Trick or Treat!

The girls went to bed late tonight.  Hopefully it means they intend to sleep in tomorrow, but I have a feeling we will be seeing their happy little faces bright and early!

Ty worked this morning, so HQ and I loafed around and waited for him to get home.  We were given maternity clothes and a bag full of boys hand-me downs from one of Ty's coworkers.  I haven't sorted through them all yet, but I am very excited. Thanks Katie!!

When Ty got home we headed to Grandma and Grandpa O's house for some football and trick-or-treating.  Izzy was being dropped off there at 6:30pm and we eagerly awaited her arrival.  She was so excited to see HQ in her little costume and HQ shrieked with happiness when her big sister was brought back to her.

Lovely little belly dancers

HQ refuses to take a decent picture. 

Sorry ladies, he's mine.
Ty hated the idea of being left out.  So last minute we threw something together.

HQ's first house.

How they looked from across the street.

Ty got A LOT of comments/compliments on his costume.  It looked a bit better in person.  He looks kind of weird here.

When people would ask her which princess she was she would respond, "a pink sparkly one!"
Ty and I have been calling it the "Pepto Bismol Princess".

Izzy started off needing Ty to take her right up to the door.  After 5 houses she was running up to them sans Ty with great speed!  She was pooped after about an hour, which was fine with us! So we headed back to my parents and handed out candy.  I think Izzy loved that as much if not more than trick or treating! 

Back at the Grandparents' rearranging the furniture!

Bye Bye Fabric!

 It was a lazy morning at our house today.  HQ slept in until 8:20am and therefore Ty and I got to do the same.  Ty didn't have work until 2 so he was able to loaf around his computer until then.  HQ rearranged everything that she could pick up in our living room (which was quite exhausting for her) and then went down for a good nap.

I forgot about this phase with Izzy.
The "lets pull down all the bolts of fabric we can grab" phase!

After Ty left for work HQ and I headed to the local fabric store to pick up a little green fabric we needed for her costume.  She was immediately drawn to a green sparkly fabric, so that's what we got.  We believe green is her favorite color.  It's almost always the color she grabs for first...  Unless it broccoli.

HQ is a nudist.  Well, both my kids are.  When we change her diapers she always tries to squirm away once she is diaper free.  Today (as if to prove a point) she had squirmed away, stood up, lifted up her dress, and then peed on the floor.  It looked so intentional!  She then looked at me as though I should congratulate her.  I love my kids. :)

Ty came home for dinner on his break and gets attacked by HQ who
mooches some of his sandwich off him.

I still have to finish up her costume, but it will take no time at all.  I'm trying out some new netflixed TV shows while I sew.  I like to have something on whether it be a light hearted movie/TV show or some music.  Unfortunately the only music that it near my sewing machine is metal.  For some reason metal music makes me feel claustrophobic while I am pregnant.  It's so weird!  When I was pregnant with Izzy rap music seriously made me sick to my stomach (I don't like rap music much regardless).  I also had movie genre cravings.  With Izzy all I wanted to watch was action and suspense movies.  With HQ it was all comedies.  With peanut I have been in a romance mood... I guess our little boy will be quite the romantic?  I wonder how common genre cravings are.

HQ is ONE!

I finished my sister's belly dancing costume and got it to hr with 6 minutes to spare!  Oh how I dislike cutting it close.  Sewing is something I love.  And I DO work great under pressure, but while I'm stressed out in the last hour it dives me bananas!  Unfortunately we had to rush it over to her I forgot to take a picture.  Hopefully I can get a good one on Sunday as long as she doesn't ruin it at her party tonight.

HQ discovered the cabinets in our bathroom. 

Today was HQ's 1st birthday.  Izzy was so happy for her all day she told everyone we ran into.  We decided to celebrate by taking the girls to The Aquarium of the Pacific since Ty had received the annual family pass as a birthday gift recently.  Thanks G & G Jones!  It was the first time for me and the girls.  Right as we walked in there was a huge (to scale) blue whale model hanging from the ceiling.  Izzy was scared at first.  "That is the hugest and maddest whale I have ever seen!"  When we got to the other side of the whale she saw a baby whale.  She then said, "aww, it's a mommy and Izzy whale!  Where is the dad and the HQ whale? Maybe they went to get some snacks."

HQ trying to get to everyone else's lunch
 

Watching all the fishies.  She liked talking to them.

Some tropical fish!

I'm not sure if you can tell, but she has a HUGE smile on her face. 

Izzy called this exhibit "a fishes candy store" 

Ty was explaining to Izzy about fan coral/sea fans and brain coral. 

Izzy's favorite tank.  Can you see why?
"Little pink and purple Izzy fishes!" Of course. 

They had some pumpkins sitting around for the season.
HQ wanted one.

Ty and Izzy watching the sharks being fed.

HQ fed some pigeons. 

"DAD!!! WHY DID YOU TOOT?!"

 As we headed out we noticed there were some divers in one of the tanks.  Izzy wanted to rush down there and see them.  Especially since one was a girl in a wetsuit with purple stripes.  Ty dives so she is super interested in it.  She was a little bummed when they didn't respond to her wave, but she was still excited.

We stopped by the gift shop so the girls could use up some of their gift cards.  We picked out a couple books and toys for HQ while Izzy dashed around trying to find every animal they had in pink.  She picked out a pink starfish, a pink penguin (complete with it's own purple diamond heart necklace), a pink orca whale, a pair of binoculars, and a book about the ocean.  Thanks again G & G Jones!  Izzy can't wait to go again.

Showing off one of her birthday gifts she picked out from the gift shop.

She fell asleep in the car within minutes of pulling out of the parking garage. 

We stopped by my parents after the aquarium for a short visit before heading to SD's to drop Izzy off for the weekend.  She was in a good mood and looked forward to being dropped off with him today.  I sent her with her Dorothy costume that they got her and she will get to trick-or-treat with them in that and then come home and wear her fairy princess dress with us.  HQ cried when Izzy was leaving.  It got to Izzy and she didn't like that her little sister was sad.  She tried to cheer her up, but I think HQ knew what was going on.  I look forward to Sunday when the girls get to be together again!

Ty and I are now going to watch a movie and head to bed.  We haven't had much together time this week, so tonight is quite a treat!  It's a shame we are both tired...

Izzy needs a beer.

We celebrated her big day by breaking open a "beer".
She felt so grown up with her root beer.
(She isn't normally allowed to have brown soda)

Today my little Izzy turned 5.  She started off her day with a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats (a treat Ty picked up for her) and was is such a happy mood all day.  She constantly brought up that she thinks her voice may have changed a little bit.

I had to spend much of the day working on my sister's costume.  She called me telling me she needed it two days earlier than I had planned so Ty spent his time playing and with Izzy and HQ and trying to distract them from me.  When I sew HQ likes to hang out at my feet while Izzy likes to "help".  I normally don't mind Izzy helping, but when I am pressed for time I prefer to go it alone.  After playing tag and "squish the bad guy trying to steal the princess" for a good hour, Ty took the girls to Target to get their new fan.  While there he picked Izzy up a piggy bank (which she has wanted for a while) as her birthday gift from us.

We went to The Little Gym today and Izzy dressed up for today.  I think today was the most fun she has had in her class so far.  They are still working on basketball skills, and I don't think I saw her smile fade once!

After class we met with Grandma and Grandpa Orpi for a special birthday dinner for Izzy.  She had asked to go to The Lazy Dog Cafe.  She loves going out to eat since we don't do it too often.  Izzy was excited to see Ty's mom waiting outside the restaurant for her.  Dinner was yummy and enjoyable.  Izzy was extra antsy for some reason.

Izzy Growing up

Izzy 2 days old

She's 1! 

She's 2!

She's 3!

She's 4!

Excited to be a big sister :D 

Well, I had better get back to my sister's costume.  It needs to be done within seven hours. Fortunately I have some energy.  Oh! And tomorrow little HQ turns 1!

Smashing Pumpkins

At 4am there was a knock on our bedroom door.  It was a panicked Izzy.  She was pretty upset that the fan in her room was no longer working (the girls have it on for the white noise).  Ty being the awesome dad that he is went into their room to see if he could do something about it.  It was too late, the fan was dead.  By the time he had gotten back to sleep his alarm went off 20 minutes later to wake him up for work.  Poor guy.

After breakfast the girls and I went out to do a few errands.  Izzy was dressed as Sleeping Beauty all day today.  We got some groceries and we even went to check out the new Whole Foods.  I love whole Foods (not their prices).  It's beautiful and huge!  We had lunch there. We actually only spent $6 a had enough food and drink to fill the 3 of us up.  If Ty were there it would have been a different story.

Tonight we went to carve some pumpkins with some friends of ours and their family.  We really enjoyed our time and know that Izzy and HQ had a blast.  This was Izzy's first time carving a pumpkin and my second.  It was a pretty fun experience!  I suppose when you are hanging out with people you like it almost doesn't matter what your doing.

HQ and her little friend Selah eating some delicious dinner.
No, The beers in the corner were not for the girls. 

Izzy horrified at the first time she feels pumpkin guts! 

"I think I got it all out... smell my hands!"

Izzy's artwork pre cutting it out.

Her completed pumpkin!

HQ modeling the top part of a lion's costume. 

The girls were less than impressed with the cowboy hat.
Izzy made sure each one of them tried it on. Twice. 

After all the carving was complete and the seeds were in the oven Selah's mom decided to warn Izzy about people who smash pumpkins.  THANKS LAUREN!  After she said it she realized it was probably something Izzy didn't need to hear. Now Izzy is worried about leaving her pumpkin outside and in fact thinks he should be sleeping next to her.

Ty is out right now trying to find a place open that will have a good but cheap fan we can get for the girls to use.  I can hear Izzy wiggling around in her bed right now trying to go to sleep.  Let hope Ty finds one!

Magic Places

My dad dropped my camera off today.  So the birthday photos have been uploaded.  We flaked out on the grocery shopping today.  I was just too pooped.  We will be forced to do it tomorrow.

Sleeping Beauty making a birthday card for someone.
She is debating which stamp she should use.

We spent much of today catching up on homework, starting thank you cards, and still trying to find places for some of their new goodies.  I have been craving pumpkin pie so we heated up one of the Trader Joe's frozen pumpkin pies.  Mmmm! It's Izzy's favorite pie so she was happy.  HQ even tried a small bite and loved it.

Finding the perfect spots to put the mermaid and princess stickers.
Some of them ended up on the baby... 

Covered in pasta sauce, peas, water, and noodles HQ was ready for a bath.

A video of HQ helping clean her big sister who is still in the tub.

My little weirdos prefer to air dry after their bath. 

Before heading to bed Izzy asked, "Mom? Will my voice turn into my grown up voice on Thursday?". Thursday is her actual birthday.  I had her watch a quick video of her when she wasn't even two.  She said "WOW! My voice was just like a baby's voice!".  I asked her, "Do you remember your voice changing into the voice you have now?".  She said, "No, what day was that? a Saturday?".  I explained that it will happen slowly.

Well, there is a giant load of dishes calling my name and a floor begging to be mopped.  Ty gets home in a little over an hour I am going to try to make it look like our home wasn't even used today.  Wish me luck and speed!

The Birthday Party

HQ and my sister minutes before the party.  I wasn't able to finish either of their costumes before the party, so my sister is wearing a Geisha costume I made for her Halloween 2008 and HQ is wearing a mishmosh of stuff.  

The Cakes

The "Sister Spider" cake was made for us by Sweet Lavendar Bake Shoppe.  It was a delicious 6" red velvet cake (Ty and my favorite) The spider web was made from dark chocolate.  Izzy LOVED the fact that there was an Izzy spider and an HQ spider.  She also loved that they had Hello Kitty-ish bows on their heads.  A purple ribbon with sparkles was wrapped around the bottom of the cake. It was even more adorable than we had envisioned.  

 The Ghost and Pumpkin Cake was made for us by The Great Dane Baking Company.  This was a yummy 10" marble cake with a strawberry jam filling.  We weren't allowed to talk to the decorator, so we didn't quite get what we wanted, but it still came out cute! What you can't really see in the picture are the sparkles it was dusted with.  They were a nice touch. 

The Party

We had pizza, soda, veggies, fruit, macaroni salad, green salad, cake, and ice cream for the party.  We had pin the tail on the monster, musical chairs, pumpkin decorating, bobbing for apples, and the kids played with the Wii.  32 people were there and Izzy was so excited.  About an hour into the party The Vikings vs. The Packers game started and most of the guys stayed in the living room to watch the game. 

The failed pumpkin paints.  Recently purchased, each pack of paints was completely dried out!
Fortunately kids are easy to please  and we made do with some sharpies.

HQ showing a friend how one should use a dog carrier.

Getting ready to blow out her candles.  

Ty giving HQ a pre-blowing out of the candles pep-talk. 

HQ's first piece of cake.  She is also opening a present at the same time.
My kids are pretty talented. 

Izzy needed a slice of each cake.  She was to excited to each much of either one!.

Opening gifts.

Izzy explaining how to bob for apples. 

Followed by a demonstration.

Izzy's cousin (Wolverine) discovers that the apples aren't real.
They are actually plastic apples which we filled with little goodies.
$3.75 a dozen. Yay Orientaltrading.com! 

HQ and some of her little friends. 

Pin the tail on the monster.  This one was made specifically for the girls by Bill Main.
The monster is even wearing pink cowgirl boots just like the ones Izzy and HQ own.

 

Izzy said it was the best party ever! She said that she wants a mermaid theme next year.  

She is known for changing her mind.