The Obligatory Trunk-or-Treat Post

After posting this photo, it was only natural that Steve dress up as Spock for Halloween. So who would I be? One of the only women on the Starship Enterprise who has a name: Uhura.

I have to preface this post by mentioning two things. . .

1. I am not a Star Trek fan.
2. Putting a lot of bronzer on your face and neck will NOT make you look black. A shade of tanning bed orange, yes, but not black. A shocker, I know.

Now we have that out in the open, may I present . . .

Spock, Uhura, Ariel, and Purple Ariel (according to Ivy)

Costume info...

I made the girls' tails from this tutorial (thanks Marisa!) with the help from my seamstress BFF (thanks Sarah!) It's nice to have talented friends who know stuff that you don't. I used scraps of leftover material to make the "seashells" on their shirts with ties in the back. Cost: under $20 for both costumes.

I found the tutorial for my dress here and used Sarah again. (thanks again Sarah!) Bet you'd never guess it used to be an XXL mens shirt. Paired it with some leggings. Cost: $10.75 for the shirt, the leggings, and the gold trim.

For Steve's I just taped some gold trim to a sweater. He really didn't need much because he looks so much like Spock to begin with. :) (Moreso the younger, better looking one from the new movie.... :))

Another round of, "SMILE! LOOK OVER THERE! GIRLS! HEY! SMILE! SMILE!" It didn't help that we weren't the ones taking the photo.

Here's proof that I'm really not a trekkie. It took me a second to get the fingers right...

We had our carnival/trunk-or-treat in our church parking lot. (Lucky for my orange-tinted face. We were all standing under orange-y street lights.) The other ward that shares our building basically put on the whole thing. I'm beginning to see that Samoans really know how to throw parties.

One more attempt at a photo when we got home...

Going Underground...

I'm just going to say it -- our little blog going private.

We've been going back and forth for a long time about this (like many of you do, I'm sure) and decided to do it when Steve finished school. Maybe I'm being overly-paranoid. I don't know. I don't think I post anything too personal on here or flatter myself enough to think that someone would stalk me. I just feel better about this. So don't be grumpy because my blog doesn't pop up on your Reader anymore.

(I completely understand if you are, though. I feel the same way when I have to add another blog to my "private blogs" bookmarks and manually check it. That extra click is killer. Sigh. Keeping in touch is hard work, I know.)

Details....

1. I'll probably do it sometime before Nov. 11th.
2. Send me your email address if you want an invite. Either leave it in the comments section or go here and click on the "Email" link to send it to me.
4. Don't panic, family. If you need help with it, I'll get you set up when we get there. You won't miss anything.

P.S. If you're receiving updates via email from my blog, it will be disabled when I make the blog private. So send me your email address anyhow.

Why I May Never Sleep Soundly Again

Ivy climbed all the way up herself. Steve only spotted her.

At one point, she let go and lifted her hands above her head. And smiled. She's nuts.

My sweet little Ivy isn't scared of anything. She picks the most dangerous-looking part of the playground and heads straight for it. I have a feeling she'll be my adventurous, rock-climbing, base-jumping, sky-diving child.

Weekend with the Grand's

My parents decided to celebrate my dad's birthday out here with us this year! The weekend went by way too fast.

It's kind of a tradition in my family for the kids to get a Halloween box from Grandma. We got ours as kids and now my kids are getting theirs from my mom.

These glasses were pretty popular...

We went to the Perry Farm's pumpkin patch. (One of the few around here who don't have those annoying bouncy houses.) And of course, we had to get a photo in front of the entrance.

We tried to get everyone smiling at the same time.

Or smiling period.

Ivy didn't crack a smile until she started climbing on a giant pyramid made of straw bales. I think she's going to be our mountain-climbing-extreme-sports child. She's fearless. And she likes climbing high.

After saying this a thousand times, "K, girls, sit close. Sophie, scoot over. Ivy, scoot over. K, look at me. Look at me! Smile! Smile! SMILE!!"

Result:

And of course, blowing out candles with grandpa. (And still no smiling for Ivy.) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I called that cake, "Winter at the Crater" which might not make sense to 80% of you. What does make sense is three layers of cake, malt-fudge, and toasted marshmallows. I'll get that posted to my recipe blog shortly.

Last Trip to the Beach. . . ?

Maybe. But after week-long temps of 90+, we could go surely go back and get more sun. I'm tired of summer. Go away, please.

Since Steve's basically being a bum right now, (a bum with a lot of personal projects and paperwork, though) we do a lot of spontaneous things. Like go to the beach on a weekday.

I love this picture so much. It's so Ivy.



We took our little camera this time and Steve took some pics instead of me.



I don't know why I even bother wearing a swimsuit at the beach. I hate salt water, so I never swim. Maybe to keep cool?



I'll definitely put Half Moon Bay on the list of things I'll sorely miss when we leave. Right between Berkeley Bowl's honey roasted peanut butter and wearing flip flops in January.

(I may end up keeping that last one, though.)

Crashed

This couch is where the girls take their afternoon nap. This is how it usually goes . . .

Around 2PM. (I've learned that it does no good to say, "hey, it's time for a nap!" because they just start arguing with me.)

After gathering a few books from their shelf, making sure to include a few big ones for the end -- they can never stay awake through the whole thing.

Me: I'm going to read ALL these books by myself!

I plop myself on the couch.

Sophie: NO! Read to ME!

Ivy: ME TOO! ME TOO!

Both girls climb on my lap and reading commences.

Ivy usually complains because she wants to pick the next book every time. After a while she learns to take turns. And then 10 minutes later she's OUT.

Sophie usually takes about 10-15 minutes longer than Ivy. This is when I pull out the bigger books, start yawning occasionally, and reading in a softer, monotone voice. And then she goes out, too.

That's when I make my escape.

In that photo above, Ivy had just rolled over because my camera is noisy. She didn't wake up. And don't worry about her falling off the couch. . .

She usually just goes back to sleep anyway.

P.S. That last one was on a different day. I came downstairs to rouse them and she started waking up and threw her feet off the side of the couch. Then went back to sleep.

P.P.S. Ivy isn't into wearing pants lately.