Worth It's Weight in Gold?

I know that prescription medications cost an arm and a leg.  But sometimes I'm surprised how much some of the natural remedies cost.  My sister's mother-in-law sends them a lot of natural remedies, and I remember once I commented that they were pretty pricey.  "What? Are they made of gold or something?" I quipped.

And then she showed me one of the things her mother-in-law had sent:

"Metallic gold."  Huh.  So I guess in some cases, the answer is yes.  Yes, it is made of gold or something!

Pictionary Problems

While my mother in law was here visiting, we went over to hang out at my parents' house.  We got a little game of Pictionary going where someone on one team wrote clues for the other team.  When Claire's turn to draw came up, she got to one clue she was really struggling with:  "Romans"

She tried to draw columns and people in togas with ivy around their heads.  Really her drawings were great, but we just weren't guessing it.  Finally she ended up passing and moving to another clue.  When it was all over, we asked what the clue was that she had passed.  "Romans," she said.  

But the person who wrote the clues was baffled because she hadn't written that as one of the clues.

"Let me see that..."

Who knew that "subway" could look like "Romans" if you look at it upside down!

Fanged Mazda

Last Halloween post for the year, I promise.

I have never been able to look at the front of our Mazda 3 without seeing a smiling face.  I love it.  But for Halloween, M and I decided it needed a little vampire flair:

A Visit from Grandma

We recently had a visit from M's mom who lives on the east coast. She's had some real struggles with her health lately and I'm SO grateful for modern medicine.  (Did you know that you could make an argument for at least one type of leukemia being cured? http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/A-Victory-in-the-War-Against-Cancer.html)

It was so nice to get to see her and we're already looking forward to the next time she can come visit!

A Duck, A Gecko, and Belle

Claire's costume request this year was a duck.  Largely motivated by her skill at making a duck call noise.  (Hey, whatever floats her boat.):

I bought a little duck face/bill visor and some wings:

I made a feather edged tutu, bought orange tights, and made duck feet to go over her shoes:

Scott's request was to be a gecko.  That's their school mascot, so it's a little less random than it seems:

We modified a dragon costume pattern to not have spines and to have more bulbous fingers.  I doubt anyone knew to guess "gecko" just by looking at him, but I think we did okay.  If he keeps picking obscure animal costumes, he's going to have to accept the price of no one knowing what he is!


Kate got to wear Claire's old Belle from Beauty and the Beast costume.  She LOVED twirling in it:

But we forgot her fake glove things the night I took these pictures before the church party, so I promised her I would take more on actual Halloween night WITH her gloves.  Pardon the poor lighting: