Halloween 2010

This year Mike said that we could not buy costumes. He said the kids could wear plastic garbage sack capes and tape horns to their heads. (Something like that happened to him as a child, but I think I remember something about his mother being pregnant and sick or just had a new baby and a bad car accident) Either way, not acceptable by todays standards. I tried to be frugal. I took Gracie to the DI and we picked up this skirt, belt, shoes and shirt for $10. Granny Sharon helped me adjust them to fit. We used the length of the skirt that we trimmed off as the scarf for her hair. She wore my jewelry & the corset, came from some naugahyde that my mom had. Anyway, I was tickled with myself. Jake, his expectations were no more than a red ninja costume and some cool swords. $14 done. Gretchen, well she wanted to be some pink WalMart Barbi ditty, but I just couldn't do it. I talked her into a Halloween fairy, but in my heart I knew that wasn't it. It was cheap though. It was too big when we got it home so I started surfing the internet. I found this little Madeline costume and knew it was "IT". I had to have it. She has been having us call her Madeline for 2 months. She wanted to have her teacher call her that at school. I drew the line. Anyway, there was a bit of an Ebay battle and it turns out I lost. I lost the fight, but I won the costume. I paid way too much for it, but I had to have it. I wish everyone could have seen Gretchen/Madeline's face when I showed her the confirmation receipt. She was delighted. She said "Oh good mom, you printed that out for me?" Turns out, that is how you get things from the internet. You just print them out.

Every year, we take the kids down to my Grandparents. They don't get out much, but they love to see the kids. Here is a picture of them with all the "Hall" grandkids. I just love Granny's face. She was having a ball. We took about 400 pictures, and some were cuter of some than others, but this was my favorite of Grandma & Grandpa. This is what makes the visit worth all the work that it takes to get them all dressed up and in the same place at the same time. This is 15 of my mom's grandchildren. Nicole, Katie, MacKay & Collin were not there. We missed them.

So this little picture of Gretchen cracks me up. She said that to be Madeline, she would have to have short hair. If a girl needs her hair to be cut so she can feel the part, then I will accommodate.

That is my way of thinking. I have loved the new cut. She looks so grownup.

I love this picture of Gracie holding Josie. Look at her trying to get the feathers off her tongue. She told me she was allergic to chickens:)

This was my attempt at Holiday baking. I was pleased with the results.

FYI: that is not a bite out of the egg, it was a little hard to peel:)

**A side note: Today after 3 solid days of letting the kids eat all of the candy they wanted, I dumped the remainder into one bag and weighed it. There were 9.4 pound left. Ridiculous!!**