When the boys got here, we gave them their dog tags, assigned them to alpha and bravo teams, and painted the faces of those who were interested in camouflage makeup.

Then Chris lined them up and put them through some ceremonial drills.

Then they went on a road march.  That speck is actually boys.

Of course, we can’t do a party without the obstacle course.  It has become a tradition. 

They had to swing across

Walk across a low balance beam and high scaffold then army crawl under the “barbed string”

Through the “jungle”, beat up the “bad guy”, and then up the ladder

Down the slide and under the deck to safety.  (or in this case, silliness)

We let the boys all have a dry run before we set out the “mines” (water balloons) 

After blindfolding them and having them help each other through a minefield, we turned them loose on each other with about 150 water balloons and squirt guns.  Our cameras aren’t waterproof so there aren’t any pictures of that.  Needless to say, the boys had much fun and got plenty wet and dirty in the process.

I let them play “carry the wounded soldier” for a little bit to help them unwind before being asked to be civilized long enough for cake and cheese puffs.  (Thomas requested the cheese puffs.)

I’m going to go a bit on a tangent for a moment and share about the cake.  Thomas requested that I make the batter camouflage, so I mixed it up in 4 different colors and plopped it into the cake pan.  Here’s what the cake looked like when it was mostly done, but before I added the detail work.

And after (Michael said “wow” enough times to make me feel good about all the time I put into it.)

The guests seemed to get a big kick out of it (even though the cheese puffs tried to steal the scene)

Thomas blew the candles out and the cake was history.

There was a quick exchange of gifts before the boys got busy with their water guns again.  They picked up goodie bags and their certificate promoting them from recruit to private on the way out the door.  They all left wet and worn out.  Most of them complained that they had to go home, so I’m assuming they were having fun.  I got a kick out of all the water wars.  Too bad I missed getting those pictures though.

The fabric is “patchwork” so, no, I didn’t sew a bazillion squares together to make this.  It was in the remnants bin at Wal-mart and looked fallish. 

After that, I took 2 yards of fabric that was originally intended to be part of my quilt that Mom made us.  It just didn’t quite fit in right with the other fabrics I had selected so we left it out.  I basically did the same thing with this one I did with Kinley’s.  I just did the sleeves a little differently and added about 5.75 yards of eyelet lace to the bottom tier and sleeves.  Gloria sees it and asks to put it on so she can “dance her dress.”  She has learned to twirl in it!

And to get a better idea of just how much fabric is around the bottom:

It hasn’t been washed yet.  It probably won’t ever stand up like this again!

Then this little girl from church showed up in a short sleeved peasant dress much like this next one.  I picked out some fabric that looked fallish and did long sleeves and this is what turned out.

It looks much cuter on the toddler than in the picture.  She’ll be wearing it tomorrow for Thanksgiving and I will try to get a good action shot of her filling it up.

And lastly, I fell in love with this Christmas fabric.  By the time I had decided exactly which fabric to pair it up with, it was time to feed the toddlers and get them in bed for a nap, so I did a really quick guestimation of how much of each fabric I wanted.  With the odd amounts I had cut, the dress practically made itself.  It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the fabric with red on green had a bit of metallic gold thread in the design that gives it a bit of sparkle.  I haven’t tried it on her with the red ribbon around the waist yet.  It may be too thin, but I sure like the way it looks on the hanger.

I have one last style kicking around in my head that I would like to sew up this season in a fabric I saw while picking out the Christmas fabric.  Then, I promise, I’ll be done with dresses.  Until summer.

Peter Pan:
I found a peasant top tutorial online and modified it by replacing the elastic around the neck with a drawstring and cutting a short slit down the center front to make it look more “pannish” and less girlie. His pants were fleece pants from a pattern I use regularly for both kiddos. I guessed at the measurements for the hat, made out of the same fleece as the pants, and came up with something fairly presentable. I got lazy with the belt and just cut a length of brown fleece and tied it. I am truly proud of his little elf shoes. Again, I modified a pattern I found online to make some cute, pointy, soft soled elf shoes that fit Daniel for about a week before he outgrew them. (Good thing I made them close to Halloween!)

Tinkerbelle:
This turned out practically elegant. They had this lovely shade of green satiny fabric on sale at Hancock’s the day I went looking. I took the standard jumper I use for many of Gloria’s dresses and just cut the bottom jagged and lined the entire thing because the idea of hemming the bottom just boggled my mind. Daddy insisted on bloomers, so those were added from the same fabric. There was just enough after that to make her some sweet little slippers (same pattern minus pointy toes). The wings were in a bag of dress up clothes a friend handed down to Gloria. Whew! No stressing over bent hangers.

The day before Halloween we took a little trip to see Daddy at work all dressed up. There is a neat area with some ferns under the trees that just seemed perfect for little fairies and elves.

Exploring the Ferns

More Tink

Tink in the Ferns (I absolutely adore this one!)

Peter Pan with no hat

Lookin for his shadow? (maybe his hat!)

Ta Da

Ta Da Again (And the only decent shot of Tink’s wings)

Tink spent a good while having to sit still while her mother configured her hair into the traditional Tink pouf-bun the best she could with that baby fine hair.

Peter Pan was ready to go! He even wore his hat-for a few minutes.

This picture is fuzzy, but Daniel is smiling, you can see Gloria’s do, and the neat pumpkins Michael carved are visible.

This next one just cracks me up. The look on Daniel’s face, the position of the kids’ pumpkins, the pose just all look so funny to me.

Halloween evening was a little bit chilly, so we added a white turtleneck and fleece pants. And no, no socks. Those little slippers are lined with more white fleece.

Another view of that topknot.

Evil Tinkerbelle, shooting me with her magic stick.

Enjoying his candy
 

Finally smiling for the camera on purpose!
 

So Daniel went first:

In the chair…

The preparation:

The Cut (shock the mommy)

Just keep that candy coming:

I have her right where I want her:

That was easy!

Gloria was supposed to go first, but bumped her head on something while we were waiting so we thought we would give her a break and let Daniel go first.  She didn’t want to go second either though, so Thomas went next:

He, of course, was just fine with having his hair cut, but he did request to keep his sideburns (like Indiana Jones).  I didn’t get a picture, but I think his haircut now looks like Spock.

Gloria didn’t want to go after Thomas either so I got my hair cut.  Nothing interesting there, except that for having no hair on top, she sure got a lot of hair off of my head somewhere.

And finally Gloria:

Can you smile? (Daniel did!)  I recommend click on this picture to see the full size version.  That way you can see Daniel smiling in the background:

Oh you were talking to me?:

Look in the mirror:

But the only way this was possible…

She had to sit in daddy’s lap:

Thank you Miss Amanda for being so patient with us:

And just so you know, haircuts cost a lot more than two bits and you don’t even get a shave with it.

The view from the ship:

Two other cruise ships docked close to us:

The gorgeous blue water:

On the island, we visited "Discover Mexico" where they had all of these really neat scaled down models of the various ruins throughout the country.

Then some colonial models:

And modern day architecture:

Then some evil mystery bug bit/stung Thomas:

But he was brave and let an iguana sit on his shoulders in spite of his injury.

Then we went to Chankanaab park to eat lunch and swim.  (Had to look at the picture to spell it!)

The "lagoon"

Complete with cool coral formations:

Before swimming, we ate lunch:

And complained about the heat

And enjoyed the view

And listened to the local musicians serenade Gloria

Then we went SWIMMING!

Daniel, Michael, and Thomas all went swimming, too, but we didn’t have enough hands to hold everyone and a camera at the same time!

Then we went back to the ship and crashed!

she was saying “No daddy.  No picture.”

And trying to hide…

He took a nap. 

I don’t think I could have PAID someone to put this in better.  At least I know the hiss isn’t my brains leaking out.  Sheesh!