Happy Halloween!

Our friends, Erin and Matt, came over today with their dog Wrigley. Wrig and Laila romped and tired each other out while we ate lunch out on the patio, made a bonfire, and carved pumpkins. Gil's pumpkin is a wolf & mine is covered with flowers. It was freezing carving pumpkins outside, but super fun.

We went to a costume party yesterday and I dressed up as one of the Kardashians, along with two other friends. It was pretty funny when you saw us all together...

We just got done passing out candy to trick or treaters. It was pretty lame. We only had about 15 in all. I just talked to Erin and she said they were up to 115 and still going. It was still fun to see the few kids who came out...especially the baby dressed as a peacock. So. Adorable.

Happy Halloween!!!

Teaching Writing in Kindergarten

As a former second grade teacher, coming into Kindergarten has been an eye opening experience. Everything is a new experience for these little ones- including writing time. I've realized that I need some more resources besides just Lucy Caulkins to get me going. This book, Teaching Writing in Kindergarten, caught my eye in the Scholastic resource catalogue. I think I might use some of my book order bonus points to buy it.

Fun With Yard Work...

Laila at almost 6 months old "helping" in the yard...

Wordless Wednesday...

IKEA Makeover...

I haven't cared for our "formal" living room since we moved in. We really didn't have enough furniture after we moved from our one bedroom apartment to our house & we ended up buying things more quickly than we probably should have. Now I wish I had taken some time to think about what I really wanted & what would go together well. Obviously we're not going to buy all new furniture again, so I'm trying to think of ways to makeover the room. The biggest obstacle to decorating that room has been the chairs that we bought from IKEA. Although I really like the shape of the chair, the color palette and pattern of the chairs are a challenge.

Enter Bemz, a company out of Stockholm that creates slipcovers for IKEA furniture. Now we have all these choices for our chairs. I just need to figure out what color palette I'm hoping to achieve in that room before I make more impulse purchases.

Our house is so shaded by trees that the front living room doesn't get tons of light. Couple the lack of light with dark wood tones and a dark brick fireplace and the effect isn't as light & bright as I'd like. But I've heard that painting original brick is not the best move for resale. I just can't handle how traditional this room feels.

On a sidenote, Laila is supposedly done with teething and yet she is still intent on chewing us out of house & home. With all the chewing and digging she's been doing lately, it's a good thing she's so darn cute!

Another Golfer in the Family...

So the other day I was in the kitchen cleaning up dinner when I began to hear some suspicious noises downstairs. Knowing that darling little Laila must have gotten into something, I rushed down the stairs. She had knocked a bag off the counter and out had rolled a new toy. Now, I know that this might not be the safest thing ever for a puppy, but I assure you that she is supervised while playing with her new-favorite-thing-ever. Laila has been endlessly entertaining herself with a golf ball. She hasn't tried to eat it and it doesn't seem likely that it will lodge in her throat, so I'm going with it. It rolls around great on our tiled floor, bounces, and doesn't get stuck under furniture. She gets as tired out from the golf ball as she would after playing with another puppy. In short, it's fabulous.