Happy Halloween 2016!

Michael was still on-call on Halloween so once the kids got off the bus we went directly down to Ga-Ga & Pa's...yay for beating traffic! 

The kids weren't in a super rush this year to get going. We had dinner and then they were watching TV. We normally wait until Ga-Ga & Pa get their first Trick or Treater before we head out, but it was starting to get dark and with it being a school night we needed to get the show on the road. 

Yes Sir!!! 

Beautiful Princess! 

The Captain is ready for action! 

The knight is ready to slay a dragon! 

Let go get some candy!!! 

The kids did SO great! Since Michael wasn't there Ga-Ga came with me and the kids while Pa stayed back at the house to give out candy. I had the kids practice saying Trick or Treat as loud as they could in unison. They were really good. I also had to keep reminding the bigger kids to wait to ring the door bell until Zeke could get up to the door. At almost every house Zeke would be running up the driveway behind the older kids yelling..."Wait for me!" I wish I had a video of it. At a couple houses they had Seahawks flags and banners so instead of saying Trick or Treat I told the kids to say GO HAWKS!! They got a kick out of that! At one of the house the guys said, "Well that just earned you two candies!" As we were walking away from that house there were other kids coming up and we told them to say GO HAWKS so they could get two candies as well! Lots of fun for sure! 

When we got back to Ga-Ga's the kids dumped all their candy on the floor and after I went through it I had them put it in a gallon size bag. They each got to eat 3 pieces of candy that night. 

Ella with her bag stuffed with candy! 

That's a lot of candy sir knight! 

Jackson of course was the last one to put his candy away because choosing just three pieces is almost an impossible task! He finally did it though! We packed up all our stuff and were home around 8:30. It was off to bed since they had school the next day. I think that all those teachers that teach the day after Halloween should be given a medal. I tried my best to make sure the kids weren't too sugared up and got a decent amount of sleep, but I'm sure that wasn't the case with every parent. I honestly think that Halloween should always be the last Friday in October. It would be so much easier for parents, kids and their teachers! 

Riverview Community Church Trunk Or Treat!

Our church had their Trunk or Treat on Sunday October 30th. Michael and I had both signed up to help out. I was going to help at the registeration desk and Michael was going to run a carnival game from the back of our van. Unfortunately Michael happened to be on-call during that week and he had a record number of calls....one of which came right before it was time to leave for church so he wasn't able to make it after all. I ended up going to church and they found another person to run the carnival game from the back of our van. 

Because I had to be there early Ga-Ga & Pa came up to help the kids get into their costumes and they brought them down to church later. 

This years costumes didn't cost a dime. Ella got her Anna dress for Christmas last year, Owen reused his Army costume from last year, Zeke wore Jack's old Knight in shining armor costume from years ago and Jack reused his Captain America costume from last year as well. 

Pa of course took lots of pictures of the kids for me since I wasn't there when they got all dressed up. 

I did braid Ella's hair for her and she was all ready prior to me leaving. Getting her to wear that white long sleeve shirt under her dress was a chore, but I did compromise with her shoes. I wanted her to wear these black Mary Jane shoes, but she wasn't having it. Open toed clop shoes it was! 

Jackson was quite sure he wanted to wear his worker man boots and they did look great. I'm guessing they weren't the most comfortable though because the next night he did not want to wear them again. Last year Jack used a cardboard shield that I made him, but since then he's gotten the plastic magnetic shield that sticks to the wristband that's attached to his arm. It's pretty cool! 

My army boy was ready to go get some candy!

The church was set up differently this year. Of course the trunks were outside, but not all of them were typical trunk or treat trunks. Some of them had carnival games like our van did. Last year the carnival games were inside the church, but this year they wanted to have a giant bouncy house in there. 

Cute kids all ready to go! 

Since I was out working the registration table I didn't get to go around with the kids until the very end. They had so much fun with Ga-Ga & Pa and since there was two of them they were able to divide and conquer at times. 

Cute buddies!!! 

This is the back of our trunk. Nathan one of the leaders' sons was willing to run it for us. 

At first it was only sprinkling and then it really started to rain. Thankfully the kids didn't care one bit. 

It was crazy busy too....so much so people were having to park in the neighborhoods around the corner because the parking lot was full! 

Even though it was crowded it sure looked like everyone was having fun!!

We invited Lance, Rachael and their 4 kids to come and have fun with us. Jaymes was nice and snug in his front pack while his big sisters got to enjoy all the festivities! 

Besides the trunks, carnival games and the bouncy house....there was also balloon animals being made, popcorn, a cookie walk and face painting. 

Rain did not deter this Super Hero!!! 

Our pastor and his wife had just gotten back from attending a wedding in Hawaii so it was quite fitting that their trunk was tropical! 

The boys loved the nerf gun trunk! 

Once they came in the kids did the cookie walk and got lots of yummy cookies! 

Then it was time for face painting. Ella's hearts looked so pretty and they even stayed on all night so she was able to show everyone as school the next day. 

Owen got bat eyes and there were cool! They also got itchy though so we washed them off right before bed. Jack's "face" painting was the fastest since he just wanted a puppy paw on his hand. So fast I didn't even take a picture of it! 

I'm so thankfully that Ga-Ga & Pa came and helped with the kids. It would have been impossible for them to go around since I was working and even if Michael was there he would have been working as well. I'm thinking next year we are just going to have to choose who's going to work because it would be nice for one of us to get to go with our kids. 

One nice thing about Michael getting called out to work was he was home when we got home and he had made a really nice dinner for all of us. 

Point Defiance Zoo!

I also found this post in my drafts that I forgot about....oops! 

 During the summer Michael took a day off and we used our passes to take the kids to Point Defiance Zoo as a family.

Ready to head in for a day of fun! 

We got to the zoo right around lunch time so the first order of business was to eat. We went down to this grassy area set up the blanket and sat down. What we didn't know was that this area of grass was kind of swampy. Oops...I think I was the only one that actually had a wet tushy though! 

My love!!! 

That's a lot of teeth! 

This was Zeke's first time seeing the sharks as a big boy. We did go to the zoo a few more times after this later in the summer and he did great seeing the sharks and loved it. This first though he was FREAKED out. He was clinging to Michael and pushing away from the glass. He just didn't understand how that shark wasn't going to eat him up. Poor guy! 

We love the elephants! 

Normally when we see a tiger it's behind the glass, but this tiger was in a different location. 

It was so awesome to see this beautiful creature up close! 

And just like any other cat he was super sleepy! 

So cute and yet so dangerous! 

The penguins were having a good time swimming around. 

Cute little white fox! 

It was so hot the day we were there...at one point we just went into one of the viewing areas to get out of the sun and have a snack. There wasn't any animals that we could actually see, but just us being there made people thing there were animals so they would come in to check and see what we were doing in there. After a while though we got an up close look at an animal....

Out they came with a skunk on a leach! It was actually really cute and his spray glands had been removed so there was no concern there. They did make sure that we stayed back and didn't get too close though. 

Off to see the wolves! This was the coolest part of the day. I have never seen the wolves so active. 

At first they were over in a different section of the their enclosure and they were in the way back. The boys decided they should howl and maybe that would make them come. Sure enough....seriously...the wolves came over. Right up to where we were of course they were down low inside the enclosure, but the wolf came right up grabbed a water bottle that some person had thrown in there and started playing with it. 

It was so amazing to get such great views of the animals. In fact during this particular trip even though it was so hot we saw almost all the animals. They were all quite active! 

After the wolves we got a picture with the statues and then it was time to head home. 

It was such a fun family day! 

The Finishing Touches!

I just noticed this post that I was supposed to upload months ago about the laundry room. Oops! 

Even though the bathroom/laundry room was officially open for business it didn't mean that it was completely finished. There was still a little bit of installation and decorating to be done!!!

I knew that I wanted there to be a shelf directing behind the washer and dryer. There's nothing worse than having something fall behind there. Michael used the same wood and stain as he did for the other cabinets he built me. He also installed the two shelves between my cabinets. I know that the whole cabinet fiasco was an accident, but honestly I LOVE it. I'm so happy they didn't fit the way they were supposed to. I did lose out on cabinet space, but you know what this room would have lost out on a lot of character if they had fit. The area above would have been just a big white bore! The tile and those shelves are just so gorgeous!

I had purchased these under cabinet lights at IKEA and we put them in the closet where the cubbies used to be. Since the cubbies are built in now and aren't tucked into a closet where it's dark they were no longer needed there. I thought it would be so fun to have them above the washer and dryer. It looks so neat when the lights are turned on...illuminating the washer and dryer and all there wonderfulness! They were a pain in the tushie to put up though. Michael had to drill holes in the cabinets and staple gun all the cords so you couldn't see them. Of course he worked his magic again and it all worked out and looks amazing!

I wasn't sure what I actually wanted to put on those two shelves....I didn't really like the idea of covering up the beautiful tile, but Michael did go to the trouble of mounting them so I needed to make use of that space. I found these two matching baskets being used for various things around the house...the bigger one was the library basket and it was actually too small and the littler one was used to hold the kids Halloween bags. They work perfect in those spaces and look so nice. I bigger basket is actually perfect to put the kids clothes in so they can take them upstairs and put them away. Of course I only load one kids clothes in at a time. The littler basket I used to store my Norwex clothes. 

Michael had packed up all the previous bathrooms decorations and put them in a storage container. I knew that not everything would look right in the new room. For one a lot of the old decorations were purple and that just wasn't going to fly. So I just through them and picked the ones that would work. I love the metal pitcher and I'm using that to put all the change I find when doing laundry. The washboard is something I probably picked up at a garage sale and the candle is one of the crafts we made at MOPS this last year. 

I saw a bunch of cute things that people had done on Pinterest for lost socks, but I just didn't really want them displayed on clips so I went with this cute bucket I got at Lowe's and then I used a chalkboard label to add some character to it. The old HEAVY metal iron and the wooden bar of soap I found years ago at an antique store.

I found these cute printables online. You could download them for free in all different colors. I just like the chalkboard look. I printed them in 4x6 from the library for free and then went to The Dollar Tree and picked up the frames! 

This over on the windowsill. Random cute laundry things I found at garage sales probably. The picture frame with the cute poem was given to us as part of a housewarming present from some friends of ours almost 11 years ago now! 

This is the utility garage that's behind the door and just to the left of the sink. I love the functionality of it. Michael put those two shelves up to hold those baskets. They have random vacuum attachments, vacuum bags and mop attachments. What I don't like is how the baskets don't match and I don't really want my guests to see all this functional stuff when they go to use the facilities. 

I knew I wanted to put a curtain up and at first I was just going to cover up the vacuum and mop at the bottom and let the shelves be exposed, but then I decided I'd rather cover that whole section. I figured I'd find material at Joann's and then sew it....when I got around to it. I'm so behind on my sewing! Then when I was at Lowe's picking up a few things I saw that they sold curtains. I ended up finding this perfect match on clearance for $15. That was still a little expensive for my blood, but I figured with the time it would take me to actually sew the curtains it was worth $15! 

We didn't really want to attach anything with screws to the wall in this area so I went to Fred Meyer's and picked up a small tension rod. The next day I was able to hemmed the curtain about 3 inches and  it looks great! 

While I was at Fred Meyer's I found this in the clearance section....for only $5.99!

I had been looking on Amazon for something like this and was so excited to find one in the store. The only problem is you can't put them on freshly painted walls. You have to wait 3 weeks after you paint to apply them.....one more week to go! 

That was my original post and here is what the laundry room looks like now. The sun was shining in through the window so that's why the picture is so washed out. 

I love how the laundry sign turned out and it was super easy to put up. I didn't end up using any of the other stickers that came with the set. I really wanted it to be more of a minimal look in regards to decorations. 

The latest addition has been my Grandma's cabinet. I posted about this on Facebook. My parents when back to Wyoming at the beginning of October and brought this and a bunch of other stuff back. My grandma had this cabinet on her kitchen counter-top and it looked great. I didn't have the room in my kitchen for it, but I had been really wanted something in the bathroom to set a laundry basket on when I'm folding clothes. I don't really want to set a basket on top of the dryer because I don't want to accidentally scratch the finish. This cabinet is the perfect size. First off the dryer door can open all the way without touching it and the cabinet is small enough that it doesn't stick out too far into the room and it doesn't cover up the heat register. 

The only thing that we did to change the cabinet was spray paint it white. It had been a cream color, but that just didn't look right in the laundry room. I also added the old clothes pins to the drawers. It's really nice to have some extra storage in the bathroom and a place to put a laundry basket so I'm not having to bend over again and again taking clothes out of the basket. 

The only other change that's happened is Charlie's litter box is where the vacuum and mop were. They have now been moved out to the garage and that's okay with me. The litter box fits in there perfectly and when no ones in the bathroom and the door is open you can't even see it since it's right behind the door. Having it in such a central location has been great too because we are always on top of cleaning it.