Halloween TnT pics...

Jamie is a blue dragon with a horn (that was what he requested) and Cassie is a princess.

I had to threaten them to keep them out of my neighbors yard. We have a gate that connects the backyards and the kids go back and forth. As soon as the sun even started to LOOK like it was going to go down, they were outside waiting for her. They were going to storm the house in search of the little girl next door!
Ahhh... there she is! Two little princesses waiting to go...
Yeah, they weren't too keen on having to wait... *laugh*
Trick-or-Treating daddy, the evil sorcerer....

Yeah... so my kid came home after school with make up on... should I be worried? ;) Nah, they did some scarecrow dress up thing today. *shrug* He's holding a witch's hand that they made.

More fame! LOL!

.... AND the picture I took of Jamie/Cassie in their costumes is on the KEYE website at:
http://keyetv.com/slideshows/local_slideshow_293133041/view?slide=12

Recipe Zaar: Or Candy Is Easily Excitable

I'm pathetic, I know, but... go to http://www.recipezaar.com/ - see that picture of worms on the left side of the screen? I took that picture! I get to be photo of the day ON Halloween at Recipe Zaar! How cool is THAT? Tom and I are BIG fans of this site. We can add as many recipes as we want, share them with others if we want, take pictures so we remember what each thing looks like AND the best feature... we can take those recipes, choose a bunch and it will generate a shopping list... it ROCKS - a link to our RZ Page is in the bar on the right.

In case you missed it, I took a screen shot (shut up, I told you).

WOSM: Principal Power Trip

Excuse me while I rant a little...



This principal up in NY sent home 3 girls that were dressed as the book character Captain Underpants. Those of you with kids have probably heard about him, if not had to read about his adventures with the infamous Professor Poopypants. Dude! WHAT is your problem! These kids were dressed up as BOOK characters. BOOKS. That means that some kids are actually READING, they weren't dressed up as the latest video game hero. I'm sorry, but ANYTIME a kid reads, I think it's a beautiful thing. Yes, even if it's Captain Underpants. Read the full story HERE

This, my friends is the offending character. Oh my! The shock! The horror! Are you serious? Just because it "looked" like they were naked. Well, heck, I dressed up as Dorothy. Just because it may LOOK like her doesn't mean I have a dog and a witch chasing me for my shoes. Are you SERIOUS??? My kids LOVE these books. They think they are the funniest thing ever. And ya know what? If they wanna dress like Captain Underpants, more power to them.

Our Halloween Decorations...

I took pictures with and without flash... we are quite proud of our decor... we have a fog machine and spooky music that will be going tomorrow night too! :-) Happy Halloween everyone!

Austin Children's Museum Visit

My new goal is to spend more time downtown with the kids and just in general. I mean, hello, we live in Austin, we should spend more time hanging out there. I LOVE the downtown area (not so much into the night life). Sigh... I moved here, not very happily, in 1998. I wanted to stay in Hawaii (well, d'oh, who wouldn't!)... it's taken me a LONG time to actually like Austin, so darn it, we are gonna start doing some more Austinish type of things... even if I have to drag Tom kicking and screaming with me and make the kids walk for "forever" as they say :-)

So, Austin people... where are some good kid-friendly places downtown and other things to do? Clue me in here! Remember, I have a 3 and 6 year old!

In the mean time... Crystal gave us some free passes to the Austin Children's Museum - we haven't been there in a LONG time... the kids LOVED it and, okay, I did too. Tom wouldn't eat down there though, but it was like 4:30pm when we left *laugh* Maybe next time!

Not To Be Outdone... Jamie's drawing

Not to be outdone... Jamie wanted me to post a picture he drew as well... This is the... ummm... Beauchamp Bat Family....

... Hmmmm... think we are raising a little Halloween freak too? Heh... he LOVES the creepy stuff, gotta say that this makes mommy VERY happy!

LMS: Halloween Cat Bowling

All the animal lovers can kiss my grits :-)

http://www.bravozulu.com/content/includes/cat.swf

Come bowl over some cats with a pumpkin :-)

Jamie's Kinder Picture

It's picture time at the school... Jamie came home with this. Looks like a pretty good picture at first glance.

Look closer (click on it).... yes, folks.

My son is sticking his tongue out.

Great. Grandma will LOVE this one!

Moblog: Amy's Ice Cream

A stop off for dinner at Phil's Ice House and Amy's Ice Creams on Burnet - an Austin instution. A full review will be posted soon at MyRaves.

Cassie the budding artist...

Cassie drew this... it's the first thing she's really drawn that we can easily tell that it's "something" and not just scribbles. She tells us that in the picture is the 4 of us and the little girl next door as well as a cactus and a bird.


All together now...
"Awwww...."

Of course, now she's making me scan in every picture she draws because I showed her this one and she thinks it's like magic or something.

What a Birthday Bash!

Warning: This has lots of pics, wait for download :-)

Whew! What a party! What a day! Tom and I were up really late Friday night getting things prepped as much as we could stand and slept in a little bit on Saturday and then finished the food and decorations. Thank GAWD for his Aunt and Uncle who showed up just as I was pannicking that I'd never get it all done and pitched in. Seriously, they rocked! It was so nice of them and I really did need the help. What would we do without family and friends (a few friends even helped clean up afterwards). I swear, I'm so lucky to have them all!

We always make a big deal out of birthdays for the kids. Tom and I love it too and Jamie chose a Halloween theme, which is right up our alley!

First: The rest of the specialty foods (click title for recipe):

Severed Fingers

(Thanks to Jennifer - Tom's mom - who made these!) They looked AWESOME!

Halloween Worms

(Thanks to Jennifer and Donny who pulled these through the straws right before the party, I would have had to chuck them and everyone thought they REALLY were worms!)

Witch Hats

The Cake - after an aborted attempt using a bundt pan and Tom having to start all over, I found a 3D Wilton pan... I'm so proud of how this turned out! Jamie thought it was AWESOME (have I mentioned that that is Jamie's favorite word nowadays?)

Yes, this is me in my costume. Stop laughing.

The Princesses have taken over the fort!

And lookit who won....

Cassie in her princess glory (Jennifer made their costumes this year again)

Tom is an evil sorcerer.... or something that I don't remember

Ahoy, Psycho SAHM

Total Mayhem doesn't even begin to describe this party... there were probably 60 people there, at least. In my backyard. At once. It was so much fun though! Dragon Jamie had a BLAST!

This was a game we tried, too many kids having too much fun, hopped up on sugar... we gave up and let then run whild.

Get away from the little cuties, evil sorcerer!

Who needs tables? Worm Dogs were the meal of the night....

Other Misc Pics....

Party Food!

Tom rocks! This is just two of the things he's making for Jamie's Halloween-Themed Party... Click the titles to see the recipes

Halloween Bones

Gummy Worm Rice Krispy Treats

The cakes you ask? Well, those freaking bones take forever so we haven't started those yet... hey, they party isn't until night-time! Either that or he's not getting a cake, but hey, he's got bones!

... and whomever is kicking the pumpkin heads off of the pumpkin stake lights and knocking over the stuff in our front yard... STOP IT... you are PISSING ME OFF.

On Jamie's Actual Birthday and Costume Sneak Peek!

Jamie has been really upset since Tuesday (his actual birthday). I don't think he quite understands that his PARTY is Saturday. He keeps saying that no one remembered to come to his party. Okay, this may be Tom and I's fault (what else is new, eh?)... we took he and Cassie to the Mall Tuesday for a little celebration - we went to Inflatable Wonderland, then to Build-A-Bear (hey, it's what he wanted, well they wanted stuffed dogs...) and then dinner at the food court. I'm thinking he's not impressed... anyway... here's some pics!

Jamie climbing through a tunnel...

Cassie wouldn't get off the slide once she warmed up to it....

Awwww... they were so freaking cute!

Getting the animal stuffed...

Warming up the heart that goes inside (who thinks up this stuff?)

Getting their first baths (yes, Cassie got one too, you tell the 3 year old monster no)

Getting him dressed to come home...

... and welcome home Major Macaroni (in his "pup" tent no less - *laugh*snort* I kill myself sometimes)

... and don't forget Rover Dog (yes, they picked out the names themselves and yes, that dog has on skates)
(on a side note, whoever invented Build-A-Bear is a genius. Where else can they charge you an arm and a leg for a freaking stuffed animal????)

And here's a sneak peek at Jamie the Dragon and Cassie the Princess... my mother in law made the costumes again this year... she rocks, I can barely sew on a button and usually beg Tom to do it for me :-)

Moblog: Doin' The Birthday

Moblog happy birthday jamie. Went to mall build a bear and dinner at food court

Happy 6th Birthday, Jamie

*~*~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMIE ~*~*

At 6:12pm on October 17, 2000 James Howell was born. He's six years old today. Yes, six years old. It seems just like yesterday that he was born. I spent 20 minutes tonight looking at old pictures of him and remembering how tiny he was, how I could hold him in one arm and feel his tiny little hand wrap around my finger while he drifted off to sleep. Jamie came into my life, the biggest of surprises, and changed my life forever.

He's grown into such a wonderful little boy. He's loving, affectionate, well-behaved and a total joy. I love watching him learn and seeing him suceed. He's my cuddler and the more truly emotional of my two children, his feelings get hurt easily, but he also can be the happiest little boy in the entire world. He's truly an amazing kid.

Some pictures from 6 years ago:


1st Birthday:
2nd Birthday:
3rd Birthday:
4th Birthday:
5th Birthday:

Soccer Dad & Business trips

I forgot to post about this! Over a month ago, Tom's car finally died and we got another vehicle. We knew it was coming, but it was VERY bad timing. Not only was he running around without A/C but the cost to repair the thing was going to be INSANE. We just got rid of my car payment so I was enjoying the prospect of not having a car payment. Ha!

Anyway, so we went looking for something for him to drive. I detest car dealerships, just hate them with every part of my being. We thought about trying it with just one car, but it's so hard, especially now that I have so much running around to do for business and Jamie in school. It was just too hard to try to schedule things around my appointments and everything else that goes on in our lives. Just too much to live with only one set of wheels.

Anyway, I highly reccommend CarMax. Not only did we manage to get zero down, but they also got our payment to where we can actually afford the thing. I liked their 'no haggle' theme. Like I said, I HATE car dealerships, so they made it easy. Tom is now 'the' soccer dad *laugh*. We got a used (2005) Ford minivan, it's white with 14k miles on it, but it works. The kids love it. It's not fancy and doesn't have any of those fancy self opening doors and stuff, but really, who cares... *laugh* It has A/C and runs!

Of course, now MY car is making a couple of funny noises. I just hope it holds out for a little while longer.

I was really worried about the whole vehicle thing. But sometimes good things happen, I suppose. It's really perfect timing because I haven't seen my family in a long time (I know, I really need to get back there more often, I totally suck) and we are planning on driving down late this year and spending some time there. I don't know if my car would've made it. The van was perfect timing.

They say that everything happens for a reason and if you put positive energy out into the world, it will come back to you. Finally, some of it is flowing in this direction. *laugh*

I drove up to Dallas with a couple of colleagues for a business conference last week and got back Sunday... Tom had the rugrats to himself and I got to see some people I only know (and work with!) virtually. It was a really good time! Our next one is in April to San Fransisco for the IVAA Summit. Tom's coming with me for that one! I can't wait. I've never been to San Fran. I'm considering leaving a day early or staying a day late and seeing some of the city. Haven't decided if we can afford to bring the kids and get a nanny or whatever while we are there. We'll see. I'd love to take them to San Fran though, see the Pacific Ocean!

Pumpkin Painting Time!

Jamie had to decorate a pumpkin for school this week... this is the paint drying with each kid's pumpkin :-) Yes, Cassie did one too, of course! I forgot to take pictures after the final decor was done, but they both had hair, some stars, some other stickers, etc. If his comes back in one piece I'll have to take more pictures!

LMS: Online Spirograph

Okay, Blogger isn't letting me do images very well today, so no little "Link Me Saturday" thing here...

http://www.wordsmith.org/%7Eanu/java/spirograph.html

I can't be the only person in the world that loved her spirograph. Enjoy!

Halloween Prep & Free Stuff & New Stuff

We started getting the house ready for Halloween - Jamie's party is going to be in 2 weeks and there's so much to do AND I'll be out of town next weekend. I couldn't leave all of it to poor Tom! So, we started decorating. I'm sure the neighbors now think we are nuts. Halloween is our FAVORITE holiday. Seriously, we probably have more Halloween stuff than Christmas stuff! We are so thrilled to be in a HOUSE again and decorate, we are like little kids. We didn't get it all done today. There will be final pics in the coming days (Jamie did the graveyard himself!) And we need to run electricity.

So, here are my monsters helping us get everything out of the garage...


Jamie and Daddy hammerin the stakes in - yes, my kid has on a shorts and a jacket. Yes, I know. He won't take it off.


Cassie and Jamie putting the pumpkins on the stakes... great little helpers!


Cassie putting some spider webs into the bushes. She did this for HOURS. It doesn't always look like web, but ya know what? I don't care, she had a blast!


In other news, lookit what we got from a Freecycler! How awesome is that? It needed to be wiped down a bit, but it's going to be an outside toy anyway... she didn't have many outside toys that were girly, she's in heaven!


In even MORE news, we went to the Dollar Tree so that the kids could spend their allowances from last month. Cassie got green hair extenstions, jewelry and dress up shoes. The wand was from the Halloween store (no, we didn't buy anything to decorate, but we were tempted! *laugh*). She's gonna be a princess for Halloween and according to her all princesses have to have wands.

Backyard fun! and Johnny Appleseed

We were messing around with the kids in the backyard last week and I got some video/pics to share....

Here's Cassie, who thinks kicking mom's camera is the funniest thing in the world, I swear her laugh is just the cutest thing ever! Why am I letting her kick the camera? Well, why not! It made her laugh and our camera SAYS it can be dropped for up to 10 feet and make it - and yeah, I've dropped it more than a few times.






Can you smell the testosterone? I swear you can hear him grunt that Tim-The-Tool-Man-Taylor grunt when he's at his manly man grill...

We went to the new outlet mall in Round Rock a couple of weeks ago... Jamie HAD to have this Jacket from the Disney store. Yeah, it's 90 outisde and my kid is insisting it's a nice crisp Fall day. Whatever.

They just finished the unit on apples (they have units in Kindergarten... dang). So to celebrate, last Friday was a day full of apple fun. Here we have Jamie in his Johnny Appleseed hat, his apple guy thing, a necklace of apple jacks (well, he and Cassie ate most of them) and an apple (jack) tree. Yay!