Naughty Nattie

There is no way I have enough sanity to update this blog with everything I have missed lately, SOOOO I'll just start with what's going on at the circus right now. We have an elf. An Elf On the Shelf. Her name is Natalie, but the girls call her...Nattie the Naughty Elf

(She wanted Mississippi State to win the Egg Bowl. They did : )

Mal asked that if she came home from school with a *sad face* (which we've had our share of this year), could we lock the elf in the car so she couldn't go tell Santa...because a magic elf can't get out of an SUV...but has no problem with escaping a locked house.

We started the day after Thanksgiving, ONLY because Mal was driving me insane about it (and I wanted to...because I knew it would be fun. Whatever.) I have notified the girls that she will start her duties next year Dec. 1st and that she started early this year because the elf was excited that she was assigned to our awesomely fun house. Of course they bought that : )

(She loves the plate wall as much as I do)

To make the elf a *girl* you're supposed to buy one of their $8 skirts...or if you're like me you say, "HAIL no! I already paid an outrageous $30 on this androgynous piece of felt, I'll make her one." So I did. (BTW, the *girl* elf has her hair tucked up under her hat to make her more aerodynamic when she flies to and from the North Pole. I didn't make that up.)

I'm tired of people saying that the elves are creepy. Come on...look at that face. I think she's (he's, it's) freaking adorable : )

It has been fun watching the girls wake up and find her every morning...they actually spring out of bed. Worth the $30 right there.

The hard part about this whole elf deal is remembering to reposition her before going to bed. After sitting straight up in the bed at 2am with visions of disappointed children dancing in my head, her daytime perch (after removing her from the previous night's mischief) is in a cute little red antique chair...right below the television (it's the last thing I turn off in the living room before heading to bed). I have to say though, it's gotten cold here the last few nights and if I were to forget, I'm not sure I would leave my warm bed to move her.

Wait! Someone told me that if they DON'T move, that means that the kids have been naughty. Oh yeah, I could flip that around in a second! While Mal is having a hysterical, disappointed fit because Nattie is still on her perch, I'll just say, "Wait a minute...WHAT did you DO?!?". Take the guilt off of me and toss it right back to her.

Yep that's me, always thinking...

(Inside a candy lantern Hubby's YiaYia made for him : )

So far, Mal has only said, "THAT wasn't very funny." when she woke up to Nattie's shenanigans once (I'm sure I've mentioned that you never have to wonder what that kid is thinking) in the elf's 13 appearances, so I guess I'm not doing too bad...I'll be needing to steal ideas from the many photos I've seen online pretty soon.

Lazy bum.

Wish she'd fold some clothes or clean the toothpaste blob out of the girl's sink or something. Obviously the skirt doesn't keep *her* from really being a guy.

Halloween 2010

Late much?

Ugh. ANYWAY....

With a lot of help from my MIL, I do believe we put together my favorite costumes to date!

I acted all prepared in this post like I was going to be ahead of the game this year. True, the costumes arrived 2 weeks after that post but finding the bits and parts to both costumes proved harder than I thought.

Mallory's pick was Bo Peep.

With a few additions (including a hoop skirt cut from a Scarlet O'Hara costume my MIL found and a bonnet from Grandma's Girl), we had the most adorable Bo Peep ever!

Delaney's pick was The Red Queen from the new Alice in Wonderland.

Despite not getting her sleeves adorned like I wanted to, we LOVED it!

She sure was rocking that make up and hair wasn't she?!?

Delaney loved the idea of her costume being our own interpretation ("No one will have a costume just like mine Mom!").

SUCH a fun night: )

This was toward the end of our night.

Mal was tired and Delaney (and I...and maybe Yia-Yia too) were still riding high from a compliment on Delaney's costume. We were on our way back to the house and the neighborhood was thinning out. A man who was handing out candy sitting on his front porch yelled, "Hey, Red Queen!...Best costume of the night!!!"

Delaney (and I...not gonna lie) was strutting all the way home. LOVE that!  

Both girls were thrilled with their costumes and smiled from ear to ear all night. Well worth the craziness we went through in the days leading up to Halloween.

This is Mal trying to comfort Delaney before we had to brush through that tangled mess and wash out that delightful hairspray.

No kidding, if that famous Hitchcock movie needed to redo that shower scene in color, they could have done it in our tub that night. Yikes! 

Great night.

Great fun.

Grateful it only comes once a year ; )

Thinking ahead

For Halloween, Mallory wants to be this:

We're pretty confident with a little tweaking, we can make this dress work beautifully:

 

Finding those adorable long pantaloons will be tricky (and we HAVE to have those!) so I'm thinking about stitching a few rows of  w i d e  eyelet trim towards the bottom of white tights. We'll see.

I was slightly shocked when Delaney said she wanted to be this:

BUT, Mama is extremely excited she does! SO fun!

We KNOW we can make this dress work:

If I can find some black thrift store boots to ruin with gold paint, some cool tights (maybe from Hot Topic?), and add a few gold hearts to the skirt, we'll be looking good. Ideas are still looming about the top (Delaney LOVES the collar) and YES, I'll be doing her 'do and make-up...and I can't WAIT!

Both dresses are from Cutie Clothes . Don't be put off by the name. Really.

A few years ago, my niece wanted to be a 60's girl from the movie Hairspray. This dress was perfect! She ordered the 11/12 and it was much more adorable than the photo. It was PERFECT! (especially after I fixed her the perfect 'do!) They priced costumes and the price was neck-and-neck...and MUCH better quality that a packaged *costume*. Delaney wore a dress similar to this one last year when she was a *movie star* for Halloween. It went into the dress up box the next day (as they all do!) and has been put on and taken off at LEAST 100 times and is still in GREAT shape.

One day I'm sure we'll order a dress we'll let them wear out of the house...like maybe

this one (which I think would be a great flower girl dress...LOTS of colors available) in that beautiful orange for Mallory or this one in black for Delaney (in a a much larger size than pictured!)

All in all the site is too froof (is that a word?) for me but if you take a little time, there are some gems. (Especially if you're looking for a flower girl dress or 1st Communion dress...some really really sweet ones).

Do you have Halloween on the brain yet?

Bo Peep and Red Queen photos by Walt Disney Studios