Halloween 2011

Noah didn't want to dress up in a costume this year but he did request an orange t-shirt with a spider web and purple spider. I was happy to oblige and freezer paper stenciled a t-shirt for him last week.

He had a Halloween Dance at school this afternoon so he wore it to school today. 

And check out his socks - 

He loved them and had to put them back on with his jammies!

J had to work tonight so Noah and I just handed out candy to trick or treaters and watched Halloween specials on the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. 

Hope you all have/had a safe night!

Halloweens Past

Since it's Halloween I thought I'd share some photos from past Halloween's......
(Obviously this isn't all the years but it's the ones that the photos were easily accessible for.)

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great and safe Halloween!

Quote of the Week: Costumes

"Clothes make a statement - 

Costumes tell a story." 

~ Mason Cooley

Noah's Birthday Video

I'm sure you are getting tired of all the Noah birthday posts, but you only turn 15 once, right?! I meant to post this short video of  us singing Happy  Birthday and Noah blowing out the candles with the birthday pictures I posted yesterday and forgot.

Noah's Birthday Photos

Noah's birthday parties are always super low key. When he was younger, I tried the bigger parties with lots of people and activities and they just stressed him out. And no one should be stressed out at their own birthday party! These low key, immediate family only parties are much better for Noah and still fun!

I always decorate the mantle a bit.
We sorta had a spider theme going on. 

His not so great looking cake which I lovingly slaved over.
My original spider web planned failed but my Momma saved the day by free handing that web! 

The plates and napkins Noah picked out all by himself!  

Posing with his cake 

Birthday Boy with his Momma

Birthday Boy with his Daddy 

A collage of Noah opening and array of presents and cards.
He was spoiled with cards, clothes, art supplies, books, DVDs, and more! 

And I'll close with this cute/silly picture of my Dad making sure I realize Noah's 15 now by pointing it out on a card. 

Yep, I signed the birth certificate, I remember the day well - I know he's 15. ;)

He had a good birthday!! 

Spider Pumpkins

Noah and I made these last weekend as part of the decorations for his spider/Halloween themed birthday party. Well, actually I did most of the work and he just watched and babbled to me. Oh and I sang Itsy Bitsy spider. A LOT!

These were simple to make. You just need a small pumpkin, 4 black piper cleaners, and some black vinyl. Or you could just use black cardstock instead of vinyl.

I cut the pipe cleaners in half and then used a kitchen knife and made a small "X" where I wanted each pipe cleaner to go. I pushed the pipe cleaner in and then bent the bottom part of the pipe cleaner to make the feet.

I used my 3/4 inch circle punch and punched 3 circles out of the vinyl. Then I cut into 2 of those circles a little bit to create eyes. I peeled off the backing and let Noah bang pat down the eyes and mouth and that was it!

(Linking up to the parties listed in my sidebar)

Noah's 15 Year Old Portraits

About 6 or 7 months ago, I discovered a graffiti wall that local artists painted not very far from our house. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to do Noah's 15 year old portraits there. There are many things about Noah that are not teenager-ish and to me, a graffiti wall seems very teen-ish and I wanted very teen-ish pictures.

Taking pictures of Noah is not always an easy thing to do. He is often uncooperative and doesn't really want to smile. I was hoping he would be in a good mood when we went to take them and luckily he was! They came out better than I thought they would and most of them scream 15 to me!

Enough talking, you want to see the pictures, don't you!?! It was hard to narrow it down but these are a few of my favorites.

Screams teenager, doesn't it?

Sporting the "Angel Choir Boy" pose 

Yep, I brought a can of spray paint to use as a prop. Love the mischievous look on his face!

Pull back shot
(Don't worry folks, he is perfectly safe. It's called the magic of Photoshop.)

Linked to 5 Minutes for Special Needs

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5 Minutes for Moms

15th Birthday Letter

Dear Noahie,

Wow! 15 years. Sometimes it seems like you just entered my life yesterday and I'm still that floundering new Mom desperately trying to do everything right while other times being your Mom is so natural that it feels like I have been doing it for 100 years.

Being your Momma for the past 15 years has taught me so much. I have learned that it is OK to ask for help. I have learned that you really can do more than one thing at a time. I have learned that perfection  is not a reality. I have learned to put others first and myself second. I have learned patience. Oh boy, have you taught me patience!!

Most importantly you have taught me how to love, unconditional-I -would-die-for-you love. The first minute I saw your tiny, pale face I was smitten. I remember thinking how crazy it was that I was so in love with a tiny person I just met and hadn't even been allowed to hold yet!

The past 15 years haven't been easy, Noahie. There have been struggles, trials, and surgeries but there have also been triumphs, smiles, and abundunt love.

I'm not going to lie, the future seems scary to me. I bet it feels scary to you, too. But just as we have always done, we're gonna tackle it together, k?

You are such a joy to me and all those around us, Noahie. We are so lucky and blessed to have you in our lives.

Happy happy birthday, my sweet baby boy!

Love,

Momma

Witch Hat

Last year I really wanted a witch hat for my Halloween mantle but I never found/made one in time so back at the end of August when I saw these paper mache witch hats at Michael's, I grabbed one.

Source 

At first, I was going to decoupage Halloween themed scrapbook paper onto the hat but then I decided I wanted something more subtle and plain. So I painted the hat black with acrylic paint and then when it dried, brushed on a layer of glitter paint to give it some sparkle.

Then I made a satin flower, wrapped some ribbon around the bottom of the hat and glued the satin flower on.

 Simple and cute!

Now it sits on my mantle with my little witch and the "spells" book I made last year. 

(Linking up to the craft link parties listed in my sidebar)

Quote of the Week: Keep me in your Heart

"If there ever comes a day we can't be together, 

keep me in your heart, 

and I'll stay there forever." 

Noah and the Hat

Noah has never been the type of child who would wear hats.  Usually, when a hat was placed upon his head, he'd snatch it off and throw it on the ground. As he got older, I was able to get him to keep them on at least for me to take a picture but as soon as that picture was snapped, off the hat went.

When they started Miracle League here four years all the kids got a hat. Of course, Noah wouldn't wear his during the games and after the first game I didn't even bother trying. Noah wasn't alone; plenty of other kids didn't wear their hats either so the next year when we got order forms for the uniforms the hats were optional. Needless to say, I didn't order one for Noah.

Until this season....

Over the summer, Noah enjoyed watching major league baseball games on TV. He saw the "real" baseball players wearing hats and would sign hat and talked about hats a lot. He said he wanted a hat. I just said "OK" thinking "yeah, it will end up on the ground!" in my head.

Time for fall baseball sign ups rolled around and Noah was still talking about hats so I went ahead and ordered one all the while thinking it would be like all the other hats over the years and end up on the ground.

Well, Noah proved me wrong! I'll have you know, Noah has worn that hat EVERY. SINGLE. GAME!

Wearing a hat in a wheelchair with a head rest, really isn't the easy thing in the world. The head rest knocks the hat into odd positions or over his eyes at times and it tilts when he strikes the angel choir boy pose and it's even flown off a time or two when he and Granddad are running the bases super duper fast.

But all the while, that hat has remained on his cute little head "like the big baseball players on TV."

Um, think I can get those baseball players on TV to eat some green beans or something and have Noah watch?? (wink, wink)

Halloween Pencil Treats

Here's another non-edible Halloween treat for the kiddos! 

Halloween Pencils and Erasers

These are super quick to put together and inexpensive to make. 

You will need: 

Halloween Pencils and Erasers (I got mine at The Dollar Tree.) 

Pretzel Bags (Long and skinny cello bags found in the cake decorating section at the craft store.) 

Sticky strip or some type of adhesive

Halloween themed scrapbook Paper 

Regular Tape

Scissors or Paper Trimmer

What You will Do:

1. Cut your scrapbook paper into strips that are 10 1/2 inches long and 2 inches wide. These measurements should hold 3 pencils - if you want it to hold more than 3 pencils, you will need to adjust the width.

2. Fold your strips in half. 

3. Put sticky strip on one half as close to the edges of each side as you can get. It should look like something like this:

4. Peel off the backing on the sticky strips and then fold the paper to close it. You should now have a little pouch for your pencils to slide into. 

5. Slide your pencils in. I find it easier to put one pencil in first and kind of work it around a little bit to get it loose and then add the other 2 pencils. 

6. Slide the pencil pouch into the cello bag and then slide in the eraser on top of the pencil pouch. I did not use tape or anything on the erasers and they did slide around a lot in the bags so next time I make these, I may put a small piece of sticky strip on the back of the eraser to hold it in place. 

7. Fold the bag over and close it with a small piece of regular tape. You could also close it with a cute Halloween sticker or label. 

  And now you have a practical Halloween treat!

  

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Mr. Cool

Mr. Cool sporting his Daddy's shades and hat.
(Love his little pink from too much sun nose!)

Linked to 5 Minutes for Special Needs

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5 Minutes for Moms

Halloween Bubbles

Are you looking for a Halloween treat that isn't food or a treat for younger kids? If so, I have the perfect little Halloween treat for you!

Halloween Bubbles!

What you'll need:
Bubbles (Found in the wedding section at craft stores and even the Dollar Store. I got a box of 8 bottles of bubbles for $1.00.)
Halloween scrapbook paper
Coordinating Ribbon
Some type of adhesive such as glue dots, sticky strip, or double sticky tape
3/4 inch circle punch
Pop Dots
Halloween Stickers printable from Be Different Act Normal

What you'll do:
1. Cut your paper into strips that will wrap around the bottle of bubbles. My strips are 1 1/4 inches wide by 5 1/4 inches tall.
2. Wrap the paper around the bottle of bubbles and secure with adhesive. I used double sticky tape.
3. Print these free Halloween stickers onto white cardstock. Punch out the ones you want to use (I only used the ones that say "boo")  using the circle punch and then adhere them to the bubbles with a pop dot to add some dimension.
4. Lastly, tie some ribbon around the top of the bubble bottle.

Easy peasy and cute!

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Frankenstein Candy Bar

I had some major computer issues last week and didn't get to share all I had planned to share with you so this week I'll be sharing some of the Halloween treats I have recently made.

First up, is this cute little Frankenstein. He is covering a Hershey's chocolate bar.

So cute! I heart Frank.

To make him, you will need:
Candy bar(s) (I used a 1.55 oz Hershey bar. You could use any size candy bar really, you'd just need to adjust the size of the paper and the circle punches.)
Regular Tape
Double Sticky Tape (another type of adhesive such as Sticky Strip would also work)
Green Cardstock
Black Cardstock
White Cardstock
Black Sharpie
3/4 inch circle punch
1/2 inch circle punch

Once you have all your supplies gathered:
1. Tape down the ends of your candy bar.
2. Cut your green cardstock to 6 inches wide by 5 1/2 inches tall.
3. Wrap the cardstock around the candy bar securing with the double sticky tape.
4. To create his hair, I cut out grass using my Silhouette machine but you could also just free hand zig zags onto the black cardstock and cut that out. It doesn't need to look perfect.
5. Punch out 2 circles from white cardstock with the 3/4 inch circle punch.
6. Punch out 2 circles from black using the 1/2 inch circle punch.
7. Adhere the black circles to the white circles. I just ran them through my Xyron machine but you could easily do this with glue dots, double sticky tape, a glue stick, etc.
8. Adhere the eyes to the candy bar. Again, I used my Xyron machine to do this.
9. Cut out 2 circles from the same green cardstock using the 3/4 inch half punch. Cut the circles in half and adhere 2 of them to the top of the eyes to create his eye lids and then adhere the other one underneath the eyes to create his nose.
10. Using your black Sharpie, draw a zig zaggy mouth and two little squiggles on his cheeks.

Now you have a cute little treat for friends, family, co-workers, etc!

Check back tomorrow, I'll be sharing a non-edible Halloween treat!

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Quote of the Week: Nature

"Nature paints perfection 

and displays it in the World's gallery for everyone to see."

- Unknown

Not So Scary Haunted Houses

When I saw this haunted village made out of birdhouses I fell in love. You may remember that back in the spring, I decorated a plain wood bird house from Michael's. I had a good time decorating it and it turned out really cute so I knew this project would be fun and cute too. 

I found the bird houses at Michael's for 1.00 each. I had my husband pull off the little pegs for where the birds would sit. I then went to work painting, decoupaging, and embellish and here is how they turned out.....

I just love them, don't you?!? So fun and cute! 

And here is where they will live during the Halloween season on my little side table with some fake spider webby stuff from the Dollar Store.....

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