Category Archives: Kids

Happy Halloween!

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We had a GREAT Halloween this year… It was Omar’s first Halloween in America. Wait I lied, he did have one before when he was a month old.  We did celebrate in Spain on base but it was not quite the same. So this year he was SUPER excited.  He dressed as Darth Vader and then decided the mask was too annoying to wear the entire night but at least I got a picture with it on.

Mckenna was a dark fairy. This is our homemade costume this year, I had a lot of fun making it and she loved it.

I also tried my best with her makeup. I am NOT artistic or good with makeup but she thought it looked great and that’s all that matters!

Although I did it a few hours prior and it did get smudged and had to be fixed before we headed out.

Me, I was pretty boring this year and did a cop out with a witch had and some awesome feathery eyelashes…

And then was irritated because the breeze kept blowing my hat the whole time we were out, AND I carried a light saber that SOMEONE just couldn’t carry.

I can’t post the aftermath sorting of candy because Omar stripped as soon as we walked in the door and sorted in his underwear. Sounds about right.

Also? People are getting WAY too stingy with the chocolate. Keep your Laffy Taffy and Twizzlers, mama wants Snickers and Reese’s!

Oh I had to go snooping for pictures from Halloween past. I can’t believe how much my babies have grown over the past few years!

DIY No Sew Fairy Costume

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Need some costume inspiration? My daughter has been going back and forth on what she wanted to be, a Monster high character, a zombie, I finally got that she wanted to be scary but look cute, too. I asked her if she would like to be a dark/evil fairy. She thought that sounded cool.  I wanted to make her costume because I LOVE to do homemade costumes! Unfortunately my sewing machine is still broken so It was going to have to be no sew!

I am planning on (trying) so do some creepy black and purple eye makeup and cover her with some glittery  lotion.  This was SUPER simple and can be customized with any colors! I’ll take pictures of the wings as well, they were a simple black pair from Target that I painted with some 3D sparkly purple paint.

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Supplies needed:

Plain tank top

Ribbon

Safety pins

Tulle

I used 2 large (21yard?) black rolls and 1 small sparkly purple one of tulle, but my daughter is really tall and I made the skirt so it’s longer in the back (goes to her calf). Also it’s not super thick so she’ll be wearing some black leggings underneath. 

There are about a million tutu tutorials online but what I did was cut a length of tulle twice as long as I wanted it to be, then folded in in half. I used a length of ribbon as a waistband because I didn’t feel like going back to the craft store and it actually works great. It’s much easier for me to build this on my model. To attach just pull the mid point of your tulle under the waist then pull the ends through. This makes a nice clean look. After you are done you can loop extra tulle or ribbon if you want it to look even more finished.

The corset top is just genius. I love it! Lay your tank on a table and put a magazine or book inside (makes it easier to pin). Just pin pairs of pins down the front gradually getting them closer together. When you are done lace the ribbon through like a shoelace. When you are done have your model try it on and adjust the ribbon tighter or looser as needed.

The wand was some extra ribbon and tulle wrapped around a chopstick.

My daughter loves it and loves that she won’t have the same costume as anyone else. Plus it’ll be fun to play in after Halloween. If you try this I would love to see pictures of your finished product!

Back to School…

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So today was a back to school day for the kids. They were off ALL last week for fall break (yeah I don’t know what that is either) and then were also off Monday for Columbus Day. We had planned lots of activities to keep us busy and I think we did an okay job. But man, was I happy when I dropped them off this morning! Ten days! Ten days off from school! And my darling sweet Omar does not like leaving the house, he is my little homebody. Want to go to the beach? No. The pool? No. A movie? No. Mckenna I ruined at a young age by taking her anywhere and everywhere. Omar grew up in Rota where we didn’t have a ton to do. So I have been having to balance the child who wants to get out of the house to do anything and the child who will do anything to be able to stay home. Go figure. We managed to get to the beach, the pool, the library, the movies, paint pottery, Child and Youth Day downtown, my football practice and games, Omar’s soccer practice and games and did not kill each other!

Today I also had a Scentsy party at a friends, damn I am a sucker for those burners. I am happy I got a pretty new burner for my guest bathroom and my bedroom. I reaaaaally need to get some paint so I can start hanging all my crap up on my walls. I got the most BEAUTIFUL new comforter and I can’t wait to get my room all put together, it’s going to look great with some of my watercolors from France hanging up! I can’t wait!

Also sent out another care package for my sailor. Mail call came and he got his first two care packages I sent so now I can post pictures on here. I had a lot of fun packing them and decorating boxes. Care package ideas and post coming soon!

Now I have to try and get myself back on a school schedule because I was staying up WAY too late while we were on break. In fact last night I was still up when my bestie in Virginia was waking up in the morning… And no, 5 hours of sleep did not cut it. And yet, here I am again. 11pm and not tired in the slightest. NyQuil it is!

First leis!

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So my neighbor (and fellow ship wife) is from Hawaii and she and her mom were busily making leis for some function or another… Mckenna happened to be over there giving her a hand and got to come home with a couple of leis. We weren’t greeted with any at the airport (something that if we ever have anyone come visit us I will to do!) so this is the first time we got to wear a lei in Hawaii!

Omar’s interpretation:

 

Look mom! Flower hair!

My goodness I wish this kid could take a normal picture. Oh well they are still cute.

And of COURSE I had to torture my dog.

Right here he is thinking ‘wait until she releases me, I am going to eat this thing in 2 seconds.’ Which I didn’t let him do. I of course had to hang them up so they can dry. 

And so my collection starts. Just wait until Omar comes home, I am going to pile him up. The exchange even has leis with the mini bottles of booze. Love it!

 

 

Bellows Beach

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Oh my… how has it taken me three months to get to this beach? It. Is. Gorgeous!

Like the beach you picture in your mind when you think of hawaii? The perfect curl of white sand with lush green mountains in the back and gorgeous blue water?

 

 

Yeah. This is it. Beautiful, soft white sand… clear blue water… just lovely.

 

 

 

So we set up camp right at the edge of the woods (great campgrounds right next to the beach for all you campers!) and hit the waves.

 

 

We went with a friend of mine and her two kids and we all had a great time. The water was the perfect temperature and the waves were perfect for boogie boarding. Mckenna hadn’t done in years but picked it right up again.

 

 

I could sit here with this view forever.

 

Or this one!

 

Omar was a little miffed at me after we wiped out one time when I took him out on the boogie board. Nothing bad, I think it just surprised him. Time to rinse off and eat some more snacks!

 

 

Little Surfer Girls (boogie board girls?) They had a great time riding the waves and digging a giant hot tub in the sand.

 

Sandy, happy children. Really, who couldn’t be happy with this practically in our back yard?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cranky pants Friday

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I don’t know if I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or if my household is conspiring to drive me crazy.
(I did wake up terribly due to taking NyQuil last night in an effort to drug myself so I wasn’t staying up late, again!)

We are walking out the door actually early-ish and my dog is sitting at the door (remember he is an ANGEL in the house, it’s outside that he turns into an asshole) Well I told Omar let’s go, and Bowser thought I was talking to him and decides to bolt out the door. Fabulous. Now normally it’s no big deal if he’s off leash, he runs around for a few minutes, finds some cat poop to eat, then finally decides to come back when he hears me getting pissed. I really don’t have time to mess with him this morning but thankfully he takes one lap around our grassy area and then runs to the car and hops in. Dumb dog. So I drag him out to take him back into the house and he decides now to lay down and play dead. WILL. NOT. STAND. UP. So I have to put my crap that I am carrying on the ground and pick up my 55lb dog to carry him inside. Oh yes, and of course I am wearing a maxidress today just to put the cherry on top. Uh. So annoying.

So dog is inside, finally, back out to the car where my darlings better be in and buckled. Walk up to the car and Mckenna tells me Omar lost his water bottle. What? In the 15 foot walk from the front door to the car? He keeps it in the side pocket of his backpack because otherwise the condensation gets his papers all wet. Somehow in getting into the car, he knocked it out and it fell into the storm drain. And I’m only parked in front of the damn storm drain because it’s trash day and my normal spot was overtaken by garbage cans. I was SO mad! It was one of those nice stainless steel ones and he’d only had it a couple of weeks after I bought it to replace his OTHER water bottle that disappeared to God knows where.
Thankfully there was a full Dasani in there so he had something to take to school (they have no A/C in the classrooms so they drink water ALL day)

Needless to say, I was very grumpy on the way to school. Omar, of course starts to cry when we are walking to his classroom and I feel like an asshole. It’s just an $8 water bottle. So back to the exchange we will go this weekend for yet another replacement. And no more parking in front of the storm drain for me.