autumn

I know I've already shared on Facebook the magnum opus that is the Halloween costumes that I made, but I need to plunk it down here for blog posterity.

when it came time to deciding on costumes, I wasn't sure how I was going to top the utter cuteness of last year's Man with the Yellow Hat and Curious George. Then one day Ellis decided that he wanted to dress up as the Cat in the Hat, so that was the decider, I would make a costume for him for Halloween. The obvious accompaniment to a Cat in the Hat costume is Thing 1/Thing 2. So Marlowe was going to be that. To be honest, though. I wasn't feeling it. Too obvious, too uninspired. So then, I thought, well, what about The Goldfish in the Cat in the Hat? Could I do a Goldfish costume?

Thus began the great quest to figure how to make a convincing fish. I scoured the internet for some design inspiration and came across this simple octopus costume idea on Martha Stewart. So that was my springboard.

The fish costume is in two parts: the body suit and the hood/cape thingy.
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The bodysuit was pretty straightforward. I used his jammies as a guideline. And velcro up the back. I incorporated fins onto the sleeve. The hood/cape has a lining so that i could stuff it a little and make casings in the fins for some pipe cleaner. The gave the fins some stiffness and bending capabilities for a fun Suess-y flip. I made a couple of pockets on the neckline of the bodysuit to thread the ties of the hood cape through to make it more comfy and secure for wearing.

The whole thing is made out of nice, comfy soft fleece.

The Cat in the Hat costume was much simpler. Again using fleece, i made a black body suit with velcro up the back for ease. Using his jammies as a template. then the white belly and sewed on red, felt bow. I made a casing and put some elastic at the neckline so that it would fit snugly, but comfortably. The tail is from a set of stripey tights from Target, stuffed with polyfil and a pipe cleaners. I added some strips of wide elastic at the foot, so that the leg would cover his shoes. Got some white gloves at Target, and made some whiskers from pipe cleaner. The Hat was donated by a friend who just had happened to find one at the thrift store. This made my job a LOT easier. I was not looking forward to that millinary foray.

It's been busy around here.

Last week, I finally got the GRE off my plate. Phew!

We got haircuts.

Enjoying crepes. M calls them Pancakes.

Enjoying Fall.

And making Apple Pie! (while Mommy takes a shower)

Three things making me happy today:

1. Or rather making Marlowe happy. "Marlowe make apple pie!"

Thanks, Melissa and Doug.

2. Making GRE study happier. Khan Academy. I heard about it on NPR. Little YouTube videos on so many topics. Just breaking it down. Keeping it simple. It is fantastic! After this horrible GRE debacle is over, I may work through the Finance course, since my basic understanding of Finance is pay the bills and keep the number at the bottom positive. Ha!

3. Baby giraffes.

Today dawns cool and crisp. A true fall morning. The sun dazzling through just-turning trees.

Cartoons watched, lunch packed, and off to soccer we go. Ellis starting to get it. One boy on his team drives that ball into the goal with such intensity. I'm just happy when Ellis kicks the ball in the right direction. E runs around the field the whole time with a giant grin on his face.

Shopping. Fun shopping. Shoes for the boys, and I realized that Ellis only has one long-sleeved shirt. He dug through the long-sleeved Tshirts looking for Batman. I picked a plain orange promising we could decorate a pumpkin on the front. It will be adorable.

Marlowe may not have grown but his feet sure have, almost 2 full sizes! No wonder he was saying, ow, ow, ow!!!

Ikea for supper. We're all so tired. Hard to keep spirits up.

Hooray October!!!

My favorite month in my favorite season!!!!! The month of mums, pumpkins, spices, crisp air, and apple pie. As Marlowe kept informing me this morning, dragging a bag of apples around saying "Want make apple pie!!" (this child isn't even 2 1/2 yet)

I got out the door early this morning, it was still raining from the night before. I was meeting my friend at the Please Touch Museum. As I got down the hill into East Falls, I noticed that the Schuykill River was really high, and then as I crossed Kelly Dr to go over Falls Bridge, I saw that Kelly Drive was close on either side of me, the water had gone over the banks over Kelly Dr. I had never seen it that high. Then my friend called me for rerouting help because Lincoln Dr was closed with Wissahickon flooding, too. Wow. (Click here for a good pic. Falls Bridge is in the background. You can kind of see it through the trees.)

Anyway, so we finally made it to the Please Touch Museum. Though it was hard not to gawk at the river all the way down W. River Dr. I left Marlowe with my friend and her daughter, and then went on into University City. Where I met with someone in the dept to which I'm applying for grad school and is basically my top choice and I really, really, really want to go there, because it's awesome.

Then I went back to PTM and played awhile longer with my friend and her daughter, and then they were announcing a puppet show, so we thought, why not? It turned out to be a blacklight puppet show. So cool! So everything on the stage glowed, and the puppeteer was just standing behind them with no screen, wearing all black, so we couldn't really see him. The kids were totally enthralled.

I came home and basked in the glow of grad school excitement and fun times with kids and friends and then realized that I had no idea what we were going to eat. And then thought maybe we should just catch some ChikfilA since we were headed that way anyway later. Which we did. And then went to our friends' house for dessert. Lovely time. Really enjoyed the company and the kids played well. We left around 10pm. I was shocked that M was still awake.

There's a bit of a chill in the air, and tomorrow will be sunny.

Hooray the last day of September!!! And blustery, rainy day at that.

Sent Ellis to school on the bus, so we didn't have to walk in the windy rain. Marlowe and I went to Trader Joe's, which turned out to be a huge undertaking, since I hadn't been really grocery shopping in two weeks (and I'm on the one week plan, bc of all our fresh veggies). And I got some things for Grammy's house, and some things for a woman in our church who recently had surgery--she just lives a couple blocks away.

AT TJs, we got lots of yellow and orange. Two big orange pumpkins. Pumpkin butter. Pumpkin bread mix. Yellow mums. There was more yellow in the cart, but I can't remember what it all was. I just remember looking in the cart and thinking Orange and yellow. M spied the little mini decorative pumpkins, that are no bigger than the palm of your hand really. "Beebee pumpkins!" Said in a teeny-tiny high-pitched voice. When they were bagging me up at TJs, they got a second cart, and someone came and pushed it to my car for me. And I dropped groceries and mums off at my church friend's house. Learned that fall is her favorite season, too. Hooray! Another Fall Lover!

When E came home and groceries were put away, we went for the last hour to the Please Touch Museum. This is the third time we've done this this week (and the third rainy afternoon). The museum is not that far (though traffic is a little heavy at that time of day), really not much different than going to a nice playground in terms of travel. And the PTM is usually not crowded then, and the boys get lots of mental and physical energy out. There is a goodbye Parade at the end of every day there. A drummer in a three-cornered hat leads the tambourine-shaking kids on a parade around the museum. And then they get a chance to beat the drum on their way out the door. I have yet to see a kid tantrum in protest of leaving at closing time. Genius, pure genius, on the part of the PTM.

Taco salad for supper. Had that going in the crockpot while we were at the museum. M fell asleep at the table. And has stirred a couple times since. I think he's overtired. *sigh* hope this isn't the pattern for the night.

I'm settling down now for an evening of GRE study. (barf) And some fun research-y reading.

I'll leave you with some fun pics from the PTM. Using the Hipstamatic app on the iPhone--because if Soulemama says it's cool, it must be so.

I'm officially a fan of September. After a sizzling summer, September is coming in as a soothing balm.

Ellis had off the last two days of his first week of school for Rosh Hashanah. So on Thursday we enjoyed a crazy trip to the zoo where met up with the family of one of his school mates, which was total last minute Facebook kind of meetup, and great fun for the kids. And on Friday I took the boys for a little hike in Fairmount Park.

We stopped for a picnic. And then I brought out drawing things that I had packed. I told Ellis to try to draw things that he sees, he said, "the water, the trees, the light coming through the trees." then a little while later, "I see my family." Melt a mama's heart!

I got these soy "rock" crayons for the kids, and they are so nice to use. Perfect for Marlowe's little hand and for making leaf rubbings.

I have to admit, I don't go bounding into Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. I love fall. It's hard to let go.

So November is supposed to be National Blog Writing Month, because you know we all have extra time to blog with the holidays coming up. But I've been wanting to blog more. And since the baby is napping and I'm waiting for the Advil to kick the headache, I don't feel like cleaning at the moment, so you get a blog entry. I get amnesty for Sundays, because it's hard to blog then. So I start National Blog Writing Month on Nov 2 and hope for the majority of days in Nov. Besides it'll be good practice for the December Photo Project (ahem, Rebecca *grin*).

This November I'm super excited about unpacking more boxes (yeaaaa, um),
and Sew, Mama Sew's Handmade Holidays 3. This year I'm planning on starting just a tad earlier with my own Handmade Holidays. I'd also like to resurrect my poor Etsy shop, so if you have something that you've seen me make that you'd like to put under the tree for a certain little person, let me know, and I'll see what I can do. Or just keep your eyes peeled for announcements.

Well, November is off to a good start. I've got a good budget in place for the month, which I was a little anxious about since moving totally rearranged our finances. I signed up for a yoga class. I walk Ellis to school everyday. And hopefully, I will get my very own washer and dryer for the first time ever. That will be a post in and of itself. I also plan to go to an academic conference for the first time since 2007. Woohoo!

K M's awake, better scoot.