i do believe in fairies.....

the circus was a bust!

Blaine and I have been counting down the days until the circus came to town. We both wanted to go so badly! But I did a terrible thing and never looked at the ticket prices all the while making promises. BIG MISTAKE! The circus is an expensive show folks and there are no children's prices. Everyone has to pay almost $25 smackaroos a piece. I am NOT paying a mint to watch a show through binoculars in the nosebleed seats. But I'd promised Blaine we would go......what a dilemma. So Michael puts on his excited daddy voice and says, "Blaine, how about we go go-karting tomorrow instead of the circus?". I was anxiously awaiting some kind of tantrum (like the one that little brat threw on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) but none came. Whoosh!!!! Disaster avoided!!!! He just looked up at us and said, "Can we? This is awesome!" So the moral of this story is....never make a promise unless you've done your research. And never spoil your kids (unless it's with love) unless you want them to turn out like Veruca Salt.

the girl in me.....

So maybe I've just realized that I'm a girl and that I love girly things sometimes. And since I hit a big milestone this year (it's something that rhymes with flirty but is not nearly as cute) I've been trying to take better care of myself. I'm also cheap. I'd like to take better care of myself and my wallet. So here's a really great facial scrub recipe that I came across.



you're going to need a half of a lemon (or some lemon juice)
a teaspoon of granulated sugar.
and 2 cotton face pads

First you squeeze the lemon juice onto your stacked cotton pads. Then you will sprinkle the sugar on top of that. Any excess sugar on your fingertips, just rub that onto your face. I like to wet my face with water first. In gentle circles massage the lemon juice/sugar/cotton pads onto your face until all of the sugar dissolves. Your skin will be a little red (I recommend doing this before you go to bed rather than in the morning). Rinse your face and let it rest for a minute before applying your moisturizer. This will brighten your skin as well as lighten acne scars, sun or age spots. I've been doing this about every 2 or 3 days for 3 weeks now and I can see a difference. It's an inexpensive and effective home micro-dermabrasion. Hope you guys like it!

odds and ends....

unwrapping our gingerbread house.....it was fun!



blaine pretending to be a sith lord.....scary this is....



blaine first waking up on christmas morning....



an inability to contain enthusiasm over pop-up tent.....

friday funnies.....

Couldn't resist this.

Merry Christmas from the Vorwallers~

One of my absolute favorite heroine's. I just love this pictorial representation of her. Toodles!

our beloved pumpkin who has since returned to mother earth....



us actually "hitting" the streets....



blaine on parade at the trunk-or-treat....

I'm really behind on these Halloween pictures...pray, forgive me :). So Blaine was a tractor (Papa Dennis has a blue one). Or rather, he was a farmer in a tractor lol. And the whole cardboard box/duct tape/straps/spray paint/push lights held together until the very end where it all gave out at once. But it was fun while it lasted! So a belated Happy Halloween from us to you and a hope that your days are filled with candy delights and the absence of cavities!

Um, Studio Ghibli does the Borrower's?????? Yes, please! Definitely watching this when it comes out at around Blaine's birthday........definitely.

School update! We're into our second month of homeschooling and we're still loving it! This week we've been studying the letter E, the number 5 and we've been learning about pirates. Blaine's also nailed the 1st article of faith, so we're definitely making progress! Today we finished making our nest (scavenged twigs and grass glued together) and our eggs to go in it (cardstock and crushed eggshells). We also made our own pirate maps...taking regular printer paper and lighting the edges on fire to make it look "old" and tied up with some yarn. Tomorrow for our combined craft, we're making telescopes out of paper towel rolls. So much exciting stuff happening here!!!!

I've only ever been to about 3 concerts in my life. One was Harry Connick Jr (swoon) and the other two were Celtic Woman. But I've never been to one of those, sit in the grass or standing room only concerts. So here's my list of bands I'd love to see live (because I know that you're just dying to know :):

Band of Horses
The Decemberists
Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo
Phil Collins (have ALWAYS loved him)
Sting (yeah, him too)
Allison Krauss (best female vocalist ever)

Any other bands you guys think I would like? Please share!!

I know, I know....I am shameless at plugging books and movies. But I couldn't help myself. Just read the above book and LOOOOOVED it. It's more of a juvenile book (juvenile meaning for young readers, not immature readers). However, as you all know, "juvenile fiction" is some of the best kind of reading there is (Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Anne of Green Gables, The Grimm Detectives). So thumbs up from me, especially seeing as this is his first novel. You will not be disappointed!!

adventures in homeschooling...

Michael and I had originally planned on sending Blaine to an "actual" preschool. But we weren't really sure where we would be living at the beginning of school term....so we decided to pursue homeschooling. My mother-in-law and nephew are also homeschooling and we have our own little curriculum (including letter/number of the week, field trip's and combined Friday crafts and lunch). I was really nervous...I didn't see myself as a homeschooling mom (not near enough patience on my part,lol) but it is a decision that I am so grateful we made! So please be patient with me when I detail what's going on in the school part of our lives...we are just enjoying ourselves immensely!

I'm a pretty picky person when it comes to books that have been made into a movie. They almost always get it wrong. And it is always different. I watched "Howl's Moving Castle" before I even knew it was a book.
Hayao Miyazaki is A-mazing, by the way. Sorry, back on track here.....the book was very different from the movie. I liked both though! I wasn't disappointed at all (and that's rare for me...I won't even buy books that have movie-adaptation covers lol). So I say - thumbs up to both. Great read and watch for sure and I highly recommend them:).

P.S. on a side note.....both the Lord of the Rings books and movies are also fantastic. Obviously...very different but still really good.

yet another random, meaningless post....

If I had any ounce of coolness in my body, I would like to do this to my hair. But I don't, so I won't :(.

wiggle, giggle....

Greatest book ever for anyone with toddlers and/or preschoolers. It's been a lot of fun!

um, yeah...

I informed Blaine that we might be going out to eat when Michael got home for work. And he said, "I really like eating at restaurants!". I think I've just now figured out that that's a dig at my cooking, lol.

and i ran, i ran so far away......

So I've been noticing in myself a certain lack of energy. Why, do you ask? Because I'm lazy. Truthfully....so, so lazy. My favorite sport is watching tv, whilst eating a donut. Or candy. Or chips. I got winded walking to the car the other day and thought...wow, that is sick lol. So I've started running (which any bystander able to see would tell you was really speed-walking while gasping for air in a rather lackadaisical rhythm). I'd really like to be the first picture, but afraid my resemblance leans towards the second. Yes, even with the mannish tracksuit, haha! So, wish me luck....or a speedy death. Either would be fine :).

yeah, i know.....

that I already did a post on movies recently, but we've just finished watching Wall-E. I really love this movie! I cry every time at the end, even though I know that he's going to be ok. One of my favorite scenes is the one above. Wall-E and Eve dancing in space. It's really very magical....so sweet! So if you haven't seen it....do!!! You'll be glad you did :).

things we've enjoyed perusing....

The Wonderful World of Beatrix Potter.....the ballet....



Signing Time....



The Wicked Big Toddlah....



Boom Boom, Go Away....


These are a few of the things that we've been enjoying lately. Just checked the Wonderful World of Beatrix Potter out for the first time this week. It is definitely worth a watch. The costumes are truly amazing, the music sweet and the ballet is really impressive (especially seeing that their head pieces are ginormous!!!).

Signing Time has been much appreciated for quite quite a while at our house. Blaine really gets a kick out of saying words in "two" languages. He's actually pretty good at it :).

Boom Boom, Go Away and The Wicked Big Toddlah have been favorite books here for a while, too. We all have them memorized, lol. Toddlah is, in a word, hilarious. And Boom Boom is pretty cute.