Chef Mimi Takes Halloween

I get the same few questions when I show up at said Halloween event with Chef Mimi
Did she pick it? Did you make that!?
Okay okay, no she didn't.  I planted the idea in her head, repeated it enough times, and got her so excited to be a chef that when she first put the costume on she was filled with the excitement of 100 Christmas mornings.  What's so wrong with that?  I wanted to make her something other than a fairy or princess that would be relatively easy to sew (and cheap).  It's made of lightweight cotton, so it can be good for hot weather or cool weather (with an under layer).  I also thought it would be cute to use the hat again while we bake together.  I used the Simplicity #3650 costume pattern from Joann's that I paid 99 cents for in August or September.  I spent $6 on fabric, and $4.50 on buttons.  So the total costume was under $12.  It took me approximately 6 hours to sew (broken up over 3 nights).

I am Halloweened out!  We have gone to two parties and one pumpkin patch/farm day.  We have watched the Charlie Brown Pumpkin Cartoon many times.  We have had pumpkin soup, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, etc.  We painted 3 pumpkins, picked out gourds at the farmer's market and mailed Halloween cards.  We read Halloween books.  We are tricker treating for 30 minutes tonight after dinner then I am putting Halloween to rest! We are done.   I think begin a SAHM and having time to actually celebrate and relish the holidays made me go a little holiday celebration overboard.  Don't get me wrong, I've had fun, but I've had my fill!

I'll share some photos from the festivities over the weekend.

on a train ride at a fall festival

with mamma at a fall festival

Scaring animals a petting zoo

Having some food at a fall festival with her pal the good fairy

Making faces at Papa

A little costume swapping going on at the park

Some bounce house playing at a fall festival

Me and a good friend at a fall festival

Looking like such a big girl with her Papa

Post Halloween Sugar Crash

A simple fall dress

 Another homemade creation....

I had bought this cool cotton fall fabric awhile ago (maybe even in August) that I wanted to use to make soem simple fall dresses for Mimi and her friend.  I had a pattern that my friend recommended to me called the "Best Bubble Dress" that was supposedly a fast and easy pattern for all sorts of cute dresses.  You can modify it and spice it up however you like.

I had printed out the pattern and even cut my fabric over a month ago, then with the pace of life, it was left unfinished on my shelf waiting for a quiet afternoon where Mimi took a long nap.  Finally, weeks later, I had my sewing machine out to finish up Mimi's Halloween costume (which came out awesome) and I figured, what the heck, let's go ahead and finish that fall dress while I had everything out and messy already.

I finished Mimi's dress but didn't have time to finish the one for her friend yet.  Here you can see how it turned out.  I paired it with cream tights from Gymboree and some black Mary Janes I got off of ebay for $2.

You want to sew one yourself?  Here's the link to the pattern and the shop.

"Best Bubble Dress" from BabesofSweet Shop on Etsy

Ouch

Ouch.

So we had an interesting week this week.  We were hit by a dumptruck.  Not bad damage for being hit by a dumptruck right!? 

The most important thing--no one was hurt, Mimi and I were/are fine.  Not a scratch on us.  The insurance company shook their booties and literally had a check in my hand for all the damages within 24 hours. What!? That's so efficient.  A+ review for Progressive from this driver.  The car needs a new front bumper, front right panel, and a light assembly.  $1650 later---we'll see what she looks like when they fix her up.  I'm not going to lie, part of me wanted them to total the car, which would mean this Mamma would be getting a "new" to me car, but alas, they did not and the ol' mazda will continue to be our grocery getter for another year or so until we save cashola to buy me a subaru.....

So the insurance company has requested to replace my carseat for me.  This is pretty cool since the carseat wasn't even damaged.  They are going to take my Britax wizard and refund me the full price of a comprable seat.  They don't make the Wizard anymore, should I get the Advocate, the Boulevard or another Marathon?  We already have two other seats (the Marathon and Roundabout) the one in my car was actually our backup seat, but it was my favorite for long trips because her head didn't flop when she slept and she consequently slept longer.  

Flashback Fun

OMG how did she grow so fast?!  Today was a bad day. This post makes me feel happier.  I miss having a little baby but I love having my little girl too.

October 2009

October 2010

October 2011

Working Mom Magazine

Somehow I was randomly signed up for a subscription to "Working Mother" magazine. So strange, I never signed up for it, but it gets mailed to me each month now for 2 or 3 months. 

Today I was reading it while I waited for Mimi to fall asleep, because I can't do work while I can hear her tinkering in her room getting into trouble.  The articles were about "work life balance" and "dividing chores with your husband" "maximizing your morning routine" and other such multitasking articles.

After reading the article on "work life balance" I thanked god (and my husband) 1,000 times in my head that I don't have to find a "work life balance" anymore.  I think back on the days when I woke up and left the house before Mimi even woke up most days.  How I only got to spend 2 hours with her before she had to go to sleep.  How the weekends were lazily spent recovering from the mess of the week.  How we never had time to do outings or make it to storyhours.  How I never cooked dinner or even did the shopping.  How Mimi spent so much more time with my husband that she would call for him in the night if she awoke.  How I cried almost everyday at how unhappy I was.

I look forward to my next pregnancy, carelessly taking naps with Mimi in the afternoons.  I look forward to never worrying about "getting a spot reserved" at a daycare.  I look forward to bringing my next baby home (someday) and never having to leave my baby to go back to work.  

Having me be a SAHM takes a lot financial sacrifices for our family.  We don't go on vacations, or drive fancy cars, or live in a spacious glorious house, or go to nice dinners (or even not so nice dinners).  I wouldn't give up my new SAHM gig for any of those things right now.  Mimi and I have become inseparable pals.  I feel like I know her like no on else.  

I am happy that I did have to work full time for that year (well okay it was 11 months) because it makes me not take my new "job" for granted.  Who wouldn't want to get to sneak up on your kid quietly finger painting in her room?

Just a Normal Saturday...

Every Saturday we venture to our Farmer's market to pick up our CSA and get coffee and a bagel.  Lately we've been riding our bikes there, especially with the cooler weather. Today we picked up or veggies but the coffee lady was not there! It was a tragedy.  We were forced to get breakfast tacos at the place next store, which was pretty fun as well.

We stopped at the playground on the way back and let Mimi play for an hour. Now it's naptime.  Hope you're all having a great Satruday.

This is me no makeup, before coffee.

Hat:  American Eagle
Scarf:  Ebay Fake Pashmina
Shirt:  Target
Cutoffs:  Made from American Eagle Jeans
Shoes:  Target

Mimi
Hat:  Etsy
Shirt:  Gymboree
Pants:  Gymoboree
Shoes:  Striderite
Scarf:  Target
Attitude:  Negative

An Evening With Sophie

We were so lucky to get a night with our bud Sophie tonight. Her parents are here in town for a wedding this weekend and let us take her for an evening while they were attending to wedding stuff with their friends.  What a treat.

We intended to go to the bounce house place that I love, but with timing and traffic and such that didn't pan out, so we headed for the park and got in some beautiful fall evening playtime.  I purposely brought my camera to try to get some photos of the girls together. The lighting was perfect (in my amateur opinion) for those soft glowing fall pictures. The girls had a ball.

We picked up some pizza and had apples and pizza for dinner at the apartment.  I think it's funny that her daughter asked for more apples, my daughter asked for more pizza! Doh! They played and took a bath and cuddled up in their jammies until Sophie's momma came to get her.

It's weird, I haven't know Courtney for that long, a little over 2 years, but I feel like we're great friends from way back. I feel so comfortable around her, I can be myself, uncensored, opinionated, flawed and in sweat pants 99% of the time and I know she accepts me.  I feel relaxed around her (and her entire family) and never feel like I have to act different, or parent differently.  I thank god for putting such great people in my path, no matter how unorthodox that path is.

Ah...now for my jammies....

Sweet Potato Pie Virgin

Not only had I not ever baked a sweet potato pie, I had never even tasted one. With the abundance of sweet potatoes filling up our CSA box this past month, I couldn't resist but lose my sweet potato pie virginity.  That just sounds weird, but you get it....

I just googled a good recipe that I had all the ingredients on hand for (obviously other than the sweet potatoes) and went to town.  Here's the recipe I used.  I made some modifications.  I used a little over a lb of sweet potatos, used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white instead of 1 cup white, I also added two tablespoons of lemon juice and one tablespoon of flour.  I also cheated and used a premade crust because I am way too lazy these days to make my own crusts.  Those days I fear are long gone after having kids.....

Overall I found the recipe pretty easy to follow and it came out fine even for a newbie to this recipe.  I definitely enjoyed the piece I had the next day more after it had chilled overnight.

We all loved it, complete with homemade whipped cream of course.  I had to pawn off the rest to unsuspected friends and passers by to avoid eating it all myself.  Mimi of course loved it, as expected.

if your wondering about the hat, she chose this for herself, very stylish right?

In our "cozies"

The last two days I've been sick as a dog.  The kind of sick where you KNOW god must be punishing you for something.  The kind of sick where you care barely drag yourself to the bathroom.  The kind of sick where you force yourself to drink gatorade even though you know you'll probably throw it back up. Yeah. NOT PRETTY. Luckily no on else was afflicted.  lol "Afflicted" sounds so bad ass.

I survived it (and lost 3 lbs)!  My husband had to take off work to take care of Mimi because I literally could not get out of bed.  Thank god, otherwise I have no idea what I would have done.  After about 24 hours of feeling like death I was able to shower and eat some applesauce.

This morning I'd say I'm back to 60% and hopefully back to 100% tomorrow.  Today, still somewhat under the weather, I laid low with the Mimester here at home and we wore our cozies.  We call our warm comfy clothes (sweats, fuzzy socks, hoodies, etc) our cozies.  It was actually only 75 today (and about 50 this morning) so Mimi and I did manage to walk buddy in our cozies.

We ventured out to whole foods later in the day and made a delicious organic chicken soup and organic (from scratch) sweet potato pie which I'll share the recipe and photos to later.

Hope you all are well and in your cozies!

Day Trip to San Antonio

We had a friend come for a visit, then continue on to San Antonio for a conference.  We drove her down there and spent the afternoon.  My husband has to go there often for work so he knew his way around, which was nice.

We did the riverwalk and made our way to the Alamo.  Not as spectacular as I imagined, but free, so it was cool.  There was some sort of protest going on while we were there too.

We had lunch at the most amazing German deli.  This place is the cutest little diner.  It reminds me of a quaint diner in a small town but with the tast of a NYC deli.  I had the Reuben, while hubs had the split pea soup. Mimi has a hard boiled egg and some pickles.

We were home in time for a quick ride to the park before dinner.  What a great short Saturday trip.  I think I would drive down again just for the split pea soup lol.

I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend.  I look forward to this week. I have no crazy obligation this week, so hopefully Mimi and I can relax, have fun, and I can get some work on done on my dissertation.  Talk to you all soon!

Obligatory Pumpkin Patch Photos

October feels more like fall then September did.  Last week I put a post about heading to Elgin for the fall festival at the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm.  Over the weekend it POURED rain here in Austin, so all the moms bailed on me because they were worried about mud.  THEY MISSED OUT.

We headed out there today on a beautiful cool overcast day.  They had all sorts of areas set up for photos, hayrides, train rides, pumpkin painting, face painting, playground equipment, corn mazes, and a petting zoo.

It was kind of fun that it was just me and Mimi.  It was like we were on a "mommy and me" adventure.  It was about a 45 minute drive out there, but we waited until after 10 to leave so traffic was not an issue.  

The farm kind of reminded me of fall in upstate NY where I grew up.   Because we had so much rain and clouds, it's been so cool here in Austin.  Mimi wore her lil' pumpkin shirt and brown cords.  It was fun to dress her in some "fall" clothes.   I on the other hand am glad I was not photographed.   Woke up this morning in a HORRID mood, so I threw on jeans and sneakers and a t-shirt and though who cares.  

Now we're home and Mimi is asleep and I'm going to take a long bath and clean up before dinner. Here are some photos from our day.