Tuesday, October 26, 2010

FALL FUN!

(Oops, just a little late on writing about October fun times, better late than never)
October was packed full of fall fun. We took our annual trip to the Clanton Pumpkin patch, I think it's our 4th year now. I'm all about creating traditions for the kiddos in hopes that they will treasure the memories as much as I do. We missed the Morris family this time around, but we hope we'll catch them at the patch next year.
Houston LOVED the hay ride...hence his total fascination with all things tractor.
Pumpkin Carving Time...
The week of Halloween was a busy power outage week, with the hubs on call we didn't see Daddy boy all week, which meant, momma here had to carve the pumpkins. I had forgotten how time consuming it was to get all the guts out and work your magic on a cute face. Next on the agenda is roasting those pumpkin seeds, yummy.
We had a fall festival at Nana’s school, which has become an annual event for the kids and they always have a blast. Lots of kiddy games and prizes. Colby was a yellow wolverine and Houston was a race car driver— note Colby changed costumes at each event - he's so funny about dressing up - he loves to change it up and does not wear the masks that come with the costumes - I don't blame him really...they do get rather hot.

Saturday, OMES had their first Fall Fun Fest, fund raiser. The boys had a full day of fun, hayrides, petting zoo, bouncy things, ball tosses and BBQ. I worked the bottle people craft table, it was fun to see all the kiddos creations, my boys weren’t really into the crafty stuff so thank goodness daddy boy came along to keep them entertained at the outside festivities. By the time we got home the boys were worn out, but the day didn’t stop there... Next up, Saturday night we went to watch that orange and blue team over at Holley & Steve’s. Never a dull moment with that crew. Garrison has so many toys and older neighborhood buddies that the kiddos entertained themselves most of the night. We did go out for a little trick or treating and their neighborhood did not disappoint, it was packed full of kiddos running around and their bags got heavier and heavier each stop. We even hung out with a few sweethearts from Colby’s old school. Colby was batman, Houston remained a race car driver. The kids had a ball.

Halloween day we went to Mt Brook to hang out with the cowgirl (Sadie) and the Indian (Sydney) at a really cool community Halloween parade - think Marti Gras parade but with a Halloween theme - lots of beads, moon pies, candy being thrown from old timey fire trucks, hurst on wheels, the kids had a ball fetching the loot. Mt Brook knows had to celebrate - the fun didn't end there - next up was a block party, complete with a band and pizza. Very neat to see the neighbors coming together and all the cute kiddos running around in the costumes, not to mention charming homes as the backdrop, very cool. This round, Colby was a blue power range and Houston stuck with the race car driver. We trick or treated with the Sadie & Sydney for a bit but felt like we should head back and be social in our own neighborhood. After 3 trick or treating excursions we are in candy overload at the house. What a non stop fantastic Halloween!

Mirror Transformation

So many projects, so little time. I've always got a project going on, and most of them aren't finished. I can finally cross this one off the list of to-do's. I've been working on this one forever, it's not like the project took a lot of effort but I've been tinkering with this one since July and I have no clue why, it could have taken me one afternoon but instead I let it linger. I kept seeing all these cute chalkboards all over blogland, so I came upon this mirror with really cool lines, probably a little girly for my house full of boys, but I knew she had potential.
Here she is, she's tall, thin and has good lines, she's made of plastic I'm guessing in her previous life she hung above a dresser. I picked her up for $8.00 or so.
I painted her heirloom white and the paint bubbled and bugs got stuck in the wet paint and it was a hot mess so I left her in the dirt and then finally moved her to the back porch for awhile, well maybe even a few months, shame on me.

Finally, when the temperature was a tad bit more pleasant and after a few sips of my husbands Monster drink, I started on her again. I sprayed her with another coat of heirloom white spray paint and a trusty coat of clear poly for protection. I went to Lowe's and found a sheet of galvenized metal, it wasn't the exact size I needed so I cut down a few inches to fit inside the frame - and used my handy kitchen scissors to cut it. Side note: I would have had my handy hubby cut this for me with one of his manly tools, but I was determined to make him proud of me and ask for zero help. After cutting it to size and wearing out my poor kitchen scissors, I then spray painted the piece of metal with some chalkboard paint - got to love this stuff. Took out all the screws from the backside of the mirror, left the mirror intact and placed the galvenized piece on top. And ta da I have a chalkboard/magnet board for all the school paperwork, party invite, doctor appointment paperwork overload chaos. It fits just perfectly on a skinny wall in the kitchen. And that my friend is a project done without the hubby's help! After shot doesn't really do her justice.

Next project to check off the list, kitchen bench for the kiddos...coming soon.