Mama-luia

1. We had such a fun Halloween this week! The kids were bouncing off the walls by 3:10, wanting to head out trick or treating then. They each wanted to be the specific costumes you see here photographed, and I was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, we had the added bonus of my parents being here the previous week to help out (my Dad made the Mary Poppins hat out of an empty flat of Perrier; I just painted it and added the Dollar Store flowers.) So, without further ado, I give you: An adorable baby bear Mary Poppins (You should hear this girl sing "Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag."  She has a beautiful singing voice.) Thorin Oakenshield He was perturbed when I googled Thorin costumes that each example looked like the movie version. He was quite adamant: Thorin had a red beard, wore a sky-blue cloak and had a golden helmet.  So this is our Tolkien/Jemima Catlin tribute to Thorin. Kraft Dinner I loved this costume idea! And it...

I'm sure you understand why I didn't post our All Saints' Day activities; Anna was all of five days old when we suited up the boys to attend our parish's All Saints' party. Besides simply being worn out from having such a new baby, the entire day was a crazy scene. To give you some perspective, the previous evening, Patrick tucked the kids in, I sat on the couch nursing the baby, and my mom took it upon herself to sew the boys' costumes. (We already had a cassock for Isaiah, as it was a hand-me-down from Noah {the story of my poor middle child's life} but she needed to sew a cassock for Noah and a surplices for each child. Their one request was to go as altar boys. The "saint" part was completely irrelevant to them. {In an attempt to catechize them, however, Patrick and I would correct them whenever they said they were 'altar boys' and tell them they were St. Dominic Savio and St. John Berchmans.}.) Within moments of her sitting d...