Eva Modeling - 20 months

Fall Fest 2014 - Aviano AB, Italy

ThE last couple of years we have been attending the Fall Fest on base. They have food booths, game booths, informational booths, bouncy houses, etc. They also hand out candy from the different booths. They do haunted houses and  cutesy house for the younger crowd. They also have beer and other things. To me, it's overrated but since my girls don't get to participate much in the Trunk or Treat that I host (because I'm too busy organizing and maintaining it), we take them any way. It is held in a parking lot and is very small. We were only there for about an hour. We got some candy, did a walk through sensory house, played with the pumpkins in the patch, and checked out all the costumes... aka people watched. We did eat, and my husband grabbed a beer.

The girls were obsessed with the ghost decor and insisted on kissing them :)

We also got a decent family picture!

Here's a few pictures from the evening.

Obesity Letter Over Candy Treats???!!!

Woman handing out obesity letters, not Halloween candy

Like seriously.... who does that?! Filling kid's Halloween buckets with letters calling them obese is definitely more 'trick' than 'treat'. I definitely do not agree with this way of addressing this important, yet very touchy, topic of childhood obesity.

In my opinion, this lady isn't doing anything for these kids. It is obvious that she feels that their parents are the ones responsible for the issue, but her words are so cruel and unkind. If she really wants to make a difference in childhood obesity, she needs to reach out in other ways and to the people she actually feels is responsible. This does absolutely nothing for those children other than belittle them. 

Also, it is the parent's choice on how they handle and parent their children. I definitely would not want someone telling me how to parent these children, let alone telling me what I can feed them. Of course, this is in the content that I am properly providing for them and not only giving them sugar to fuel their little desires. 

What about the older children who can read and understand such harsh words? The pre teens who are picked on daily for their weight, despite the fact that they eat fairly healthy and exercise. The ones who play sports, yet still carry some extra weight. That was me. 

Not to mention what drives these young teens to a level that no parent ever wants to endure.... suicide. Suicide over weight concerns and other physical attributes.... and the fact that others are judging them based on their outside and not getting to truly know them. You know... the silly stuff that this world has come to. 

Now to the real situation at hand.... This is one night for children to enjoy the extra candies, the fun of dressing up, and getting the surprise of the treats. Give them a break. 

If this woman was really concerned, maybe she could hand out some apples?? Or clementines that she sharpied to look like a Jack-o-lanterns?? That is actually a good idea. In fact, I wish more people did do this!

When it comes to ours girls and their candy, we let them gather one piece for 15 trunks or houses. We only trick or treat once, and we hand out for the remaining of the trick or treats that we are apart of. A is allowed a piece a day if she listens and has good behavior. Otherwise, she misses out on the candy. 

So how do you handle the candy afterwards? 1 piece a day? Free for all? For incentives?

Happy Halloween! 

Halloween Crayons: Pinterest Inspired

Most of my DIY ideas come from something from Pinterest. With Halloween here, I wanted to send my daughter to school with some fun goodie bags to give to her class. There are strict rules in the Italian schools. No chocolate, no hard candies, no small toys. With this in mind, I made a small full of surprises little bags to send home with the children.

The bags included Halloween shaped crayons, Halloween colored playdough, a small Halloween themed coloring book, and a medium size toy that can not fit in their mouths.

The playdough will be featured in the coming days, but today I wanted to share the crayons.

Melting crayons for art has been becoming very popular in the art and children's crafts world. My daughter is just now old enough to help with crafts, understand them, use them, and appreciate them. The concept of these crayons are easy.

Just use a silicone or metal pan/cup. Place broken crayons (with no paper) in the sections of the pan. Put in the over at 250 degrees for 20 minutes.

I used all colors just because i knew the kids would prefer that, but it would be awesome to really give each design a color that suit it. Like orange and black for jack-o-lantern, gray for gravestone, and so on.

A was able to help with and that was what was most important. She placed the crayons in the areas and in no order. She was so impressed with her creation. 

Linking to: The Weekly Creative

Fall Inspiration {Tutus}

As most of you know, I recently started up a page for all my creations. I have come across some adorable thoughts, so to google I go for images. I rarely use someone else's tutorial because I like to look at the pictures and get inspired with my own creativity and call it mine.

With Fall here and Halloween soon arriving, everything is covered in the fall colors, flowers, scents, and so forth. With that, I have thought of some adorable ideas for tutus (and other DIY's). I thought I would share some of the pictures here.

This post will be of things I could see putting Baby A or any other adorable little girl in for a pumpkin patch or fall pictures. I'll do another one of costumes I have thought of.

All pictures were found from google.

Scarecrow:

Turkey:

Pumpkins:

Candy Corns:

Fall Colors:

I can't wait to get moved in so I can start making more things!

Crib/Dresser-Halloween:

Over the weekend, we received our crib and dresser. At first, I was so worried that I was going to end up not liking it or it not matching the way I thought it would. But it worked out perfectly. I absolutely love it. I am so happy because it is exactly what I wanted. I originally really, really wanted a drop-side crib because I am so short, but as everyone knows they have been being recalled like crazy. They are also going out of style and so hard to find these days. We finally found one that we liked, but I was still scared about it. We put it in the room on Sunday, and it is perfect. It is so easy to work, has a drop-side, and matches everything already in there perfectly. I could not be happier.

Here is a picture of the set.

Since I never got around to telling everyone Happy Halloween, here it is!

These are from Week 17, the week of Halloween.