Delightful Nonsense!

I wonder what the neighbors were thinking as both Jaidyn and Addy were riding around on broomsticks in our front yard this evening? And no, they weren't galloping on them, so I am pretty sure they knew they weren't playing horsey. I figure as long as I don't start wearing long black dresses and boiling food in big black pots, we are safe. :)

Yesterday, while Addy was taking a nap, Jaidyn and I read "Dorrie and the Halloween Plot". There is a children's series of "Dorrie" books and I can remember my mom reading them to me when I was young. I wonder if these books were the root of my love for Halloween? This is the first "Dorrie" book that I have read to Jaidyn and I wasn't quite sure if she was old enough for them or would even understand the story, but apparently she did. In these books, a cute little girl witch, Dorrie and her black cat Gink always find a way to save the day. In the book yesterday, Dorrie was begging her mom to teach her how to fly on her broom.




Jaidyn and Addy pretending to fly around on broomsticks in our front yard. (Addy didn't actually find a broom, but the fishing net seems to work.)

See, up close and personal they aren't so scary and even with their brooms, they are actually pretty cute!

I can't think of anything else I would rather be doing on a nice fall day

than staying indoors peeling and scraping wallpaper off the kitchen walls. I have hated the purple walls and the grape themed wallpaper ever since we moved in. And now, over 3 years later I am finally getting around to making the change. I think the prior owners were maybe going for an Italian winery theme, but not really sure. I even love a glass or two of wine with dinner, so you would think that I would like the theme. However, it has to go! It took me 4 hours to get the border down and I have spent 2 1/2 hours on the wallpaper and still have a good portion yet to go. I have recruited Wes to help me tomorrow and hopefully the two of us can finish it up. Next week Wes's Dad, Lauretta, and my Dad are spending a few days with us and we are doing some much needed home improvement projects...wall & ceiling paint, new kitchen cabinet doors & hardwear & new doors. I am so excited. My mom has graciously agreed to babysit the girls for a couple of days and this will help us get so much more done without two little ones around.


ETA 9/27: Wes's recruitment was successful. I sprayed and peeled while he scraped. Pretty good teamwork if you ask me and we finished the wall in less than 2 hours.

Queen of Spades

Earlier today, I let Jaidyn sit outside on our front porch with Ray while I finished cleaning up the kitchen from lunch. I looked outside the front door to see this. She is playing a card game with the dog. I am listening to her and she is explaining the rules. I sure hope Ray knows when to fold em' as I am sure this game is very one sided.

Warning: Black Spray Paint Overload

Attending the fall festival last weekend and having nice, crisp morning air all week has put me in the mood for fall. Once again, I couldn't wait until October to put out all of my Halloween decorations. My house is definitely ready for October. As if getting all my decorations out and put up around the house wasn't enough of an extra task for the week, I decided to give the bathroom a mini-makeover. My bathroom was kind of a hodge podge of items and colors and I wanted to give it a more uniformed "Pottery Barn" style look on a low budget. A couple of cans of black spray paint can go a long way into changing up the look of a room and fit perfectly in to my decorating budget.

Our bathroom towel racks were sage green in color and even though I didn't mind the color I gave them a nice coat of black paint. The once, brown wicker basket holding the candles and white pitcher also became black.


I love my little magazine holder rack (yes, the bathroom is where we read our magazines) and it went from being Shabby Chic vintage white in color to now, black. I found the cute little metal pumpkin tea candle holder at the thrift store this week and it also received a coat of black paint.


My metal shelf was white and guess what? It is now black. I love how it looks with my little Halloween decorations.


So what do you all think? Did I go overboard with the black paint? Well, don't answer just yet as I didn't stop there. I also found this metal plant stand at the thrift store earlier this week and thought it would be great with my front porch mums. After a quick scrubbing and a nice coat of paint, I think it turned out pretty good.


This is our fireplace mantel all done up in the spirit of Halloween. I just love my new little Halloween banner. Oh, and the little candle stand at the right corner is another thrift store find this week that, you guessed it...I painted black.


This is one of my all-time favorite Halloween decorations that I love to display. Each of my girls have a mini folding album that I add to each year with pictures of them in their Halloween costumes. They really get a kick out of looking at them as well.


I even jumped on the white pumpkin bandwagon that seems to be very popular this year. Instead of buying a white pumpkin, I purchased an orange one and spray painted it white. I have read that the pumpkin will last just as long even though it is painted. I like how my white pumpkin turned out and I like the cute black vase (yes, another thrift store find that was once white until this week when I went to town with the spray can of black paint) but this isn't really what I had in mind for the centerpiece of my table. Anyone have any ideas on what I could add? Should I completely take off the raffia and ribbon? Maybe I needed to use a bigger pumpkin. Please help! I promise my feelings won't be hurt.


Black overload or not, I am pretty pleased with all of the results. Wes likes it too and that is a plus, as his idea of a mini makeover would include hanging a mounted fish, deer antlers, or a bore head on the wall. I promise, I will always get my way with that battle. There is no compromising when it comes to dead animals on the wall, yuck! Well, I still have a half can of black spray left so I guess I will go see what else I can find. :)

Wickman's Nursery Fall Festival

After an early morning of garage sales at a Mom to Mom and a JBF sale, my mom and I took Jaidyn and Addy to Wickman's Nursery Fall Festival. Unlike what many others are experiencing in the state of Texas with the Hurricane, we enjoyed perfect weather for a fall day. Jaidyn and Addy rode the train, visited the petting zoo, got their hand painted, and picked out their own little pumpkins. I had 2 darling pumpkins painted up for each of the girls and my mom and I picked out several ginormous (I know Gi-normous isn't a word, but I like using it anyway) Mums to decorate our front porches. And I really liked the free buttery popcorn that they were giving out.


Addy isn't sure what to think if this huge African Tortoise.


Jaidyn wasn't shy about picking up some feed and feeding the Zebra.


They both decided to have a ladybug painted on their hands instead of their face so that they could actually see and enjoy it.


Addy and Jaidyn with Nana showing off the ladybugs painted on their hands.


Puff, Puff, Toot! Toot! Riding the Train.


Jaidyn and Addy with their painted pumpkins. Unfortunately, the look that Addy is giving in this picture is the look that we had been getting the last couple of hours. At this point in the day, she was past ready for a nap.



PS - Thanks mom for planning out a fun Saturday for the girls and I. I am sure Plan B was as much fun as Plan A would have been. Ha! :)

Tour of Missouri Bike Race

On Thursday of this past week, the girls and I got to briefly see the Tour of Missouri bike race as the racers left Lebanon and then again as they raced by the highway in front of our house. Addy and I watched them ride through downtown Lebanon while Jaidyn was in preschool and then I was able to pick up Jaidyn from preschool and still make it all the way to our home right before the racers passed through our town on the highway just down from our house. We saw the racers turn the corner towards our house and within a matter of a minute, they were gone. It is amazing how 120 cyclists can stay so close together after biking at least 30 miles. I guess that is why they are considered professional, elite. Wes worked two days of the tour as he blocked off intersections and held traffic for about a 20 minute time periods to allow for the racers to pass through.


Jaidyn and Addy waiting patiently on the side street to see the bike racers.

Addy's 1st Day of Preschool

Addy attended her first day of preschool today. She has been so excited for her day today all week as we have taken Jaidyn twice earlier in the week. As soon as we got inside I led her over to the wall to hang her backpack. She refused to let me take off her backpack and took off towards the slide. I let her slide down the indoor play slide a couple of times and then once again tried to get her to take her backpack off, and again I was not successful. By this time several other children had arrived and most were crying as the teachers were trying to pry them out of their parent's arms (this is a class of 16 two-year olds). I quickly diverted Addy's attention to the large play caterpillar and then exited the preschool as I knew that she would be upset if she saw me leave. I felt sorry for the teachers as I am sure they had a long morning ahead, and at the same time I was thinking, I sure am glad that I am subbing at the high school today. Later that morning my mom and Jaidyn picked Addy up and they could hear Addy fussing. The teacher said that last 1/2 hour she really started missing her mommy. Aww, I love my little Addy! She missed me!




We can't believe our baby is now a big girl and in preschool.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Jaidyn and Addy couldn't wait to try out their umbrellas when they opened the front door and saw the morning rain. I think trying to get Addy to the car with an umbrella was much more of a hassle than if I would have just picked her up and made a mad dash. The rain has been hanging around for the past 2 days and I am ready for it to move on out. Too bad we had preschool, it would have been much more fun to put on the rain boots and play. Oh, and so much for getting to sleep in on a rainy day. :(

"Little Fish"

Jaidyn had her first day of preschool yesterday and has graduated from being a "Polliwog" last year to a "Little Fish". She is so proud of her new preschool status. She will go the preschool on Tuesday and Thursdays. It is so funny to hear her prounounce "preschool" as it sounds like she is saying "Pretty School".

Addy will go to preschool on Fridays and will be in a "Polliwog" class. When she saw Jaidyn wearing her backpack Tuesday morning, she went and found a small purple Barbie themed backpack in the dress-up clothes box to wear. She is so excited to attend her first day on Friday.



Addy and I will get to have lots of Mommy and Me time each week while Jaidyn is at preschool. On Tuesday, she helped me get groceries as we went to Wal-mart, Aldi's and Walgreens. Yes, I am a bargain shopper, so I have my lists with all of my coupons. Addy's patience doesn't really last all that long with my shopping technique and she would rather not sit through each isle while I search for the exact product that I am matching my coupons to while still comparing it with the price of the generic store brand. She also always wants me to hold her while pushing the shopping cart and this definitely doesn't work with a cart full of groceries. I wish you all could witness some of the fits that she throws when I make her sit in the grocery cart. She also had to go potty in all three stores and I really hate using public bathrooms, especially with her. Yucky, yucky germs! Hopefully tomorrow our time together will be a little more low keyed as we are going to attend story hour at the library. But then again, Addy has the ability to turn anything low keyed in to a whirlwind experience.