Today is a really lovely fall day

Theo and Ruby rode their bikes today. Just before we got started, Theo said, "I don't want to take my training wheels off." Dad and I tried to bargain with him at first, saying that we would only take them off for the first few minutes. He said no. Then, in what I believe was a truly inspired moment, I said, "Theodore, do you mean to tell me that you are now five years old so you are allowed to chew gum but you can't even try to ride without training wheels? That doesn't make any sense!" For whatever reason, this reasoning made Theo smile sheepishly, and he said, "Oh yeah!" So the training wheels came off for a little while. We did put them back on later when we decided to all ride around the pond.

Theo had a lot of fun practicing without training wheels with Dad's help. Ruby watched her brother's success and made some extra effort herself--she practiced getting started without help and standing while pedaling, and she required a lot less pushing. She was even singing an original song about being a big girl. The lyrics were, "I am a big girl, I am a big girl...."

I meant to take many more pictures, but the camera battery was not charged.

Mom sews Halloween costumes for the first time

I wasn't planning on sewing anything, but Theo was looking through the pbskids.org website and found a link with Super Why costumes. He says, "Mom, I want to be Super Why for Halloween." Super Why is a relatively new cartoon with a small following, so the costumes are hard to find. I have always thought that mass-produced costumes are really poor in construction. So even though I have minimal sewing skills (nothing I've EVER made for myself has ever been wearable except for a scrub top) I did think I could create something of comparable quality to the store-bought stuff.

I'm really proud of the result.

Here's Theo's costume and a description of the process:

They're really wrinkled in the picture because I took a picture the morning after trick or treating and the costume had spent the night half-crumpled. The material was a green flannel and a shiny blue polyester. I cut up one of Theo's old long sleeved shirts and used it as a pattern for the shirt. Dad made the book design using felt pieces and a piece of a white rag. It was glued together using that iron-on seam stuff. I also used a pair of Theo's pajama pants to construct the pants, although they were so easy to trace that I didn't have to cut them up. The blue "underwear" was one of the last things I put together, and by that point I didn't even care what the seams looked like, especially since it was the piece that was the least likely to ever be worn again. The cape is not shown, but it attaches with velcro to the shirt.

Here's Ruby's costume:


Ruby's costume came together a lot more easily, in large part because I learned a couple of techniques making Theo's. I used a light green stretchy chenille and a pink stretchy furry fabric that I found in the furniture decorating section. The green ball ribbon was also in the furniture decorating place. They were actually the most expensive part of the costume and nearly doubled the cost! I used Ruby's clothes to trace the dress and pants, which again were so simple I didn't have to cut anything up. The wings were completely Ted's doing. He used wire hangers, mailing tape (we couldn't find the duct tape), white knee highs purchased at wal-mart for 79 cents per pair, and glitter glue (the color on the package said "ruby" so that was an easy decision.) For her antennae I covered one of my old headbands with the green fabric and tied on pipe cleaners.

Here are the kids wearing their costumes and holding their matching trick-or-treat bags: