Imagination---on SALE!!!

My kids LOVE to play dress-up and everyone who knows them knows that.  Abbie chooses to wear a different princess dress almost everyday.  She also insists upon accessorizing and wearing heels.  Bracken is the same way (not with dresses and heels), and was actually our first child to obsess over this form of make believe.   When the Police family gave us some hand-me-downs from Ben and they included some of his old Batman and Superman costumes Bracken fell in love.  We are now going on year three of him loving to dress up as one hero or another several times a week.

For the first year we rotated between Superman and Batman several times a day, and by year two we added some Spiderman costumes into the mix, but today was the single GREATEST addition to our costume closet yet!!!  In case you didn't head to Target on your Saturday errands today you may have missed their sale on all Halloween goods.  All of their costumes were 90% off, NINETY!!!  In fact all of the Halloween stuff was 90% off, which means that the giant bags of assorted candies were on sale for $0.59 and the costumes were between $2 and $3 each.  We stocked up on five costumes for Bracken (Transformer, Ninja Turtle, Black Ninja, Captain Jack Sparrow, and an extra Power Ranger suit) and two for Abbie (High School Musical Cheerleader and Camp Rock girl).  The kids were ecstatic that they could now dress up as even more of their favorite imaginary idols, and I was ecstatic to have more costumes in the mix (many kids costumes aren't supposed to go through the washing machine and ours are beginning to either look very loved or very gross).  I have broken down and washed some because of the outrageous number of times they've been worn, napped in, spilled on, etc. but there are some I can't bring myself to wash because I know it will destroy them.  I doubt that Superman would look very super if I washed his faux muscles away.  So, for now we are glad to have extended the collection.

As soon as we got home from running our errands the kids stripped down and had a fashion show.  Tate was furious because no costumes were purchased for him but usually he hates wearing costumes so we were surprised by his reaction.  Luckily we were able to find some of those old Ben Police costumes Bracken had loved so much and Tate was able to join the fun.  They were pretending that the playscape was their ship and that Abbie was the queen who was leading them all away on a journey.  I was just glad that they were willing to play outside and use their imaginations.  Oh, and I was also put into hysterics by what the static electricity did to Ruby's hair---what a babe!

You can take the girl out of the Capitol...

...but you can't take the American spirit out of the girl!!
Hooray for Election day!  Actually, this is clearly a little late, but better late than never, right?  I just wanted everyone back home to have proof that the election did not pass us by here in the lone star state.

I have opted to leave politics out of this post, the election is over now so I don't need to get up on my soap box.  I must admit though that I am very relieved that this election cycle has come to a close.  I was sick of the divisiveness that existed in many areas, and I also don't appreciate the misguided notion of some that there is one true party in the same way that there is one true religion.  That is obviously not the case.  I am grateful to live in a country and belong to a church that both allow me to hold to my convictions and make my own educated decisions.

Justin was in Oklahoma on Tuesday so, sadly, we were apart for the fun of watching CNN and seeing what was transpiring around the country.  However, I did not allow his absence to detract from the kids experience.  When they surfaced in my bedroom at the crack of dawn I asked them if they knew what day it was, Bracken seemed exasperated by my even asking, but responded, "yes mom, it's pick the president day."  What a smart son I am raising/brainwashing!  

I dressed all the kids in red, white, and blue outfits (except Ruby, she is growing like a weed and fits into almost nothing...she is hugely fat and it's adorable) and I donned all of my mom's patriotic gear.  Really, when else would I wear this sweater or these earrings?  I don't think many people caught on to why I was dressed this way, which is really not a good sign, but one mom at the preschool did compliment the earrings.

Justin and I voted absentee from Virginia since we thought our vote would count more there, and because we did not officially close on our house until last Monday night---YES, WE DID FINALLY CLOSE ON OUR HOUSE, HOORAY---so we felt safe using our VA address because we weren't really officially Texan's yet.  We were both very grateful to be part of the democratic process and are even more thrilled that Barack Obama will be the next president!!!  We are beyond ready for a change and really believe that President-elect Obama is the right man for the job.

Hope you all voted, no matter who you were supporting!

Note:  Bracken is wearing my cowboy boots in the pictures, he obviously did not wear them to school.  Also, I forced them to take that sitting down picture even though they complained that they were being blinded by the sun, hence the squinting.

Just think of a wonderful thought...

...any happy little thought! My happy thought is of these cute kids! We went to a Halloween party last Saturday night and had a blast! My friend Jennifer has a great red barn and a lot of land so she hosted her ward's Halloween party and we crashed (cool barn party trumps lame cultural hall shin-dig our ward was having). As many of you know I am a sucker for ensemble outfits (and was teased mercilessly in my last ward because of it---remember Easter 2006?) so I was very excited to have our entire family go as the cast from Peter Pan this Halloween. Unfortunately I could never find a good crocodile outfit for Tate and I was totally unwilling to break the bank for an adult Captain Hook costume for Justin, so one thing led to another once I saw that Disney costumes went on a half-price sale over a week ago at the Disney Store----Tate is now Captain Hook.

Tate's costume is a little big but it's hard to tell from these pictures. I think it's a great costume for him because at this current stage of life he is the villain of the family. I say that with love. Tate is just a very passionate child and knows exactly what he wants and thinks that the best way to get it is to act out. Actually, he has been getting better at controlling himself now that he is beginning to talk more. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to live in a world where I knew exactly what I needed but couldn't communicate with the people around me, thus, I try to cut him some slack.

Anyway, when they were all in their costumes they were quite a sight to see!! Well, to their mom anyway. Everyone was definitely gushing over their own kids and had little time to ooh and ahh over other people's, especially at a party the week before Halloween when all of the mom's were trying to keep the costumes looking like new for the main event.

I had had to order Ruby's costume from Ebay because apparently the Disney Store pulled all of their infant-sized Tinkerbell costumes a few days after putting them out on the sales floor. According to the employee I spoke with at the Disney Store, Toys R Us was supposed to be the only retailer with tinkerbell costumes in baby sizes because they had offered to give a percentage of the proceeds of the sale of those costumes to the Pediatric AIDS foundation. While I definitely agree that that is a worthy cause I was extremely frustrated when I made the trek from the Disney Store at the mall over to Toys R Us only to find that their Tinkerbell costume was hideous and would have made my not-even-one-year-old look like a "street walker" (as my Dad would say). I opted to not purchase the offensive outfit and instead was willing to try my luck on Ebay.

A few smart women must have acted faster than the Disney Store because when I went online there were tons of the not-to-be-sold costumes being hocked. Luckily because of the abundance of supply I was able secure Ruby's costume for under $20 including shipping---what a steal! The only down side was that I had to wait for the costume to arrive and wasn't sure it would really fit my gorgeously plump little fairy.

Sadly, Ruby's costume did not arrive in time for the barn party so she had to wear Abbie's size 3 or 4 tinkerbell costume, which currently still fits her (Abbie), and is quite large on Ruby. The real costume did, however, arrive in time for the preschool parade. I decided to dress all four kids in their costumes because they look much better as the whole cast than had I only dressed the school-aged kids. Ruby spent the entire parade in her stroller fascinated by the tutu portion of her costume---brilliant! Tate on the other hand couldn't quite figure out why Bracken and Abbie got to parade around with other kids and sing spooky Halloween songs with choreographed moved while he had to hang back with mom. His solution was to inch forward ever so slowly until he was practically part of Bracken's class thinking, "if I am nonchalant about this no one will notice I am 2 and not 4...I'll just play along." It was quite entertaining.

At the barn party the kids had even more fun than I had anticipated. Each stall of the barn was staged with a different Halloween game with a guaranteed prize for each player at the end (perfect for uncoordinated preschoolers and toddlers). They had a great time fishing for prizes, throwing bean bags through the jack-o-lantern's mouth, tossing a ball at milk bottles, and doing the cupcake walk. All went well until we got to the bobbing for apples station and the Nazi Miamaid or Laurel who would just not bend the rules for my 3 and 4 year olds. Perhaps the missionaries should have manned that booth because Bracken (and his costume) was soaked by the end and walked away empty handed after not successfully being able to snag an apple. Needless to say, he and Abbie were both very disappointed. I almost stuck my face in the nasty kid snot water just to prove a point and get a prize for my babies...thankfully I was able to control myself and just walk away. Where was Heather when I needed her? [A reference to my cousin Heather who fought a fight Allie was unwilling to fight with Maddie's ballet teacher after her recital...let's just say that in the end Maddie did walk away with a prefect attendance trophy. If only we could all be more like Heather.]

Well, all in all it was a great Halloween. In fact, Bracken said that at least a dozen times last night, "this is the BEST night EVER mom!" They had all been so excited that they could hardly wait to get out and trick-or-treat. I even found Bracken's dinner (pasta) hidden this morning on the floor behind the trash can. When I asked him about it he said he had to get rid of it fast last night so they could get out to all of the houses before the people inside needed to go to sleep. I guess when you're 4 every piece of candy counts.

Also, I am including four things I learned last night:

1. Apparently "we don't do Halloween, we do fall festival" applies only to decorations not costumes; my lovely neighbor appeared at my door in thigh-high patent leather boots with a four inch heel and was dressed as quite a sexy batgirl...her husband was batman, their son Superman.

2. It is not easy to draw a curly Captain Hook mustache on a feisty two-year-old

3. Always be sure your camera battery is fully charged. We got in a few pictures before the battery died. I ran in and grabbed my cell phone but iphones do not have a zoom or flash so the phone camera was no help. Too sad.

4. Either commit to a costume or go completely as your normal self. I usually wear these great long orange and black striped gloves with feathers, etc. and some sparkly bat glasses, all of which goes great with a witches hat. Unfortunately, I didn't learn until I had put on exorbitant amounts of eyeliner and gold eye shadow AND teased my hair, that my go-to costume was nowhere to be found (darn my stupid movers and their concept of logical packing). Justin was already outside with the kids ready to go and I had no choice but to go out and meet all of my neighbors looking like I had just come from a West Virginia trailer park circa 1983. Oh well, hopefully I will have a chance to redeem myself in future days.

*****A special thank you to my mother-in-law who in one days time, after her own mother's funeral no less, was able to make Abbie's gorgeous Wendy costume. I really don't know what we would have done without her! What do people do who don't have mother's-in-law who sew? Allie and I often wonder since we are both blessed to have such talented in-laws. THANK YOU GINGER!!!!!*****[Ginger, Bracken loved the hat a little too much and wore it to a McDonald's playland during the week while Justin was out of town and somehow it didn't make it home with us. We went back for it the next morning and it was gone, we even made the manager crawl all through the playland to check---he was quite dedicated to the mission, and it was quite a sight to see! But alas, no hat! Sorry!!!]