Halloween 2014

Before you start reading my post and think, "they have way too much time on their hands", you have to understand that Patrick had only one costume choice this year: Emmet Brickowski from the Lego Movie. It so happened that no company produced an Emmet costume for sale this year.  Things got a bit carried away, so I decided I might as well dress up with Patrick since Kaya turned out to be Tommy's sidekick.

It rained, AGAIN this year, but not as hard as the previous year. Kaya stayed home with Tom while I took the boys around the neighborhood (since his lawyer costume sucked and mine was pretty awesome).  Patrick paused at the bottom of every driveway and asked whether there was a dog. Every house. We also discovered that Patrick's Lego body came down just far enough that going up steps was nearly impossible. Oops. Tommy loved every aspect of trick-or-treating and surprisingly kept his Olaf head on the entire time.  

The second the boys and I left, Kaya went into meltdown mode. Apparently she was wise to the fact that she was being left behind while we raked in the candy. 

The bonus of having an older brother with a nut allergy: you get all his peanut laced candy.

Kaya chomping down on her first lollipop- Anna was her very first princess dress and she LOVED having it on. 

I loved my Wyldstyle costume (emmet's co-star in the Lego Movie) and it was super comfortable for trick-or-treat. Tom had a fire burning and hot chocolate ready for us when we arrived back home, slightly soggy. 

The Joy of Motherhood (It's Back)!

This summer, if you recall from my previous posts, was fairly bad on the coping with motherhood scale. The boys fought all day over the same toys, and Tommy seemed especially intent on doing the opposite of what I asked of him. 

This weekend though, watching them play in the leaves, I can hardly contain my enthusiasm at the difference in my kids that just a few months of school has brought about. At Tommy's parent/teacher conference Friday, his teachers had only the best things to say about him.  And, (are you sitting?) not a single tantrum. I am so, so proud of Tommy.  He is starting to look so grown-up these days, and I know my snuggle time with him will be over before I realize what happened.  He insists on holding my hand each morning we walk P to the bus, and I gladly let him. 

Patrick loves school. The girls love Patrick. At his school's open house last week, Tom and I were perplexed by the number of girls (and not just kindergarten) who ran up to hug him.  When we asked how he knows them all, he just shrugs his shoulders.  He comes home from school and sets himself up immediately at the kitchen table to do an hour or more of homework. That would be self-imposed homework.  He practices his letters, tries to spell out words (he got box all byhimself), and writes in his notebook.

This was a page he completed today, and below is one of his self portraits.

P started CCD this year too, so we haven't added many outside activities this fall.  Having her brothers around makes Kaya happy.  And me? My sanity has returned, and I feel like I can enjoy fall and all it has to bring.  

Halloween prep

The Pohl kids are getting excited for Halloween, and our costumes have been decided.  Tommy will be Olaf, Kaya will be Anna from Frozen, and Patrick- Emmet from the Lego Movie.  All great picks, but with one glitch.  You cannot buy an Emmet costume.  Despite the huge popularity of the movie, Lego has decided to not cash in on the windfall that they could collect if they would have manufactured an Emmet costume.  So begins another project.  I found great tutorials on the complicated process of making a Lego man head.  We opted to buy a large Lego Storage bin instead and cut out a large opening for the face so P will be comfortable wearing it for a whole night of trick-or-treat.

$31 on Amazon

We are going to try for some Emmet hair using foam insulation spray, but P also is set on having Emmet's red construction helmet.  After Tom and I had an in-depth discussion on what we could use to create the helmet., I found this on Amazon for $12. We decided it was worth the cost, so it is on the way to our house-

We didn't want to make Lego Man legs for P,  so I found these orange, fleece lined pants on sale at Gymboree:

Hoping they turn out to be the right color orange, but they have not arrived yet.

That leaves the cardboard body which we will make and then paint to look like Emmet's shirt, the Lego man hands, as well as the hair we will construct.  I want the hair/helmet to be removable from the Lego head like real Legos so that we can reuse the Lego head for future Halloweens. This costume is not going to be cheap, so the more we can reuse, the better. 

Kaya, 14 months

Kaya is a hair puller. She especially loves Tommy's hair. She loves climbing onto the couch to watch cartoons with her brothers.  Probably not much to my credit, she can now say "muffin" and loves squeezing past us to get into the pantry, grabs as many muffin packs as she can from the first shelf, and runs.  She's no longer a baby, but don't tell me. I am going to remain in denial a bit longer.

(You get a sneak peek at the "after" of our exterior project here)

All Around

God is in the tiniest of details, and I love that.

This little guy made a home in the window box outside Patrick's room.  We enjoyed watching him until I had to change the flowers out for some fall mums.  

Summer Finds

I adore Target.  I can usually come pretty close to finding a knockoff there of an overpriced item I like in a magazine.  

Take these guys: got them on Sale for like $45/each.  Magazine: $145.

The kids use them for all kind of things they shouldn't.  

My favorite addition I found on ebay.  I saw a cast iron horse windmill weight I loved at a local antique store.  They wanted $800.  I settled for this cast iron horse instead. $35. 

I haven't been able to get to the big flea markets this summer like I had planned, except for one trip back in May to the Washington, PA Antique Market.  It took me about 50 minutes to get there, but my BF from college went with me and we fueled up with Starbucks first.  

I would say the merchandise was so-so. I was really looking for some furniture pieces, which were few and far between.

Instead I found this vintage child's toy cradle that I plan on refinishing white for Kaya's dolls. $10

And... Jesus.  Once we actually do something with our dining room, they will have a permanent home there. $50/pair

I love the hunt. Maybe I can squeeze one more trip to another flea market in the area I want to try.

Kaya's First Birthday

Let's pretend this post isn't almost a month late...

Kaya turned one on July 29th and we celebrated with the grandparents and our "Alice in One-derland" theme.

 

The invites I ordered from Brooke at the Etsy shop PurpleandPlatinum.  The great thing about her shop is I only wanted 4 invites and didn't have to order ten to get what I wanted.

I wanted to make a fun, whimsical high chair banner, and saw one on the internet.  Then I couldn't find it again.  So I spent about $8 on tulle at Joann Fabrics, then hand sewed it in a pleated fashion onto a regular ribbon.  I found the letters in black on clearance at Michaels, and painted them gold.  I sprinkled the wet paint with fine gold glitter, and sewed them to the tulle.  I  used command hooks on the edge of the high chair tray to hold it on.

 Kaya's cupcakes and smash cake I made using an online tutorial from www.notquitenigella.com. 

The various Alice in Wonderland characters you see in the pictures, including the Cheshire cat below, came from Michelle at Snowscottage on Etsy.  The detail was amazing.  Highly recommend her shop if you are doing anything Disney related.  I hung keys and little pocket watches that I got at Michaels from the chandelier, along with mini tea cups that were in a damaged toy tea set found at TJ Maxx. 

 Did you know you can get a moss table runner at Michaels?  I bought white ceramic mushrooms there as well and painted them a metallic mossy green and pearl pink.  The white rabbits were recycled from my Easter decorations.

 Kaya and I found these vintage tea cups at an antique mall nearby one Saturday afternoon. Mostly I found them. She just drooled.

 

I wanted a banner that read "Welcome to One-derland", but couldn't find one I liked online.  I was at Party City and found this kit for $7.  You put the letters on yourself to make it read whatever you want.

My mom with the birthday girl

Baba with Kaya

Kaya loved the cake and threw a big fit when we took it away.

 

 We played a game of pin-the-nose-on-Olaf after cake.

 The boys got Kaya a doll that we named Alice. 

A bracelet from Baba and Grampy

A week later Kaya had her one year check-up, weighing in at 21 lbs, 12 oz and 31 1/4 " tall (that's in the 96th %).  She wasn't walking unassisted by her birthday, but she took her first steps on August 5th.  By the next week, she was walking more than crawling.  Turns out this lady is the best climber of the three (which led to her falling down the stairs a week ago).  She has four teeth, all center-two on the top, two on the bottom.  She says "ball", "woof", "Baba", and another word I am completely blanking on at the moment.  She loves to clap, and Patrick is her best bud. I took away the bottle when she turned one, and she didn't seem to mind, but I haven't attempted to break her of the pacifier yet. 



This is one of my favorite pictures from her one year shoot at Picture People. The first two photos on this post were also from the shoot.

She is sleeping 7:00 to 6:30ish with usually one afternoon nap.  She has more dresses than she could possibly need, but who can blame me?  Just like her brothers, she is content to swing until the cows come home.  She is a pro at going under the water when we swim, and I am praying that she will be my fish since I have two boys who still hate to put their faces in the water.

Happy Birthday, K.

Love,
Mom







once she