day trip! to seward to check out the sea life center with gramnea, wesley, and brook. again with the lack of enthusiasm. i swear they wanted to go...




it must have been the 2 hour car ride because once we arrived they were all smiles. the favorite attractions were the touching pools and the seal the size of a small car. no joke. i think that seal and zander must be eating the same kid of food because zander is growing soooo fast.





no trip to seward would be complete without stopping at sweet darlings for some homemade salt water taffy. their ginger and cinnamon flavors are the best. gramnea invited all the kids in her car for the ride back home. so i stuffed them full of sugar just like any responsible aunt would do and sent them on their way. john and i had nice quiet ride home. it was almost like date night. *wink* 

soccer. i love it. always have. so this summer i thought i'd introduce my boys to this great sport. boys? soccer. soccer? boys. they were not as enthusiastic as i hoped they would be.


then they figured out that there would be snacks after the games and all of a sudden it was three cheers for soccer. whatever. it gets them there. fave fact: my dear asher bear MUST tuck his shirt in. so adorkable.



we have cousins in town visiting and they have become number one fans of my boys. so to celebrate their new found celebrity status we went out for frozen yogurt a couple times. snacks and sugar: the great motivators. meh. i'll take what i can get. 

so far: tiernan hit his coach in the head with his soccer ball(on purpose), asher prays that only half his team shows up so that he can play more, and zander is showing promise as a goalie with some great saves the other day. all in all i'd call that success. mostly.

chili and hot dogs before the sugar fest

auntie leisl even combed her hair for the event! *wink*

gramnea and papa wes were mountain climbers. they were even roped together! so clever!

the festivities commenced with trunk or treat on saturday night. originally the plan was to have an indian(zander), a cowboy(tiernan), and a pirate(asher). asher however chose to forgo his pirate costume in favor of his regular clothes and the pirate vest. it was a wonderful exercise in releasing parental control  increasing child independence. *wink*






right after trunk or treat we headed over to our friends home for a halloween party! homemade donuts, watermelons carved to look like brains, spooky games for the kids, gingerbread and sugar cookies to decorate, and sword fights between power rangers, cowboys, indians, pirates(sort of), and greek warriors. it was a fabulous party! thank you holli and mark!




then on sunday evening we celebrated with our first annual halloween feast. auntie leisl & uncle andy and gramnea & papa wes came over to help us celebrate. i looked to our best bites for inspiration and the mummy dogs and breadstick bones with bloody marinara dipping sauce were a hit. we also had roasted acorn squash, warm homemade applesauce, green salad, and sparkling apple cider. can't wait to do it all again next year!

dear mama mia,

wow. who else could inspire grown women to wear animal print, sequins, and feather boas to simon and seafort's? or induce a spontaneous dance party? or be worth teetering around on platform boots? or keep us laughing at ourselves all night long? your swinging tunes make us break out in song whether we can sing or not. thanks for the fantastic evening with dear friends. thanks for the chance to dress up and be dancing queens for a night. you were fabulous!

love,
trachelle

the big reveal!

mostly a cowboy, partly asher

mostly a pirate, partly tiernan

time for another joy school halloween costume parade! yes, my boys are the only ones wearing half a costume. i wasn't there to make persuade them to wear the whole costume. does anyone else have little ones who don't love wearing costumes? surely i am not the only one. right? good thing i think they are adorable in their lovely half costumes. *grin*

and now for the spooky corners . . .

my mantlescape if i actually had a mantle. in the meantime it is leasing space from my floating shelf. please ignore the dust.

i got that felt halloween banner for $10 at target. you might have seen them there. warning: though it has a lovely and simple aesthetic it's major design flaw almost got it sent back to the store. what flaw? attaching the connecting ribbon to the middle of the felt circles instead of the top. result? unstable letters that flip up-side-down and look dorky. quick fix? curtain clips and wire rod from ikea. yes, right over the top of the pictures that were hanging there. classy, no?

pennant banner! yay!

tablescape from found items. not sure yet, if it looks right. i've decided 'scaping stuff is hard. i hope pottery barn pays their 'scaping people well, cause they deserve it! ( like how i totally made up that word: 'scaping? think it will catch on?)

i am luvin' on this lovely wreath from elise joy. it would be a perfect way to use the scraps from my halloween pennant banner.

i am luvin' on the way that my 3-year-old tiernan uses the word spooky all. the. time. it started the day we hauled out the halloween decorations. when we were done with the arranging he declared our home spooky and ready for halloween. since then he talks about our spooky halloween books, the spooky children's play we saw, the spooky darkness, our spooky pumpkin waiting to be carved into a spooooooky jack o' lantern, our spooky halloween movies, his spooky cowboy costume said with a southern twang(for serious, he really does that twang). the best part is the little involuntary shiver he does every time he says it. luv. it. love. him.



i am luvin' on these homemade caramel apples made using whole cane sugar and maple syrup instead of the refined sweeteners from deliciously organic. isn't her photo gorgeous? these are on our official menu for our halloween feast on all hallow's eve.

along with these amazing sounding cookies that i am luvin' on from picky palate. how can you go wrong with a cookie called double pumpkin kissed chocolate chunk?

i am also luvin' on this great list of halloween traditions from the mother huddle. dinner in a pumpkin? yes please!



i think that these glowing jack o' lanterns and monsters i am luvin' on will be the perfect addition to our decoration stash but they most likely will have to wait for next year. *smile*

for now i am loading my halloween playlist on my zune for trunk-or-treat on saturday and dreaming of our halloween feast. happy haunting!

when i was a little girl one of my favorite traditions was dragging out the boxes of halloween, thanksgiving, and christmas decorations to magically transform our home into a holiday wonderland. i loved going through the boxes with my momma and hearing about the handmades that had been gifted to us from family or made by her lovely hands. the halloween witch flying her very own miniture broom, the santa claus with a beard of white lace, the matching stockings personlized with our names, the plush turkey with feathers in a rainbow of calico browns and reds. there was something inherently comforting about that ritual especially when time sped up as i grew older. i am so grateful to my momma for giving me that continuity and bit of magic as the seasons changed. especially now, as a momma myself.  i know how much work it is! *wink*


one of my most favorite holiday handmades(a fabric pennant banner) is simple, easy, and packs a lot of visual punch for your dollar and effort. i can't remember where i saw it first but there are many variations to try on the interwebs.  for mine i made myself a 6'' triangle template and went to town cutting them out with pinking shears on a variety of spooky fabrics. i folded my yardage in half wrong sides together to get a back and front triangle for each flag cut simultaneously. it made my catching-up-on-castle marathon extremely productive. i love that show!

stacks of fabric triangles and double fold bias tape waiting to be transformed into festive goodness

to keep the front and back sides of each flag secure i sewed a large zigzag stitch down the center of each pair of triangles. i first tried sewing the zigzag along two edges of each pair, but quickly decided that would take more time than i wanted to spend. so i determined that by going down the center i could sew continuously from one flag to the next without cutting threads inbetween until the end. much. faster.


then it was just a matter of slipping each flag between the folds of my double fold bias tape and stitching a large zigzag down the center of the bias tape. the possibilities are endless. i've already got my thanksgiving flags cut out and ready to sew! now i am on the hunt for a color scheme for christmas. what do you say? red and white or blue, silver, and white or red, blue, apple green, and white? i can't decide . . . ideas?