Caleb and I went to my mom and dad’s house for a few days.  My mom cooked a wonderful meal, and even sent me home with leftovers.  Scott drove up on Saturday to meet us and go to the children’s museum.  It was also my mom’s birthday so we went out for a birthday lunch before heading back this way.  I had meant to post pictures on Turkey day of Caleb’s shirt, but my camera did not appreciate being plugged in via a USB cord and refused to allow access to the pictures I had taken (our computer has a built in card reader, my moms card reader of course does every type of card except the compact flash cards that the bigger/SLR cameras use.  Anyway, I cut all these pieces out several weeks ago, and it figures, you know me, I was gluing them on at 12am the night before Thanksgiving.  And I didn’t get a single good picture of it/him while we were there.  I thought it turned out pretty cute though.

The body is made of his shoe prints laid over each other (heel at the top) and of course the feathers are his hand prints.

I did the back too

Caleb picked at food as he always does when we are away from home, and was so busy, he forgot to drink very much either.  I think he had about five cups of milk yesterday, and when it came time to eat, he climbed up in his chair quickly and said “push me back [to the table] and bib me up!”  I think I actually spit drink through my nose.

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We made a haunted house today. Happy…errr…Halloween.

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And there’s a lot of them, you know, since you’ve been so patient.  That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

The name on his tag is Ember.  Ember is a dalmatian that works with a clown in a fire safety education program.  I asked him what name he wanted on his tag, and he chose Ember.

Funny expression

Peekaboo

A flower for mommy

He wanted to play in the leaves, and I just went with it.  Glad I did because it turned up some cute pictures.

Ready…aim…

…fire!

It actually didn’t take all that long to pick most of the mess off before we left.

His tail.  Just because.  It is cute.

One of my favorites.  But I have a lot of favorites!

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IT’S DONE!! IT’S DONE!!  IT’S DONE!!

I cannot wait to see it on him.  If I had been paid minimum wage for the hours I worked on this thing, it would be selling for about $300 bucks!  I just finished gluing the spots on the hood and sewing on the ears.  Procrastinate much?  A couple jokes came out of the whole process.  Scott came home yesterday to this (minus the spots on the hood):

He was like “Um, honey?  Do you just not like the bear?”  I replied, “Well it wasn’t like I could put a plastic bag over the kid’s head to glue spots on.”

This should give you some idea why you haven’t heard from me in several days.  And that’s just a small percentage.

Caleb and I picked out a red collar at Walmart the other day.  Yes, right out of the pet section.  And yes I did get a few strange looks trying collars on my toddler.  Scott said, “Are you gonna get him a leash too?”  Um.  Yeah.  I can see that now.

“Hello, child services?  Yeah these people just showed up at my door trick or treating.  I know the kid was dog and everything, but I think they took it a little too far.  Do you consider a leash and collar around his neck endangerment?”

That would go over well I’m sure.  So that’s a negative on the leash.

Caleb also just so happened to get this patriotic necklace from the children’s museum a few months ago.  It has a plastic disc on it that can be opened up so that you can draw on the paper inside.  It was on a red white and blue ribbon for the fourth.  So I took the disc off the ribbon because it will make the PERFECT tag for his collar!  I am so anxious to put it on him, but I don’t want to risk doing so too early since I literally don’t have time to reglue any spots!  Sorry the pictures have taken so long!  It wouldn’t be made by me if it wasn’t finished at the last possible second.  I did manage to squeeze in four episodes of Will and Grace last night when I should have been finishing it though ;)

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It is actually going better than expected.  A white hooded one piece suit would have made my life invariably simpler.  But, it is made none the less.  And it has a strip of velcro on the butt for the tail, as I don’t imagine it would be too comfortable to sit on (every time I do it, my -preposition at the end of a sentence- alarm goes off, I just don’t care enough to reword it.  I’m such a dork).  I just need to make some ears and paws, then finish cutting out and glue all the spots.  You know, nothing much.  You don’t even want to know how many hours I’ve spent on it already.  But it will all be worth it.  I think.  As long as the seams don’t fall apart before next Friday.

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I have no business doing this.  Like, slowly put down the handheld sewing machine (they have those?  I’m pretty sure.) and step away from the fabric.  I’m supposed to be purchasing white attire and gluing on some black dots.  But I have waited so long, I’m afraid ordering online, the items won’t get here.  And it would be very painful for me to spend $40 on a pair of white pants and a hooded sweat shirt.  (But not on a highly coveted Tom Arma costume.  Damnit man!  Where’s the dalmatian one?!)  The kid wants to be a dalmatian, so dalmatian it is.  I already turned a giraffe into a bat, so how hard can this be?  Right?

P.S. I also want to make the treat bag out of felt.  I little brown “paper” bag.  A doggy bag.  Hahaha, get it?  I’m so clever.  And stupid.  It will be like one of those little videos with the word counter.  Ding.  One.  Ding, ding.  Two, three.  #!%*.  How many times will she cuss while making this?  Oh I kid.  Sort of.

White flannel, black felt, new scissors, safety pins (to pin it together and then try it on him without tears), black felt, velcro, a “pattern” - a slightly too small Harley Davidson one piece, and a handheld sewing machine, because I don’t know how to work the ‘68 big lug my mom gave me.  Gotta find something long sleeved to make the sleeves though.

The inspiration

Wish me luck?  I’m gonna need it.

Oh and if by some chance, I actually pull this off…I’ll be on cloud nine.

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I was talking with Charley a few days ago.  Yes talking.  Caleb uses this high pitched voice and makes Charley talk to me and give me kisses goodnight, etc.  Anyway, Caleb wondered out loud at naptime a few days ago about Charley dressing up for Halloween.  A conversation ensued about what Charley should be for Halloween.  He first suggested a tiger, and I wasn’t sure I could pull that off, so I started rattling off possibilities, asking Charley what he thought of them.  I mentioned a dog, to which Charley replied, “Nah, too woofy.  Dats what Caleb’s gonna be.”  So after a few more suggestions, we settled on a bat.  Charley was in agreement so we set off to Walmart today for a few buttons and some black felt.  $3 well spent.  I worked all through naptime on what Scott has cleverly named “Charley the Bat-a-raffe.”  It just so happened that I was able to keep the sewing, not my forte, to a minimum by just wrapping the piece of felt around Charley and adding a couple buttons.  I didn’t even have to cut the first piece of felt.  I added his hood and wings and ta-da…I give you…Bat-a-raffe.

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Gee. Something about this looks familiar.

Concentrating, because he is still under the impression that maybe the -decorate one, eat it, decorate another, eat it- approach might work with me.

Quite literally, begging for cookies (sorry so close, I snapped it quick when he clasped his little hands together)

Oops, got a wee bit of icing on the sprinkles

That’s okay, problem solved

What is it that makes me think, if I give him a big dish of “paint” with a brush, he might not lick the brush?

My two masterpieces. I ate them. Both.

Oh how I wish this was in focus…that’s okay, still funny. Appropriately, his shirt says “Will scare for candy”

Get. this. done. Must. eat. cookies.

This is about the time I said “You’re getting a bath.” Or maybe it was just after this when he squirted icing all down inside his sleeve. I forget.

I have no festive pretty results like yesterday (as I think most of that was on his face), but it was fun none the less. Can’t wait for next year! <insert sarcasm here>

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First off, go look at last year’s post here.  Okay, back?  Good.  Let me tell you what I learned last year.

Last year…

I made sugar cookies (from scratch).  I made icing (from scratch).  I added food coloring drops.  The cookies in the last picture?  Yeah that was the whole batch.  Grand total.  I spent ALL DAY LONG in the kitchen.

This year…

I wandered over to the -food in a tube- section at Walmart and picked up a huge tub of Toll House sugar cookie dough.  I then proceeded to the -I’m too lazy to even make the icing- section and got some white icing.  At some point in the last year, I discovered the wonder that is Wilton Food Coloring gels over the in the craft section at Walmart.  I now have a rainbow of colors (you will get much more vividly colored icing with these).  I was stamping out cookies in no time.  It was like a cookie making factory over here yesterday.  Crazy I tell you.  But easy.

Yes I heart made from scratch too, but it was just too much last year.  Apparently sugar cookies are not my forte. So there, my secret is out.  This plate full was taken to my mother inlaw and sister inlaw last night and I blabbed my secret there too because they just kept complimenting them and I thought, “Oh they’re just being nice, they’re not that good.”  But I grabbed a few, and in all honesty, they are pretty tasty.  Even with fake icing!

The calm before the storm arrived:

An inspiration board so to speak

He decorated one, then promptly picked it up and ate it.  He would have done the same with the next twelve without strict supervision.

We had a curious onlooker (through the smudgy glass)

Trying to use all five colors at once

Quality check

“SQUISH”

Would you like some cookie with that?

Finally, she’s letting me eat one now that we’re done decorating!

And what grandmother wouldn’t be delighted?  Especially with that big one on the right.  It used to be a pumpkin.

Cookies, decorating station, cookies
bigger version here

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Step 1: Start with a nicely decorated fall cookie.

Step 2: ADD YELLOW ICING

Step 3: Add a little orange

Step 4: Add a touch of green, then brown

Step 5: Top with ONE sprinkle

Step 6: Add a few additional sprinkles if you’d like

Step 7: If you still believe this is not enough, use your judgement

Step 8: Pat flat

Ta-da!

As always, more pictures to follow…

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