Halloween Costume Preview

Earlier this year we took Gianna to Disney for the first time. She loved it so much. She especially liked Minnie's house. When I started to show her ideas for this year's costume, the Minnie Mouse costume was an easy one for her to relate to because she knew who Minnie was and had been in her house. LOL

I decided to sew the costume rather than buying it. Even though I am most definitely a beginner at sewing, I have to say that the costume turned out really, really nice. I can't even begin to tell you how adorable I think she looks with her costume on. I can't for Saturday. The only things I bought were the black tights, Minnie ears and the white gloves. The dress, petticoat, and pantaloons were all made my yours truly.

Front and back.

Pantaloons.

In case you were wondering, for the dress I used Simplicity 9497 and for the pantaloons McCalls M4505.

Ladybug Lapbook

Check out this wonderful lapbook on Ladybugs. It is from Hands of a Child.

Lapbooks are a fun way for kids to learn about a topic. And because the child can help put the lapbook together it's easier to really learn the material. For example, this ladybug lapbook is broken down into different areas like:

~Anatomy of a Ladybug

~Life cycle of a Ladybug

~Vocabulary

Snack Ideas Pleeeeaaasseee!

Gianna officially started school on Monday. So far so good. I have pics to share on another post. The only problem I'm having is figuring out what to put in her lunchbox for snacks. She gets two snack times per day. I really want to avoid junk food, and too much fruit or yogurt will loosen thing up in the digestive track if you know what I mean. lol So if you'all have any ideas you'd like to share with me, I would appreciate it so much.

Oh, and I have to share this cute little snack sack in found while searching. You can find this sack and others by clicking here.

Crib No More!

I was going to try to keep things in order as I catch up but I keep finding pictures of things that happened earlier in the year so the heck with that idea. I'm just going to move forward from this point on.

Back in June 1, 2008, a few weeks before Gianna's 3rd birthday, we made the switch from the crib to the toddler bed. Her crib is one of those convertible cribs so it converts to toddler bed and then to a full-size bed.

I was a little worried about her having the freedom to roam the house but it's been a year and I have to say it all worked out well. We made the switch right before nap time, and I remember she helped her daddy take out the screws and helped him intall the rail that keeps her from falling out of the bed. We put her down for a nap and she fell asleep just fine. I did sneak in there after a while and found her little legs dangling off of the bed. (click collage below to enlarge)

Now that she's been sleeping in the toddler bed for a whole year, I think she is ready for a "big girl bed" but I'm not sure a full-size bed will fit in her little room, even if we put it up against the wall. I would like a twin with a trundle but boy are they expensive.

Updates...

Hello y'all to the handfull of people that still stop by from time to time. It has definitely been a long time, but here I am again trying to give it a go. I just added 3 more posts from back in October. You can scroll down or select October from the Blog Archives' drop down menu.

Halloween 2008

Ok. I think it's time to catch up. Here are some of the pics from Halloween. Gianna didn't really ask for a costume but I "suggested" Jessie from Toy Story II. She didn't complain so that's we did. I made the costume and I think it turned out really nice. I definitely had fun making it. 

We bought so much candy thinking we would be just chilling at home passing it out. Well, we ended up walking the whole neighborhood. Gianna really got into Trick or Treating. She was so cute. I knew she wouldn't walk the whole way without getting tired so I brought the stroller so that she could get on whenever she needed a lift. lol In the end, oh my, we had so much candy it was just sickening. 

She met a pirate aka Titi Sonji. 

And a teletubbie aka Noel.

School Portrait

 Last month Gianna was scheduled for school pictures but unfortunately she freaked out the minute it was her turn and she refused to have any part of it. Well...today was retake day. Once again I prepped her all week. I did a few mock photo shoots in her bedroom. I would have her sit on the edge of the bed and pretend that was the box she had to sit on. I'd use a big board book as my camera, cause you know those professional cameras look nothing like my point-n-shoot,  and walk backwards, pretend to set-up, all the while saying "ok Gianna, look at my camera!" Then I would ask her to smile and I would pretend to take her picture. I told her she HAD to do it. Told her all her friends, including her biggest admirer Kobe Jr.*, had their picture taken except for her. Told her she was a big girl. Gave her a speech worthy of Obama himself. lol Finally, I brought out the big guns: M&M's. I promised she could have a whole snack-sized bag if she cooperated and took a good picture. 

And guess what? SHE DID IT!!! I think it also helped that it was in the library, which was way more cozy, and she was the only one there, and I got to go in with her. Just me and her, and the photog of course. Today, I am a happy mom. I am so proud of my little girl. But let me tell ya. I was sweating bullets. I had doubts. I hate to admit it but I had a Plan B. Just in case. So here below. I give you:

Plan B

*After the pics I walked Gianna back to the lunchroom and no sooner did Kobe Jr. see her, he ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug I've seen a boy give a girl. He luvs her. And Gianna did not complain one bit. I had to laugh cause it took the teacher to pull them apart. I think he would have hugged her straight through to lunchtime.

Yes We Can!

Halloween - Pumpkin Carving @ Home

Well, I didn't have to wait till next year for Gianna to carve a pumpkin, Daddy got her to do it! She really got into it and did a great job. And check out what a good job daddy did too. He is so good at designing faces for our pumpkins. He's so stinkin' creative.

Halloween at Sea World

This year, as we did last year, we took Gianna to Sea World for their Halloween Spooktacular. Hannah and her clan came along too. This was the first time ever that we have seen Gianna walk normally without pulling or falling. We were very surprised. She walked and held Hannah's hand the whole time, which made us so happy.

So here in all their cuteness is Gianna and her BFF Hannah.

Halloween - Pumking Carving @ Hannah's

I was hoping that this year Gianna would stick around and carve the pumking with us but she really wansn't into it. Oh well. At least she gave it a try.

I think at first Hannah was a little unsure about the whole scooping thing.

But then she really got into it.

Here's Hannah going to town with the pumpkin saw. On the fridge you can see the foam pumpkin door hanger, one of the other crafts we did on our crafty playdate.

She really did an awesome job cutting away the design.

Ta, da!

Gianna comes back to check out the finished product.

And Hannah proudly posing along with a handful of her favorite dolls.

Halloween - Pumpkin Patch

Here are the pics from the pumpkin patch. Jim and I have been going to this pumpkin patch since Jim's oldest daughter Alyssa, was a little girl. The tradition continues with Gianna and hopefully Hannah will continue to join us in the future.

I think they had more fun climbing than picking.

Isn't she the cutest little pumking you've ever seen?

Can you feel the love?

Halloween Craft Playdate

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Just like last year, we kicked off the month of October with a Halloween craft playdate. It's become a fun tradition for Gianna and her Qianjiang sister, Hannah, and for us mommies too. This year the girls made chocolate-covered pretzel sticks, and pumpkin sugar cookies. It was such an easy project to do and put together. I gave each girl a cup with melted chocolate and a handfull of pretzels. I bought 2 cookie sheets from the dollar store and lined them with wax paper. The Halloween sprinkles were from the $1 section at Target. I did splurge on the chocolate. It was Ghirardelli. Yum!

I was so thrilled that Gianna was into it. She's a chocoholic so I'm sure that had something to do with it. The girls also made foam pumpking door hangers . They turned out so cute but I didn't take a picture. I'll try to take on and add it later. After that the girls just played around the house, and jumped on Gianna's bed. Yeah, I have video of that but I have to upload it. But I didn't want to wait any longer in posting these pics for you.

This year's costume

Can you guess what this year's costume is going to be?

What the...

Ever wonder what would happen to your laundry if you washed a pull-up by accident?

Birthday Wishes

Happy 60th Birthday Abuelo!

Happy Birthday Abuelo from Giluisca on Vimeo.

Just for kicks and giggles

Pink eye not enough? Lets add a cold.

Good? Great!

What else can we add to make this weekend even more fun?

As if...

...diarrhea was not enough. The girl woke up with this...

I only wish it looked this pretty. It's more like green, crusty...well, you get the idea.

Now my eyes feel itchy. Great!

Bear Who?

Holy moley! The diarrhea bear paid us a visit this morning. As in 4:30 in the morning! The girl was covered head to toe. There was a trail from her bed to our bed. The poor thing. The lab results can not get here soon enough. I have to know what is making this girl so sick. Is it dairy? Wheat? What?! She had pizza for dinner. Could that be it? The cheese? I just don't know.

I kept her home from school today. She's already had several episodes at school within the last 2 weeks and let me tell you, it was not pretty. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not Celiac disease. Hoping it's only lactose intolerance or something like that.