Halloween 2012

I think the theme this Halloween was, "Making It Work".

Grandma and Papa surprised the girls by coming over to help carve pumpkins. The girls' pumpkins ended up being too small for the patterns, so Don freehanded his (the spider, can you believe it?) and I just cut out portions of the original template (owl). By the time we were done using the itty bitty saws to get through the first two pumpkins, neither of us were in the mood to do the same to Andrew's huge, thick-skinned one. So I painted a Frankenstein's monster on it.

(I'm sitting here coming down from a sugar high, so I apologize if this post is a little. . . off). The girls picked out what they wanted to be for Halloween again this year. Arlie picked fairy/princess and Andi wanted to be a bee. When I did the sketches to get an idea of where to start I drew Andi as an aviator bee and it seemed so perfectly her:

I'm pretty proud how it turned out! Arlie's costume didn't go as planned but luckily I had thrifted this fun dress a few months ago for her dress-up box and with a few last-minute tweaks she ended up being a very cute fairy. The best part is seeing their reactions when they see themselves in a mirror, transformed.

On Halloween, we very optimistically got into the car to go trick-or-treating downtown despite the downpour. The relentless downpour that hasn't stopped in 3-4 days. Optimism won! When we got to Trick-or-Treat in the Harbor the rain tapered off and didn't start back up again until we were on our way back to the car. How lucky are we, right?

When we got home, Arlie was really excited to hand out treats to the other trick-or-treaters. She even offered helpful suggestions to the kids on what they might find most fun in the bucket in her sweet little voice. She might have liked that part even better than collecting the candy for herself. Andi stood at the top of the stairs where she could see the costumes and made monkey hoots. Because that is what Andi does.

Well, I'm off to make some tea to try to counteract some of this sugar. . .

Scarecrow Festival 2012

The girls played fall-themed carnival games, checked out the scarecrows (including the one that mommy helped make), walked through a hay maze, and got lost-ish on the way back to the car. The last photo is Andi encouraging me to walk through the brambles with them to get back to the road.

ETA: Here's a photo of Andi at the festival taken by a local news agency.

Gig Harbor Street Scramble 2012

We participated in Gig Harbor's street scramble for the first time this year. The largest in North America, you're given a topographical map with numbered points on it. Each point is given a point value, along with a corresponding clue and question to verify you actually visited it. You could either go for 90 minutes or 3 hours. Because we're insane, we decided on the 3 hour version. At least it was a beautiful day for it:

Andrew and Arlie consult the map to make sure we were going the right way. After we climbed 80+ stairs. Carrying strollers. (We were.)

You know Gig Harbor is hilly, but you probably don't realize how hilly until your wife is wheezing up hill #20 behind you vowing to add some cardio to her workout repertoire.

Just for reference, we started this whole shebang at sea level.

After being a little sad that we didn't hit more points, we headed back to Skansie park with 1 minute 2 seconds to spare. Arlie made a rocket and both her and Andi had fun making it fly while we waited for them to tally the results.

To our surprise, we won 2nd place! Yay Team JA3!

All I can think when I see this photo is that Andi marches to the beat of her own drummer. Which is absolutely true and brilliantly captured here:

Yay some more! Totally worth the 2 broken strollers and aching feet!

Beach Babies

We've had beautiful weather here lately so I'm posting some recent photos, and will continue with our Southern California adventure tomorrow!

It's always good weather to throw rocks in the water.

I was there, too!

We rarely go to Penrose at high tide, so it was like a whole different beach.

Our shadows in the water.

What I was wearing. I can't help it!

Halloween 2011 (Uh, Belated)

I realize it's almost Christmas but I can't believe I forgot to do a Halloween post! Since Andrew did something to the computer that erased all the pictures that were saved, I just stole this post from my other blog. Heh. And Heather, I know you're still waiting for part 2 of the pumpkin patch. I'll work on that!

This first pic was taken after we went trick-or-treating in downtown Gig Harbor and Andi had had enough. She wasn't about to let me put her down for some alone pictures!

I'm a . . . witch. You probably figured that out. Really, the costume is always more of an excuse for me to wear drag levels of eyeshadow. I love crazy eye color.

Most people thought she was a nerdy chicken. Worked for me.

Arlie picked their Halloween costumes this year. She announced Andi was going to be Chicken Little.

 I ended up buying a pair of orange womens tights from Target and cutting them up to make her tights, comb, and foot covers. I bought the glasses from Goodwill, poked out the lenses, and painted the frame green with nailpolish. Her tail was a Trader Joe's brown bag cut into feathers. I think it ended up pretty good. And I was surprised she kept the glasses and headband on the whole time!

Arlie wanted to be Hello Kitty which I thought would be pretty easy. Did you know that no store in Gig Harbor sells white cat ears on a headband? Now you do. I wish I had a better picture but my mom came over with white felt and her hot glue gun and made plush cat ear barrettes for my little kitty. Combined with a bit of makeup and a pink dress from the clearance rack at Target, and she was Hello Kitty!  Arlie loved it, she was fascinated by her reflection in the mirror.

One more picture of beautiful Gig Harbor, we were lucky to have such a great afternoon for trick-or-treating.

Family Photo

Ed Johnson - Practicing Photographer, took a nice candid photo the other night during the Tree Lighting Ceremony in Key Center. Since we rarely have photos of the four of us together, I was excited that he shared.

Home Park

We had a really fun Saturday morning before I had to go to work. After going out for breakfast at Roadhouse On The Hill in Key Center we took the girls to the park in Home.



Andi's just not a huge fan of the swing. She doesn't hate it either, she just sits there like you're forcing her to. If you don't believe me, watch this enlightening video:

But she still got worn out. . .

Sehmel Park

Sorry I've been slacking. I've been working 10-hour shifts lately and although I love having 3 days off I don't get much internet stuff done since I get home at midnight and all I want to do is go to sleep.

A few weeks ago Andrew and I were home at the same time and it was sunny (well, it was at one point during the day) so we took the girls to the park. Sehmel Park has the biggest piece of playground equipment I've ever seen. We joke that it's probably visible from space.

I'll do a little update on both the girls here too.

Arlie loves to watch movies and has a major sweet tooth (definitely see the Heater in her there!). She likes to feed Mr. Fishy (pronounced meezerpeeshi) and watch him dart around sucking it up. Although she was slow to start talking, she sure is catching up now and runs around the house singing made-up songs about her family, her nanny, and Mr. Fishy. She likes to wrestle with Andi. She's halfway potty-trained and can go the whole night without an accident.

Andi is a pretty hilarious baby. She's not super-excited by unfamiliar faces so it's hard to share her personality with friends and family outside her immediate family. She's really cuddly and giggly and gets so excited about stuff she waves her arms and legs like crazy. She's always covered in bruises because she overestimates her motor skills but after the initial crying goes back and tries it again. She will clutch my Bare Essentials makeup brush for hours as she plays. She loves to hear mommy's and daddy's voice coming out of the phone. She can't get enough spicy food or salmon.

If you're bored, you can go back up the pictures and try to locate Andrew and I's legs. Like a Where's Waldo. But with only lower extremities.

Halloween III

OK, last Halloween post, I promise.

Today we went downtown to "Trick-or-Treat in the Harbor". The police close down all the roads and the store owners and homeowners hand out candy. There was a lot more people than we expected on the streets.

Arlie had a blast! We could hardly get her to trick-or-treat because she was so busy goggling at costumes. We kept running into a guy dressed as an ape and she'd squeal, "Hi monkey!"

But she quickly figured out how the whole thing worked. Put out your bucket and someone puts candy in it!

Andi disliked her banana costume enough that we just dressed her for the weather today.

Arlie's all tired out!

Lake Minterwood Picnic

We walked down to the lake for the annual Lake Minterwood community picnic. There was food, games, and fun!

I think this is my new favorite picture of Arlie.

Me and Andi. What an awesome addition to our family!

Long Walk

I didn't realize my camera was still set to "retro" so that's why these pictures kind of have that feel.

I had been feeling strong contractions but they weren't in any rhyme or reason so I took Arlie to Penrose and we walked aaaall the way out onto the spit. I had heard long walks would help things progress. Well, "placenta-brain" kept me from remembering to put on sunscreen (which I do religiously usually) so I ended up fried - and with NO MORE CONTRACTIONS.

Little did I know that 18 hours later I would have added our second daughter to the family!