we can't have all work and no play.

i've been busy in the studio, but all work and no play is no fun. if you haven't gathered...we like to play. games and music, of course. but definitely practical jokes.....and dress up too!

i suppose i should back track just a bit and note some things.

1. my girls looooooooooove to dress up. what girl doesn't?
   
2. i must have a least 300 photos of them randomly dressed up (adding that to the 'things i must blog someday' list)
   
3. raiding the costume rack is the first thing they do in the morning on the weekends
4. our costume closet is stocked full like this one
5. we're not gender specific in the costumes we provide. among the princess dresses are spiderman (emma's favorite) & army camos.
   
6. i've mastered the after Halloween sales many years in a row now---but this year was by far the BEST success ever.....$40 costumes for no more than $2, several for only $1. SCORE!
   
7. being sale savvy means the girls get lots of new dress up clothes for Christmas presents and mama doesn't go broke.
   

among the newly added costumes this past Christmas were: Snow White, Dorothy, a gal from Wizards of Waverly Place, a pirate, a 50s poodle dress, an ER doctor, Luigi, and a few i know i'm forgetting.....i held a few back for Ashlyn's birthday that's only 14 days away--don'tcha know. (she isn't letting anyone within earshot get away without seeing her post-it note countdown)

anywho. this year, moreso than getting new stock of costumes, they were excited to get a bagfull of glowsticks (for playing dark, dark hide n seek), face crayons, face paint and colored hairspray. oh, yes---colored hairspray! life surely isn't complete without it.

only, with the Christmas chaos and busyness, they forgot about these novelties until doug prompted ashlyn with a little practical joke action.

the story goes a little something like this.

last weekend. emma was caught chowing on cheetos (healthy, i know) for the 4th time in one day and doug jokingly told her she was going to turn into a cheeto puff. the girl can put away the cheeto puffs like nobody's business.

"nuh-uh" she teased back.
"isn't she tania?" he asked, prompting me to play along.
"i think so!"

she smirked, and got quiet all the sudden. you could tell she was contemplating the consequences as she slowly snuck out another handful before closing the bag. then shoving the whole fistful into her mouth as once. i suppose being a cheeto puff isn't so bad in her little world.

so later that night after she fell asleep doug relayed his plan. before turning out the lights and calling it a night, he'd spray her hair with orange hairspray so when she woke up she'd think that she really was in fact turning into a cheeto puff. HA. seriously? seriously. he's just that kind of dad--the kind of dad every kid wants.

only we forgot.

this was on a friday. on the weekends doug and emma are always the early risers (well, emma moreso than doug---but he gets up with her :o)) as they were making breakfast, emma once again was trying to sneak the cheeto puffs out because "i'm staaaaaaaaaaarving daddy", when he remembered. so now the joke was on ashlyn.

he said...."hey emma. wanna play a joke on ashie?" most certainly, she was game. so they quickly ran to get the orange hairspray and got her all sprayed up while busting into a fit of giggles before ashlyn woke. she was all set to play the unsuspecting victim role.

they practiced--doug pretending to be ashlyn coming down the stairs and gasping for breath when discovering emma did in fact turn into a cheeto puff, and emma trying her hardest not to giggle since she wasn't supposed to know her hair was in fact orange.

ashlyn woke, immediately noticed and emma couldn't keep a straight face while simulanteously playing games on the laptop.

good times, good times indeed!
************************************

but that's obviously not the story behind the photo above. ha. but i'm happy to have the cheeto story documented now.



so, emma came to me wanting her face painted exactly like the image on the face crayon package. i'm not even going to show you----her face looks nothing of the like. my lame attempt morphed into extra colors and lines and swirls. but emma thought it looked PERFECTLY the same. don'tcha love that about kids?

when emma was done, ashlyn decided it was her turn. she had a witch costume on and you would have thought the face paint was a magic potion turning on a switch to play the role perfectly. is acting in her future someday? i most certainly think SO! "i'm going to getchu, my pretty" creeeeeeeepy. she really gets into her role playing.



while painting ashlyn's face, emma decided she was going to add a bit of her own embellishing. she had to have a beautiful necklace to make the outfit complete.



i couldn't help but be reminded of a book we got from the library once and would love to have on our own bookshelf someday.



or Violet who was chewing gum in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and starting expanding into a ginormous blueberry. hahaha.



so, there ya go. in case you ever wondered what my children do while i'm slaving away on CHA layouts, now you know. they scrapbook with me and we take lots and lots and lots of breaks to PLAY!


yes. creativity spills into every area of my life. such a messy, thrilling, marvelously chaotic & creative life i lead. and i wouldn't have it any other way!