Ebay Item of the Week

Lot of 158 Vintage & Modern Barbie Kitchen Items
Paid - $.75
Sold For - $22.39

Actual Size by Steve Jenkins

We love the Kohl's Cares for Kids program and each time I enter the store I'm immediately drawn to the display near the registers. Every month or so they have a new book line with corresponding stuffed animals (we usually just get the books). The items are only $5 and all of the profits - over $126 million to date - go to health and education charities for children. We have gotten many great hardcover books by renown authors including Dr. Seuss, H.A. Rey, Eric Carle and more. Bargain prices and helping great charities? Win. Win.

Our lasted pick from the line is Actual Size by Steve Jenkins. Each page portrays a different animal to scale. Seth loves to compare himself to each animal as puts his hand against the gorilla's, goes eye to eye with a giant squid and places his foot atop the giant foot of the African elephant. What's even more impressive is that each of the detailed illustrations is a composition made from torn and cut paper. We cannot wait to check out some other books by this amazing collage artist.

Spooktacular

The past few days have been busy but fun!

Seth loved carving pumpkins.




And roasting pumpkin seeds.

They came out extra "crispy".
How to make a "Spooky, Spooky Ghost":
Step 1: Spray hair silver.
Step 2: Paint Face.
Step 3: Layer with drapery sheers.
Step 4: Ignore husband when he compares results to the Virgin Mary.
Step 5: Enjoy!
Step 6: Watch as the make-up and costume are promptly removed. (The temperature was in the 80's!)
We played games, trunk-or treated and had yummy snacks at the church carnival.
The next Tiger Woods?

Miles showed up to say hi. Was he going as Michael Jackson?

A quick costume change and we were off to trick-or-treat with Stacy, Bobby and Trey. Seth was a big green monster and Trey was a soldier in the infantry.
Goofballs!
Super...something...
We stopped by to see Papa R.

Too much candy!
"Uncle Leon"....
Who is that masked marauder?
Seth's room is dim at night and videos look sooo dark but it's too cute not to include!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Wordless Wednesday

Ebay Item of the Week

3 Kasey the Kinderbot Cartridges
Paid - $.55
Sold For - $25.00

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Charles Schultz

We have also added this classic to our Halloween book repertoire. I didn't grow up with the book, but we watched the television special every October. I think everyone knows the plot line: Linus waits in the most sincere pumpkin patch he can find in the hopes of seeing the Great Pumpkin. Meanwhile, he misses out on Halloween once again. I'm not sure what the lesson in this one really is but I still love it for the nostalgia factor. What caught me off guard was the use of the words stupid and crazy when the kids were talking about each other. (I have run into the word stupid in several other children's books that were also first published in the 50's and 60's. I found it strange!) We just change the words to silly and keep on rolling!

Coffee Filter Ghosts

Seth and I loved making these coffee filter ghosts. I remember doing this in college in the dorms one year when we had a hall decorating contest. Seth wasn't able to do everything but he enjoyed what he could do and loved watching me do the rest!

For this project all we needed was toilet paper, coffee filters, thread, a needle and a black marker.

We rolled several sheets of toilet paper into a ball

and placed it in the middle of a coffee filter.

Then, I ran a threaded needle, knotted at the end, up through the middle. I left the thread really long so there was plenty of flight room once we hung them. We drew little ghosty faces on with a black marker.

We hung them in the tree in or front yard. One rain and they're toast, but it's still worth it!

As we were taking pictures, a random gray kitten showed up and ran up the tree. How nice of him to join us for that extra scary touch!

We are having a Spooktacular Halloween!