Archive for October, 2011

We are moving this Saturday!

To my parents’ house.

Yep.

Our family of 6 will be squeezing into the 2 bedroom 900ish square foot upstairs.

Cozy.

I’m going to pretend we are urban cool and living in an upscale NYC apartment. Wouldn’t 900 square feet be like a mansion in NYC, right??

We’ve taken an unofficial survey among our friends and random strangers I stand next to in lines (yes, I’m “the overly chatty line girl”) and according to the people who have lived with their (or their spouse’s) parents – about 90% say it’s horrible and 10% say its awesome.

Only time will tell.

I’m pretty sad to move. I absolutely L-O-V-E south county – our friends, our church, Eli’s school and the home we’ve been renting for 2.5 years.

Since I’m so melancholy, I’m trying to only think about the things I won’t miss and what I’ll be excited about as we embark on this new journey in our lives. Starting off with getting to use phrases like “embark on this journey,” because when can you ever say that???!?!?!

What else?

Mmmmm…

Our current place has these in every bathroom:

I hate these. Hate hate hate!

That’s all I can think of right now.

Any tips or trips for living with parents???

One another note, do you know what you’re going to be for Halloween yet? My big kiddos pick theirs (pirate and Rapunzel) Cy is going to be a matching pirate with Eli (poor 3rd child has the hand-me-down costume). Hot Hubby and I are going to be Popeye, Olive Oil (hells yeah, we dress up!) and Tess is Sweet Pea.

I just saw this costume and I’m not sure I can pass it up! Only $19 at Old Navy!!

(If you know what my hubby does for a living you can REALLY understand my moral obligation for this costume!)

What are you going to be??

Family theme??

We were invited to go check out Knott’s Berry Farms Camp Spooky.

So fun!!

We started the day with breakfast at Lucy’s Lunchbox as the Peanuts characters came around to meet us – dressed up for Halloween of course! There was one friendly monster that most kiddos weren’t too hot on… I’ll let you guess which one it was… (monster pic stolen from my friend Kyla) 

Kiddos are encouraged to dress up and get trick-or-treat all over Camp Spooky but parent costumes aren’t allowed. As much as I love to dress up for Halloween I LOVE this rule. It made me feel good to know adults who might dress too scary or skanky wouldn’t be allowed with the kiddos.

Camp Spooky was decorated for fall – even a haystack maze. And you know a trip to Knott’s wouldn’t be complete without rides rides rides…

MORE FALL SUFF:

~ The Discovery Science Cube has their Bug Invasion Exhibit again! YAY! I didn’t get a chance to go this year but check out my post from last year. It’s super fun. Especially for lil’ boys. Also it is a hop-skip-and-jump away from the Pumpkin Factory. So you can check out the bugs then get all your pumpkin fun done in one day. They have games and kiddo activities galore!

~ The Cube is also hosting their annual Pumpkin Launch event on November 5th. We have never been but it looks like SO MUCH fun. It’s at Cal State Fullerton (where I got married) and I’m 99% sure we’ll be there this year!! Meet us!!

~Pretend City has a new program called Baby Steps. It’s pretty cool! They close down the Library, Café, and Construction Site from 2-3:30pm certain days and parents get to engage in age-appropriate facilitated activities with their infants, 0-16 months old! If you are interested the next one is this Monday the 24th, details here!

AND…

…the winners for the OC Mommies Discount Club Cards are

Christine

Jami

Kyla

Naomi

Congrats all!! I’ll be sending you an email for your address to send out your card!!

Our favorite Halloween tradition is BOOing! (see last year) You make a simple “BOO” sign and put together a fun treat or goodie bag, then secretly put it on your neighbors’ door at night. Included is a fun poem which instructs them to do the same to two other neighbors. It’s a chain letter of fun! Before you know it your whole neighborhood is covered in BOO signs (unless you have a neighbor who returns your BOO… still in shock about that!!). It’s super fun for the kiddos (and parents).

We let the kiddos go crazy at the dollar store for the goodies and we did 6 BOOs to get a healthy start in our neighborhood.

We got our night camo on (aka washable black marker) and of course our Lids…

(side note: Tessa’s Lid was a bit loose so I put one of those crochet headbands under the brim to keep it snug.)

(when am I going to learn to put on make-up before we do something I KNOW I’lll blog about?? Blarg!)

Every time a car goes by we all dive into the bushes or hide behind trees. We looked pretty shady jumping into shrubbery with our double stroller in tow, but the kiddos take this all very seriously and we had to follow suit.

Isn’t being a parent soooooo rad!!!!!

We always pick the houses with the most décor because I think they are more likely to actually do the BOO fun!

Who knows.

One neighbor had a fog machine and I almost stole some wreaths from another neighbor.

Is it odd that I think we would be friends because we have the same taste in wreaths?? I also peeked in their windows and we have the same style. (You can’t deny it’s fun to be a window peeker!! The non creepy kind… the I wanna check out your decorating kind.)

We go Booed the next night.

And the circle of BOO love came… um… full circle.

And now we get to do two more houses.

Doesn’t get better than that!

Side Note:

Cy is growing up. Is there any way to stop time because I’m going to go cry in a corner now…

(Cy BOOing at 4 months & 16 months)

I know.

I was going to put up this giveaway on Friday.

But one thing led to another and I was changing diapers, nursing or crying..

I’ve got the baby blues.

Boo.

Maybe because I still look 5 months preggers (ok… more like 8 months preggers) and I’m in my jammies all day. Did I mention all the poo I have to put up with at my job??? (Not my Eli’s Lids job, that’s awesome!) More like this kind of poo…

That’s why this sweet giveaway is close to my heart!

New jammies!!

Wendy over at Beverly Hills Basics sent me these awesome owl jammies AND is letting me give a pair of jammies to one of you!! YAY!!

The Beverly Hills Basics line is made in the USA, the fabrics are beautiful and top notch quality! I love that the tops are nice and long… aka you can answer the door and not feel like you are exposing the goods to the neighborhood. I actually like the top so much I might upgrade it out of the PJ drawer and into the tank top drawer!

The cuteness of the pattern can totally take your mind off a crying baby or laundry on the floor that needs to be folded.

See…

They have all sorts of styles…

Prize:

One Beverly Hills Basic PJ of your choice!!

How to win:

Leave a comment on this post with a favorite movie or show you love to watch in your jammies on a day at home. (I’m looking for more nursing shows!!)

Extra Entries: (you know you want them)

~Go to Beverly Hills Basics and leave a link in the comments section of this post with your favorite Beverly Hills Basics PJ style (5 entries)

~Like Beverly Hills Basics on Facebook (1 entry)

~Let your friends know about the giveaway in your FB status with a link to this post: http://www.elislids.com/Beverly-Hills-Basics  (2 entries)

~Like Eli’s Lids on Facebook or let me know you already do (1 entry)

~Follow Beverly Hills Basics on twitter (1 entry)

~Follow Eli’s Lids on twitter or let me know you already do (1 entry)

~Subscribe to the Eli’s Lids Newsletter or let me know you already do (5 entries)

For every extra entry, be sure to leave a separate comment on this post! i.e. If you follow Eli’s Lids on Facebook, and Facebook about the giveaway leave 3 separate comments!

***Giveaway ends Monday October 24th, 9pm.***

Sometimes after folks buy Lids they send me pictures of their adorable kiddos wearing them (or post them on our Facebook page).

I love it.

Like really LOVE it.

Because I really think people who buy Lids are my friends.

Is that weird??

Anyway, each Sunday I’m going to feature one of the Kids in Lids pictures sent to me!

My friend Shelby (you should check out her blog) tweeted me this picture last week of her son Tyler (5 years old) in the Black Snowboarder Lid she won from the Register’s OC Moms blog! The caption said…

“101 degrees out, but he wants to wear his new @elislids hat.”

Does this kid have style or what?? Thanks Shelby for sharing! I hope Tyler didn’t pass out from heat stroke.