Halloween Giveaway: You Can Make This

This is going to be a quick and easy contest, just like the patterns offered at You Can Make This.

Every family has a tradition of some sort and I want to know a Halloween Tradition your family has. We don't carve our pumpkins until October 30th, but we always go to a you-pick pumpkin patch for them. Since moving to Idaho, we get them from a local farm. We sit on the kitchen floor when we carve them, it's much easier for the kids. Dad always draws the pumpkins free-hand, a perk to having an artist in the house and we let the kids do as much of it on their own as they can. We only help if they ask for it.

Tell me your tradition and you could win a bundle of Halloween themed downloads valued at $50 from You Can Make This.

Here are the patterns included:

Fancy Filled Tutu with Bonus 40 Tutu "Recipes"
Pumpkin Polly Patterns
Paper Piecing Project: Pumpkin Patch Pillow

Frayed Applique: Too Cute to Spook!
Little Miss Spider Applique Patterns
How to Applique the Easy Way
Hocus Pocus Patterns
Just a Little Something for a Happy Halloween Table Runner

Contest will end at midnight on October 20, 2009. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will be chosen.

Costumes Are Picked

It really was way to easy. I went to storage to grab the Halloween buckets to see what we had and get ideas for the kids. As we started pulling it out, I hear "I wanna be this"...from all 3 kids who needed costumes! Yep, we didn't have to spend a dime this year, but I think I'll spend a few bucks on makeup and accessories at the dollar store of course.

Logan is being some ugly masked guy that belonged to one of my brothers, add a cape from the bucket and he is set. The mask freaks the little guys out so he is happy.

Eve will be a witch. Dress, cape and hat all in the bucket! Just need green face makeup.

Jared is going to be a knight, glad I saved that Prince Charming costume from when Logan was 5. I was shocked to hear his excitement over this costume, he is usually all about Superheroes. I bought a sword at Dollar Tree to add to it.

Herb is going to be Spiderman and Brandon will be Robin.

I'm happy that no one wanted anything fancy are we are reusing things we already have.

Halloween Dinner

I've been busy potty training and handling the Book Fair at the kids school. Now that we are all done with Book Fair, I can sit back and relax. That was a hectic week and my body is tired. I 'worked' at the fair for 28 hours in 3 days and that doesn't include setting up or tearing it down, counting money and making deposits. I'm so glad to be done with it, but our school raised enough that we should get about $1500 for our librarian to spend on new books! That to me makes it all worth it.

So back to Halloween.

This next idea comes from one of my best friends, Sue. We have known each other since we were 10. Here we are over 20 years later and we are still friends. Her mom loves Halloween in a way you only hear about. She dresses up as a witch, cooks funny food, and decorates the house. This is the standard Halloween dinner...Man-Loaf with green mashed potatoes and eyeballs. Don't forget to add dry ice to the punch and your kids will never forget it. I've borrowed the picture from Sue's personal blog, but I plan on making this meal for my own kids this year.

Cheap Halloween

Halloween is getting close and that's always exciting. I love Halloween. So I'm going to start featuring some great Halloween ideas.

The only thing I hate about Halloween is the cost of those poorly made costumes, really $25 for a costume thinner than a pair of underwear. I have been lucky enough to have costumes pass down from Logan to Jared. But this year Jared is getting bigger and now Herb will be the third child to wear Spiderman, the skeleton sweats that all the kids have worn as babies will be worn by Brandon this year (if I can find them in storage). So I need to find a costume for Logan, Jared and Eve. Hmmm, let's start looking shall we.....

I came across Coolest Homemade Costumes in my search for a cheap alternative to the store crap they sell.

It can't get much cheaper than this, but I don't think it will work when it's 30 degrees outside.


I could 'kill' two costumes with one idea. I kinda dig this idea. My daughter would go for it, but would Jared?


Eve already has red hair, but it's too short so I would have to buy a wig...I love this costume though and I could make it super cheap and there are so many different ways to do this! Eve doesn't even know who Pippi is though, maybe it's time to educate her...


This is a really do-able costume for Eve too. Hair..check, red dress...check, ribbon...check. All she needs is some frilly socks, black shoes and me to reconstruct her dress.


None of my kids have given me any idea on what they want to be this year, so I'm kinda blindly searching for ideas to give them. I need them to decide quick though so I have time to sew if I need to.

What are your kids being for Halloween? Do you have a great idea? Tell me. I want to hear it.

The Chaos I Call Life

As always it's pretty busy around here. I've had the flu all week and still not over it. I feel like I'm dying. I hate being sick. It really puts a damper on my schedule. Not to mention that my husband caught it as well and he also has bronchitis.

My middle child started school and this week he started getting bused home. That has already become hectic, but at least I'm not loading up two toddlers in and out of the car to go pick him up. The bus driver tried to make his stop behind a store that is near the entrance to our apartments. When I say behind, I mean behind...in the back alley. I told them this was just unacceptable for me, who wants to pick their kid up in an alley. So we had to negotiate a new drop off point. Then today they call me to say the bus will be there in 10 minutes, 25 minutes earlier than normal...no biggie for any normal day, except for the fact that I'm 10 miles away in the middle of a doctor appointment. So we wrap it up as quick as we can and I race home. I have no idea how long the bus was there for. Luckily, since he is only 4 they won't let him off the bus unless I'm standing at the bus door.

Next week I start getting ready for Book Fair at school. This is the first year I'll be having my hands on this project. I've always done things like Box Tops for Education, Campbell's, and I've even held the treasurer position in the PTO. But this year, I am taking on PTO President. A job I really still am not sure is for me, but I'm giving it a shot. Since the previous years Book Fair chairperson no longer wants to be in charge, I'm adding it to my list of things to accomplish. I've always tried to be involved at the kids school, I think it gives them a sense that I really do care about what happens when they aren't home. I have big ideas and plans for PTO, now I just need to find the volunteers and get them moving.

We also try to spend one night a week out at my husband's grandpa's place. We love going to see the old man, even though his living conditions are not what I think they should be. His son (my husband's uncle) lives with him as well. I can't stand the way uncle thinks it's okay not to work and let grandpa's ssi pay for him to be lazy & hang out with his married girlfriend. He needs to get off his butt and help out financially. There is always a lack of groceries, so we always take dinner with us, since there are 7 of us I feel that is completely fair. But I always try to take a little extra to make sure there are leftovers for the next day. It's a far from favorable situation, but we really enjoy spending time with grandpa and he loves seeing the kids.

Oh, I'm also potty training #4. I can't stand having 2 kids in diapers. It makes me feel like all I do is change diapers all day long. We had a really really rough first 2 days in underwear. I almost gave up, but I knew if we just stuck to it he would go. He is a very stubborn child and does things the way he wants, when he wants. Finally he got it, potty is no problem. I don't even have to ask him if he needs to go, he just runs into the bathroom when he has the urge to go. If we could just get down poo, I would be thrilled!

Now, add into the mix the laundry, cleaning, cooking, and all the other mom duties I have and this has been one rough week. I need to find some way to balance everything. When I had 3 kids, I had the perfect balance. Somewhere after #4 it just got crazy hectic.