Happy Halloween, 2012 !

Happy Halloween from the most  adorable  pink  monster/ mermaid sister  duo you ever did see! :-)

When you ask her what a monster says she goes "rawr!"

I'm sorry, but I  just can't  get over how stinkin' adorable this  is. I mean, cutest trick or treater ever, am I wrong?! :-)

And we can't  forget our little mermaid hehe

Mermaids eat monsters!

Chasing Daddy and trying to eat him!

Perfection.

Our little beauty.

Daddy's  girls

Mama's loves

I  can rock a wig/witch  hat combo ;-)

Daddy the cowboy!

We ran into  our friend Becker (who is like 1 month older than Brielle)...and he happened to be a monster  too! Monster  love at first  sight?

Well, maybe *love* is not  quite the right word :-P

Brielle likes  to play hard  to get hehe

And we're off! My hometown does a "Halloween Town" on main stree and you can walk around collection candy from the different  businesses. Great  for little ones! Grandma F. got to join us this year too :-)

Brielle wasn't scared if  it meant getting her paws on candy!

Raya helped  to cast a magical spell on some potion!

It was a scary world out there tonight!

This was called "the kissing booth"

After we walked around down town we took  the girls door to door in a nearby neighborhood as well. Got tons of candy (good stuff too! Candy bars, packs  of gum, toys and stickers, etc. ---good neighborhood :-) The girls had so much fun!

This was the first year  that  both girls were old enough to really walk  around and trick or treat...I'm absolutely loving this age as they get bigger and we can embark on all the fun stuff without babies  cramping our style---a memorable Halloween for sure!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO YOU ALL!

Heads up!

For those of you who love my kid's fashion tips and  tricks, here's a heads up for you! Gymboree is currently having their Circle  of Friends sale---just started tonight! 30% off everything, and  an extra 5% off  on top of that if you are a rewards member (free to sign up--not a credit card or anything). 

What's this mean? Well, it means if you check out some of their older lines that  are on sale you will  find shirts and leggings etc.  that  are listed for only $5-7 ...and with 35% off you are talking about getting  Gymbo stuff for only $3-5! And in my experience it's *easy* to sell a gymbo shirt for $5 used...so you're able to basically dress your kids super cute for free :-) Seriously, go check  it out!

And  as  if that  wasn't  cool enough, it's free shipping on orders over $75 AND you can earn gymbucks right now. So for every $50 you spend you earn $25 off a future purchase during gymbucks redemption. They are practically giving clothes  away :-P

***********Don't  miss my earlier update from tonight with pics of Raya at her preschool Halloween party!*********************************

Preschool Halloween Party

Today was Raya's preschool Halloween party! Please excuse the crappy photos, as I didn't take my nice camera.  I had Brielle and Harper with me and was busy enough chasing after them without worrying about  my fancy camera lol.

As I've said before, this is the first year  Raya picked her own costume. It's definitely not what *I* would have chosen!! But she loves it and she worked it out today hehe.

Can you spot Miss Raya Marie in her class?

Her costume just  cracks me up because I have to pull the bottom up so much in order for her to walk, that  it  ends up being a very unproportional  mermaid! :-P And it's a horrible costume to layer up for freezing Iowa Halloweens too. But  she proudly  told everyone what she was and my oh my, was she  in her element collecting candy! (We all walked  on a parade through downtown and all the  businesses passed out candy---we got a ton! Harper and Brielle sure  did march up to each business and get their own too :-P)

Here is a zoomed in photo of the girls in Raya's  class  (except for the kangeroo, who is  also a girl...she didn't  make it in this  picture)



The  lamb is Raya's "best friend"  (in Raya's  mind anyways haha...although the little girls mom did say she talks about Raya  too, so hopefully it's not completely one sided! Her mom made the lamb costume and it was so cute--she even wore a bell around  her  neck lol. Raya has also mentioned playing with the little  witch before too. Pink super girl  and tinkerbelle always talk  to Raya in the halls when we are waiting to go into preschool, and superman (girl) is so adorable...she's a little tomboy :-) The kitty cat is the last girl and she's adorable too!   (Raya never talks about any boys  in her  class---although  she loves playing with Sawyer, apparently they quickly learn that  boys and girls do not normally socialize haha....Raya never plays with boys at preschool---they've  got cooties ya know ;-)

Here was  Raya singing a Halloween song with her class

This picture makes  me laugh and laugh. It's why I refer to her costume (lovingly) as "the drag queen mermaid" haha...it's all  so wrong, yet all  so right for Miss Raya Marie! :-)

One last  one to hold you all  over until tomorrow---and  tomorrow my little  pink furry monster will make her big  Halloween debut---stay tuned!!!!

Halloween Fashion

It's no secret my girls have an insane number  of clothes in their closet....

but did  you know that their *dress up* stash is going to be giving their normal clothes a run for their money soon? lol. My mom keeps finding all kinds of costumes for like $2, so she's been picking them up so that my girls can build an awesome dress up clothes stash!

Today the girls played with some more of their new costumes

A wizarding wizard!

Snow white (wearing the safari explorer hat from another costume haha) and some pink  princess (not sure if its supposed to be a specific one  ;-)

A witch! I'm wearing this trick or treating I  think

Wanna see random adorableness now?

Raya is wearing more Naartjie today--- oh how I <3 it :-)

 And Brielle  is wearing  Gap, Treehouse line from a few years back. Found the jeans at consignment and the sweater used online---so now I have a matching set and should be able to easily sell it for at least what I paid--love it when I basically get to "borrow" clothes :-)

We've still  got a lot of snot today---so excuse the glistening upper lip :-P

And lastly, my arthritis is acting  up again---my poor knee! I had it drained a couple months back and it seemed to "work" but t hen  the last week it got bad again. Thankfully the doctor my mom works for squeezed me in today to have it drained again.

I appologize for the following picture if it grosses you out, but I thought  maybe I should visually show that I'm not talking about a little bit of a "sore" knee...I'm talking about chasing after my children with a knee that is as big as their heads ;-)

In case it's unclear, the swollen knee  is  on the left haha :-P

And with that  lovely visual I leave you all today! You're welcome.

Pre-Halloween festivities!

Yesterday the girls carved their pumpkin with Daddy. I actually don't like carving pumpkins. I hate how messy they are, I hate cleaning them out, and I don't  have the patience for carving them. I do however like the way they look when they are done! haha. So Daddy is in charge of pumpkins at our house :-)

It was crappy clothes day at our house Saturday lol.

The best part of this  picture  is Brielle's excitment over eating her cereal  with the big pumpkin scraping tool lol. She stole the thing for scraping the inside of the pumpkin and started using it as a spoon! :-P

This is what we all call  Brielle's "stink face" haha. She gives this look multiple times throughout the day, usually accompanied by "no!" ....she gave it to me when I laughed and told her the scraping tool wasn't a spoon. Apparently I'm a buzzkill ;-) And yes, that's snot running down her face lol

Ewwww

Raya requested an owl on her  pumpkin this year....spoooooooooky! :-)

Then today Lee and I went to brunch, shopping, and to the movie Argo....an fun anniversary day! My parents watched the girls, and then this afternoon she took Raya and Sawyer to a "trunk or treat" thing her work was doing. She's a nurse and her and her doctor are known for their matching costumes they wear at work on Halloween lol...this year they are going as Mr. and Mrs. Incredible. So my mom was dressed in her costume today for trunk or treat and just happened to find a matching costume for Sawyer for like $2 used...and then she found this costume for Raya that "matched" and Raya went as a she-devil. Mom said they had lots of fun! She took some pictures for me since I wasn't around today to see it.

(And these pictures are too great not to share, but in my mom's defense even skinny little things like her don't look too sexy when wearing a costume that essentially  has giant granny panties on it! lol ;-)

How stinkin' hilarious is this!?! LOL

Helping Grandma pass out candy!

Can't wait  for  more Halloween festivities this week! Tuesday is the Halloween parade at preschool for Raya and she will wear her mermaid costume for the first time (have I mentioned she looks like a drag queen mermaid in it? LOL ---she is so pumped :-P)  ...and then Wednesday my hometown does a Halloween party downtown and then we go trick or treating in a nearby neighborhood. Can't w ait to see Brielle in her monster costume! If anyone mentions Halloween around Brielle she says, "monster---rawwwwr"  haha...she's very excited about her costume!

Etsy shop NEW ARRIVAL!

Just  a quick update tonight, but Raya  is super excited to announce that two of her favorite things are coming soon to my ETSY SHOP .....Christmas owls (who like to play dress up with reindeer antlers, just like Raya :-)  and hooded sweatshirts!