Gingerbread house

A few days ago, Christina and I decided to put together the gingerbread house that my parents got Christina for Christmas.  Of course, most of the "putting together" was done by me, but Christina enjoyed decorating the house with candy (when she wasn't EATING it!).  The house didn't turn out quite like the picture on the box - I don't know how anyone could squeeze out the icing that neatly!  We made a bit of a mess, but we had fun, and I think it turned out quite nicely.

 

  

  

  

P.S.  The gingerbread house only lasted about a day, since the day after we made it, Christina decided to take all of the candy off and eat it!  So, the house itself is still intact, but it's a bit bare!

Build-A-Kitty!

Christina's Grandpa Larry and Grandma Lindy (my in-laws) took her to the Build-A-Bear store at the Alderwood Mall to celebrate Christina's 3rd birthday, and I came along to take pictures!

I was quite surprised when Christina picked out the Hello Kitty toy (she knows nothing about the Hello Kitty brand - I don't think she's ever seen anything Hello Kitty before), and despite all other suggestions, the Hello Kitty was the one she wanted!

 

 

Then we went over to the the stuffing station, where Christina got to watch the gal fill up her kitty with stuffing, and she got to pick out a heart to put in her kitty.

 

Next, it was time to give the kitty a "bath."  The bath station blew air when you turned it on, and Christina thought that was a bit too loud, so she settled for brushing kitty's fur.

Now it was time to pick out an outfit for kitty.  Christina picked out a Disney Princess shirt right away, and Grandpa Larry helped her pick out a denim skirt to go with it.  At first, Christina wanted her kitty to wear ice skates ("just like Daddy"), but then she decided against it.  She also went back and forth on whether her kitty should have a purse, and she eventually decided against it.  But Grandpa Larry did convince her to get a matching Hello Kitty chair and Hello Kitty slippers.

 

 

 

 

Then Christina sat down at the computer, and I helped her fill out all of the information for her kitty's "birth certificate."  Christina couldn't decide what to name her new kitty, and Grandpa Larry came up with the name Snowflake, which Christina really liked. 

 

The great thing about Build-A-Bear is that if you ever lose your toy and someone returns it to a Build-A-Bear store, they can open up the toy's stitching in the back and get out the barcode, which, when scanned, will tell them your information, so they can get your toy back to you!  So, for future reference, if you ever find a Build-A-Bear toy somewhere, just return it to the nearest Build-A-Bear store, and they'll get it back to the owner!

Once the birth certificate was printed out, we got checked out, and Christina decided to stop by the fountain on the way back through the mall.  All in all, we had a great time, and Christina just loves Snowflake!

 

 

Halloween?

OK, so I know it's past Halloween now, so it's an odd time to be writing this.  I also know that Christina and I had lots of fun this year celebrating Halloween, so it may seem wierd that I'm questioning it.

Recently I've been catching up on the blogs that I follow, and since many of them are written by Christian women, there have been lots of opinions going around about whether or not to celebrate Halloween.  Obviously, Halloween isn't Biblical.  (Actually, most of our American holidays aren't - nowhere in the Bible does it talk about commemorating Jesus' birth with a Christmas celebration, or His resurection with an Easter celebration.  As I understand it, these holidays were created by the Roman Catholic Church to draw attention away from pagan celebrations that were going on at the same time - note how Christmas is right around the time of the winter solstice, and Easter is at the beginning of spring.)

One blog that I read simply listed some scriptures and directed the reader to pray and follow God's leading.  Here are some of the scriptures that really affected me:

Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil . - 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. - Phillipians 4:8

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ... - Titus 2:11-13

This really makes me think that maybe it's not such a good thing to be celebrating Halloween.

One day shortly before Halloween, I took Christina to what we called the "Halloween store" - the old "Circuit City" store, which, since having gone out of business, had been transformed temporarily into a Halloween costume/decoration shop.  While there was a small section of the store with toddler costumes, which is what I was there to look at, most of the store was filled with lots of scary decorations, many of which had motion sensors, so the scary monster or decapitated head would start moving if you got too close.  It was then that I noticed an emotion in Christina that I had never seen in her before.  She was clearly terrified of being in the store, and yet she had such a curiosity about it that she didn't want to leave.  She had me carry her the whole time, and many times she buried her face in my neck, but when I said that we were leaving, she didn't want to go and started to throw a tantrum.  It really makes me think of when I'm watching a horror movie - I'm scared, but I don't turn the movie off - I want to see what happens, even though I know it won't be good.

Even during our trip to the zoo, when we went into the "Boomazium," Christina was really scared and had me carry her the whole way.  On Halloween evening, my father-in-law and his wife took Christina trick-or-treating around their neighborhood while Sean and I went out to dinner with a friend.  It sounds like everything went great until they got to a house with a motion-sensored ghost that was right around Christina's height.  Christina got scared and didn't want to go to that house, and then, to top it off, a lady in a witch costume came out and started playing some spooky music on her guitar.  Suffice it to say that after that house, Christina decided she was done trick-or-treating.

Thinking about all of that "evil" that Christina was exposed to makes me feel really bad.  If we're supposed to "meditate on" things that are "true...noble...just...pure...[and] lovely," then Halloween seems like the exact opposite of that.  The hard part is, of course, figuring out how to not celebrate Halloween when all of our friends and extended family do.  Even my church participates in a local "trunk-or-treat."

I've thought about finding a church that hosts a "harvest festival" or "harvest party" on October 31st, but as this website (scroll to the second article) points out:

The Harvest Party is usually referred to as the Christian alternative to traditional Halloween hijinx. Alternative, however, implies substitute. It assumes our children need something to take the place of Halloween, since they won't be participating in the secular and pagan celebrations. It suggests our kids are missing out on something.

Now, as I said before, I feel torn.  On the one hand, I feel like there are lots of ways to "tone down" Halloween and make it less scary - after all, there are plenty of very cute costumes that wouldn't be considered scary or evil at all.  But...it does seem like it would be hard to get away from being exposed to anything scary on that day, since I'm not in control of what other people wear as costumes or use as decorations.  And ultimately, Halloween is not, and never will be, a Christian holiday...even if churches do join in on the celebration.

In any case, thank goodness I have a whole year to think about it and make a decision!

Pumpkin Prowl

Christina and I went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle this evening for their annual Pumpkin Prowl.  It's an event where a portion of the zoo is decorated (the rest is blocked off), and there are lots of designated spots for kids to "Trick-or-Treat" and get candy.  A friend of mine went last year and said it was lots of fun, so I thought I'd check it out.

Man, was it crowded!  I mean, I expected it to be popular - I guess I just didn't expect that such a small portion of the zoo would be open, so there were lots of people in small spaces.  We had to wait in lots of LONG lines in order to get any candy.  Not to say that it wasn't a good time - actually, Christina was surprisingly patient waiting in all the lines.  She really enjoyed looking around and seeing the other kids' costumes.

Christina saw the wandering peacock shortly after we entered the zoo.  It wandered off (naturally!), and she didn't realize it was in the bushes right behind her.

Then, it almost came out of the bushes right in front of her.  Don't worry, I moved her out of the way before he stepped out!

I got a couple pictures of her in front of some jack-o-lanterns.  (In case you can't tell, they've got glow sticks inside them.)

Then, we headed over to the "Family Farm" area of the zoo.  We saw some goats while we were over there (the only animals that we saw the whole time).  And Christina enjoyed playing with the (non-working) water pump, while having a lollypop.

After that we went to the "Bug World" building and saw all the bugs, and by the time we got out of there, it was pretty dark.  We got in line to go into the "Boomazium" (typically called the Zoomazium).  It's usually a play area for young kids, but tonight it was decked out as a (fairly tame) haunted house.  It goes without saying that we had to wait in a HUGE line to get in.  So while we were waiting, I snapped some pictures!

Here's some jack-o-lanterns on spikes!  (And the reason the picture is so washed out is that it was TOTALLY dark by this time.)

A nice gentleman offered to take a picture of Christina and I in front of a huge jack-o-lantern.

Here's a creepy scarecrow that was just outside the building (sort of "Nightmare Before Christmas," I thought).

Once we were inside, it got pretty spooky.  It was one big, dark room, with BIG displays.  Christina was a little scared when we first walked in, what with it being so dark and the noises over the speakers so LOUD, but I explained that everything in the room was "pretend.".  I pointed out that the ghost and the bats flying overhead were attached to strings, so they could only go in a certain path.  That seemed to help her feel better about it.

There was a tall witch decoration that reached nearly to the ceiling, and over the speakers near her you could hear her cackling and saying, "Watch out for my spider friend over there, heee heee heee."  I didn't know what she was talking about until we rounded the corner and saw this:

A HUGE spider!  And keep in mind that the room was very dark - the display was only lit by some spooky blue and green lights.  The only reason the picture is so bright is that my camera's flash was on.  And not only was it a big, scary spider, but it was robotic, so it MOVED!

Christina didn't want to get too close to that one, and I don't blame her!

This scarecrow was quite spooky as well, but Christina didn't seem to mind it very much.

Christina was pretty relieved to exit the "Boomazium."  She said "It was scary in there!"

After that we did some more trick-or-treating and then headed back to the car.  All in all, we had quite a good time.  I'm not sure if we'll go back again next year, just because of all the long lines, but it was definitely worth checking out.  At one of the trick-or-treating "sites," we even got a beanie baby toy (Soybean the pig, whose birthday is January 3, 2007, just a couple weeks before Christina was born.  I thought that was pretty neat!).

Gearing up for Halloween

Here's my measley attempt at decorating for Halloween.

Some cute window clings for our front window...

...and a banner on the front door (check out Christina's cute new raincoat!):

I was planning on having Christina dress up as a witch - I actually bought the costume the day AFTER Halloween last year, since all the costumes were on sale.  But when I tried it on her, I found that it was much too big (even though the label says 2-4 years).  The skirt and bloomers kept falling down to reveal her diaper underneath.  So I've decided instead to dress her in her bumblebee costume, which we've had since last year, but she hasn't officially worn for Halloween (she wears it every now and then to play around the house).  But here's a pic of the witch costume, which I hope to be able to use next year!

I know I've mentioned before that Christina loves trying on all the Halloween hats and headbands when we're out at a store.  Here's a mask that she decided to try on.  (After I take pictures of her, she always wants to look at the back of the camera to see how it came out.  When I showed her this picture of herself, she actually got a little scared.  I did too!)

Happy (almost) Halloween!

Halloween Season

So in just about every store we go into now, there's a big display of Halloween stuff.  Christina just loves trying on all the hats.  And as soon as she get's one on, she says "Take a picture?"

 Here she is at Value Village.  This is one of the wierdest "hats" I've ever seen!

A witch at Walgreens:

 I don't actually remember where this one was taken, but it looks like we were definitely in the toy aisle!
She must be the ice cream princess! (Note the ice cream cone on her shirt.)

 This is at the new Dollar Store over by my place.
G.I. Jane:

 Alligator:

And here she is at Fred Meyer.  Actually, all of these "hats" are headbands!
Pipi Longstockings witch?