Won't You Take Me To.....SPoOky ToWn!

A few years ago I was in Michaels looking at the fall decorations when I came across this awesome display - an animated haunted town full of spooky buildings, creepy trees, graveyards, ghosts and monsters!! Never have I wanted to buy decorations the way I wanted these, but the pricetags were high and I wasn't in the market to spend that kind of dough. I committed the little town to memory and vowed to return the following year with cash in my pocket!

The next year I decided to play clever and showed up at Michaels the week after Halloween, hoping to start my Spooky Town collection at a drastically reduced price - only to discover that in the place of my much-coveted creepy town stood a supremely cheesy Christmas village!

Ugh!

This year I was ready. I showed up in SEPTEMBER to do some browsing. I discovered that not only was my beloved Spooky Town on display - it was ON SALE!! 40 PERCENT OFF!

Kids. I nearly had a heart attack.

THIS IS OUR YEAR! MWOO-HAH HAHAHAHAAA.

I let Logan start our Spooky Town collection. He chose a small, medium and large piece and I'm not sure who was more excited over it, him or me!

Our large piece is the Transylvania Zoo. (I tried to talk him into the Little Monsters' Schoolhouse, but he wasn't having any of it! Although we do love the zoo, so this is a good choice for our family!)

Is that cute or what??

See the monsters peeking out of the caged windows?

But that's not all. Turn on the animation and it becomes a showpiece!

There is lightning, movement, and there are creepy voices and howls from the werewolf (or weird-wolf, as Logan calls it).

I love the way the werewolf is manacled to the building.

Seriously, I could watch this thing go all night long! I love it!

The other two pieces we got were the Haunted Grove and this little skeleton dude on horseback, called "Trail of Terror."

When you turn on the Haunted Grove the little ghost shakes...

...and changes color!

I love our little Spooky Town, and I hope we've started a long tradition of collecting!

Maybe 2011 will be Claire's year to pick our new pieces? We'll see...

Love,
Mama

The September Garden

So if you've done everything right, or mostly right, throughout the season, September should turn out to be one of the prettiest months of the garden (tied with June, when your annuals should be growing readily and your perennials just starting to bloom.)

Here are a yellow dahlia, orange butterfly weed and purple ageratum.

The crepe myrtle looks spectacular.

The dahlias should be peaking....sadly, last weekend we had a massive hail storm that fairly decimated my dahlias - just when they were starting to be pretty!! That's the thing about gardening - no matter what you do, some times things are truly out of your hands. But, there are still some buds left that weren't knocked off and hopefully there will still be time for blooms before we get the frost!

The front of the house this month - this is the time for morning glories, impatiens and marigolds. Tomorrow the portulaca and marigolds will be gone to make room for my favorite - pansies!!

Snapdragons LOVE the cooler weather as well.

More of the picotee blue morning glory. Some of the blooms are doubles, like this one.

Nothing beats a mass of heavenly blue morning glories this time of year though!

Here is a super-sized dahlia from my front bed.

Check out the size of this guy! One flower is the same size as a whole bouquet. Now that is some real bang for the buck!

Aunt Katie Visits

Kids,

This week we got a rare visit from my cousin, your Aunt Katie! She and your great Aunt Joyce stopped by on their way home from the airport. We haven't seen much from Katie since she moved to California (almost) a couple of years ago. I have to hand it to her - she's made it out there a lot longer than I did! Good for her!

Aunt Katie's friend Jay came over for a visit as well. Katie has to try to squeeze a lot of people into a few days when she comes through, so we are all accustomed to sharing her by now. Plus, I enjoy meeting her friends when they stop by. We cooked out and enjoyed a beautiful evening outdoors. The moonflowers were blooming like crazy, and of course I had to show them off!

Grammy and Claire

Even Claire can't resist the scent of a newly opened moonflower!

Aunt Katie!

Aunt Katie and her friend Jay, looking suspiciously like they're on honeymoon somewhere! Hmmmm, premonition or coincidence?

I guess we'll find out!

Love,

Mama

Even Moms Want to Have Fun!

I know it doesn't seem right, but there are those rare occasions when I like to step out without kids in tow. Like when I'm going to one of my favorite places of all time - Montelle Winery.

This weekend I got to get together with Daddy's cousins' significant others. It was the first time I've had extended conversations with them without constant interruptions from the kids, and I have to say I had a really good time!

Here is your dad's cousin Danny's girlfriend, Brittney.

Cousin Mike's wife, Terri and cousin Tom's wife, Dawn.

Dawn sharing a funny story.

Looking out at this view, how you feel anything BUT relaxed?

Brittney and a rare photo of me!

Girls day out!

Claire All Over the Place

Dear Claire,

You are independent in ways your brother was not at this age. If I dare walk out of the room to check out my email while the other babies are napping, it's likely that I will come back upstairs to find the sliding door wide open and you and the dog running around in the backyard together.

.

Like on this day:

You're so much your own person with your own little agenda.

I love my little upside-down girl.

Love,

Mama

August At Random

Other pictures from August:

I took on a new baby boy to babysit when school started and Logan and C. went off to school.

My sunflowers in the backyard bloomed!

We messed around at home....

and danced in the kitchen...

(Sometimes we pouted in the kitchen....)

Love you, kids.

Mama