Use The Force

Some of us need the "force" more than others in our family.

Our kids are embracing Star Wars this year.  We have Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and a little Yoda.

Walker has been a good sport about being Yoda since the beginning. He even tells people willingly to, "Use the Force!"

I was not sure that I was going to get Georgia in the Leia costume until the last second. She kept insisting that she was pulling out an old princess costume to wear. I told her to just put the Leia costume on for a picture for me. She actually obliged, and once she was wearing it, I kept going on and on about how cute it was.
The next thing I knew we were out the door without a fight. I guess she decided she was going to be able to pull of Leia better than she had originally thought! That girl knows how to give her Mama a run for her money!

Will loves his costume so much that he has lost, and then found the pieces to it again, and again, because he keeps wearing it around the neighborhood. I have seen Darth Vader running down the street with his light saber in hand at least three times now in the weeks leading up to Halloween.

Wally was willing to be any Star Wars character except anybody from the "Dark Side."

Del and I decided once again this year that we should just accentuate our true colors. So we went as very last minute, thrown together, nerds.

I will post some of our Halloween festivities later. We have crammed quit a few in this 2012 season.

Walker's Room

I am finally getting around to putting up some pictures of my house. This is Walker's room/the guest room. He gets kicked out when we have company. 

It is nothing too fancy, or styled. But I am good with it being simple. I would say it is nothing special, but I think it is so cute how much Walker likes his space, so it is special to me in that way!

Please pardon my unexceptional photography. It is so hard to photograph interiors. Difficult to get the light to look right! Arrrrggg!

Because I am keeping guests in mind, as well as Walker, I wanted to go with a vibe that would be fitting for adults with just the removal of a few small things. So the room ended up not being very toddler-ish. I am good with that. I like that it can transition to a bigger boy room if we decide to move Wally across the hall in the future.

I pretty much used what I had for this room. I was not feeling any DIY projects when it came to the space. I did get a few new things, but what we had ended up fitting nicely. I had a rug in here, but ended up returning it because it felt too busy to me. I wanted a pretty neutral, calm feel. Maybe I will come across another one that I feel fits the room better. You may not care where I got stuff, but I will tell you anyway.
Walker's room is painted Cloud Cover, by Benjamin Moore.

The dresser is a Craig's List find that I painted before Walker was born, for his nursery. The mirror had been sitting in our storage room. So I pulled it out. The framed word cards are from a local antique shop. I put them in a frame.
The bed used to be mine and Del's. I grabbed a quilt at TJ Maxx, and just used white sheets for the other bedding. The pillow shams were picked up on clearance at Alice Lane while I was in Utah. I found the trellis pattern throw pillow on Etsy.

The chair is from on overstock/scratch and dent outlet in Milwaukee. It used to be in the basement. The bin is from Hobby Lobby. I got the pillow on Etsy. I wrote in a past post about how I must have hit submit twice on the order and I found myself with houndstooth pillows coming out my ears! I still have unused houndstooth in the closet!
And that is after using THREE others in the older boy's room!
I got the lamp from The Land of Nod. It was one of the new purchases for the room.

The fox/field print above the bed is from Etsy. I found the frame on clearance at Michael's and threw it together with mats and glass I had around the house. The ladder and blankets are from Walker's nursery. Originally, the ladder was in Georgia's nursery. I made it while I was pregnant with her.
Idea, courtesy of my friend, Leslie.

The drapes hung in the front room of our old house. The bamboo shade was left by the previous owner! Score!

Like I said, nothing fancy, but it is cozy enough for Walker!
And hopefully for anyone else who would like to come and visit! The door is always open, and Walker is willing to be a floater to accommodate our loved ones! Hope you like houndstooth!

Red Barn Farm

We made our trip to the pumpkin patch for the year. There is a really cute one really close to our house.

Now I don't have to feel quit as guilty about our house looking so boring compared to all our festive neighbors. At least we have a couple pumpkins on the porch. Good enough, right?

Then it was off to eat soup for dinner, and watch an extra spooky episode of Scooby Doo.

The kids are soooo excited for Halloween.

 I got their costumes yesterday, and as soon as Will saw his, he threw it on, and went outside. I saw him a minute later running down the street in his full Darth Vader costume, light saber, mask, and all. I laughed out loud when I looked out the window! Now it sits perfectly arranged on the ottoman at the foot of his bed. Ready for the big day!

The gang.

Me and my girlie.

The tunnel.

Minnetonka.

Ride em' cowboys! I love Walker in this picture!

I told my kids we are going to plant a ton of pumpkins and set them up with a stand to sell them on the side of the road next year, with a cardboard haunted house to crawl through, behind them. How can they charge such an insane amount for some gourds?! Sheesh! We could make a fortune!

A couple from Instagram.

That's all!

The Dells

The kids had almost an entire week off of school because of Parent Teacher conferences, and Columbus Day.

So the question of what to do over the long weekend arose yet again. It does every year. Every year we have big ideas.

We will drive to New York! (we do really need to do that!)

We will drive to Canada! (that was a new one.)

We will find a beach house up in Michigan. (yes, they have awesome beaches.)

Most years, we don't end up doing anything nearly as exciting as our plans would have us do.

Finally, Del talked me into two nights up in The Dells, Wisconsin. It is only a few hours away.

I must admit that I am not the biggest fan of the indoor water park. And the Midwest has plenty of them.
Huge warehouses, with water slides, and fountains of,  just a little too cold water, pouring all around you. I used to have more patience for them.

But now in my old age, they have lost their appeal. Basically, if I am wet, I am cold. Add years of chasing babies through the water because they need constant supervision for two or three full days at these parks, and I am burned out.

So, as I said, Del talked me into it. And of course the kids could not have been any more in love with the whole thing.
We stayed in a condo on the Lake at the massive Wilderness Resort. And while I may not be jumping in the car full of excitement to return, any time soon...

I must admit that it was kinda fun.

Or it could have been a lot worse.

Okay, it was kinda fun.

Anyway, having the kids be even just "that" much older this time around made the whole experience a lot less stressful than the last time we were there.

It is fun to watch the kids have fun.

Oh, and one cool thing that happened while we drove up there, was that the entire opposite side of the highway was closed off as we approached Madison.

I knew President Obama was campaigning at the collage campus there that day.
And sure enough, after a few miles, about 15 police motorcycles, then cars, came down the other side of the road. Then the two important looking black cars with the American flag, and the Presidential seal came cruising down the middle of the highway, with another dozen cars following.

I will come right out and admit now, that I am rooting for the other guy in the upcoming Presidential election. That would be Mitt Romney. But there is definitely a level of respect and awe for the office of President of the United States that you feel when you see those cars, that flag, and that seal go by.

I love America!
But my, oh my, when the President comes to town, and shuts down half the freeway for miles, and miles,traffic becomes a disaster!