Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! The sassy gals at SITS are having a Halloween parade, so to join in the fun here are some of my favorite pictures of Halloween past (and present). So grab a handful of candy (it's all chocolate, so I hope that's okay) and have a look.
First we have a look back at Halloween 2003. I tried to sell the boys at a pumpkin patch, but nobody wanted to buy them. I thought they were a bargain for $2 each.

Since they didn't sell I took them home and dressed them up in silly costumes of their own design. Sam loved dressing up as a Kitty Wizard (long story, but it was all his idea), and Chris is in one of his favorite stand by's-- a knight. Obviously he's bent on trying to get rid of Todd, the dragon.

A year later we were celebrating again. This time Chris dressed as a blue power ranger, and Sam was Sora (from Kingdom Hearts--Sam really likes to be original and do things his own way), Todd was an impromptu superman.

In 2006 Sam and Todd discovered scary masks.

This year we've gone to cute and cuddly with Todd as ScoobyDoo and Rose as a sweet and sassy witch. Not that the big boys are "too old" to do the Halloween thing. Sam has plans to attend his first high school party, and Chris is into going with friends (he's too cool to have parents).

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Fun

I do realize that it is the day before Halloween, but it's better late than never to get your pumpkin all jack-o-lanterned out for the holiday. This afternoon I did just that. Okay, I didn't do much, but I forced my children to do it so I could take pictures and share with all of you. :) So here's my version of how to get a pumpkin ready for it's big day.
First you make your three boys go out in public with you.
Aren't they cute? And they didn't give me too much trouble, but then I had them all hopped up on Starbucks. I'm such a bad mommy.
Next you bring home the pumpkins and force your youngest two to take before pictures.
After you take a ton of pictures of the cute kids sitting with pumpkins, you get to take a knife and plunge it into the brains of the pumpkin. Wow, this is really actually violent. Poor pumpkin, what did it ever do to me? Then you take more pictures.

At this point your 5yo will decide that this is way too messy for him and you'll hire a stand-in to do his work.

Your stand-in will bring a little black cat to check out the quality of the pumpkin work being done and generally distract little girls. Then your 5yo decides he's bored and goes inside to play a gameboy leaving you with a 14yo, a 2yo, and the little black cat.

In the end you end up with a cyclops pumpkin, and a stereotypical pumpkin who will be mocked by all the other pumpkins for being so "normal", but hey, that's what he gets for waiting for the last second to get his costume together.

What about any of you? How did your pumpkins turn out? Did you carve any? Did you force your children to do it for sake of photo ops? Does anyone have any little black cats (which are the ultimate Halloween decoration)? Is everyone ready for tomorrow's trick or treaters?

not so wordless Wednesday

Not so long ago the lovely lady over at Pretty Paper Blog was giving away something over at her etsy shop. I didn't win, but she definitely inspired me to dig into my scrapbook cabinet and do a little creating of my own. This is what I came up with. I just had to do something festive for Halloween. The kids say now we have a "spooky" house. Not really sure how this qualifies me as spooky, but it makes them proud so I'm good. :)

randomness vs. randomness

Is that even a word? Randomness? Okay, so the fabulous Miss. Anna over at Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder has set the challenge of 7 random /weird facts or the 5th picture from the 5th album. Hmmm...This poses many questions for me. For instance, which is my 5th album, and is what I think 5th really the 5th? Can I plead the fifth? In all actuality, the 5th picture in my 5th album is probably a picture of one of the kids or even quite possibly a picture of a wild animal or some sort of nature-like occurrence. Pictures of me are ever elusive and mostly taken by my children after a lot of bribery and threats. That leaves me with the 7 random/weird facts about me. Ha! What don't I have that is totally random or weird when it comes to me? I guess, in the end, there is no contest. You're stuck with the 7random/weird things about me. Here we go:

1. I'm the youngest of 7 (that's probably not so weird, but is it random?)

2. Adenomyosis (go ahead, I dare ya to look it up)

3. I'm a level 70 orc Shaman, baby! That's right, I'm a WoW chic (as opposed to a guy who plays a WoW chic).

4. I have three tattoo's, a pierced navel, and have had several shades of hair (but then who hasn't these days?).

5. Saying I have eclectic tastes would be an understatement.

6. You're looking at a Girl Scout with a Gold Award on her sash (not that I walk around wearing this sash, but if I did you'd see the Gold Award on it.)

7. ABA has nothing to do with Swedish rock stars, but I claim it as a past occupation anyway. Okay, okay...Applied Behavior Analysis. That's what it stands for!

So there ya go, a few more randomly weird things about me..maybe not so weird, but definitely random. They were random right? I was trying to be random! Just smile and nod and back away from the crazy person. It will all be okay...

Now I'm supposed to pick seven lucky people for this honor. I'll try to be random, but it may just be weird...or not. Can you see a common thread in the blogs I chose???

Embellishing My Life

Diamonds, Fur and Laundry

My Life With Four Kids

Mom of 2 Dancers

Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

The Petersons Go Public!

Traversal of Life

witches and wands

Rose's dance class is having a Halloween party on Tuesday and the parents are allowed to bring treats for the class. It's been a while since any of my kids have had a party at school that the parents have been allowed to bring anything that isn't already prepackaged, let alone anything period. I deliberated on baking something spooky and yummy, or cute and Halloweeny. In the end baking got ruled out all together and instead I decided I'd make something for the girls to play with. Using Rose's costume as an idea...

This is what I came up with.

Wands!

What little girl doesn't like to play with sticks all dressed up with ribbon and flowers? Eventually wands will be added to my tutu shop. Of course there won't just be Halloween or Autumn wands, I've got some other types in the make too. Birthday wands, Winter wands, Spring wands, Summer wands, color coordinated wands to match any tutu, too. Of course I have to test them out before I can offer them for sale. What better way to test a product than to give it away to a gaggle of dancing little girls? Plus it's just way better than sugar!

I'm so excited! Kaycee at, Life as a Mom at 21, gave me this award!

It's my very first and I'm so proud! Of course, I had to ask her what I needed to do now, and being the sweetheart she is, she let me know I had to tag seven people. Well, I'm not sure I *know* seven people, but I do know seven blogs I love reading. That works too, right?

1. Pretty Paper Blog

2. Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder

3. Musings of a Phenomenal Webmistress

4. Sunshine and Lemonade

5. Embellishing My Life

6. Sweet Bites

7. Nanny Goats in Panties

Thank you so much, Kaycee! I love your blog, too, of course. If ya'll haven't read her blog, go take a gander. She just had a gorgeous baby girl and you can read all about it. OH! And she has great bowtique too, called PrissyMiss, that is absolutely fabulous and definately worth checking out.

Thanks for my award, Kaycee!

Picture day!

So the fabulous girls over at SITS are giving away a copy of Photoshop Elements 7. I decided, what the heck, I'll enter for a chance to win it. I could, after all, really use it in so many ways. I racked my brain of all the ways I could blog about why I need to win, or want to win, but in the end I thought maybe it'd be better just to show some of my photos and then you can see for yourself why I could use it.

See? if I had a copy of Photoshop Elements 7 these would be so much more clear. I could sharpen it better, just make it jump right off the page. And, as you can see, I am a crafter. Okay, so this cabinet is really for my scrapbook supplies and you're only seeing the top half, so there's even more. Think of all the things a copy of Photoshop Elements 7 could do for my scrapbook photos. Yes, yes, yes, I know I could just go out and buy a copy but the thrill of trying to win something is so much more rewarding. Then again it will really work out either way because then I can whine to my husband and say "but everyone else has one, why can't I?" and he'll just have to say, "go buy one". You too, could go and enter the Photoshop give away at SITS. What are you waiting for???

What about you? Do you own a copy of any of the Photoshops? Do you use any photo editing software? Do you take pictures? Scrapbook?

the things mommies have to do

Friday is the end of first quarter for all three of my boys. I'm not really so worried about how Todd will do, after all it's only kindergarten. My middle school giant, Chris, has been struggling and working hard to make sure he gets good grades this quarter. Probably because he knows the consequences if he doesn't. *imagine evil laughter and a finger pointing at a spider filled dank, dark, dungeon like room-- oh wait, that's his bedroom*. Sam, as a freshman, already has an ify past when it comes to school work. It's not that he can't do the work, he doesn't want to do the work. Seriously, last year he got an F in English and when I asked him what happend, he said "I didn't want to do the work. I'd rather play video games, read a book, or be on the computer". Well, at least he was honest about it. What did he get for all that honesty? He got video game priviledges, computer time, and television time all taken away until he could get his grades up. That's the running rule here. If you get an F in any subject you lose all priviledges, and this year we've taked on after school clubs. Thankfully they aren't in any sports, but it took me years to get them interested in anything attached to school and this year they are both in lots of activities (Sam does gaming club and anime club, Chris does yearbook club and board game club). I don't want to take those away from them! Today we looked at their grades online. Do ya'll have that where you are? The online grade books? Those are my new best friend and nemesis all rolled into one. I love seeing if they are doing their work (because this thing breaks it down into every tiny detail of each class) and what they are, or aren't missing, and all those great tests grades. I hate seeing missing assignments, especially when I hear, "of course I did all my homework". We decided we'd look today so that we aren't blind sided when report cards come home in a few weeks. Sam has sqeaked by and gets to keep everything! Yay! I was so happy I pulled him on my lap and squeezed him. Chris, on the other hand, ended up in his room crying. It drives me crazy, his tests are all A's but his assignments aren't. I hate taking things away from all the kids, but for some reason those big ones have extra soft spots with me. Maybe it's because they are my oldest babies, and I don't ever want them to forget that, no matter how many siblings they get. ;p

So what about any of you? How do you deal with report card? grades? How do you motivate your kids to do their best?

Here are pictures of my oldest two, way back when they still looked little (they are holding Rose).

Created by moms like me

Earlier this week the lovely ladies at SITS announced a new sponsor for their fabulous blog, CreatedbyMom.com. As always, they encourage faithful Sitstas to visit sponsors, because after all..they are sponsoring them, right? They also mentioned that CreatedbyMom.com might be looking for vendors. Being the good Sitsta that I'm learning to be I visit their site and then I explore what they are looking for in a vendor. See, some of you may know that I have recently started a small business of creating tutus. I know, it might sound silly, and it's still really weird to hear me say, then again I was an ABA therapist in my last life and people thought that had something to do with playing Swedish music. But there it is. My name is Jennifer and I am the proud creator of the Flower girls-custom made tutus.
ANYway..as I was saying.... (I do get distracted easily, nobody hold up anything shiny, please). Let's see, where was I? Oh yes, I went to the site and explored vendors...ah! I emailed the lovely ladies over at CreatedbyMom to see if they would be interested in my tutus. I waited a day, maybe two and I got an answer. "We have looked at your site and love your products! Very cute. There is already a tutu designer on our site; we are still interested in yours." Of course I wanted to blog about this the minute it happened. I am so excited! I'm one of those, don't wanna jinx anything, kinda gals so I decided to wait to make sure T's were crossed and I's dotted. Today I saw my name on their vendor list: the Flower girls. That's me!
The ladies at CreatedbyMom had a very exciting day today. Today they were highlighted on the national radio show, the Happy Housewives Club with Darla Shine! Needless to say, the lovely ladies at CreatedbyMom.com are VERY excited and there is even more excitement brewing. To celebrate all of this fabulous news (my word of the day-fabulous), I am going to soon be having a give away here on my blog. You'll have to stay tuned to find when and what it will be. Of course you won't want to miss it. In the mean time...What are you waiting for? Go take a gander at what CreatedbyMom.com has to offer, and of course, if you have any special little girls in your life, you should definitely buy a tutu from their fabulous tutu vendor the Flower girls.

lazy or genius?

It's finally started looking like autumn around here. The weather has just been unseasonable--we've been wearing shorts for heaven's sake and we live in the Chicago area! Finally, our trees are turning the pretty fall colors and losing their leaves. It was just a few leaves at first, but now we actually have a lot of leafy build up in our yard. Let's get something straight. I like having pretty flowers and a nice looking yard, I do. I don't like the work that goes with it. When it comes to mowing, my oldest does the work and now his brother helps. When it comes to raking leaves, I try to avoid it. They always get taken care of sooner or later, and this year it's been sooner. Oh no, don't think that I actually took time from sitting watching Days and eating bonbons. Don't be silly! It's much better than that (at least for me it's better than taking time out of my bonbon eating, Stephano watching). Apparently my yard is the best source of leaves and I keep catching the neighborhood kids in my yard. At first I was chasing them off, but now I see what they are doing. They are raking my leaves and taking them home to jump in them in their own yards! Okay, they leave some, but they are all in nice piles. It's so cool! So, does that make me really lazy, or just the coolest mom genius in the cul de sac?

wordless wednesday

This is the one thing I've seen on countless blogs that I love. Wordless Wednesday. I love seeing the different pictures people have to share, so I'm gonna do it too. :)

Hope you all enjoyed!

a little back tracking

So yesterday was SITS big blogathon and I rushed home after Rose's ballet class to post my blog about how cool everyone at SITS is. For anyone who saw my blog before yesterday there were actually a few posts before yesterday. Now there isn't. That's right, I deleted my blog. I didn't mean to! It was an accident! (now I sound like my kids) I wanted to play with the design of my blog so I created an extra account just to play around on and yesterday I decided to delete my second blog and instead ended up deleting this one. So typical! ANYway...I decided to repost one of my old blog posts (yea, old - all of a few days older than yesterday's post).
Did I learn anything from yesterday's mishap? Nope! But I did pick myself up and put it all back together in less than an hour so that I could still participate in SITS blogathon, and made some new friends in the process. :)
Has anybody else ever done something like what happend to me yesterday? Delete an account by accident? or how about delete something and then regret it?

re-post: The Usual Suspects

I thought I'd take the time to introduce you to all the usual suspects of any stories I may be telling over time. :)

First there's me. Hi! I'm Jenn that’s me below.

Moving on...
Let me introduce my darling husband.

We've been happily married for 7years.

Next we have my, super awesome, oldest child. Sam.

Sam is 14, and a freshman in high school. He loves to read, he's really into anime (he's a big Death Note fan), and is a creative genius when he feels like it. He likes to cook, and draw, and he's a fabulous babysitter and big brother.

Here's number two. Chris.

Chris is 12 and a 6th grader. He likes to read manga books, collect pokemon cards and plays way too much video games.. Chris cracks me up and we lovingly refer to him as "Shawn Cassidy" and "electric smooth". He's grown like a weed and is right around the 6ft mark, which makes him the tallest person in the house. He loves being a big brother, most of the time.

Then there's Todd.

Todd is 5 and a kindergartner this year. He loves everything and has recently discovered the joys of pokemon cards. Todd cracks himself up and always has a smile on his face. He's recently started hanging out wearing a scooby doo costume and almost always carries his infamous cohort, Lambie.

Last, but not least is Rose.

Rose is 2. Being the only girl, she's definitely spoiled and mostly by her older brothers. They were so excited to get a sister, mostly because it meant they didn't have to share stuff with her. Little did they anticipate that she'd be into boy stuff as much as they are. She's fearless and tougher than the boys, but a princess all the same.

Of course I have to mention one other member of my family. Jynx.

He's the coolest cat a gal could ask for.

So there you have it, the main characters of this story of me. I wanted you to meet them all as I'm sure you'll be hearing more about them in the time to come.
See ya next time!