Happy Halloween

I must start out by saying thank you Peggy Lee Mead (mommy) for teaching me to sew all of those years ago.  She always wanted me to have skills that I could fall back on if I needed to.  Well, I have gotten to use those skills for awesomeness instead.  Mason asked if he could be a Ninja Turtle for Halloween this year.  This was over 2 months ago when Reid was still away.  When I called him with costume themes, as soon as he heard the word Ninja Turtle he interrupted saying "YES, YES, WE'RE DOING THAT".  Reid is in love with the fact that Mason likes the things that he liked as a kid.

So I started researching every TMNT outfit they had.  I was so discouraged that the kids costumes were so intricate, the women's ones were shining beacons of sparkly fabric, and the men's costumes were tight green leotards.  I hate the idea of looking lame, and use my family as an excuse to do joint costumes.  Well, I was determined now that since I knew how to sew, that I was going to make the most kick ass Ninja Turtle costumes ever.

 I made a shell to fit each person/dog

Then stitched them up and detailed them, 

because Raphael had to have his cut in his shell or people would talk about us.   

They turned out amazing after a few weeks of work.  My boys were amazing.

Michaelangelo

Raphael

Donatello

Leonardo

Mason had so much fun Trick-Or-Treating.  We were part of an amazing community tonight.

Finally got a family shot of Donny, Mikey, Splinter, Leo, and Raph!

Then the most important part of the night...the candy

We dumped it out for the boy to see his spoils

He was so excited that this was all for him

When Reid was a kid he used to sort all of the candy out, so he taught Mason the same thing.

And then to finish the night out, these Turtles had a cowabunga pizza party!

I am so lucky that my boys play along with me and seem to enjoy this as much as I do.  Happy Halloween!

TRACYPALOOZA

It is with a sad heart that I write this post...for the first time in 28 years, I am forced to celebrate TRACYPALOOZA from afar.

In our family you don't just get a day for your birthday celebration because it is too hard to fit all of the celebrating that we want to do into just a day.  Each family member gets an opening ceremonies, many events during the week, and then 7 to 8 days later closing ceremonies.  Everyone does this right?  Oh, it's just us...well schedule a family meeting and change that, because seriously you have no idea what you are missing.  A whole week where you call the shots, and a special holiday name:

• Tracy ~ TRACYPALOOZA
• Lauren ~ NORISTOCK

This is the part where Reid reminds me that it is literally just Tracy and I that do this and no one else in our family gets this treatment.

So in honor of celebrating Tracy from afar, here is an homage of some of our celebrations.  I really wish I could say they are just from Halloween, but if you have met us...you know that just isn't true:

 

   
 

And then we have ONE, yes one of this years costumes:


We also decorated our house for our first ever Halloween decorating contest.  Now, we don't want to win 1st place, because we thought 2nd places prize was better:

 Our Zombie Spider

 My boys...can not believe what Reid does for me, especially last minute

 Me and our zombie

and the whole decor...Mason LOVED doing the ketchup hands on the door

he was licking his hands when he was done

 So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACY....AND MANY MORE TRACYPALOOZA'S

If we win the house decorating contest we will split the Wings To Go giftcard with you, because then you have to come to Oklahoma to do so :-)

Homeschool Preschool

Leaving the teachers at KRK was a very hard thing to do.  One huge aspect of that was because they taught Mason SO SO SO very much.  I am forever grateful that he knows so much at this young age.  Well, when I found out we were moving to Oklahoma I was gripped with fear about how Mason would become behind in areas where he was excelling.  When we got the news that we were getting a 4 bedroom house, I decided we could turn one of the rooms into a preschool room.  I may or may not already have purchased an entire classrooms worth of supplies in a Dr. Seuss theme about 2 years ago and I may or may not have a complete obsession with all things Seuss and need a reason to pawn off an overly elaborate 2 year olds left over party supplies.  So what other option is there?  Dr. Seuss preschool room it is.

So, I took some photos of our projects this week so I would have proof to myself that I can do it in a few weeks when I want to give up.  So, I let Mason choose a country that we would study for a week.  He chose Japan because "that is where Ninja Turtles are from".  I decided not to fight the logic and we went to the library last week to get some books.  I was limited in my options since it was such a small base, but we got a few...Karate Girl and 3 Samurai Cats.  At the end of the week Mason likes above all else, cooking activities.  I let him help me in the kitchen for some projects and he thought it was the coolest thing.  Here are some pictures from our week:

 Making cupcakes

I let him pour and mix each part 

 And then I taught him the best part

 Licking the bowl

 Cut up swiss cake rolls for sushi

 Koi windsocks for crafts

 At homeschool preschool there is time for cuddles with minnie

 Rice Krispy Treats

 He got to measure out the marshmallows

 Then we made our dessert sushis from rice krispy treats, fruit by the foot, and swedish fish

 and then we can have play time with daddy at home

by making tents under mommies bed

SAHM...I could really get used to this!

Ok, so being a stay at home mom has always been a very scary thought for me.  I have probably said some incentive things to other people about how I never could out of that fear when they expressed reasons to do so themselves.  SORRY, if that was ever you.  I always told myself that Mason and I would drive each other crazy, that I couldn't teach him the things he needed to learn to be ready for school, and what would I do all day.

The real  reasons were actually:

1. That I didn't want to give up my spending because when I worked I felt like I had a right to go shopping.  I like pretty things and while I don't feel the need to be decked out in designer's names, I do like a completely matching outfit from TARGET, all the way down to the shoes.  
2. That I struggle with my identity and will it be enough to be Mason's mom and Reid's wife.  If I don't have tons of people telling me I did a banging job on that pot roast, will I feel fulfilled in what I did today.  Will I drive my husband crazy looking for worth from him when he has been more than working, he has been risking his life in that plane everyday for other peoples freedoms.  Will I feel like I am allowed to complain about what may seen "less important"
3. When you have some quiet times, what is the devil going to say to you.  Is he going to make me feel like I am missing out on furthering my career when I am here.  What is he going to say to me when people ask "what do you do?".  Am I going to be confident in my decision to finally stay home or shrink and talk about what I used to do?

Ultimately the clear answer to me is that this is an area of my heart that I need to turn over to God, because I am looking far too much into the world for my affirmation.  I am going to work on being content where God has me.  

Well, it was a decision that I made to stay home and while it has had ups and downs, it has been fun.  First of all I am beyond BLESSED to have Mason and people are going to be pissed when they find out that he will sleep till 9AM every morning unless I wake him up.  Yes, scream WHAT at your computer now, because kid is a rock star at sleep.  He has been like that since the day he hit the crib when we finally got him home from Russia.  I totally took advantage of that fact when we first got here and slept in for the first times in my life.  When I used to get up at 4:30 to 5 AM every morning to get to the school on time, this is a HUGE deal.  I just started getting up at 8 to have some time alone every morning to start my day, work on a devotional, just not be touched by anyone while I have some me time.  

We vegged out on the couch for a few weeks before and after the move, but then I got serious about being a SAHM.  I went on to Pinterest and actually (hold your breath) started doing some of the things I had pinned.  

I know, it is a dream we all have.  And I am not talking about party ideas or "My style", I am talking about those ideas we pin to do with our families that we never actually do.  

We made home made Gluten-free pizzas the other night.  I would never had attempted to try this when I was working, because A. the prep would not be worth it,  B. I would be rushing everyone through the process when it didn't look like it did on Pinterest, and C. I was too worked up from work and needed to veg, while an instant pizza cooked instead.  And guys, it felt amazing and was better than expected.  My DIY son loved getting to get his hands dirty and make something of his own, the thrill in his eyes of spending so much mommy daddy time and being hands on was so worth it.  IT was also great because we have totally switched the way we are eating and so an instant pizza doesn't really fit in with the way we are eating.  So we found Gluten-free dough, gluten free marinara, skim milk shredded cheese, and turkey pepperonis.  No gluten allergies, just figure it is a great way to get rid of bleached flour, gua

 Here is the whole family in our new kitchen, one 80's design I love is the pass through!

 See this boy having fun...melted my heart and made me wish I had taken time to do this sooner.

 I don't know if anyone will be able to see pizza past Mason's GINORMOUS candy box.

Mason "made" (asked mommy to help) a ninja turtle pizza because what other well adjusted possibility is there to combine his favorite new show/obsession with his and the turtles favorite food, mommy made a heart because I am totally that girl, and daddy was trying to be gourmet with his rounded edge square pizza.

 Spreading the oil and spices.

 And TRYING to get a picture without his eyes closed or jumping...FAIL.

And our finished products...yes we did turn that ninja turtle into Raphael with pepperoni and a hot sauce mouth, because there is no other way to roll in our house.  My son and husband are very lucky I loved everything my brother did as a child because we go all boy here right now!

It was a truly amazing night and the pizzas even tasted good.  SAHM successful day.  

I also got a chance to do an art project for the new house because I wasn't willing to pay for the real thing, which is 90% of why Pinterest was created and visited right?  So i learned how to use Mod Podge and rocked my glue gun to finish it, and this is what happened:

I got press-board letters and scrapbook paper that had different travel and vintage designs on it.  I ripped the paper into strips and shapes and then distributed it among the letters I bought.  I mod-podged the letter, then added the strips of paper and then mod-podged over it all.  I then hot glued the edges and rolled them across the back of the letter.  

 I love it, may need to add some brown paint to age the look a little, but it was a fun short thing to do to accent the pass through with our name.

Woot, Woot!  Finished product.  I do love my last name even though no one can pronounce it.  This took care of a final piece of the room for me, tying in the travel theme across to the dining area.