this kid...

He's a keeper.

happy birthday, caleb...

Today marks Caleb's fifth birthday. FIVE!! It takes my breath away looking at pictures like this one...seriously, it seems like a week ago that I took this picture when in reality it was over two years ago.



He woke up this morning, came into our bedroom, climbed into bed with us and we sang Happy Birthday and then I asked him if he realized he slept in his own bed ALL NIGHT and he said, "yeah, that's what five year olders do. I'm going to do it forever and ever now." And Lynn and I thanked the Heavens...but we won't hold our breath :).

Our agenda is pretty packed today. We had a pancake breakfast this morning at the birthday boy's request. Lynn couldn't wait to give Caleb his big birthday present...couldn't even wait for me to wrap it! So we gave it to him at breakfast. He's flipped through the book forty times already and can't wait to play.

After speech therapy we've got a couple errands to run and a lunch date. Then it's all Batman, all day!

Happy Birthday, sweet boy! We love you!

steamrolling into november...

I was on quite a roll there last week with the making of things and the posting, wasn't I. The weekend ended up being super packed with fun stuff. Early Saturday afternoon the boys had soccer games fifteen minutes apart at two separate fields. After the games we geared up for Boo at the Zoo. Logan and Caleb wore their new costumes (Jango and Boba Fett respectively), and Molly wore Caleb's old baby Stitch costume (and LOVED it. I SO wish we had a video camera with us because it was awesome the way this little girl skittered and danced about in that costume. People were keeling over from the cute left and right.)



At the end of the night Molly and Caleb were out cold before we got out of the parking lot and Logan lasted until just about the Fort Worth city limits.



After church and Sunday school we headed to the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano to attend our first letterboxing event. We met some lovely folks, including the fabled Gryzzled Gryphon of Coryell County (I think that was the very best part of the entire day for Caleb), and exchanged lots of signature stamps and personal travelers too. By the time we wrapped up the meet and greet Lynn was a bit sun sick and whipped because of it so we opted to forego hunting letterboxes and will head back out that way soon. From the areas I saw it's a really nice preserve with lots of space for hiding new letterboxes.

* * * * *

To my Haunted ATC swappers: the bulk of your cards have gone out in today's mail, I'm still waiting on two envelopes that are taking the LONG way to get here and I'm hoping they'll arrive today or tomorrow. Either way the rest of the cards will ship tomorrow!

Check back this evening for information on this year's Christmas ornament swap and possible atc swap. I'm starting early this year so I don't get tangled up in all my own last minute stuff. And God willing, Caleb will have a healthy Christmas this year too!!

in less than ninety minutes...

an hour and twenty eight minutes to be exact...I was having a tough time thinking of something owl-ly to make for my swap partner. Stumped, I stood in the middle of my studio looking at all the shelves jammed full of stuff when my eyes fell upon a pile of grunged up stuffed egg/potato things from way back when. Ah ha! I grabbed my washaway ink pen, a needle and a fist full of embroidery floss and set to work. I was surprised at how quickly it came together and am thrilled with the finished product. I hope my swap partner will enjoy it! Caleb has drawn a bear for me to stitch up for him so he can sleep with it. How adorable is that?

Speaking of sleep, I'm off to bed now...busy day tomorrow!

what if...

So I was clicking through Sara Lechner's photo stream on flickr this morning and followed a link to her Whatiffing Around blog. I like this idea. Then I remembered enjoying Calamity Kim's "What If" entry a couple weeks back. Then I followed some links in her entry and found Jude - of the entries I flipped through, this one just sings to me...the colors, the stitching...great stuff.

I don't know about you, but with all the rules and schedules I have to keep up with during the school year I am thankful for lovely reminders like these to think outside the box. Thanks ladies!

dang...

Too slow! I was too slow again! We all missed out on these super cool Halloween rattles. The owl is my favorite.

clickety click...

It's a quick and easy way to get an extra good turn in each day.

owl-erina...

pretty catchy, right? Logan came up with it :). She's a ballerina and she's an owl...



I made her for Debra's Halloween Flight Night swap. My swap partner (who I'll link to later) loves owls so it was must for the paper doll I made for her to have an owl costume. I used water colors and colored pencils along with some glitter, perle cotton, seam binding tape and snap tacks to make her. I think she turned out lovely. Logan has requested I make a paper doll of him and dress him as a bat. We shall see...

Now I'm off to finish up the rest of my owl-ly goodies for my swap partner...they were supposed to go out today, but of course I'm slightly behind schedule at the moment. Hopefully we'll have some sunshine tomorrow so I can snap some pics of the awesome owl messenger bag and paper doll she made for me.

catching up...

and here it's only Wednesday! Phew. Lynn's parents were in town over the long weekend so we did lots of visiting, lots of shopping, lots of soccering. It was a good visit, but an exhausting one too.

The kids were off from school on Monday so we took that opportunity to finish decorating the house for Halloween. There is still plenty to do, but we have all the lights up and most of our decorations are out on display. It feels nice! This is first year since Molly's been with us that we've really pulled (almost) everything out...I was still in my first trimester with her in 2006 and last year she was only six months old.





I have big plans to make masks and tiny costumes for the gnomes and cast iron birds in our front yard...maybe tomorrow. Even just the thought tickles me to no end!

a big thank you to dawn...

Along with her awesome Halloween ATCs, my sweet friend Dawn sent treats for the kiddies. The boys are loving the perler beads and Molly loves her Jack. Caleb is still over the moon about the glow-in-the-dark ghost. He sleeps with it next to his bed every night!

if i never...

see another High School Musical branded product in my house again it will be too soon. Sigh, I have to put this out into the ether so I can get it out of my craw.



These are the baskets I assembled for Logan's school's fall festival PTA basket auction last week. They have a combined approximate value of $240 (not including the sweet-ass homecoming mums and inventory sheets I made to top them off...because those, those are priceless). Apparently all the baskets for all the grades brought in about half of the actual cash values when the auctions were all said and done. This absolutely ASTOUNDS me. I don't know about the rest of the homeroom moms, but, save for a few very generous families, I practically had to hang parents upside down from their ankles and give them a good shake to get them to donate money toward these fing baskets. After all that time and effort on my part and generosity on the parents' part the PTA essentially went and threw half that money away. Never mind the time it took me and everyone else who assembled baskets or the time spent by the moms who volunteered to do the shopping for the baskets or the chairperson's time. Talk about first class counter productivity (or as Lynn declares: a first class circle jerk). All I can say is never again. Never again!

To be clear, I think the PTA serves an excellent purpose and I am more than happy to donate my dollars and even my time (when I'm not ambushed into volunteering), but when I see donated dollars being poorly managed it gives me pause. Next year I won't be donating toward baskets...if anything we'll make a direct donation to the PTA. Ugh.

and we're off...

Miss Molly and I are heading down to New Braunfels for the weekend to visit with family and go to a baby shower for my brother and his wife. Their first child is due in December!

I never spiffed up any onesies for any of my own kids...I guess it's not so appealing to do the work when you'll be washing them over and over and over again. Whatever the case, I just never was compelled to embellish onesies for my brood. But for my new baby nephew? Of course!



Have a great weekend!! See you all next week :).

look what i found...

Just in time for fall: acorn shaped muffins. Williams-Sonoma always has something I want but could totally live without. Um, as in one of everything and sometimes, it turns out, I can't live without superfluous kitchen gadgets. Apparently they're somewhat like oxygen and I need them to survive...