160 kids later, and I still had like ten pieces left

A week late, yes, but I couldn't resist sharing these photos of Paisley on Halloween. She calls this her "fwa fwa fee costume." Fwa fwa fee is Paisley-talk for butterfly, and I sincerely hope that she never learns the correct way of saying that word.

Also. Speaking of toddlers. And learning...we started the dreaded potty training. I'm not going to get into any nitty gritty details here...but I will say this:

For the love of everything, please send help.

Seriously, are there people out there who potty train toddlers professionally?? As their job?!? Because I will hire them. You wouldn't even believe how fast I would hire them.

Anyways. Here's Paisley running around trick or treating with her dad, and handing out candy with her mom! We handed out that candy like a couple of bosses. Our neighbors counted the amount of trick or treaters that we got on our street and it was 160. WHOAA! I went back and forth frequently between handing out candy by the fistfulls (we don't need all this candy in our house!!) and handing out only one piece per kid (oh no I'm running out, only one piece! Only one piece for everybody!!!)

By the way I'm not serious about hiring a potty trainer, however much I would love to be serious about it. Ain't nobody got money for that.

Except maybe celebrities and presidents and royalty and the like.


Just for kicks, here's my Halloween post from last year.

And one from 2011! I guess this blog is getting a little old?

Sheepdogs and sheep on Halloween night

Halloween at our house was a fun time this year. Unfortunately the hubs had to work, but my mom and sister came over to help the girl and I celebrate. Paisley was dressed up as a large fluffy dog, which she mostly enjoyed! (When she wasn't falling over because her peripheral vision was being obstructed.) We trick-or-treated at a few houses in the neighborhood and it was generally a success - little miss sheepdog mostly just stared down whoever answered the door. I think they all might have been intimidated into giving her treats. When we got back she was content to carefully sort her candies in various containers for the rest of the night. The longer she doesn't realize that candies are something to be consumed and instead uses them for her entertainment and organizational purposes, the better.

By the way. I was so worried this year about running out of candy! I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I only bought one bag but LAST year we DID run out of candy (although I think it was because the ever so generous hubs was handing it out by the fistfuls) and then a little girl shouted out to her friends, "THIS HOUSE DON'T GOT NO CANDY!" I was so mortified that I turned off all the lights and ducked down below the window, dreading anyone else that might find out about us and our lack of treats. Then when the hubs got back from rushing to the store for MORE candy I switched back on all the lights, flung the door open eager to redeem myself to the neighborhood kiddos, but the rush was basically over and we had lots of leftovers that we couldn't seem to unload on anyone.

SO. As I was saying, this year I didn't want to run out of candy so I firmly declared that there would be only one piece of candy handed out to each kid that came to our door (my favorite being a zombie ninja). 

And I don't know if there were way less kids this year or we are just not getting our ratios of candy to kids right, but we had so much candy left over. So. Much. I texted the hubs to inform him of our situation and he was all, "Way to go Mrs. Stingy!"

Please to enjoy my fuzzy phone pictures.

New Shop Section! Plus my excellent costumes.

I am so SO happy to announce that I have FINALLY added a note card section to my shop. I've been wanting to do this since July so it's only taken me hmm let's see. 4 months?!? To get this done? But who's counting. Right? Obviously not me.

AND. I am working my little (big?) hiney off trying to get some holiday/winter themed cards/prints in the shop very soon. How soon? Dare I say... the end of the week?? Maybe now that I've publicly announced this deadline I may just pull it together enough to make it happen???


mmm????


More question marks??????


Anyway. Since today is in fact Halloween, I thought I should make this post at least a little bit Halloween-y. Unfortunately I don't really have a costume this year. I will be teaching violin lessons for part of the night and then coming home to hopefully catch some of the trick or treaters. (Who the hubs will be joyfully handing out candy to. Because he loves doing that. And I love him. It's a big circle of love around here.)


So since I have no costume to show you, I decided to show you some costumes of Halloween past.


2010: I was a cat. The hubs was a trucker. A dirty one. And my friend Mel was a flapper gal.

My bff Emily was a pretty bird.

And this is my favorite pic ever.

2009: My sister and I went to see BEN FOLDS! at ORCHESTRA HALL! Playing with the MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA! On HALLOWEEN! It was AWESOME! I don't really know that we are dressed as anything other than Ben Folds enthusiasts though.

I think this next picture is from....2007? or 2008. I don't know. The hubs and I didn't have anything to wear for a Halloween party so I had us put on a bunch of random stuff from our closet. I was like, "Let's be idiots! It will be hilarious!!" And the hubs was like, "Wait, what are we being?" And I was like, "Idiots! so funny!!" I'm telling you I'm a very creative soul.

2006: Aww, we were just freshly engaged in this pic. (You can see that we are really in the habit of putting a lot of thought into our costumes.)

2004: I think I shared this picture (and the story behind it) before here. But it's just a good one so I didn't want to leave it out.

Alright, I'm off to do productive things. Happy Halloween!