My daughter attended a school dance on Friday night and the theme of the dance was Superheroes. This was a strange theme for 7th graders and it made it difficult to dress for the occasion. I had suggested to my daughter to wear all black and go as “Cat Woman”, but, not surprisingly, she didn’t go for it. Apparently, most of the kids who did dress for the event basically wore a cape and said they were a super hero, no particular super hero, just A super hero!
The process of deciding what to wear to the dance did get my daughter thinking about Halloween though and what she might wear as a costume. The past few years, I’ve made her costume myself. One year it was a witch (still my favorite costume that I’ve made), the next was an Egyptian Queen (the most complicated costume) and last year was a bag of Sugar Babies candy (the easiest and cheapest costume). All of these costumes were fun to make, some more complicated than others, but always cheaper to make than to buy. This was especially true because my daughter could never find the costume she really wanted and so I created them for her.
This year looks like it will be different. My daughter has gone online looking at costumes and has found a fun, inexpensive costume that I think she would have a lot of fun with, a taco. You read correctly, she is thinking about being a taco! Here’s a visual aide.
Come on, tell me that’s not a great costume! To go along with the theme, she could get our dog dressed up in the Lil Bandito costume, check it out!
Of course, both of these costumes are extremely reasonably priced and available from buycostumes.com where we’ve purchased costumes from in the past. I’m confident she’ll find something she likes from their site, even if she decides not to be a taco!
Tags: buycostumes.com, costumes, Halloween Costumes
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 4 years since we went to California and we went to our favorite place on the planet, Disneyland. Our daughter was 8 at the time and we had so much fun. I think we rode every single ride at least once and we saw so many of our favorite characters. When we got home I created one of my favorite scrapbooks to document our trip. My daughter and I had the book out just the other day and had so much fun remembering our trip.
Here’s a list of some of the characters we saw during our Disneyland visit.
Mickey
Belle
Goofy
Minnie
Ariel
Pluto
Twiddledee and Twiddledum
Pooh
Eyeore
Tigger
Flick
Princess Atta
Pinocchio
Timone
Rafiki
Of course, after that trip, we enjoyed playing many Disney themed games because we felt like we knew those characters more personally. While at Disneyland, my daughter bought a Mr. Potato Head and it came outfitted with all sorts of Disney attachments. She can even create Minnie Mouse with it. We also had the Disney themed version of the game “Sorry”. Now I see that Screenlife Games has created Disney Bingo, a high tech twist on the old Bingo standard game.
Disney Bingo uses a DVD so kids learn their numbers and colors right along with their favorite Disney characters. The game is played with the same rules as standard bingo, a number is called and, if you have the number on your card, you place a chip on top of the number. The biggest difference is being able to watch film clips from some of your favorite Disney movies. The film clips act as wild cards and can help a player win the game, so it pays to pay attention! This is a super fun, super easy game for anyone age 4 and above and it only takes 2 players to make it work.
We’re hoping to be back in California in November, although, I’m not sure if we’ll have time to go back to Disneyland. It would be fun though if we could!
I have spent this week getting poked and prodded and examined in every which way. Tomorrow I will continue the process with a bone density screening and a mammogram. I have a couple of follow up doctor appointments over the next couple of weeks, but then it will be done, I hope. I’m expecting to receive a clean bill of health and be good for another year. I have family and friends that haven’t been as fortunate to receive a clean bill of health and I do this for them, these tests I’m doing are nothing compared to what they’ve gone through.
In an effort to help people make informed decisions about their health, C’elle is attempting to educate people, especially expectant parents of the benefits of preserving the cord blood stem cells of a newborn. Cord blood contains vital stems cells that can be harvested and preserved. These stem cells can be used to treat 70 diseases, including leukemia, anemia, lymphoma, diabetes and cerebral palsy. Cryo-cell has current offers that can make storing cord blood affordable and it’s innovative and safe.
Truth is, we never know what life is going to throw at us. While we may go for our annual physicals and expect to hear that we are healthy, it helps to be prepared and make informed decisions when it comes to our health and our family’s health.
Here we are, just coming up on Labor Day and we’re all ready trying to make plans for Thanksgiving.
My husband is right this minute trying to figure out a way for us to fly to California to visit his daughter, her husband and our little grandaughter. We did just see them out here in June, but the little one just turned a year old and they grow up so fast, I’m hoping we can go.
We’ve been discussing this since they were here in June and he brought it up tonight at dinner. I told him if he was going to get airline tickets, he better do it soon. So, there he sits, on his laptop, checking availability!
Last week I wrote a post about The Continuing Saga of The Sproutwells and I mentioned that, while The Sproutwells, a typical fruit and veggie family, had recently moved in to a new neighborhood, I was very curious as to where the dad was at. I had hoped to see him in future episodes and now, the future is here, Daddy’s Home!
The Sproutwells are sponsored by freshfunds.com where you can register, earn points and bid on great prizes, including the Wii Fit! So, be sure to visit freshfunds.com to register and start earning points. Also, feel free to embed the video on your own site!
Since my daughter was taking care of business at school today, I made plans to take care of myself. I had scheduled a doctor’s appointment for myself for my annual “well woman” exam. I should say it’s something that should be annual, but I believe I’m a couple of years over due. Anyway, I did make my appointment and it was for this afternoon.
Now, the last couple of times I’ve been to this doctor’s office, I wound up waiting, and waiting, and waiting. So, this time I came prepared with a book to read. Naturally, since I was prepared to wait, they took me right in. First thing was to hop on the scale. I set everything down and kicked off my shoes and discovered I had officially lost 2 pounds, YAY! Then I had to go pee in a cup. I wasn’t expecting that one, not even sure why I had to do that, but hey, if they want it, they can have it. The nurse then took my temperature and checked my blood pressure. Everything was good. She informed me of my BMI (body mass index) and said it was good. I didn’t want to tell her, but that’s exactly what my Wii Fit has been telling me since I got it! Guess that Wii is fairly accurate, good to know.
I didn’t talk to the nurse about the Wii, but we did talk about medications (which I’m not taking any) and supplements. We discussed energy levels and family histories. My dad was diabetic, so that’s something I think about and I am a low energy individual. I told her where to get your box of sublingual B12 and a free bonus today. The free bonus is a bottle of vitamin E, something I should be taking on a daily basis. Sublingual B12 is useful for treating low energy as well as diabetes.
In the end, I had no problems with any of the exam, I’m glad it’s over for another year. Of course, I do still have to go for my mammogram and bone density test. I also have to go back to the doctor to have some skin test done and to try to get to the bottom of my continuing headaches (allergy related we think). Once I’ve got all of that taken care of, I’ll be in the clear.
That’s it. The Olympics have come to their conclusion and so has our summer vacation. My daughter starts school tomorrow.
Normally she is very excited about the first day of school. This year, perhaps because she is beginning junior high, she is excited, but mixed with a large dose of nervousness. It has been tough since we moved last year and she left her dozens of friends behind. I just keep reminding her though that tomorrow, every single 7th grader at school will be in the exact same boat as her, they’re all starting new. There are 12 elementary schools feeding into this junior high, so many of the kids will not know each other. They may or may not be in the same classes with their friends from last year. This is a time of new friendships, new beginnings.
Although I’m not looking forward to having to get up early in the morning, I am anxious to hear all about her first day.
After staying up extra late the past 2 weeks watching the Olympics, I had to get up early this morning to get my daughter out to the ball fields. Softball tryouts were today.
Maybe because we’ve been staying up late, or maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, today did not go well. She just looked like she was dragging. No enthusiasm, no energy. I was sort of hard to watch and it went on for 3 hours.
I’m very sad for my daughter, I thought softball was what she wanted to do. She tells me it is. She loves the game. She plays so very well. But when it comes to a tryout, she just can’t seem to pull it all together. She looks like she’s miserable. Today, for the first time, I felt like I was forcing her to do something she didn’t want to do.
I’m going to try to let it go for now. She will have to decide what she wants to do. The one thing she lacks is confidence. She has the skills and the talent, but she never thinks she is as good as she is or can be. I don’t know how to build her confidence. It makes me want to cry. How can she be so gifted and not know it?
It makes me even sadder to think that she may not choose to try again and all of her talent will go to waste. But, in the end, it is her choice. I just have to give her room to make a decision.
School will begin again on Monday. Summer vacation is all but over. So, what’s the next major even on the calendar? Why, Halloween of course! I do believe that Halloween is the favorite holiday of both my husband and my daughter. My husband loves decorating the outside of the house and making everything appear to be very scary. His favorite thing is watching from the front window as the the trick-or-treaters approach the front window and listening to them scream or panic from all the scary affects he has created. My daughter loves all the decorating too, but she really loves picking her costume and going around the neighborhood to collect her bucket loads of treats.
The past few years my daughter has decided way in advance what she wants to be and I have made my daughter’s halloween costumes myself. I’ve created everything from intricate Egyptian queens to simple candy costumes. This year however, she’s still undecided. I’m thinking that we may be purchasing her costume instead of me making it. If I were choosing a costume for her, I might pick the Geisha costume from Pirates of the Caribbean.
My daughter has grown out of the kids costumes so we’re looking at adult (not too sexy) and teen costumes to give her a lot of choices. I know it seems really early to be thinking about Halloween costumes, but if we wait too long, the better costumes will sell out. Plus, if we order before October 10, we can use coupon code PPP05BLOG2008 to receive 5% off the price.It is interesting every year to see what is popular in costumes. The boys always like the scary, demon like characters. It’s the girls that always seem to go more trendy. To keep up with what’s new and interesting in the world of costumes you can check out http://blog.halloweenadventure.com and who knows, maybe you’ll get an idea of what you want to be for Halloween.
Tags: costumes, Halloween
A couple of weeks ago I showed you a video of the The Sproutwells, a Veggie Family as they moved in to their new neighborhood. Now there are new episodes and so I thought I would share another with you. This time, the Sproutwells get a new dog, Phyto.
I’m not sure which character I would consider my favorite, I’m still trying to figure these veggies out. I’m curious about where the dad is in all of this, he’s yet to be seen. Perhaps we’ll see him in a future episode. These “ripe” ideas are coming from Freshfunds.com, sounds intriguing.
