Happy Halloween 2010...

We took the girls out trick or treating this evening.  We had the best time!  I'm tempted to say that I had more fun than anyone, but I'm not sure that's true.  They looked so incredibly adorable I just wanted to keep giving them hugs and taking pictures.  Katie was a fairy princess and Ava was a butterfly.  The very first house we went to Ava got a piece of candy and I'm not kidding when I say that it took us about 15 minutes to get to the next house.  She was so thrilled that someone just gave her a piece of candy all she wanted to do was eat it.  And eat it she did.  She actually set down her bucket and kept walking without it.  Who needs to carry around this thing if you can just eat the candy as it's given to you?  Haha!  Katie wanted to get to as many houses as she could and fill up her pumpkin to its eyeballs.

We had a wonderful Halloween evening!

Betsy McCall Paper Dolls...

I had the idea yesterday to look online for some paper dolls I could cut out for Katie.  I just wanted free printouts because I didn't want to spend money on something she wouldn't enjoy.  Anyway, I looked online for about two hours and I found these!  Betsy McCall paper dolls!  They are so CUTE!  They were printed monthly in McCall's Magazine from 1951 through the 1990s.  There are literally hundreds of dresses and dolls to cut out.  The design changed several times but I am in love with the first designs from the 50s.  On the website above you can print them all out for free!

I printed the first one out for my daughter, Katie, yesterday and she just loves it!  I am so excited she does!  She wants me to make her a bed and a closet to hang all of her clothes in.  I'm not sure about the closet but I might make a "dresser" out of shoe box for her.  

She has never heard of or seen paper dolls before as far as I know and she couldn't believe there was such a thing!  I love introducing her to new things.  All the searching online was worth finding these!

A Fall Day...

We went outside yesterday after dinner to rake up some leaves and I spent most of the time (ok all of the time) photographing the girls playing in the leaves.  They had so much fun!  I love watching them enjoying life.  I am no pro photographer so most of the pictures turned out really blurry.  I should have bumped up the ISO but I didn't think of that until after the fact, of course.  But blurry and all, the pictures are really fun to look at!  Here is Ava being the victim of an older sibling's fun.  Poor thing.  Katie just kept on pouring leaves on top of her.  So funny though!

She has no idea what's coming...

This was after the first five leaf pours...

From the top!

From the side!

Ewww!  Leaves in the mouth!

Katie was relentless.  Just in case you were wondering I did make her stop after a couple minutes.  Otherwise she would still be at it!

Here are a couple more pictures I took of the girls.  The one of Ava is really good (if I do say so myself) and I LOVE it!  I want to print it out in a huge poster size!  

My sweet little angels...

My New Obsession... glitterhouses!

Ok, so I know that Christmas is two months away, but I can't help myself.  I am completely obsessed with glitter houses!  I actually just discovered them.  Apparently, they are a once common vintage Christmas decoration originally called putz houses, I think.  Here is a link if you would like to read more about them.  I found an awesome blog this week called A Field Journal and I love the glitter house village she made last Christmas.  So, so, so pretty!  I love the pinks and aquas and creams!  So romantic and dreamy.  Anyway, I am totally copying her.  I am not going to beat around the bush about that. She just did a perfect job and can't change anything about it.  I don't know, maybe I'll change a couple things but my village is going to be very similar.  I might play up the aquas a little more and soften the pinks a little.  My projects never turn out the way I originally invision them.  Sometimes they come out better and sometimes they come out worse.  Like, a month ago I decided to make big fabric pumpkins out of different textured whitish fabrics and put them on my mantel along with some tall glass candlesticks I have.  Horrible.  It looked horrible.  So I wasted two hours of time (but not much money I'm relieved to say) and was left with an undecorated mantel.  In the end I just threw up a fake fall leaf garland with my glass candlesticks and a few faux mercury glass votive holders and it looks great!  Who knew?  Oh, well.  At least it was an easy fix.  Ok, back to the glitter houses...  Here is a picture of the original glitter house village I fell in love with (blogged here).  Isn't it just lovely?

...and here is a picture of my first glitter house although it's unadorned right now.  I LOVE it!  I decided to start with the church and I used the pattern on Martha Stewart's website here.  The chipboard (which is dang hard to find) is a little rough due to my putting on too much glue on the template.  But it will be covered by many layers of prettiness, so I'm not worried about it.

I'll post more pics as my village undergoes construction.  I'm hoping to have it all finished by the end of November so I can put it up on the mantel just in time for the Christmas season.  So excited!  I can't stop holding it, it's so cute!  My oldest daughter, Katie, loves it too.  She keeps asking me when she can paint it.  I think I might have to make her one of her own.  :)

My budding artist...

Recently I have been discovering how artistically inclined my oldest daughter is.  Homeschooling has really opened my eyes to how she learns and what her strengths and weaknesses are.  I have started her with Sonlight Curriculum, which I love because of how mapped out everything is for the teacher (me), but she is not thriving with it because it is very language oriented and she is very visually oriented.  So I've shifted my focus in her schooling to incorporate more visual activities (drawing, painting, photography, picture books, etc.).  Since I have spent more time with her visual side her creativity has just blossomed!  Here are some paintings she made this afternoon that I just LOVE!  They are so colorful and creative!  Can you tell what's on her mind?  She can't stop talking about Santa Claus and Christmas and snow.  She can't wait for the holidays to get here!

Here is a snowman:

Here is another snowman with large snowflakes falling:

Here is a picture of Katie and Ava playing in the snow together and holding hands:

Oh so sweet!