Halloween fun + stash busting!

Happy November to you all!  This is one of my favorite months of the year, just because Halloween is over and it's time to celebrate gratitude, family, and all the things you love.  Plus I LOVE Fall colors and pumpkins and EATING!  LOLOL  Gotta love Thanksgiving.  ;-)

 

But first-- Halloween fun stuff.  :D

 

When my sweet little Nicholas Ryan was born in 2003 I decided to start a mini album for his Halloween pictures consisting of a one or two-page spread in an 8x8 layout of each year's Halloween costume.  I'm happy to have found the album in storage-- and sad that I hadn't updated it in the last three years.  I remedied that problem this morning!

 

This is the album.  The front cover has a window. I bought it at Wal-Mart.

 

 

This is the first page.  You can tell that 10 years ago I wasn't much into embellishing.  I think about adding to this page but then want to stay true to what kind of scrapbooker I was back then...

 

 

First two pages.  I mean, look at that CUTE little pumpkin!!!  Oh how I loved squeezing those little cheeks!  And that smile!!!  Sigh... I miss him being a baby.  :)

 

 

 

Here is the.cutest.little.pumpkin.ever.  :D

 

 

So you can see, when I began this album I used three colors of cardstock and embellished each with ribbon along the bottom.  I made up about 15 pages back then so it would all match and be ready to go.  I didn't match the colors side-by-side because I've used both sides of each paper so as to minimize how bulky the album would be.  Also, on the page below, the embellishment on the left-sided page was actually a card I made that I sent out to a few friends with pictures of Nick in costume.  I only sent out Halloween cards for Nick's 1st and 2nd Halloweens because I wanted to show off my little cutie pie.  Yes, I was one of those parents that has to show off how cute her kid is every single year.  Hmmm... since I'm posting this to my blog NOW I guess I am STILL one of those parents, huh?  LOL!

 

 

Again, you can see how I still embellished minimally on these pages back then. 

Below Nick was 3 years old.

 

 

Nick at five: 

 

 

Nick at six:

 

 

And we can now fast forward to the pages I made this morning:  More embellishments, though not too much, and more journaling about what we did, where we went, etc. 

 

 

This following page is for last night's photos.  I will be putting the 4x6 photo right

in the middle, covering up most of the green spider PP.  I'm happy to say that today, when making the layouts for the last three years of Halloween, I used up a LOT of stash.  I haven't bought any Halloween stuff-- none!-- in about four years and it felt so good to finish up at least three packages of embellishments today.  LOVE going through the stash!

 

 

And this is the picture that belongs on that page: 

 

 

 

Well, it'll be one of the two pictures from above.  Nick had a costume as an Ender from Minecraft but at the last minute decided on being a mad scientist/doctor or something, with a sword.... he was a confused kid.  LOL.

 

Soooo..... this is the first year my son went trick-or-treating without me. He's 10 and the ghoul by his side is a neighborhood friend, Nikai, who is 13 years old.  Nikai seems a pretty responsible kid and I think Nick is growing in that area too, so I cut the proverbial cord and let my not-a-baby-anymore go out on his own.  :(   Below you can see the two boys walking off.  Without me.  :cry:

 

 

And last Saturday Nick's school has a carnival as their fundraiser for the first half of the year.  It's a lot of work, but way more fun than begging your friends and neighbors to buy stuff and junk for other types of fundraisers.  Nick's 5th grade class was in charge of organizing the Haunted House.  Decorating it was FUN!  Nick stayed in the room known as the Haunted Lab and I put in my parent volunteer hours as a tour guide.  OMGosh, I do NOT like haunted houses but it's different when you're a tour guide!  I had such fun laughing at the people that were scared!  Is that mean of me?  LOLOL!

 

 

Above, Nick and two of his friends in their roles as scaring people in said haunted house. 

Below, some of Nick's other classmates in similar roles, ready to scare. 

 

We had a fantastic Halloween this year.  It was probably the very best ever and a lot of that is because of Nick's school friends who are awesome, the carnival was a total blast, and because of him being responsible enough to go trick-or-treating on his own.  He's growing up......................

 

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Today is the start of my gratitude journal.  I've already taken a picture and will embellish my little book later today.  Tomorrow, after I complete my entry for that day, I will take pictures and share.  Stay tuned!

 

Thank you for stopping by and leaving love!

 

As always, blessings!

 

Martha