Halloween 2015 with the Rush Family!

Yes, I know it's been a while since I posted...I've been struggling with my voice on this blog.  Once I can find it again, regular posts will resume.  I just know how much I love looking back at my blog posts so I wanted to get this one up here.

Halloween!  I have never been a fan of dressing up for Halloween.  There has been a Halloween or 2 that I did something but never elaborate and usually last minute.  However, once I had my first daughter, my sister quickly stepped in to make sure her costumes were 1. AWESOME and 2. handmade!  For the past 4 years, she has done amazing work! (scroll to end of post for line up of past Halloween costumes ALL hand sewn by my sister "Aunt G")

This year with 2 very opinionated little girls...we had to wait until we could get them to commit to what they wanted before starting.  This didn't leave my sister much time to get both done so I stepped in and took over creating CGRs.  My sewing skills are limited.  I can sew but not very good and I need support and guidance, which my sister provided me.  I don't know about you but I think it came out perfectly!  For her costume, I ordered her leotard online and painted the wonder woman emblem on the front using some puff paint.

I sewed the circle skirt using this tutorial and then painted the white stars using puff paint.  I had my sister help me with the bottom edge because she has a serger and she's better at things like that.

I used a tutorial that my friend sort of gave me through Facebook messaging for the cape and painted a wonder woman emblem on it using puff paint.

The cuffs, headband, and belt were made using some thick Ribbon type material and sewing elastic on them and painted using puff paint.  Her magic lasso was made of gold ribbon as well.  Thankfully my brother-in-law and sister took over hunting down the boots and painting them with paint that we were able to peal off so that she could still use them.

All in all it was fun to create and CGR loved watching it come to life!  I'm so glad I stepped in to make this one...not sure I will do the same next year but I'm glad I did.

My sister did Ria's Belle costume using this tutorial and this came out so perfectly!  Ria was SOO excited about it and woke me up the day after Halloween dressed in it. BTW, she did not go to bed in it.

Halloween night was hosted at my house for the first time ever too! I was slightly stressed about having it as my sister usually hosts but I think it came out perfectly!  Everyone had fun and lots of yummy food and good company!

The set up of our house!  After the girls went trick or treating, they sat and watched the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, The nightmare before Christmas, Room on a Broom, and much more on that screen.  They were up WAY past their bedtime! 

Will be fun to see what they decide for next year!  Hope you all had a Happy and Safe Halloween!

 2014 below.

Did you dress up this year? What did your kids dress up as?  tell us.

This moment - Happy Halloween! My frozen girls.

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama.  A single photo(or several) – no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find and see.

Carmen requested to be Elsa like so many other little girls out there! Her Aunt G sewed both of these costumes from this pattern and did an amazing job!  Maria was SO excited about getting to be Anna! She loves Frozen like her big sister! 

Hope you all have an AMAZING Halloween!  Looking forward to spending lots of time with family and trick or treating with our girls!

Weekend Love: trains, horsies, goats, and more!

What a great weekend!  I felt like the weekend went by too fast but that is usually how it goes when you're having fun.  This weekend was a great distraction from all the crazy going on in our lives.  I got to nap both days, the weather was fantastic, and we did a lot of fun fall activities.  This is going to be picture heavy so bear with me. :)

Saturday, Carmen and I went to a fall festival at the school my sister CZbrats teaches at.  We had a great time and it was her first time getting painted on.  She loved getting bats on her arms!  It was so cute!

She enjoyed playing the games but wasn't sure how she felt about the bounce house.  I sneaked her in when it was empty and she was done about 3 minutes after she got inside.  I don't think she likes the instability of it.  Sounds like her momma. :)

My sisters also won some pumpkins in the pumpkin auction and Carmen really liked them!

After lunch with the family, Carmen and I napped.  It was a great nap since she had woken up at 6 am Saturday morning...way too early for this preggo who has trouble sleeping.  After our naps, she spent the evening with her Aunt Fleas and family, while daddy and I went out to dinner, drinks(water for me), and listened to music with her Papa and his girlfriend.  We had a great dinner out and it was a nice change from going to sleep early on weekends :)

Sunday was so busy!!  It started with the three plus belly baby heading to a horse farm up in Oldsmar called HorsePower for Kids.  Some fellow Mommy and me group friends had told me we should check it out.  It was about a 40 minute drive and by the time we were almost there little miss Carmen was ready to get out but it was SO worth the drive!  Carmen loves animals and this place was full of them!  She loved petting the llama with her daddy,

 Her daddy was so funny with the llama because the llama's teeth felt funny when he fed him out of his hands.  This is my favorite picture of him because of the happy look on his face! :)

And petting/kissing the goats...oh did she love the goats! These pictures say it all! :)

We also saw some 5 week old little piggies that were chasing their mommy down for some milk.  They were the cutest things!

Her other favorite was the train!  This is her 2nd time riding a train and oh did she just love it!  She was not happy when we had to get off the first time but she got to ride it again with her daddy and she had so much fun both times!  There was another kind of cow train ride but adults couldn't get on them and I just wasn't sure how she would do but next year we are going to have to try that one too!

And another HUGE favorite was the pony ride!  She absolutely loved riding the pony!  She held on great and she wanted to get right back on when we got off but there was a line so we went off to get her face painted and have lunch.

She was passed out about 10 minutes into the drive home and took a nice long nap so mommy could nap when we got home.

After nap and dinner, we carved pumpkins with the cousins across the street!  She had so much fun but after her busy day...she was done early and then mommy finished up without her.

Well...that's our weekend!  It was such a great pre-Halloween weekend!  We didn't make it to the pumpkin patch this year but that's ok.  We have her costume all ready to go for Wednesday and I will make sure to get lots of pictures to share...not that I think we could possibly top last years Halloween costume and more pics at the bottom of this post! :)

Happy FALL and Halloween week!!  For all those in the line of the hurricane, please stay safe!

How was your weekend?  Did you do any fun fall activities?

Dia de los Muertos...

Tonight was very interesting...

For a couple months now, I have started going to a new knitting group.  It's much smaller than the one I used to attend at Panera's on Wednesday but it's been a great little group that meets every Tuesday.   One of my old co-workers attends and it's nice to see her at least once a week.  It also worked out PERFECT because right after I started going, my hubby decided he would finish up the school he started a couple years ago and they have class mon. and wed. nights.  Now that I go on Tuesday nights, his return to class has been seamless for the most part.  

Anyway...back to why it was interesting. We have moved our meeting around a couple times, however, we have been mostly meeting at a local indie coffee shop near downtown St. Pete.  It has been a great place to meet and we've encountered ALL types of meet ups from last week's admin meeting for the St. Pete Occupy group to a writer's group that meets about once a month and reads their stories out loud and then critiques each others work.   I like going because I feel we get to see a pulse of a world I don't normally encounter.  I also hear the pastries, especially the fresh baked brownies, are disgusting..just kidding...they are actually DELICIOUS but they all tell me they are gross so that I don't feel bad that I can't have them...have I mentioned I really like our little group. :) 

This week we showed up as normal, however, when we walked in the door a lady dressed in all white and face painted greeted us with a friendly hello and "Welcome to our Day of the Dead Celebration."  We all though this would be like the other groups, a side area where we could still converse and join if we so choose.  Not quite what happened...as we were figuring out the best place to park our knitting selves the lady begins her "program."  She welcomes everyone and proceeds to talk about the history of the Dia de los Muertos, which is awesome but not what we all come to knitting to do.  When she starts her first poem of the night, we look at each other and make a quick decision to find a new place to knit tonight.  I think we all felt a little guilty about leaving during the "program" but we all wanted to discuss our week and our knitting and that wasn't going to happen during her program.   We sneaked out the best we could. 

Once outside, several ladies still had not arrived so we had to figure out where to go that they could still find us.  While sitting outside the pizza place next door, we figured why not ask if we could knit in there.  They said ok, so we went in and parked ourselves at a table.   We were the only group of people in the whole pizza place other than two woman and later on two men that sat outside.  I think the pizza place was happy to have people in there and we were happy to have a place we could sit, knit, and chat.  I enjoyed myself a beer and fries but mostly the company!


Since the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup new class prompts are up on the first of the month, I had to get some project done that I could turn in.  I practiced MORE crocheting skills which I'm really enjoying.  I learned how to do the triple crochet!

Well, I hope you had a great Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos!  I know I posted pictures of my little lamb BUT I have to post this one that was taken on Halloween because she is just too cute!

The happiest cutest little lamb EVER!

and because I rarely post pictures of me and her...here's an extra!

Momma and my little lamb

Happy November!!

Edited to add:  I had wanted to share these awesome Dia de los muertos socks posted on Keep on Knitting in the Free World blog that I read! Go check them out!

Happy Halloween from the Barknknit Family!!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!  They say it's going to rain most the day so we're hoping it clears up so it doesn't ruin our fun plans!  The plan as it is every year is to hang out at my sister Fleas' house and hand out candy and scare the neighborhood! The Leslee Lake Monster will live again!!

Here are some pictures we took at the Pumpkin Patch!  Hope you enjoy and have a GREAT Halloween!

The Rush Family

CGR LOVES pumpkins!

All kinds of pumpkins!

The Rush Family

She is a happy baby!

and she loves her daddy!

And she is the cutest little lamb in the world!

Tricky Tricky Halloweeny!