Halloween costumes!

Here are this year's Halloween costumes! Ages ago we were talking about costumes and it occurred to me that the girls would make cute flappers - with the added bonus that those would be easy costumes to pull together. Ellie was on board with the idea on the condition that she could have a red dress, with a red feather boa.

Kate loves her dress and beads but is not keen on the scratchy feathers. 

Adam took some persuasion to be a gangster, but he eventually came around to my way of thinking. Two flappers and a clone trooper would not have nearly the same visual impact! Plus, I don't even think I know what a clone trooper looks like. In the end, his costume was super easy - just a hat really - but he's a very obvious gangster and he got lots of comments!

With everyone going for 1920s style, Nicholas had to join in the fun, and so he became a newsie.

We all went to the Halloween parade at school this morning - Adam's teacher said that if the little ones came in costume, they could walk in the parade too. Kate was thrilled at the idea, and loved walking in the parade with Adam.  Her headband kept falling down around her eyes, it was pretty funny.

I am quite conflicted about halloween. I don't like it much, but the kids love it and they especially love having good costumes. After two years of minimal effort on my part it was kind of fun to pull together a themed group of costumes for this year. Though I do not know if I will ever do it again! A group of four is just too many. Unless you all have any good ideas....

Say goodbye to the curls!

It is time. It is time for Nicholas to get a proper big boy haircut. We did family pictures on Saturday, and we wanted curly Nicholas in our family pictures. But now that they are done, there is nothing holding me back from the big chop!

It is a bittersweet prospect. I am actually pretty excited to see what he is going to look with a proper haircut. He will be totally different, but just as cute.

But I will really miss these curls!

Kitchen Tour, part 1

I am not complaining. I should state that right off. I am merely documenting, for better or worse! And I should document the current state of our kitchen. I am hoping that our kitchen is at it's nadir. Jeff says probably not, but I cannot see how it can get any worse. So I thought I would take you on a kitchen tour.

Here's the fridge. We love it. It's the only thing that's working right in the kitchen right now.

Whenever I want to do any laundry, I have to move the entire contents of my spice cupboard off the top of the washing machine before I can.

The washing machine floods every time we use it and has for a while, but it is noticeably worse right now (we're waiting on a plumber). So I can't let it drain. I have to stand over it with a bucket and let the hose drain into the bucket, turn the machine off before it overfills the bucket, and repeat. Six times. Six buckets of water twice per cycle.

Part of the great kitchen remodel is switching the gas line behind the washer and dryer. So although the dryer is fully functional, it's not connected and is not working. Megan lent me her washing line and that is the only thing that is saving my sanity. Even if the dryer was working, there's so much stuff on top of it that I couldn't possibly reach the on button anyway. Everything that used to be in the cupboard on top of the dryer is now just on top of the dryer. Because the cupboard on top of the dryer has been replaced by this.

This was genius. If Jeff hadn't recycled this cupboard into this spot we would have no storage at all!

It is amazing how unbalanced a dishwasher is when it is not stabilised under a counter-top. I have become very adept at loading the dishwasher with one hand while holding it down to the floor with the other. It has almost tipped over a couple of times. During the great sledgehammer swing of a couple of weeks ago, the dishwasher knob broke off.

 
We have no idea what cycle it is on, but it runs and the dishes come out clean so we don't care.

Every time I turn around a new hole appears in the wall, usually with wires hanging out of it.

And Jeff has taken to writing notes to himself on the walls, usually to say that he wants a new outlet (and therefore a new hole) in that particular spot. No doubt with new wires to hang out of it as well.

This is what is left of my kitchen counter.

There is enough space next to the sink for one chopping board, and that is the sum total of my working space, and only after I move everything else. Still waiting for that plank counter I was promised.

The only place to store the pots and pans is on top of the stove. Which makes actually using it somewhat problematic.

This is merely documenting, not complaining! But I do plan on documenting the improvements as they happen. I am hoping that they start to happen soon!

Nicholas is two!

Nicholas turned two on Saturday. It was obvious quite quickly on Saturday morning that he was now very definitely two... he helped himself to two cupcakes by dragging a chair across the kitchen to where they were stored safely out of his reach. All in the time it took me to load up the car for football.  Here's to a glorious year of him starting to do things himself...

Once again, the only reason he had a birthday party is because he tagged along on Gavin's. This year was a Blue's Clues party - complete with handy dandy notebooks, mailbox, and shovel and pail. (I should just rename this blog the 'Kristie Kerr is awesome' blog.)

Kristie even had a thinking chair. Here's Gavin being all cute and sitting in the thinking chair with his notebook.

Here's Nicholas refusing to sit in the thinking chair and be cute.

Here's Gavin being all cute and playing the clue game.

Here's Nicholas stealing food.

And here's Gavin eyeing Nicholas' cupcake....

which of course lead to the inevitable!

And this is the only picture I have with Nicholas smiling at his party - holding his two favourite presents, an airplane from Izzy and a big blue elephant from Aunt Kristie. This really was the only time he cracked a smile the whole time.

Which, when I think about it, is exactly in keeping with tradition for my two-year olds.