The Howards from the Great White North

So, we got a package today from down under.  It is always so much fun to get a package in our house!  Everyone gets so excited and you can get them to  be on their  best behavior for almost 2 hours by telling them that if they are good, then we will open the package "in a few minutes".

So in this way fun package from Australia, we got these amazing hand painted ornaments!!  I tell you what, to me, this is fabulous!  They are so cute. as you can see, and they have their names on them, and they are just adorable!  Thank you guys so much!  Maria, you are one talented lady!  They look fantastic!  The kids love them and they sure think they are special that they have ornaments that are just for them!

I decided that their are a lot of pictures that I want to share,  but I don't have time to put them all on right now, nor do you want to shuffle through them all at the moment, but here are a few.

In our house, we don't carve our pumpkins, we paint them.  The reason that we don't carve them is because it would end up being me carving 5 of them after the kids walked away.  I would also have to clean the inside of them all, and that, also, is a pain in the rear.  So, we paint them instead and that way I also get to use the pumpkin for cooking after that as well.  The kids love to paint, and I love to have the pumpkins to cook with, so it is a win-win situation.

Gabe was a pirate this year.  He looked purdy good, except for the fact that is pants kept falling off.  He doesn't have a waist, so you can't get a belt tight enough and still allow him to sit down, and he refuses to keep suspenders on.  He just pulls them off.  Very irritating. 

Forgot to put the picture of our big pumpkin that we grew this year in the garden.  It was fun.  Although, with these pumpkin plants, because they produce such big pumpkins, you only get 1-2 pumpkins.  So, we had to go buy a couple of pumpkins so we had enough for everyone.  I don't think we will be planting the giant pumpkins again.

Mya didn't like being a lady bug.  It took me a while to realize there was a painful wire poking out right where her hand is and it would scratch her every time she moved.  I wouldn't like my costume either!  Once I cut it, though, she was okay with it.

There's my princess and my pirate.  Isn't that dress cute?  Wait till I post a picture with both sisters dressed up.  They were purdy fantastic.  Thanks Grandma!!

Looks like that is all my pictures for now.  Will be posting more soon!