Here Comes Halloween

Aiden is LOVING Halloween this year.  He is going to be Captain America for trick or treating and he has his Spiderman bag from last year.  I remember when I was little this was probably my favorite holiday.  The older I got, the more it moved towards Christmas.  Ariel is still obsessed with Halloween.  It's pretty much HER holiday.  She goes all out with the decorations every year.  When I went to her house Tuesday, I decided I need to beef up my decor a little.  Mostly for Aiden.  Last night I made a new wreath while Aiden started working on a Halloween painting.  I think the wreath turned out pretty good.  I'm not sure how well it will hold up over time though (lots of glitter and feathers).

After we were done with our crafts, we set up some decorations around the house.  Aiden is so into it that I let him put a spiderweb up and some other spooky items in his room.  I didn't do much when compared to Ariel, but I took a few photos that I sent to the family:

Every time we go to Target (which is at least once a week), Aiden wants to walk through the Halloween section.  I couldn't believe it when he wanted to push the buttons for the spooky animatronics. 

When I was little, I grew up in an old Victorian home.  Our house was the place to go for Halloween.  My dad put up a giant spiderweb and spider on the side of the house.  Our front porch was decked out in spiderwebs and the candy bowl sat between a papier-mache clown and my dad.   My dad took some of my brother's old baby clothes and stuffed them so it looked real.  Then he stuck his head and hands through styrofoam so his face and hands completed the stuffed clothes.  I hope that makes sense.  It was creepy.  I don't think I'll ever go that far for Halloween.  I absolutely despise scaring people (let alone small children) because I know how much I hate to be scared.

I went to Google maps to get a photo of our old house.  The yard looks totally different and the house has been painted a peachy-pink color, but you get the gist of what we had going for us on Halloween.

I need to buy Nightmare Before Christmas.  That's a good Halloween movie that I could watch with Aiden.

Freshly Addicted to Pinterest

I downloaded the Pinterest app onto my phone and now I can't get enough of it.  I don't know why I never found it interesting enough to sit at a computer and browse through.  But now that I can look through random stuff at random times, I love it!  The only problem is it has shown me tons of stuff I would like to make, but don't have the time or money to do.  Someday, right?  Here are a few examples:

Curtains for the guest bedroom; but I want mine in white, grey and yellow.

Simple baby quilt

I am really not a fan of giant headbands on babies.  (Why distract from the beauty of a baby?)  But I do LOVE these simple ones.  Click on the photo above to be linked to a How-To page.  They are functional (whenever Mila finally gets hair - I'm sure she'll be born bald) and they look comfortable.  I have a super sensitive head so I hate most headbands.  But I think even I would wear these.

A Shower for Mila

A week ago on Sunday, I got to attend my baby shower for Mila, courtesy of Alexa and Linsey.  (Thank you, ladies!)  They decided I needed some pink in my life since I will be reusing a lot of the unisex stuff from Aiden.  What better way to accumulate baby gear than a shower?! 

Baby sock roses (Linsey took a floral arrangement class not so long ago)

The whole thing was so cute. First, it was just girls. We were able to flaunt our girlyness without getting shot down by a guy. Second, instead of shower games we did crafts!  Everyone was able to create a onesie, hair clips or head band for little Mila.  I was really excited to get my hands on some of Alexa's craft supplies.  I went straight to the hair clips.  I have to admit, I stole my idea from my friend Chrissie who makes and sells hair accessories.  It really was a lot of fun.

After craft time, we ate some of this beautiful cake.  It was a little sad to cut into it!

Then we opened the pink gifts!  I think I'm finally starting to accept that I'm really having a girl.  Sort of.  I've got the baby stuff now.  I still can't imagine dressing a baby in it just yet.



Alexa's giant living room was the perfect fit for my girls.




Zhenya, Nadya and Kate - Kate was so disappointed that Aiden wasn't there and that she couldn't see the baby in my belly.



My fashionably late sister wielded my camera for a bit.  I'm glad she remembered to pull it out because I certainly didn't.



Sara crocheted a black sheep for me.  She thought it was horrible, but we all thought it was cute.  And hilarious.



Baby bumps



My friend from college, Clarissa, is pregnant with her first child.  She is having a girl as well and is three weeks behind me.  I felt like a monster compared to her.  Reminded me of Nadya and I when we were incubating Kate and Aiden.  Ha.

I did not get a good photo of my hostesses and I, so I'm going to direct you to Alexa's website.  She has a great camera.  You can also see all the onesies we made.  Check it out!

Now that I've had the baby shower, I feel like I can really start organizing.  But first!  First, I need something to organize with.  We just finished our taxes and are awaiting the direct deposit.  As soon as that puppy clears, we're heading to Ikea for storage furniture galore.  I'm really excited about having the new furniture, but what I'm really looking forward to is organizing Mila's stuff.  At the moment, I have nowhere to put her things in the house.  It is currently sitting in bags in the garage.  I'm itching to get out there, wash everything and see what we've got. 

We should also have some cash leftover to get a few baby items that we didn't receive.  Nothing is imperative to bringing an infant into our home.  It will just be stuff to make our life easier.  The two things I'm looking forward to most?  A new baby monitor and a bottle drying rack.  We have a hand-me-down monitor that crackles at anything (when you turn on a light, when you walk by, etc).  The drying rack I have from Aiden (and still use for his sippy cups) is a nightmare.  It was the cheapest one we could find and it tips over with the slightest agitation.  It's very frustrating to come home to find all the cups I had neatly stacked scattered all across the kitchen floor.

Like I said, not imperative to having a child, just nice.

Oh wait, there is one slightly imperative item.  We would like to get a new car seat.  It is recommended to retire a car seat after two years.  They are constantly making more and more strict regulations, so it's a good thing to keep up-to-date.  I think we can swing it.

Party Teaser

Rachel came over this weekend to help me put together some stuff for Aiden's birthday party. We have less than 2 weeks. EEK! Rachel has some mad scrapbooking skills (along with the tools to go with it) and I was able to put those to good use...

I wanted to do a goldfish theme for the party, but that is proving quite difficult. The closest stuff I've found to goldfish are tropical fish, and that's NOT what I want. Instead I'm focusing on the colors, orange to represent the fish and blue to represent water, and then throwing in a few homemade goldfish items. Hopefully it's not a disaster!

So far it looks like we'll have a pretty significant turn out for the shindig. As of right now, we have 24 adults and 10 kiddos. We better get crackin'!