From Our Front Porch Looking In: Crafty

Who freaking knew I could be so crafty? When it comes to being creative, I suck. I mean I can problem-solve and come up with "creative" solutions to every day problems but I consider those to be ingenuity, not true creativity. I can HOWEVER follow instructions like a motherfucker! A few months ago, I "directed" my husband through installing our garage door opener. Piece of cake. In fact, if I was as strong as most men, I could have done it alone. My neighbor was even impressed. I believe his exact words were "Wow, that's not easy. There are whole companies that do nothing but install garage doors." So recently a facebook friend was posting about making her girls tutus as part of their Halloween costumes. She said it was really easy. I remembered lots of cute pics of little girls in tutus I had seen recently and instantly decided that I could so this. I could come up with some cute tutu costumes for my girls. I did a little googling and discovered that there is a whole tutu universe out there. I followed the instructions from this momblog and with a little insight from my girls, I made Ava a "Cheerleader Fairy" (her words) and Emma a "Graveyard Fairy". I thought they came out pretty cute and were much less expensive and more practical than spending money on a Party City costume.

Here are some more photos from Halloween, which I have come to realize, sucks in Texas. The real fun of Halloween is wearing your costume to school and becoming that character for the day. I mean did it not complete your life when the boy you crushed on was dressed as tarzan to your Jane? Or your arch enemy was dressed as a witch or a dog? Unfortunately, when we researched places to live and school districts, it never crossed our naive liberal California minds that religion (you know that thing that is supposed to be separate from state) would play such a huge role in the school district's policies :( Halloween is too evil to be celebrated (oh and sex is too gross to be discussed. Yes, our district teaches abstinence but that is a whole other blog rant...). Ava did get to dress up for her "Harvest Fest" but Halloween was a little anti-climatic for Emma who would have loved to see more of her friends dressed up. Here are some more pics from Ava's preschool parade and Halloween night. Vinny dressed up as a golfer.

The kids did have a good time Trick-or-Treating. Emma went all over the city with her two bffs and even went to a rockin party at another friend's house. She didn't even come home until well after 10. But the little kids barely made it around the big block. They weren't even gone long enough for Amanda and I to finish one beer. They got tired and came home only to get ramped up on sugar. Vinny will regret this later in life when I show it to the first girl he brings home. :))