As soon as Halloween was over and November first was upon us I was yanking down all the spider webbing, jack o lanterns, spiders, bats, ghosts etc and putting up the pumpkin and turkey decorations, and busting out some fall leaves. I absolutely love fall and decorating for Thanksgiving is actually one of my most favorite things to do.
Who am I kidding? If it's a holiday, or a season I greatly enjoy decorating for it! I love getting all crafty and creative.
Last night after my sons were in bed for the night I let my daughter stay up a bit longer and her and I created a fun and unique wreath to hang on the front door. My daughter is 6 now and is really getting into the holiday spirit and loves to help do craft projects with mommy now, and not just little piddly childish things, she wants to help Mommy do her REAL craft projects.
So we sat about creating a fun wreath for the door.
We used a wire wreath form (ours was in some stuff that was given to us so it cost me $0, you could use just about anything from a piece of card board cut into a circle, to a pool noodle cut down to the size you want and then duct taped together to make a circle, or you can go to the dollar store and purchase a round wreath form they have many different types to choose from!
We took an old t shirt no one wore anymore and cut it up into strips and then knotted those strips together and then wrapped it around the wire form. Didn't take long and was easy to do.
We then took some large pieces of construction paper and fold them in half long ways. I then cut them out in triangle pieces (I used 5 different fall themed colors, you could even use textured scrapbooking paper but I didn't have any that would work so we just used regular scrapbook paper, which if your wreath will be hit by a lot of sun it will fade more than the scrapbook paper would). Since ours is between the front door and screen door and doesn't really get hit by a lot of sun the construction paper works fine for us.
We also cut out two larger white circles and two smaller black circles to use as the eyes later.
I used my hot glue gun for this next part because it holds better than regular glue, but I'm sure you could do it either way.
My daughter helped me arrange the "turkey feathers" where we wanted them under the top part of the wreath to look like the turkey tail feathers. We then turned 2 orange triangles upside down to be feet for our turkey, and turned a yellow one upside down for the beak, and used 2 brown ones for wings. We didn't do a wobble though (you know that red thing a turkey has on their beak? Yeh we just left that off).
Once we had everything positioned where we wanted it I just hot glued everything into place.
We glued the eyes on and then let everything dry nice and solid before hanging it on our front door. While we waited for the turkey to dry good we used some of the left over triangles we had cut out and made a banner to hang on the screen door on the inside of the glass above our turkey wreath.
We still had numerous triangles left over so we also made a really cute decorative banner to hang in the bay window of our dining room.
We added buttons and scrapbook paper words (like hug, adventure, joyous, family etc) that were in fall colors and ran yard through the triangles and hung them up in the window for a festive Thanksgiving decoration.
For my dining room window above our buffet area I busted out my "thanksgiving curtains" yeh, I like to change the curtains up in that big window for the holidays and different seasons, it's just fun that way!
Once I had those wrestled on the big window, I dug out a long strip of scrap ruffle fabric I had laying around. I guess it's more like scrap ruffly binding material but there isn't really enough to DO anything with so I just used it for this next project.
I created another little banner decoration by stretching this piece of material across the window and thumbtacking it just behind the curtain rod of the window on each side. So it slung across the window and then I just hot glued random little festive items to it.
Buttons, feathers, pom poms, tiny pieces of felt cut out in triangles in my favorite fall color scheme, and tiny fake fall leaves were got glued across it as well as more scrapbooking quotes. The end product of both thanksgiving banners is a pretty nice one. At the moment I do not have photos of them because the areas are not quite finished yet, still working on a few little touches.
We have loads of fun projects that I am hoping we can actually get to! Now that the time change is here and we've sat our clocks back an hour it gets darker a little earlier, and it's getting colder in the evenings a little earlier now which causes to stay inside a bit more now. So I think we'll be a bit more inclined to do a bit more crafting inside, rather than running and playing outside, which we will miss!
A few days before Halloween the leaves on the tree in our back yard FINALLY decided it was time to fall out. We've been waiting for those suckers to fall for quite some time now. Took them long enough! Once they finally fell we went out and had ourselves a WONDERFUL time raking up the leaves, having a leaf fight, jumping in the leaves, and filling up a giant orange trash bag designed like a pumpkin.
It was great to watch the kids jump and play and to hear their giggles and squeals of delight. To watch them try and use the rake that was twice their height was quite comical.
My husband and I had a fantastic time with the kids, it's a tradition we look forward to every fall. Raking up a huge pile of leaves and then just jumping in them like there is no tomorrow! When we get done we have wild crazy hair with pieces of leaves sticking out all over the place. Chances are you have leaves down your pants, and stuck in your shirt too! It's worth every itchy moment of trying to shake out all those leaves later!
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| One of the better photos I got of the kids playing in the leaves. She was singing as she was scooping up leaves to go throw at her father and brothers! |
The kids had a fantastic time trick or treating. The evening started out super rainy and blaaaah. We hit up a trick or treat trail that was down town and local businesses handed out candy. Too bad it rained on us the ENTIRE time we were there. That was no fun. We were all cold and wet, but they got quite a bit of candy. When that was over it naturally quit raining, and wouldn't you know it a BEAUTIFUL big rainbow came out! It was fantastic.
After that the kids and I picked up my husband and his mom and we took the kids around to a few houses door to door to get some candy, the kids had a fantastic time and we were done with it all by 7 O'clock. So we weren't out too late, and thankfully where we went the neighborhoods were very nice and it was all very quiet.
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| Yes, yes I know my dog is trying to run away from us. *sigh* NO it wasn't the costume, it was the fact the other dog ran out the front door and she was wanting to go play with her. She had been sitting next to me just seconds before the picture was taken and little ding a ling River ran out the door and POOF there went Molly's concentration....she just saw River and was like OH it's PLAY TIME! Oh and yes, yes I am a giant pumpkin. |
I am pretty sure I had the cutest red Power Ranger, Ninja Turtle, and Snow White that has ever walked the face of the planet, but that is just my opinion. I am their mom so I'm always going to think they are cute (cept when they are being little butt heads, because face it, kids can sometimes just be big butt heads sometimes, and that isn't cute).
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| Kamilah was the sweetest Snow White I have ever seen. For what we paid for that dumb costume she had BETTER look adorable! |
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| Keegan made one awesome Ninja Turtle! |
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| Marshall is one handsome red Power Ranger! |
Even the dogs got in on the Halloween spirit, though Molly was more into it than the other two were. Molly has always had a knack for getting in front of my camera. Although...I don't think she was too fond of her pumpkin hat. She tolerated me though, she knew dog treats and belly rubs were in her future for a job well done.
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| Really Mom? Really? |
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| Molly thinks this pumpkin hat sucks |
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| River, Molly, and Karmen saying Happy HOOOOWL O WEEN! Do not ask me how long it took me to get them all three to sit like this, or how much begging, pleading, crying (ok not quite crying, but close) and how many dog treats it took to get them to SIT this good for a quick photo. And trust me, this was PERFECT compared to the other shots I got! |
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| Had a couple of foster kittens for a few days, they both got adopted and went to the same home, yay! So happy they found a family, though I have to admit I do miss the little buggers! |
My daughter brought home her Kindergarten school pictures today and I must say she looks absolutely adorable in them! I've already got one of them hung on the living room wall. My sons have their preschool pics on Thursday so we'll see how theirs go!
We took a trip to see my sister in law and my niece a week or so before Halloween, the kids had a fantastic time getting to play. Not only did they get to see their aunt and her daughter, they also got to go see one of Mommy's cousins and her son whom they are very close to. This sweet little boy, Roger has been through SO MUCH! Diagnosed with HLHS before birth, he had his first heart surgery at only a few weeks old.
Right before his 4th birthday he had ANOTHER heart surgery done. Unfortunately this surgery did NOT go well for him and they had to undo the procedure. It's been a VERY hard time for him and his parents. Thankfully, after fighting infections, failing organs, procedures that didn't work and a whole slew of other complications, Roger is home.
He spent 60 some odd days in the hospital laying in the same position.
He spent a lot of that time sedated and asleep.
Now he is having to learn how to reuse his body again. He lost a lot of muscle while in the hospital, and lost a lot of strength and energy. He is slowly but surely working his way back up!
The kids were so happy they were able to see him, they have missed him so much and wish they got to see him often. While we were there Roger pushed himself to stand up on his own, we were all so very proud of him as it was the first time had done it since coming home.
He is a TOUGH TOUGH kiddo! He has come a long way, but he still has a long way to go and could still use all of the prayers he can get!
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| Roger relaxing on the couch with his mom and dad who never leave his side! |
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| Two of my FAVORITE heroes! Keegan my own son who has fought childhood cancer and Roger, my cousin who is so strong and is doing so well fighting through his HLHS (hyptoplastic left heart syndrome). These boys, are miracles! They are SUPER DUPER! I am blessed to know both of them. |
During Church on Sunday, Pastor was in the middle of his sermon when he said "God is trying to get your attention" instantly...the electricity went out! Everyone in the Church was like .. .whoa. Ok God. You got our attention! Pastor went ahead with his sermon, and the moment we bowed our heads to pray, the electricity came back on. It was awesome. It really struck me. We had been talking about how God used to talk to people in dreams and such and if that could still happen, if God still spoke to us today. I believe he does, maybe not in the forms of burning bushes, or angels from heaven, but I do certainly believe he uses small gestures and subtle things to speak to us. I think many of us just choose to not listen, and we remember what happened to Jonah when he wouldn't listen to God, he was swallowed by a fish. Very thankful for an amazing God who could send his only son to die, to cover the cost of my sins and to forgive me and love me no matter what. That's a powerful thought to think about! I see God at work every day in the tiniest aspects of my life, I can't say I'm always the person God would like for me to be, I fail a lot of the time, but he hasn't given up on me yet, and neither will I, I'm a work in progress!
I thank everyone who takes the time to stop by this tiny little spot of the web. It isn't much. It's just my little spot though, and I am thankful for it.
Mae
