And Finally....

Little P's costume.

I know, she's in grey. Grey, not really a butterfly-fairy-princess costume color, so we've settled on her being a little moth fairy princess. A twilight kind of fairy.

The dress is a bit of a mess. The bodice went together easily, but the skirt gave me all kinds of problems. It's a little too busy looking, a little too heavy for the bodice, not quite even, lying flat and lifeless here, looking breezy and lively there. After ripping everything apart for the fourth time I decided enough was enough. She'll only be wearing it for trick-or-treat tomorrow. It'll be almost dark by the time we venture out in it. Chances are she will never want to wear it again. Why then does it have to be perfect? So I've stitched it all together one last time and am leaving it be...I think. I can't guarantee that, some time late tonight, I won't be frantically trying to make it look just that much better...but I'm going to try very hard to let it go, call it good enough, move on...

After all, it's almost November. Time to bake some pies or something!

Pookie's Costume

With just a few days to spare, I've finally finished Pookie's dress. She was very specific about what she wanted. She drew me three designs for her dress and then proceeded to point out the most important elements of each design. She wanted a flat dress, no ruffles, petals, flowers, long, butterflies, trees, some birds, a necklace...the list went on and on.

We managed to pare the list down a bit and ended up with just flowers and petals. Phew! Thankfully, she's happy with the finished product.
And now I have a half-finished dress for Little P. I need to complete...

The Bug Box/The Bug Book

It all started with The Bug Box. A cousin-in-law kindly sent the girls a few insect specimens. My mother packed these specimens in an old art box and added a few of her own to the collection. The girls quickly named it The Bug Box. They loved looking in the box, they loved examining each of the specimens with their magnifying glass and they loved quizzing each other on the names the specimens. But there just weren't enough bugs, so the girls went searching for some more specimens. They found a dead dragonfly, a dead grasshopper, a dead centipede, a dead wasp, dead moths, numerous dead beetles, and about thirty cicada moltings (that would be all those dirty looking brown objects in the largest compartment.)

The girls also found a number of live insects. They were very excited by these finds, but were disappointed that these live insects could not go in The Bug Box. "Do you think it will die soon?" the girls would ask as they followed some poor insect across the yard.

And so The Bug Book began. I would take the girls for walks and we'd look for dead and live insects. If they found a dead insect, we'd collect it for The Bug Box... ...if we found a live one, I would take a picture of it for The Bug Book. At least once a week we print off our latest pictures and add them to our photo album. I'm slowly working at adding names, dates, and locations to our pictures.
It has turned into quite a fun project for all of us. It has definitely made our walks much more exciting (who can spot the next new bug!) and has helped to make us all more observant.We've talked about other book possibilities (like a bird book), but have decided to stick with just insects for now. We have a lot more pages to fill in our photo album and a lot more "bugs" to discover.

Painting Break

Taking a break from the girls' Halloween costumes and doing a bit more stenciling on the walls.

I ran across this stencil company in an issue of Southern Living and fell in love with their designs. I'm currently using the "Trillian Way" stencil in the girls' playroom (hence the pink walls) and love it.

Costume Progress

With Halloween just a few weeks away I sat down and had a talk with the girls about what they wanted to dress up as this year.
"Princesses!" they excitedly told me.
"But you were princesses last year," I pointed out, somewhat disappointed.
"Yeah, we like princesses!" they informed me.
So we talked for awhile about other possibilities and after lots of discussion the kids finally settled on "Butterfly-Princess-Fairy!" which, I suppose, is a little bit different than just a princess...
So, here is Fig in her partially finished "Butterfly-Princess-Fairy" costume.
She's pretty easy to please when it comes to dresses--so long as it is girly/princess-y enough she will wear it. She loves this dress and has spent quite a lot of time showing us how well it twirls and how great the ruffles look when you bounce through the air. I'm thrilled that she's happy with it!
A few more details to add here and there and then I will have one out of three costumes complete. Phew!

Fall Arrives

Last month...

...looking bold, bright, cheery, healthy.

This month...

...sad, tired, brown, crinkly, and suffering from a horrible case of powdery mildew. I suppose I should rip them up and replace them with something more seasonal and cold hardy, but I haven't the heart. Maybe in another few weeks, when they have truly, throughly expired, I will...