halloween 2014

Its that time..

That crazy time we call Halloween in base housing.  With 100+ homes to trick or treat at it is a mad dash to get all the candy you can.



These two were excited to hit the neighborhood.

This was the first request for a picture together- yep they'd rather eat broken glass.  haha

But after reminding them that mom is the one that makes this night possible they could at least be grateful and give me a picture.

I just love it when a good old guilt trip makes it all work out. :)

I think they look very scary, odd and weird.  The three qualifications are met.

Happy Halloween Jack & Sophie. 

off with their heads

Time for the fitting...hope it works.

Here she is excited to see it done.

 

The day and night look all together. 

First job was to get the shirt on - do the hair and crown and then the God awful makeup. 

She especially liked the little heart on the lips.  The girl loves any reason to get to wear lipstick out in public.  How about those bad 80's throwback blue eyes..haha

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!

I think Queen Sophie has spoken.

She loves it.

And the awesome thing is it will work for the next school year when her school in NC does the book character day on Halloween.

the queen of hearts

Sophie did not want to wear her angel of death costume for a third year and I don't blame her.  So, she came up with the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.  Now my girl does not like any cutesy costumes they need to be weird, scary or just plain odd.  This look hit two of those.

I did not use a pattern but found an inspiration photo and went from this:

I started with a pile of stuff: black and red fine tulle for the outer skirt, black stiff tulle for the underskirt, a black t shirt, some white tulle for the collar, felt and some trim.

Tulle is a pain in the butt to work with.  It slides all over when sewing it.  And with many layers it is even more difficult to do.

The original had harlequin ribbon.  It was a key part of the look.  We hit all the craft and fabric stores in town but no ribbon was to be found.  Heck not even any harlequin fabric could be found.  So, I had to make my own.  It was more difficult figuring out how to draw it then to get it all done.  I used plain white cotton and then colored the harlequin with Sharpe marker.  The equivalent to duct tape - works in a pinch always :)

 The first fitting was going well.

 I finished it while Sophie was at school.  It looks good to me..

It looks great on my dress form - Josephine.  I hope it looks even better on Sophie.

We shall see how it fits her. 

a halloween day look for sophie

The schools here in Texas do not allow costumes to be worn on Halloween.  Total bummer I know.  In NC you can wear a costume but it has to be a character from a book - non scary and no weapons.



With that being the case the girl needed an outfit to wear to show her Halloween spirit.  She had outgrown her t shirt from last year- but wait- big brother outgrew his too.

I raided the fabric stash..yes I have a healthy stash of someday I'll do them projects.  :)  I found some black and white zebra print and orange polka dot.

Just whip up a pleated skirt to add to the bottom of the t shirt and make a big bow to go on the bun and voila- we have a Halloween spirit outfit.

The girl is a fashion diva.  She loves to work her stylin' magic.

Looking good Sophie. 

a bit of halloween decor - sophie style

Since we moved all the home decor back to NC the house was a bit sparse here for Halloween.

That is until Sophie got bored a couple of days and made us some decorations.

She
 took an old book and made a pumpkin by cutting it and then dying the
edges orange.  She also added a nice lime green stem.  Then she stole a
roll of toilet paper and covered it with tissue paper and added more
lime green for the stem and tendrils.  She also made a tiny bat from a
toilet paper roll.

Last but not least she made a mummy out of a box and toilet paper.



I'd say she did an amazing job and the pumpkins can stick around for Thanksgiving too.

Thanks Sophie.

sophie's 4th grade program

How to make an apple pie...

that was the theme of the 4th grade program.  Where you go in the world to get the ingredients all done in song.

Spin Sophie and Lilly Spin...

This is her boyfriend this year- Jake.

The girl sure does have sass in the dance department.  Gotta love it.

flag football season 2

Jack was excited to play flag football again this year.  He has no desire to play tackle football so this will be his last year playing.  Go Broncos!!!

Love this little guy.

back to school - 6th and 4th

Its that time of year- back to school.



Jack is hitting up 6th grade.

 Sophie is hitting up 4th grade.

I think they will have a great last year in Texas.  Go get 'em kids.

some creative time - kid style

This summer was long- we are used to Tramway year round school of only 5 weeks off in the summer.  This 12 weeks off makes it a very loooong time.  And kids get bored quickly, especially with it so hot here in Texas that being outside is hard to do for very long.

Enter creativity time.



Sophie felt the plain composition books required for school were just that - plain.  She worked on glamming hers up some.

She wanted a chevron pattern.  So we worked on how to make the template.

Next it was her time to cut various colors and work them out on the book. 

I think it is coming along great.

Jack is not so much into crafts but the boy does love nutella and lava cakes.  So we researched how to make them and then he went at it.

My junior chef sure is cute.

Now tell me doesn't this look ah-maz-ing?

Look at the ooey gooey awesomeness of flavor.  And they were so good.

expo - trying out for pre team

Sophie works so hard at gymnastics.  She has practice twice a week and an added private lesson to further teach what class doesn't give enough time to.  This is her second most important expo.  She is trying to move up to Pre-team.

Time to stretch:

Don't have any photos to share as I was filming it - we needed videos.  But this shot tells you :

SHE DID IT.  Watch out pre-team Sophie is on her way.

Even Jack was excited for her.  He did sit through hours of practices so was hoping she'd make it. 

Next goal is - - - TEAM.  She has some work to do.  Way to go Sophie.

schools out for summer

Well they did it. They made it through a year of school at Sheppard Elementary.



Sophie's year was not what she had hoped.  It was an extremely difficult year for her.  She is a friendly, outgoing girl who loves to make friends.  But this school - or more to the point - her class was not any of those.  There was one girl- Leilani - who is the queen of the nasty girls club. She tells the girls in the class who they can be friends with and who to dislike.  It was hard for Sophie.  Then on top of that her teacher was the adult version of Leilani.  Oh well here's to 4th grade being a much better year..

Bye Bye 3rd grade - hello 4th grade.

The photo above shows Sophie on the last day of third grade holding a photo of her from the first day.

Jack had a great year.  He is very shy and usually has a hard time making friends.  He made many friends and had boys to play with all the time.  He also found a love of math through an amazing teacher - Mrs. Hill. Mrs. Rodriguez rocked at Science and got him loving it so much.   All of his teachers were awesome. On to 6th grade next year..the last year at this elementary school -

Bye Bye 5th grade - hello 6th grade.

The above photo shows Jack on the last day of 5th grade holding a photo of himself from the first day of school.



My 4th grade girl and 6th grade boy.  So proud of you both.

sheppard elementary awards day

Usually I hate awards days at schools.  Why?  Because they are basically for the suck ups -teachers pets or the kids who come to school sick all year and make my kids ill just so they can get their perfect attendance award.  Seriously?  Why is there an award for that anyway- get a life kids.  Take a day off and have some fun.  haha



But we figured we'd try it out here at a new school - if it went badly like before we'd just skip it next year.  I was pleasantly surprised it was based on academic achievements not who is the teachers' favorite kids.

Sophie's class is ready to go...

Here she is getting her Commendation in Reading for the STAAR test.

 Here she is getting her all A's honor roll. 

I am so proud of you my smartie pants Sophie!!!

Next up its Jack's turn.

Yes, Jack got commendation on Reading in the STAAR test.  You rock Jack !!!!

Here he is getting his other awards and a hug from his awesome teacher- Mrs. Atkins.

It was an amazing day.  I can't wait to do it again next year.

Rock on kiddos--- keep up those grades.