Only 30 Days till Halloween

Did you know?

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to decorate for!

Today we took the kids and picked out their costumes. 
Yes, it may be a tad early, but, I have LOTS to do before the special day arrives.

Oh my home has been busy with activity;

unpacking boxes full of skeletons, bats, witches and pumpkins, OH MY.

BOO!

I am also preparing for our 3rd Annual Halloween Costume party.

The invitations are made and ready to be delivered.

I am currently working on new decorations for this year.

How about you?

Do you decorate for this holiday?

Or

ARE YOU SCARED OF GHOSTS AND GOBLINS?

Fall Stalks

While the Mr. is away, the wife will play!

Now that the weather has become cooler, I have been more in the mood to do things around the house.

Weeding the flower beds.

Planting mums and a few transplants.

Decorating the house for fall.

I bought some corn stalks and decided today would be a great day to enhance them.

AND, make a huge mess on the kitchen floor.

I love how the white and dark brown look together.

A simple burlap bow.

The poor dove doesn't know there is a crow at the top waiting for Halloween to come.

A good friend of mine showed my how to enhance my corn stalks. 

She used to sell these in her shop for big bucks, thanks Nancy for teaching me how to make mine.

Now I couldn't imagine putting out plain corn stalks.

I added a 2 foot long button garland.

I am going to make another corn stalk for the back deck using the traditional colors of fall.

I think this one will be my favorite, I may have to make one for the dinning room too.

It is a beautiful sunny day so I have work in the garden to do.

Oh, the kitchen mess is still there, I will get creative after dinner again.

I hope you are having a great day too.

I am sharing with Kathleen from Faded Charm for White Wednesday.

Debra from Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday.

Cindy from My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday.



 

Fall Gardens

Flowers from Arbor House Lane Gardens

I just love the colors in this flower arrangement.

This time of year I try to bring in as many of the blooms as I can before frost.

I love how the roses have this last bloom time in early fall.

This is what we see out the kitchen window. 

I just love the colors of the roses and hydrangeas.

You may remember that I planted a new flower bed this past Spring.

We had and intruder!

All summer a HUGE pumpkin vine grew, it almost took over the whole flower bed

This is some of the plants from the Spring garden I planted. 

They are happy plants and I should be rewarded next year with lots of flowers.

This is a new flower garden Mr. M. and I planted last weekend.

We moved two snowball bushes from another flower bed where they were starting to outgrow their home.

I filled in with some bushes and plants left from the Spring flower bed.

Next year the bushes will be full of white snowballs.

White Clematis on the Arbor.

Fall clematis is one of my favorite flowers. 

They grow very tall, bloom in late summer to early fall and have tiny white flowers.

The best part is that they smell amazing.

This clematis is covering my wild rose bush.

This white Rose of Sharon blooms and re-blooms throughout August and September.

A great thing about this bush is that it produces LOTS of babies.

I will transplant a few babies to make a beautiful hedge row next year.

I am always thinking where my next flower bed will be.

Speaking of planting, there is a car load of mums that need my attention. 

I have lots of work to get ready for my fall decorating.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are all having a wonderful week.



Back to School

I think if you are quiet you can hear mom's yelling all over.

Why? 

Well of course, school has started for most children!

Today my husband and I took our youngest son to his Kindergarten orientation.

Celebrations are to be had, our last child entering school.

As we waited for the bus to arrive to pick up the two older kids, we practiced, on how to make friends.

Children do not always find it easy to talk to other children.

So, when my oldest son was getting ready for his first day of school, we practiced.

"Hi, my name is Chase, what's your name?  Do you want to play?"

And we discussed the three important rules of school.

1.  Listen to your teacher

2.  Make friends.....this is where practice helps.

3.  HAVE FUN!

For about two weeks we practice these three rules and how to make friends.  It helps me feel better about sending them off to school knowing that they can turn to the kid: sitting next to them, in line, at the lunch room or even on the playground and make a new friend.

I know this has helped over the years, now that my oldest is in 4th grade he can walk into any situation and make a friend to play with.  By practicing the simple sentence; hi, my name is ......., what's your name, do you want to play.  It makes it easier to role off their tongue and they do not have to think about it. 

I had to do this with my husband when I was pregnant with our first child.  He would go into the Credit Union to cash his pay check, and because it is one of the Credit Unions where he works on their computers, they would always stop him on a Friday to look at a problem.  This would always delay him from coming home at a normal time and infringe on our weekends.  So, I came up with a simple phrase that he could repeat over and over until it rolled off his tongue every time they asked him to look at their computers.

"Hi, my name is Chris."  No, just kidding, he would say "I'm sorry I can't stay, my wife is pregnant and I have to get home.  Call me on Monday and we will set up an appointment."

I really did make him practice that every Friday before work, and it did work.  By using, the wife is pregnant excuse he was putting the blame on me, and I did not care because I wanted him at home.

So next time you see your child hesitate at the playground or in a situation when they are with other kids, remember they may be shy, teach them how easy it can be to make friends.

I hope everyone is having a great day.

I know I am, you know what I am listening to?

SILENCE!

Happy first day of school.

GO BILLS!

We were given an opportunity of a lifetime.

My neighbor asked if we would like to take the kids to a Buffalo Bills game with her?

YES!

I have not been in about 16 years and the cost of taking our kids meant we most likely would not go in another 16.  Lucky for us, we just happen to live next to a retired Bills coach. 

He was waiting for preseason games to be over so they had extra tickets.

Wow!

50 yard line!

Pre-season or regular, the cost to take 5 people to a football game is crazy.

Let's put it this way, a bottle of water was $5.00.  Are you kidding me. 

Thank goodness we were able to bring snacks.

I wish I could say that everything went smoothly, but sadly to say, the littlest guy hurt himself before we even got to our seats. 

We made a visit to the first aid center and were given a few ice packs.

All of the noise, colors and some twizzlers took his mind off the pain.

We did have a good time and I am so glad my kids were able to experience this.

Thanks neighbor!

I wish I could say they won.

Flea Market Finds

Gotta love Flea Markets!

Last Sunday I visited one of my favorite flea markets.

It is just a small one that is only 10 minutes from my home.
I am usually lucky enough to find a treasure or two or more.

Isn't that white bench cute?
It is for the kids to use in the kitchen when they are watching/helping to bake.

I found two neat bowler hats to add to my hat collection.

One might even come in handy for a Halloween costume.

As you can see, one was an actual Stetson.

A couple of vintage linen table runners with crocheted ends.

These cute candles with sheet music I could not resist.

This cool green multi drawer cabinet.

As much as I do like green, it is pretty worn.

I am not sure if I am going to paint or cover in vintage book pages.

I am sharing my treasures with Debra from Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday.

Cindy from My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday.

Courtney from French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday.

 

That's what I have been up to, how about you?

Are you linking to any fun parties?