A Really Happy Halloween!

This Halloween season was a treat. I had the feeling it was going to be extra special when I noticed a perfectly creepy scene in our flower bed as September ended . . . 

And to think I could have missed this.
I'm glad I was out watering flowers or weeding or whatever that day.

Oliver even got our milk jug in the spirit with some spooky stickers. For a few weeks, every time we opened a new gallon I transferred his stickers onto it. It was a cute little idea.

This was the extent of out front entry decor . . . 

I decided what my costume would be early in September. I think that's a record for me. Usually I'm trying to help the kids come up with ideas and I don't figure out my own until kind of late in the game.

This time I wanted to stray a bit from my typical silly costumes. 

I've been feeling like I'm looking sort of weathered, so I thought dressing up like an old lady would make me automatically appear younger after taking the costume off. I think it worked for at least a few minutes. =)

I put a considerable amount of effort into making sure the costume would turn out better than my halfhearted get-ups from previous years. I found a blog with instructions for applying old person face. This was my first test run halfway through Sept. :

I basically just used eyeliner to trace existing wrinkles. Yup. That's them. I did scrunch my face a bunch to uncover some sure-to-be future creases.

This was my second attempt after my hair coloring gunk came in the mail. I only covered the front of my hair to see how it would work. It wasn't pliable like a reviewer had claimed, but it was better than any spray bottles I'd tried in the past.

I found this total gem of a dress at St. Vincent's one fateful afternoon before October arrived. It's probably the reason I ended up leaning toward a vintage/serious grandmother rather than a fun and friendly granny.

I didn't get the wrinkles very defined on my second try. It looked better in person. Maybe. =/

Cora finally decided on her costume mere days before the big night. She found a video on how to do makeup for a ventriloquist dummy. 

I suggested she do a test run, and at last she got around to it on the evening of the 30th. I joined her for a while, using the excuse that I was practicing possible hair arrangements for the morrow.

I'd been about to attempt a high bun, but my hair was too fluffy, so I left it like this for some obligatory pics.
I decided my hairdo of choice would have to be a low bun.

I think Cora made an error somewhere in there with the eyeliner, so she proceeded to go crazy with it instead of trying to fix it. =)

She really did a nice job on her trial run. It was well worth her efforts and time. =)

She couldn't have done it without my presence and support.

She swiped my cheek with the eyeliner, which sent me into a tizzy.

Somehow we made it through all this to see Halloween.

The pic on the left was taken 3 days after the one on the right. I just thought it might be good to have a current headshot to compare it side by side with my old lady self. It was sheer coincidence that my head was turned similarly in both.

I felt like trying a variety of facial expressions since I'd gone to the trouble of getting ready. It does seem like a shame to plan and prepare just to go outside in the dark and take the kids trick-or-treating. It's not easy to see everyone's costumes that way. =(

Oliver wanted to be Link (from The Legend of Zelda). His costume was pretty easy to put together with the help of some fabric glue. I thought he looked really cute. 

(He would only wear the ears for this picture since they felt weird on him.)

Ryan made the shield out of cardboard and colored it. It turned out great!

Cousin Ethan came with us on our quest for candy.

Bad lighting, but I need to share some evidence of my whole ensemble. 

I found the perfect purse at Savers.

Here's Cora's finished look:

She did well. Doesn't she look creepy?

We met up with Gavin's fam, Megan's fam, and my mom. Cora ran into some friends and opted to go with them. Ryan was with us as well, though he seemed embarrassed to be seen with me. He said it was a good costume, but that he couldn't stand looking at me like that. He said it was disturbing. So I kept it all on for the rest of the weekend. ;) Haha. I might have if the hair stuff wasn't so icky. 

I guess he can only hope I'll stumble upon a magical fountain of youth before I look like that for reals. 

I personally loved the way my costume turned out. Somehow I don't think genuine wrinkles will look quite as taut as my drawn on ones.

Here we have the lovely Jane and her friend Cristina. Jane decided to be a Greek goddess and Cristina was Miranda Sings, a popular YouTuber. I had to look her up, but Cristina pretty much nailed the look. 

We barely caught them for a photo op since they got ready over at Cristina's and we were leaving before they arrived. Before we made it down our street, they rounded the corner on their bikes. Crisis averted! I was worried I wouldn't get any pics of them.

This duo went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood on their own. It's sad when they outgrow wanting to go with their families. ='(

I thought she made a pretty convincing goddess. If only we didn't need to wear long sleeves on account of the cold.

The kids didn't last much more than an hour. Oliver and Ethan wanted to get back home and play. I went against my natural candy-loving instincts and didn't even pressure them to do "just one more street". It was among my life's most impressive moments of self control.

Oliver thought it was funny that his bucket was so full it wouldn't dump out.

In case you wondered what the top of my hair looked like...

And the back of it...

I even filled my purse with assorted hard candies as a prop. I had planned to make a brief video of me saying a short Halloween greeting and then feebly opening a piece of candy and slowly savoring it without acknowledging the fact that the camera was still rolling. Sadly, I didn't get to it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Howdy

I don't think I'll ever get caught up on talking to you, Blog. I have so many things to say and so little time to say it all in, especially since I only ever write at night after the kids go to sleep. It seems like the couple of hours between their bedtime and mine is only a few minutes. And I usually choose to spend those "few minutes" watching shows on Netflix. And that means I don't take too much time to type at night.

It's not possible for me to pay attention to my blog when I'm watching something. And so the online documentation of my life gets neglected night after night while Ryan and I watch an episode or two of  Portlandia , or Sherlock , or Parks and Recreation.

Two weeks ago we started watching Gilmore Girls. Of course I'd heard people saying they liked it. Even my dad and my brother admitted it. I never even knew what it was about. I don't know how it lasted 7 seasons without me seeing a single episode.

We're halfway through the second season and loving it. It's just so addictive, funny, heartwarming, real. It makes me laugh, it's made me fight back tears. And whatnot. And I like most of the characters. And how Luke looks at Lorelai. And Luke in general. =)

It's hard having the whole series sitting there on Netflix, just waiting for me to finish it. I know - the struggles I have to deal with! ;)  I seem to have the theme song stuck in my head all day as I anticipate what's going to happen in future episodes. And I totally wish I had my own background singers going, "lalalala, lalalalala-la." as I'm trotting through town to tell someone something. =) 

"We're closing early! Chew it or lose it!"  Can anyone tell me which character said that, and why? =)

July 4th

We had another lovely Independence Day this year. It's typically celebrated with Ryan's family because my parents are usually gone to Donnelly for the holiday weekend.

We ate some food at Ryan's parents' house, then most of us moseyed down to Ann Morrison for fireworks and to look at the diverse assortment of Treasure Valley residents.

Some of the Lytle ladies -- Jane, Cora, Jackie, baby Lexington, little Tomi, Shirley, and Jane's friend, Cristina (who obviously isn't a Lytle) were perched on the porch, so I started to direct their attention to me so I could snap some pictures of them. Shirley made me join them and had Dallas take the pictures. Dallas is Bethany's husband. Bethany is Ryan's youngest sister. She was not in the front yard at the time of the impromptu photo op. I should make it a point more often to photograph everyone in attendance at each event - unless there are too many people - or when many of them are complete strangers. I feel so sad for the unpictured people.

Lexi is a popular baby. She can't help being so cute.

Jane has such an expressive face. Makes me wonder what she was thinking about. Or what she was sensing.

Oliver in the process of a water fight.

We make it a point to show up at the park early enough to get a spot for viewing fireworks, then we take a walk to gawk at the chalk art competition entries. I am always very impressed.

It irked me to see people tromping, riding, and strolling across the masterpieces. See the tire tracks all over the middle of these cute owls?  =(

Jane and Cristina have a wee fixation with My Little Pony. =)

I am amazed at the artistic abilities so many are blessed with. People can be so creative. I love it.

We met up with some more Lytles at the park. These belong to Ryan's oldest brother, who was in Hawaii with his wife that week. Their oldest daughter and her husband have three kids, and they're pictured here as well.

Royce and Oliver

My apologies again to Dallas, Bethany, Alex, Kinsley, Eric, Ethan, Bob, and anyone else that was unwittingly unpictured that evening. Hopefully someone else bothered to take a picture of you, or at the very least, I hope you took a cute 4th of July selfie in your bathroom mirror.

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I hope all you spambots reading this had a festive Independence Day. Here's a cute pic of Jane and Mable from earlier that day. Enjoy!

Erin's 40th Birthday Bash!

Anyone remember June? I shouldn't let myself get so dreadfully behind on my blogging duties, because now I can't recall a lot of stuff and when it all happened. One of June's highlights began with the invitation below:

My sister is pretty much as awesome as they come. She decided to make her milestone birthday an occasion worth attending AND remembering. Erin came up with a brilliant theme and Barry designed the invites.

It turned out to be a super rad, fun evening. I especially enjoyed seeing many of the guests show up in fetching 80s get-ups. 

Here's Erin, Barry, and their teen sons Isaac (in back) and Ethan . . .

They make the 80s look so easy!

They provided a lovely laser backdrop poster so party-goers could get "school pictures" taken . . .

My one regret of the evening is not putting a different shirt on. I was set on wearing this amazing blue leotard, which I obviously ended up doing. But if I'd been more open-minded, I would've realized that colorful tights and a baggy shirt would have looked much better with the stunning gold Savers skirt (shown later in this post). Way better than the blue uniboob shown above.

(Rant over.)

It's hard to tell from this pic, but Erin's hair is crimped and her bangs were impressively big. And firmly hair sprayed in place. =)

A better look at Erin's fancy footwear. She found these high-tops at DI.

I feel like I need-lessly hyphenate every-thing! ; ) I just don't know, okay?!

Anyway, I love that Erin thought to layer and roll her socks.

 That decade was known best for rad fashion trends.

My stepdad (below) biding his time doing anything but dancing. He's always been the creative type. It would've been cool to see him do some creative breakdancing in the dark with all those glow accessories.

A sisters' snapshot. In-laws on the right (Jamie in yellow; Maren in pink). Chelsie (step sis) is the one in the back NOT sporting a uniboob. Megan was with her little family on a Mexican vacation (actually IN Mexico, not Nampa or Caldwell). We missed her!

Group photo of most everybody there. I guess most of the men in attendance made themselves scarce for picture time. = /  Ryan opted out of coming after a long day of work. He said he's not fun, or doesn't know how to have fun, or something along those lines. Gavin was there with their new baby Archer. My mom was there, too. A nice bunch of her friends from high school came. I think they drummed up a lot of good memories.

She had the cutest decorations. I loved the color scheme, the 80s candy scattered on each table, the homemade Aquanet cans, the spray-painted VHS and cassette tapes.

I didn't get any pics of the dancing, but it sure as heck happened! Erin had quite the selection of music.

 Isaac and Ethan were the DJs. Requests and dedications were made. Slow dances were shared (while Maren and I danced interpretively). People attempted to remember steps to "Thriller".  Lights were turned off to allow for special, out-of-this-world-glow-in-the-dark dances. People chatted and snacked and laughed. And such. Erin throws the best parties. And now I need to figure out how to outdo her with my 40th birthday jubilee. I have 4 years to plan it. Which also translates to 4 hours, since that is how far in advance I will actually begin arranging it.