieces. I finished it up fairly easily minus the work on the hood and shoulders. One motivator was every time I finished a new piece, Eli and Seth would give me so much praise and encouragement. They would say its perfect and it looked just right. I took a long time to get the necklace and pants done because I just stopped working on it for a while. I used my dad's dremel for the necklace crown. I drew it out, cut it out, sanded it, and panted it. The chain was a purse handle that I added more links to so it would be the right length. The necklace only took me 3 hours, but over an hour of it was figuring out how to use a dremel! It was fun to learn something new. I like doing that on my own because it feels like an accomplishment. I avoided the pants after attempting to add the white trim between the blue and black between the legs front and back. I called in help from a friend from church. Sis. Greene happily fit me in for 40 open minutes of her day about a week ago. She taught me how to add the trim, but ended up doing that part for me. That was a huge help! Thank you! All the touch up and elastic around the knees was done today. It took me about five hours total for the rest today. I have never been so relieved in all my life. Eli was excited. I decided I don't enjoy sewing, but I do enjoy creating. The necklace emblem was a blast for me. I like power tools! The final aspects of Eli's costume are hair and makeup. We tried the hair yesterday, but I think it'll look better tomorrow and Halloween night. All he needs for makeup is intense eyebrows. I will post a couple more pictures from Halloween weekend to show off the finished product with hair and makeup. I am just glad it's done!

Happy 2nd Birthday Jacob!

Jacob's birthday party was short and sweet. He has a short attention span at 2 years old and it was a school night, so it worked out well. First off, I want to thank Chris Byers for the idea for the picture. I love it, and its perfect! Jacob had so much fun with many of the people he loves being there to celebrate with him. We started off the night with snacks and then birthday cake. He tried to blow the candle out, but I had to block him from spitting all over the place. It was so cute. I am pretty sure the candle was blown out with the help of Seth and Rosie. Thanks for that helpers! We ate quickly and moved right along to present opening time. He really didn't interest in opening his presents, but again he had big helpers: Seth, Rosie, and Xavier. He loved all the toys and clothes, so thank you for those. I think his favorites so far are everything. He just kept switching from one to another. We also had big helpers to open all the boxes and get the toys out: Jason, Teancum, Eli, Seth, Rosie, Xavier, and Mary. Thanks kids for helping out so much at the party!

I had all the candy and snacks left over from decorating the cake so people could eat them and decorate their own cupcake if they wanted to. I also had large and small pretzels out to eat those yummy and fun pumpkin cheese balls I made. I used soft smoked cheddar rolled into a ball, the bottoms dipped in chopped peanuts, garnished with a fresh parsley leaf, and pretzel stems. It was really funny to me that half the people there were not sure what they even were. Frosting balls? Candy? I thought they would make a fun looking truffle, but cheese it is.

The cake I made was a monster. I baked the body in a oven safe Pyrex 2.5 quart bowl, and the feet were cupcakes. He had purple butter cream frosting with donut, gummy life saver, skittle eyes, a candle nose, candy corn teeth, blow pop arms, pretzel legs, and a fruit by the foot tongue. It was fun to decorate and to look at after. This was my first time baking a cake in a bowl and I was checking on it every 15 minutes. It looked funny throughout baking, but it turned out great and was soo easy to frost. The frosting is always fun to dye too. Just as a reminder to everyone who likes to color food. Always go get the thicker coloring from the craft store because you can get many colors and it creates super rich coloring. I swear by it! Jacob picked out the cake idea from a birthday cakes for kids book I have. Of course I showed him the page to begin with, he looked through it with his brothers, but kept coming back to the monster page and saying, "Raaar!"

Past Cakes part 2

October 2009: Here is a better picture of Jacob's monster cake this year. He really got a kick out of it. I know the two is backwards, but I just threw it on there so I wouldn't lose track of it. I should have paid more attention to it before taking the shot, but oh well. Soo funny!

October 2008: As you must have noticed, there are no cake pictures for Eli and Seth for 2008. That's because I was in my senior year final semester in college, I was working out a ton, and just had a new baby four months before. They both had cupcake cakes made from good old Foodland! There is no shame in that! This October cake was my favorite ever so far because it was my own idea, and I did it all myself! This may sound like a little big-headed, but I am really proud of this cake! I thought of it, and it looks so good! Jacob's personal cake was a mickey mouse cake with Wall-E decorations. I did use the nicer dye from the craft store! This used very little dye to create such vivid coloring. I used a small round cake pan and cut the ears off the remaining parts from the Eva 13 x 9 pan.

This is my Eva cake. She was easy to make. I just baked a standard 13 x 9 cake and cut out the shape of Eva (and two small Mickey ears). She turned out so cute, but I really wish I frosted her more neatly. All of the smeared frosting around the edges was distracting. I know if you cut strips of waked paper and place them on top of your cake board and under your cake, then you can slide them out really easily to prevent minimal smearing on the board. I haven't tried it yet, but I mean to.

The main cake was made with different sizes of circular pans for the face and ears. I loved decorating this cake soo much! In the top right is the Wall-E that found the little green plant on a hill. Ill of the other Wall-E's are cleaning up garbage. They had different colors of frosting on their hands depending on the frosting they were near and I made the tracks as if they all went through the center black pile at some point. I actually made the tracks with a fork tipped in black and applied to the cake behind each Wall-E. I know my family loved it, Jacob didn't care as long as he could eat it, but I adored it.....and still do obviously. Elijah and Seth's 2009 cakes were also store bought this year, but I am determined to let them choose from my beloved book for 2010. Seth already said he wants a frog cake, so we shall see.

Past Cakes part 1

February 2007: This is the first time Shane and I took on the cake project. It was my fault really. My nephew Dante was doing his school fundraiser and my sister Danna sent me the link to buy things online. I fell in love with this Birthday Cakes for Kids ideas cookbook. I bought this totally awesome cake idea book and silly me said Eli could pick out whichever cake he wanted. Of course the kid has to pick the hardest cake in the book! I even tried to get him to change his mind. Oh No! Shane and I stayed up late the night before Eli's party baking, frosting, decorating, and trying to keep those four corners together. It really turned out well considering we didn't have the right materials. Also, as a note I used the cheap dye you can buy at the grocery store with four little cone topped squeeze bottles. We used every drop of two greens to get the towers that green. It was so fun to do this with Shane, but it was hard for our first time.

March 2007: Seth's birthday came around and I was having a hard time with classes at school, so I hid that cookbook and told Seth and Eli that I was making Seth a blue mini ninja cake. It was fun and easy. Seth loved it! Once again I used those cheaper dyes from the cone topped bottles. 2 bottles later and I wanted a dark ocean blue, but instead we got a bright blue cake. It was still fun, don't get me wrong! Seth really thought his cake was the best, and Eli loved it too.

Primary Program

This Sunday the boys had their primary program. They both had their lines and were very excited. As they were going up on stage after taking the sacrament Jacob just was so upset. He insisted that we had to go too. He finally calmed down but I kept repeating, "Elijah and Seth and going to sing songs to us. Look! Do you see brothers?" Thank goodness Eli was in view from our seat. Seth was one of the early speakers and he was ready and in a good mood. He got up there and loud and clear we heard, "I am thankful for my family because they play games with me." He was so good and brave. Eli's part was in the middle and he got up there with a huge smile on his face. He just stared at everyone smiling until the primary leader helped him out then he said, "My dad provides for my family by working far from home." It's funny how those eleven words got me choked up even though I had heard him say it about thirty times. I miss you Shane. Eli was so sweet. He told me later that he was so shy when he got up there. They sang all the songs and were very obedient on stage. The program was all about appreciating our families. It was such a nice program. Jacob has been having the hardest time going to nursery the past several months. He would scream hysterically and cry until he came back to me. He even had a hard time going with Shane. So the last two weeks I came in for the first hour and after sneaking out to go to Relief Society, he would scream for the rest of the time. So I decided a new approach this Sunday. I told Jacob we were going to nursery, went in with him, then I looked him in the eye and asked if I could go to class right now or if he wanted me to stay for a little while. He frowned and said 'stay a little while'. I fully explained that I would be there a short while sitting by the wall, but I was going to leave soon. He said okay and fifteen minutes later I went to him and told him to have fun and I would be back after going to my class. He said 'okay mommy' and went on playing. No crying today! Hopefully this same routine will work next Sunday.

Sand in the City

Back in the end of August, Olympia had its most recent Sand in the City extravaganza. I love Sand in the City because they bring in sand on the sidewalks where amatuer and professional sand sculpting is presented and in compitition for first prize. They have food, games, and all sorts of fun things to do. This was my favorite statue this year beacause it made me laugh so much. It wasn't as difficult as others that we saw, but it was soo funny!

Several people and groups danced from the Dance Direction, my mother-in-laws studio. Shelbi, my sis-in-law was supposed to dance, but she was recently in a freak hot/cold pack accident. Okay okay, you know those hot/cold packs that can be frozen or heated in the microwave? Yeah? Well, Shelbi grabbed one of those out of the microwave just as she felt the flesh burning off her thigh and down her calf. The pack had popped in the microwave without her knowing and the scalding hot insides gave her second degree burns. Needless to say, she was unable to dance for a few weeks until it healed entirely.

Just as the Dance Direction were finishing their last group, I noticed this kids walking around with a Burmese Python wrapped around his neck and arm. He was with him mom who had an African Grey (exotic bird) perched on her shoulder. Apparently they owned a pet store. If I owned a pet store, I still wouldn't go as far as walking aroud with a scary snake on any of my children, but that's just me.

The highlight of my day was seeing the photographer in the kilt taking pictures of the belly dancers. I was taking a couple pictures of the belly dancers myself until I found a better target, the dude in the kilt! You gotta love Olympia!

The Pumpkin Patch & Wolf Haven

The Pumpkin Patch was so much fun this year. The boys had baseball games back to back on the 10th, but while Jessica Byers stayed with Elijah for his game Seth, Jacob, and I picked up Shane from the airport. It was so nice to see him after a seven week break. As we pulled up into the terminal and saw him I just felt so overjoyed. I just couldn't stop holding his hand on our drive to the Byers house to pick up Elijah. When we got there we found out they were going to the pumpkin patch. Shane is such a trooper because he was up around 4am after having four hours of sleep and he said lets go too. We went over to Hunter's Farm and just loved picking out our pumpkins. The only part I do not like about going to the pumpkin patch is all the things that cost extra. Now when Eli went to the same pumpkin patch with his school last year, they were able to have free range on the slides, the hay maze, and they got a ride to the pumpkin patch and back. When we went as a family it was $1 per ticket and everything cost tickets. One ticket for the ride to the pumpkin patch, one ticket for the small corn maze, three tickets for the hay maze, one ticket for the small slide, two tickets for the bigger slide, and three tickets for the jumbo slide. They were charging a dollar to go down a slide once and the slide was like the one at the playground. I just had a really rough time because we are trying to stick to the basics these next two months. So we had to say no.....a lot. Then it turned a really great experience into a let down for Seth and Eli. Seth asked about the slide and when I told him it cost extra money he looked at me like I was crazy. I am glad Jessica convinced us to get our picture taken together at the end. I love it! The day ended with Heavenly Donuts and homemade hot apple cider.

Just last Sunday we took a trip to the Wolf Haven. It normally costs $9 per adult and $7 per child, so never go because we are looking at $30 just to go in and see about ten wolves and two coyotes. This was wolf week, so they made it free for one day. Thank goodness because Eli and Seth had heard about it from their uncle Jason and have been wanting to go for about a year. They were mostly taken from people who had them as pets illegally. There was one that was recruited as a Hollywood star, but it didn't work out so the wolf haven took him in. I think most interesting parts were to find that they had a roadkill license to feed the coyotes and they have a pair of Mexican Gray wolves that are part of a wolf recovery program. They are two out of 54 left as endangered species. All of the wolves are unable to reproduce except the Mexican Grays.

It was so fun to go with Grandnan and Grandaddy, cousin Rosie, cousin Mary, and uncle Jason.

First Day of school, Baseball, and Daddy

Elijah's first day of school and every day there after has been great. His school, McKenny Elementary is so wonderful. He has just excelled in reading and all his subjects throughout these last few months. He just started reading Harry Potter, knows every word except 3 every two pages, and actually understands what he's reading. He's fun to listen to because he's so expressive when he reads. He just started more complicated addition and subtraction, and basic MULTIPLICATION. I just can't believe this kid. It really is a blast.

Seth has been in preschool and that has been fun. He is at a high school preschool where he always has a high school age buddy work with him. He loves it, but sometimes gets in trouble for his elaborate and expressive storytelling. The story's wouldn't be so bad, except he insists that he's in charge and he knows 'the truth of everything'. He went into class today and started yelling at a student because, 'You're mom locked the school down and won't even let me see our class scarecrow!' The true story follows. We showed up, the school doors were locked, a fellow mom let me know that they are doing a surprise lock-down drill and they will open up in 5 minutes. Seth asked if I wanted to see his class scarecrow and I said I would love to once the doors are opened. He's so great! The boys did play baseball this fall with the YMCA program. It is just fun to see Seth actually focus and have fun with a sport.

Eli takes things quite a bit more serious, but he also insists on learning how to throw and hit with proper form. He is in action throwing to first base in this picture. It has been fun.

Shane has been working in Texas since last December. He's been gone a lot. His schedule is six weeks on location then eight days home. The company covers the flights there and back and all expenses paid for him while he's gone. He got a job with Vestas, American Wind Technology last October. He had training in November 2008 in Portland, OR, then went off to test and repair wind turbines in Corpus Christi, TX. We have been working it out, but it is hard not seeing daddy. Shane's site just finished their setting up of a new site down there in Corpus, and he was told his next location is Okoboji, IA. he moved from a condo on the beach in hot Corpus Christi to a resort on a lake with an indoor water play area and lazy river in freezing Okoboji. He just got there on Monday, and we won't see him until Thanksgiving. He works long hours, and he's far from home, and his boys love him and miss him dearly. I am the one who's a big baby....so lonely. Well, this is us right now in a nutshell, oh right also I am expecting a new baby March 24th, 2010.

Before and After .... the Haircut!

We finally did it. Jacob's first haircut. We figured he was turning two soon and it's about time. Goodbye blonde, goodbye curls, goodbye baby hair. Jacob really looks grown up now. I will miss his wonderful hair, but he doesn't seem to mind at all.

I'll post a better picture soon.