halloween

How was your halloween night?

Mine was very low key.  I had an under rested baby on my hands that decided 5:30 was a prime bed time!  Because of that the bigguns had to go trick or treating sans mama.  Oh that tore at my heart!  This  is the first time for me to miss out, but daddy did the trick!  And let's be honest- was probably a little more liberal with the candy allotment throughout the night!  They all had a great time and fell into a tired heap on the living room floor afterwards.

My kids are so funny when it comes to costumes.  Buddy will decide on something by mid-summer and stick to it.  This year he wanted to be Link from The Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess.  It was a very easy costume to whip up and put together.  Especially since John tackled the shield!  He made it entirely from scratch (cut out of plywood and craft foam pieces for the details)!

I love this picture of him!  This is his "please hurry and take the picture MOM!" face!

Moonpie is another story when it comes to costumes.  She starts scheming in the summer, but we really never know until the night of.  This year she decided on Princess Zelda in September.  It seemed to stick so I started keeping an eye out for thrifted flower girl dresses.  I even bought the the craft foam to mold her armor.  And spent way too much time on various Comic-con websites devoted to Legend's of Zelda love.  There seems to be a lot of it going around, by the way!  

Mid-October she decided that she wanted to be Mulan, because "she's a warrior princess, and I want to be fierce".  Love it!  We dug out an old shirt of mine from China Town and some black pants.  We whipped up a sheath for her sword and she was done!  She wore that costume to the fall festival at church.  

Well last night she wasn't exactly feeling Mulan-ish.  She was feeling a bit more reserved and shy, so when she came out of her room this is what she was wearing:

I admire this girl of mine so much!  Her ability to pull something together that feels "right" to her is inspiring, because she knows herself so well.  That is an acquired skill for most, but she's been owning it since she was a toddler.

Halloweens past:

2011  2010  2009 (squee!  Look at my tiny babies!)



What about your kids?  Did you go all out for elaborate costumes this year, or stick to rummaging through the dress up chest?

ps- I have a give away coming soon!  My very first one!  Check back tomorrow!

surely there is something I should be doing

I should be cleaning, or organizing, or dumpster diving for boxes.  I for sure shouldn't be updating the blog!
Seems like with all that I should be doing, all I want to do is nothing.  Funny how that works.  Maybe funny isn't the right word...

So, in the spirit of procrastination, here are our Halloween pictures, a week late!

Buddy was a knight.  Check out the shine coming from his sword!  Sha-shinggg...

Moonpie was Tigress from Kung Fu Panda.

John and I were Bert and Mary Poppins

Ok seriously, I need to go do something.  

halloween

Seems like we spent the entire week celebrating Halloween.  I know we didn't, but the sugar induced crazies sure do make it feel that way!

On Thursday we made our annual Halloween trip to the Nursing Home.  We decided to hand out bananas this year.  Moonpie made little tags and tied them to each banana.  Buddy added heart stickers.

I grew up visiting nursing homes with my parents.  It is such a gift to me to share this experience with my children.  I love seeing Moonpie's comfort and delight around the elderly.  Buddy is still very shy, but he will stand by my side as I visit.  They are charmed by his bashfulness and that sweet little face.

Here are all of our precious friends that joined us!

Ooh look!  A sneak peak at my freshly painted doors!

On Friday we attended a party.  Moonpie was very distraught by the idea that I wasn't going to be dressed up.  So at the (very) last minute I became country mouse from Town Mouse, Country Mouse.  The funniest part to me was that I was already wearing this outfit. I just pulled up my hair into ears and drew on my nose and whiskers!

On Saturday the kids went to a halloween festival with their papa and mimi.  By Sunday I was declaring war on candy and "any food that comes in a bag!!!".  

On halloween night my brother-in-law was married.  We had tons of fun and because of all of the merriment leading up to the big day, we didn't even miss trick or treating one little bit!

fair trade friday (on thursday)

October is Fair Trade month- what a great time to begin the conversation about the importance of Fair Trade!  I'm hoping to highlight certain businesses and organization at least once a week (on Friday) for the duration of the month.

The term "fair trade" basically means the workers are being paid a fair wage for their work and they are being treated humanely in their work environment.  Also, yearly inspections verify that workers are not enslaved.  In a perfect world, Fair Trade certification would not be necessary, because we as humans would treat other humans with respect and dignity.  But we know that is just not the case.  As consumers, we have the ability to vote with our dollar.  We say what matters to us by how we spend our money.  The bottom line is buying Fair Trade matters.

Look for this logo to make sure the product you are buying is Fair Trade.

There are a few hot topics in the Fair Trade spectrum- coffee, sugar and chocolate.  These three items are ones that are most likely to be produced by slaves.  Did you get that?  Not just a farmer being paid unfairly, but people being oppressed through slavery!  

Chocolate is a $13 billion dollar industry worldwide!  About half of the chocolate produced worldwide comes from the Ivory Coast of Africa.  These cocoa plantations are mostly worked by slaves.  And not adult slaves.  Over half of the world's cocoa beans are harvested by child slaves.  These are children that have either been kidnapped or sold by family members- usually for about $30 USD.  That is appalling.  It is horrific to think that our ability to buy a cheap candy bar at the corner store comes at the expense of a child.  Salia Kante, director of the Save the Children fund in Mali has been quoted as saying:

  "People who are drinking cocoa and eating chocolate 

are drinking and eating the blood of children."  

Remember when people stood up and said that we wouldn't eat tuna fish at the expense of dolphins?  Do you remember what happened?  It changed an entire industry!  The tuna boycott actually worked!  
Halloween is around the corner.  What would happen if all of that halloween chocolate just sat on the shelves, going unsold?  Do you think that would send a message to the big chocolate producers?  I do!

Let's take a stand together!  Let's tell big chocolate business that we won't buy their chocolate unless it is Fair Trade certified.  Let's make the message clear that we will not tolerate the enslavement of children so we can have our cheap chocolate.

Let's start, in this Fair Trade month of October, by "just saying no" to conventional chocolate.


Fair Trade chocolate:

• Cadbury- I was so happily surprised to see this!  Big business stepping up to the plate!
• here's a great list already written out for me!

Trick or Treat alternatives:

• Fair Trade chocolate
• Yummy Earth lollies (grab the kids and watch and the video!)
• spider rings
• pencils
• raisins (just prepare for your house to be egged)

Any other creative ideas?

***for more info on chocolate slavery see Stop Chocolate Slavery

{{{and yes, i realize i'm publishing this a day early.  just couldn't wait!}}}

happy halloweenie!

this is one of my favorite weeks in the blogosphere- getting to see all the great halloween costumes all you creative mamas (and kids) have come up with.

we returned home from our road trip the day before halloween, so we had a little hustling to do the day of. mainly because my little buddy man changed his mind about his costume, on friday. my new mantra is that when i can say 'yes' to my kids, i should, so 'yes' it was.

that afternoon we carved pumpkins...

sissy moonpie had decided on being an angel a few weeks ago, so i had plenty of time to make her little tu-tu. and we found those great feathered wings at target. she wore them everywhere up until the day. they really are beautiful.

buddy had originally wanted to be a race car driver kitty cat, but after viewing a 'larry boy' movie on our trip, he changed his mind. can you believe the awesome-ness of that helmet that john made?

here's what larry boy looks like:
and then the kids got to go trick-or-treating for the first time ever! they had so much fun! except at that one house where the dad was hiding in the bushes and dropped a giant skeletal monster from the tree directly above us. buddy was so scared. i have never wanted to punch someone in the face more than that man at that moment. i couldn't believe he did that. to a 3 year old. his wife was pretty mad too. i figure justice was probably served...

here the kids are getting candy from a 10 year old chaquita banana lady. she was super cute!

pumpkin moonshine

have you read the book by tasha tudor called pumpkin moonshine ? it is a lovely little story about a girl visiting her grandfather's farm and choosing a pumpkin from his field to carve. instead of calling them jack-o-lanterns they are called pumpkin moonshines. so that is the term we've adopted around here as well. so here are the pictures of our week. everything from choosing pumpkins at the pumpkin patch

carving our pumpkin moonshines

eating our organic smores (i know- i'm pathetic)

and wearing our homemade costumes.



for the untrained eye: moonpie was a pink cheetah ballerina. she painted all the spots by herself! i was amazed by her persistence. buddy was, of course, popeye. and i was, slightly, olive oyle. however the hair only lasted about 15 minutes when a dear friend confided that i didn't exactly look like olive oyle, just that i had really bad hair.