Still waiting.

I am sorry but obviously I am still behind on posting about our recent weekend away. It's such a shame as we are leaving on Friday for our next weekend away so I hope that I get my butt into gear and get it going, don't you?

Well, to recap I have had a trip to the Drs this week. Unfortunately, the sickness that has plagued us here at Casa de Kulhan spread to my ear and throat and I have had a rather annoying earache that presented itself in all its glory on Thanksgiving Eve. I didn't go to the Dr until the day after Thanksgiving when Ibuprofen wouldn't make a dent in the pain. I'm waiting for the antibiotic level to build up in my system as Day Two is proving to be as painful as before Day One. Not happy. It's lucky that I am quite adept at Cyber shopping.

However, we did manage to get Santa photos done. Now I know that I have just prattled on about how much pain the ear was causing me but I was doped up on the pain meds and able to not lean over too much. But I digress... The kids freaked out about the big man. Yes, not happy at all. All it took was one look at Santa and Kendall said no with Sydney at least agreeing to hit the line. It was when we got to the front of the line that Sydney proved to be rather adept at trying to run up our bodies to get away. Yes, I liken it to when you try to bath a cat and luckily Storm was with me to help cope. The only way that we could get anything resembling a photo was to sit beside (Storm with Kendall) and on Santa's lap (Me with Sydney). Both girls look rather disgusted and unamused in the pic. I am planning on scanning it in shortly. Probably tomorrow.

Thanksgiving was spent with our neighbours next door. They had their family over and us all over which was a nice way to spend the day. It was really nice to not have to drive. They deep fried the turkey (tasted good! and I DO NOT like turkey) and had all the usual sides (green bean casserole, yams, mashed potato, gravy, pies etc) which was lovely. We ate and frank until we were all full. The kids (theirs and ours) played nicely and so did the dogs (yes we brought the boys over and both Rudy and Oscar played with Jax for hours!).

Anyway.

So next weekend we're off to Fredericksburg for their Christmas festival. We're arriving in time for the Santa parade and the lighting of the tree. Looking forward to it a lot as (finally) the weather will be somewhat winterish/cooler and feel a little like Christmas. I was getting worried that we'd have an Aussie Christmas day where we wake up, unwrap presents, eat breakfast and hit the breach before coming back for a cold lunch and a nap in the afternoon before hitting leftovers. Ahhhh. Sorry - memories. I must admit that Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas unless it's cold.

So the tree is up and all is decorated and blinged out in the Christmas fashion. I love it. We're watching Hallmark and LMN movies with all sorts of Christmas themes (corny but fun!) and I have the pine tree/clove/cinnamon scents going through the house.

So Syd is trying to climb out of her crib. Yes, I am trying to keep them there as long as possible but I'm afraid it will not be long until she's successful at escaping. I am so dreading it.

Anyway, I have to run and get some more ibuprofen so I can sleep. My ear hurts more when I lay down.

I will get the piccies soon - I promise!

Back online - well sort of

The sickness has not left the Kulhan household. Both the kids and I are still struggling with sore throats and earaches on a variety of levels. When I picked up the girls from daycare yesterday I was told by the teachers that Sydney had not stopped coughing all day. Poor love couldn't even drink her juice on the way home from school as she kept spitting it up with every cough. So I ended up taking her to the Drs yesterday (new doctor as ours - which I hated - weren't working) . They tested her for RSV and the flu which thankfully came back negative for both but ending up prescribing a steroid and antibiotic. She's still having coughing moments so the meds are taking a while kicking in. She did spend last night with us and it was rough for all involved. Poor love.

I just hope that Kendall isn't going to be as affected as Syd was but I don't hold out much hope.

Anyway, back to posting piccies.

Halloween:
As I wrote in previous posts, Mum bought the girls some harem costumes when she was in Turkey earlier this year. The girls loved them a lot with the jingling coins on the fringe of the hats.

We went trick-or-treating with our next door neighbours, Corey, Amanda and their 2 year-old Kady. Kady was dressed up a Little Red Riding Hood and was quite happy to be pulled around in their little red wagon like ours.

Unfortunately, Kendall was in a difficult mood. She wasn't happy posing for pics and had a couple of moments wanting to be "that child". There was a breeze that night which made the girls rip their hats off due to the wind blowing the veil back into their face. So we only managed to get a couple of pics that are actually decent.

Here is a pic of Syd with a face on. BTW - Don't you love that Oscar is coming around Corey's car in the background? He was loving just running around.

 Syd and Kady posing.

 Me struggling with Kendall. She was in such a foul mood.

 All three girls took quite well to going up to the houses so much that by the third house there was no hesitation and even the occasional knocking on the door/ringing the bell. We couldn't get the "Trick-or-treat" chant out of them - oh well, maybe next year.

 I wanted to get in the piccies of my recycled halloween deccies. Yes, the milk cartons that were drawn on and then had the lights placed inside actually looked quite good. The only problem was that some of the lights failed. So it should have had a bucketload more impact. Shame.

I'll try and get the pics of last weekend's trip to New Braunfels and our Wurstfest experience online soon. We're off to Fredricksberg in a couple of weekends for their Christmas parade and Santa visits so I need to clear the memory card. We've also got the trip to Greenville, SC a month after that so we've got lots of piccie opportunities coming up.

Sorry

Am really sick and will get my butt into gear to post the Halloween night piccies soon.

Sorry but my throat and head are a'hurtin. Real bad.

Halloween decor

Here is a couple of pics of around the home of the halloween decor.

I took on few craft projects this year and was very happy with the results. Next year will only get easier and better as I've got more plans in my head.

The front porch. It was so hot this year and I was worried about the pumpkins staying ok for the duration. I never planned on carving them as they would have rotted out really quickly.

 We saved up a bucketload of the gallon-sized milk jugs. We cut the backs out of them and drew some faces on them then put lights in them to light them up at nighttime. Unfortunately my camera doesn't take night piccies (sorry I don't know how to use my camera to take night piccies) so I don't have much of the final look. But it did look good.

 By not carving up the pumpkins I actually managed to save this "Queensland Blue" looking pumpkin for eating. Yes, I had roast pumpkin last night and yummmmmmmyyyy!

 Inside the house..with my fave wicker pumpkins from Target. (I so miss living near a Target!)

 I made this one. The plastic eyes on the center circle were hot glued and it left a lovely trail of glue that looked like spider webs. Enjoyed making it.

 My cabinet from Craigslist. I still need to paint it (and have all good intentions of doing so of course!) but I love it for holiday decor.....

 A glass full of eyes.

 My halloween tree.

 I made the cheesecloth ghost...

 I made the cheesecloth mummy (sensing a theme here yet?) and the wicker tree with candy corn ribbon. I also made the piccies of the orange pumpkins in a frame.

In looking back over these photos I realize that I missed quite a few things. I'm quite disappointed in the fact that the broomstick hangout didn't get immortalized and my main door Boo wreath also missed the cut. I also didn't take a piccie of the decor on the library shelves. All the decor for halloween is down now - only the fall decor is still out (but christmas is not that far away and a month is too short for christmas in my eyes so the fall stuff will be gone real soon....)

Mmmmm. Love it!

Halloween catchup time.

I know but I pulled the piccies off the camera last night and it was late so I had to wait until today to get them posted.

Oh well better late than never huh?

So, I'll start first with costumes. Mum bought the girl's both harem costumes when she was in Turkey this year. So cute but the girl's are fairly messy when it comes to food, drink etc and I didn't want to get the good costumes wrecked so I came up with another solution for the halloween party. A new costume!

Now I have had the sewing machine out for a bit, making curtains for the girl's room and kitchen etc so I thought that I would "whip" up something.

So after a bit of searching through their closet and my fabric stash I cam up with the thought of a Supergirl outfit. They already had the deep blue star skirts and I had a huge roll of red satin (I know! How fortuitous!). I thought it was cute the way it turned out - what do you think?

 Not quite sure what's running through Syd's head as she's posing for this piccie but she sure pulled it outta nowhere!

 It's disappointing but this is one of the only piccies that I have of one of them standing up in the costume. It was extremely difficult to get them to pose standing up and looking at me. Such a shame.

 I did have plans for putting their initials on their shirts but ran out of time.

They really enjoyed wearing the cape and kept it for long after the hair had been pulled out of the pigtails. It's now going into the fancy dress clothesbin for dress-up days! So much fun!

Anyway, another sewing project that I completed was the girl's candy corn shirts. They looked so cute in them. Candy corn is not a well-known candy in Australia and I'm not a big fan of it but I enjoyed making these for them. Teamed with a tule skirt and some black leggings, they were ready for the orange and back day at school!

 Here they are begging me to let them dance. We have a Tippie Toes dance CD that the girls enjoy bopping along to at every opportunity...

 And what's dancing without some wild arm movements?

 And a jump or two....

 Well, maybe just a listen will do for Kendall.

I enjoyed this sewing effort of mine and am very much looking forward to next year. I am seriously considering a family outfit. All I have to do is talk Storm into it!