I'm Election Day

Seriously. 

I really am Election Day. 

Well, I was for Halloween, at least.

(My Beijing friends will recognize this little ensemble as my costume for the 1776 Ball.  But that's the great thing about having a prop closet, I just grab something and rename/reuse for another occasion.)

Now, as you can imagine, I didn't get many compliments on my outfit.  In fact, I got quite a few stare-downs.

I honestly thought I was being on my best behavior. Not wanting to offend 98% of the attendees at our neighborhood Halloween party, I went as nonpartisan as I could.

I thought it was very nice of me not to go in with my conservative guns blazing.

But speaking of guns, I did add this one little button that I figured would sum up my election day choices.

But I haven't even gotten to the best part yet.

So we'd been at the party for about five minutes and a man I didn't know walks up to me and says,

"Who are you? Sarah Palin? All you need is a hockey stick."

 I looked right at him, and in my most sweet and sincere voice said,

"Oh no! Sarah Palin is much too beautiful for me to try and be her!

I could never pull that off,

 I'm just... Election Day."

 I thought his head was going to explode.

He looked at me completely dumbfounded, and then turned away and walked off.

Not. a. word.

I was so proud of myself.

I've never left anybody speechlesss before!

Only Treats

Pink is so Their Color

Of course I love the color pink!

 

Except when it pertains to my children's eyes.

Yep.

We've got two raging cases of pink eye in our house.

But on a positive, and very Jan-like note, Kyle and Reed went to the doctor in full costume.

Their Halloween costumes came yesterday, and they haven't really wanted to take them off.  I seriously thought I was going to have to let them sleep in them last night.

And if you're wondering what in the world Reed is wearing...

Well, Poor Thing has a full outfit under his muscle shirt. Being he's Ayi's favorite, she wouldn't let him out of the house without two layers of clothing. 

(It all goes back to Yin and Yang. I'll give you a quick and easy lesson:  

Lots of layers- good. 

Flip-flop wearing - worse thing ever.) 

She thinks Kyle cries too much, so he was okay in a short-sleeved shirt.  Sometimes it's not so comfortable being the favorite twin.

This One's a Do Over

Alrighty, so yes, I know I've already made you look at Great Pumpkin Patch pictures.

But seriously, the pictures my friend, Niki, took make my pictures look like a three year old took them.

Soooo enjoy.  Pumpkin Patch Photo Ops Take II 

This time by a professional:

Power Play for the Photo Ops

We rode the Charlie Brown Express out to the Great Pumpkin Patch today, and I'm pretty sure I left no photo op unturned.

Reed and Ayi in the Narrow Gage Railroad gift shop. 

Kyle on the train, but in the wrong car since we didn't know how to read our tickets correctly.

Happy to make it to the right car.

Picture of Jason

 300 lb goat

(I actually don't think photo ops come much better than that!)

Picture of my child eating fruit.

Picture of another child belonging to me eating fruit.

(Proving I'm meeting the health needs of 2/3 of my children.)

Hay maze particiapant

 Pumpkin selection

And the winners are...

And hanging with our celebrity guest hosts.

(And FYI, these aren't their Halloween costumes. I was a neglectful mom and didn't order costumes until this week.  Kyle and Reed are sporting JR's hand-me-down dress-up clothes, which I threw on them at the last second.)

Running with the Wolves

JR's school had their fun run last week and the kids were encouraged to dress as super heroes.  When I explained the costuming situation a month ago, JR informed me he didn't want to dress up, then the day before the run he changed his mind. 

With a days notice I had no time to come up with something fun and manly-fabulous, so I had to settle for the WalMart Halloween section.  My choice of Wolverine was JR approved, and I have to say, it was super easy to find him in the crowd!

I did love that most of the girls chose some form of a fairy/princess/butterfly/ballet tu-tu combination as their superhero of choice.  Just check out the get-up the girl in front of JR has on.  Super Cat Girl?

JR got pretty hot in his Wolverine suit, (And BTW, I'm gonna show my age here by saying that I can't actually say or think the word "Wolverine" unless it's done like Lea Thompson in Red Dawn style.) so the costume came off and the muscles came out.

After JR's first lap around he asked me to run with him, which was quite interesting for me since here were my running shoes that day.

I Heart Peeps

Guess what came in the mail yesterday?

When Jason saw the Peeps costumes he gave me "the look".

Me: What?! I don't have any girls.

Jason: They're not dolls, you know.

Yes, I'm aware they aren't dolls, but come on. Who could resist Peeps costumes?!

And with Peeps costumes ready, we had our Easter egg hunt practice after church today.

Practice? you might ask.

Yes, Practice.

My mom has always thought it best to practice Easter egg hunting skills. (Must be a tradition of the German Jew Presbyterians.) So JR has been raised with egg hunt practicing as standard pre-Easter procedure. Today's eggs were empty...just warming up for the real thing.

Unfortunately, It was a little difficult finding hiding places.

First problem: snow (which I did hide a few in)

Then there was the mud

And the non springlike foliage

I also had an experienced egg hunter knocking down Peeps to get to the eggs. During our first practice round he was handicapped with a "have a seat and let them find some". I wised up for the second round and hid "expert level hunter eggs" in the next door neighbors' yard.

Egg Hunters beware. We Ingys are ready. Bring it on!

10 Apples Up on Top

It was Read Across America Day yesterday and JR was supposed to dress up like a Dr. Seuss character. And with the only Hobby Lobby an hour drive from my house, I knew I needed to come up with something fairly easy. Easy, but original and, of course, funny.
Though you can't tell from this picture, JR did think 10 Apples Up on Top* was a funny idea. (You know how he is about having his picture taken in sunlight. Ugh!) And I will say this was one of the easiest projects I've ever done...except for the 3rd degree hot glue gun burn I inflicted on myself.

Since I had to make this Hobby Lobbyless, I found myself loading up my cart at Wallyworld with Styrofoam balls, red paint, glitter, and green pipe cleaners. My idea was to make the apples myself...when lo and behold, I happened upon decorative apples! And since buying premade apples was half the cost of making my own, I threw those apples in the basket as fast as I could. I was raised under my mother's motto, "Make it easy on yourself", and when it comes to crafting I have a motto of my own: Easier, cheaper, and non labor intensive beats messy, costly, and time consuming any day!

As for the only snafu in the process, here's my 3rd degree hot glue gun burn.

That would be the top of my leg. (No more crafting in shorts for me.) I thought the hot glue gun was out of glue so I was loading a new stick. Guess what? It wasn't out of glue. And as I loaded the new stick in, it pushed out the rest of the glue...right on my leg. On the bright side, I'm pretty sure I'm permanently waxed in that location for the rest of my life.

I never expected the costume to make it through the whole day. (JR is a boy, after all.) But the apples did stay all glued together, they just came apart from the headband. It might have even broken apart in his backpack. He said the headband started hurting his head around lunchtime, so he traded it in for this little number.

Just like me. Always up for multiple costumes...especially when they're hats!

*10 Apples Up on Top Costume Tutorial:

• supplies needed: headband, premade apples, hot glue gun
• step-by step instructions: Glue apples to headband.

My Triple Salchow is Ready

Feathers? Check!

Sequins? Check!

Glitz and Glamour? Check!

Looks like we're a go.

Fabulousness beyond all fabulousness, we're ready for tonight.

I seriously can't help it. I've loved watching men's figure skating in the Olympics since I was a little girl. It all started back in 1984 with Scott Hamilton. I loved him! The way his few wisps of hair he still had left would blow as he spun on those skates. I thought he was amazing. My friend, Stacy, and I went to see him in the Ice Capades. (Stacy and I were also in love with the 1984 Men's Olympic Gymnastics Team, but that's another story.) I ran down to get Scott's autograph and he told me he couldn't give it to me, but he touched my shoulder. And um, yeah, I still tell that story often. One of the first times I met my friend, Sunny, (I was an adult living in Beijing) she told me she was from Sarajevo. I immediately freaked out and started asking her about the '84 Olympics and Scott Hamilton. "Had she gone? Had she seen Scott Hamilton? What was it like?" And since Sarajevo has suffered through a civil war since they hosted the Olympics, I'm pretty sure she thought this American had lost her mind.

My next crush (not really sure "crush" is the right terminology, but I can't think of a better word) was Brian Boitano in the '88 Calgary Olympics. It was the battle of the Brians! The Canadian, Brian Orser, against The American, Brian Boitano. Boitano had on that blue military inspired jumpsuit. Classic. The Ice Capades were passe' 4 years later, but I did get to see Boitano in the Campbell's Soup Stars on Ice! (I still have the flyer in my scrapbook.) My friend, Julie, didn't share the same love for figure skating as I did, but she was happy to go with me and agree that Boitano did, in fact, wave back at me.

Unfortunately, I've had a 22 year dry spell of male figure skating idols. Sure, I've watched them at the Olympics, but nobody has jumped out at me like Scott and Brian did. But I think I've found a new "love". My mouth literally dropped open when Evan Lysacek skated onto the ice in full black sequins and feathers. I woke Jason from a dead sleep trying to make him watch. (You can imagine Jason's excitement, so I texted my friend, JD, instead.) And though Johnny Weir's pink and leather ensemble was pretty darn cute, it was no match for Evan's chiseled cheek bones.

So, yes, I'm looking forward to tonight! The costumes, the pageantry, the jazz hands! Nothing could be better.

Go Evan! (and Johnny and Jeremy!)

Pina Coladas and Parkas

I was proclaiming my excitement on Facebook yesterday that:
A. We were invited to a New Year's Eve Party.
B. It was a themed party requiring "beachwear"
and
C. We had a babysitter.
So here we are all duded up in our tropical attire. (The babies had already gone to bed before we left.) I'm sure the Texans are probably thinking we walked out of the house as is, since I know of plenty of New Year's I've worn shorts. But you Coloradoans and Minnesotans know better. I actually wore my biggest coat (Jason refers to it as a "parka") and snow boots, then changed into my heels once there. (I guess Texans are the only ones who wear heels to the beach, since I was the only girl not in flip-flops. But at 5'2" even my flip-flops have heels, so I would have been wearing them no matter what.)
The party was super fun, and the hosts had hired bongo musicians who brought all kinds of instruments for everyone to play (think maracas, cow bells, and all kinds of drums). Alas, nobody went "McConaughey" with their bongos...the closest we got was when one of the girls almost lost her strapless dress in the hula-hoop contest. (And yes, Durangoans, they bought their hula-hoop from the Hula-Hoop Lady...always buying local.)
As we rang in the new year, Jason leaned over and said, "Well, here we are in another crazy place. It's 4 degrees outside, we're dressed like we're going to the beach, and people are banging on bongo drums."
Just another year for us Ingys.

Costume Parade

Never had a "white Halloween" before. Check out the snow!

Nobody stood still long enough at our clubhouse party to get any good pictures.

Trick-or-Treat Hayride. And that's just one of the rides, there were two! They're were so many kids that Jason and I walked behind with the babies! Notice all the coats...pretty safe to say I never had to wear a coat trick-or-treating in Texas! (JR is in a green and blue coat in the middle front of the picture.)

Cowboy Up

Today is Cowboy Poetry Day at JR's school so they were supposed to dress in cowboy attire. Thankfully, the same costuming applies for both "Cowboy Day" and "Go Texan Day", so we had it covered. All I had to do was make a trip to the Prop Closet (I don't really have a prop closet. And on a side note, I don't even have my own closet! I have to share a closet with Jason that's smaller than Jason's closet back in Houston. As you can imagine, the closet situation comes up in conversation almost daily. But I digress, any costuming I already have I say it came from the "Prop Closet".) JR wore this same get-up for Go Texan Day back in PreK. Only difference is that this morning he was freezing and had to wear a jacket to the bus stop, where as in Houston, Go Texan clothing usually sweats you down. JR is definitely a good mix of both Jason and me. He was thrilled beyond imagine about wearing the chaps. (He's got my love of a good costume.) But was equally happy about his camo shirt. (I think we all know where that came from.) Plus, when it comes right down to it, shouldn't the native Texan be the most cowboyed-up? I think so, too.


This was JR's attempt at a "cowboy pose" and snarl. LOL! This was also the first and only picture he would let me use the flash (it "hurts his eyes") Which is why the other pictures are so grainy.