Of course it's the first day of fall....

Ziggy, pictured here in happier, warmer times.

... because I had this conversation with my five-year-old son this morning:

Ziggy: Mom, I'm cold.

Me: Sure you are! It is cold in the kitchen this morning! That's why I'm wearing long pants, socks and a sweatshirt! You're wearing shorts and a tee shirt! Let me go get you some warm clothes.

Ziggy: Uh, I'd rather you didn't.

Me: But if you put the warm clothes on then you won't be cold!

Ziggy: Uh, instead of me putting on more clothes, I was uh thinking you could just make the air warmer?

I tried to explain the concept to him that adults try to delay putting on the heat for the first time of the season, but couldn't really come up with a good reason why.  But it does seem like you should wait at least until October 1 to turn the heat on, and I know some other (in my opinion, crazy) people like to wait until at least November 1.

So tell me, do you put on a sweater when the temperatures get cooler, or do you take Ziggy's approach and just make the air warmer? 

The Truth of the Pumpkin Patch

A few years ago, I posted these adorable photos of my son enjoying his very first pumpkin patch.

I basked in the glory of knowing that even though he was the third born and there is nary a page of his baby book filled-out, let alone even a baby book with pages to neglect, he will always be able to cherish these photos of himself cavorting in the pumpkin patch. In a pumpkin outfit!

Mom for the win.

But the truth of that day has haunted me ever since.

THIS photo represents that day and that trip to the pumpkin patch.

 

The truth of the pumpkin patch that day is that it was raining. And he was sick. And he did not want to be in a pumpkin patch at all, let alone in a stupid fucking pumpkin outfit.

But we were there, because I wanted that photo. (The first set of photos that is, not the one above.)

So I'm sharing this for all of you also get tears in the pumpkin patch when you just want smiles.

And I'm also sharing this so next time you visit Pinterest and see a gorgeous pumpkin pie cooling on a rustic wood table you'll remember there's a pretty good chance it's not all as perfect as it seems, either.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 27 - Hurricane Sandy Don't be Another Snow-tober

Last year, my kids didn't really get Halloween because of the Snow-tober snowstorm we got here in Jersey

that left our roads essentially impassable, our schools closed, and mothers like myself forced to eat the trick-or-treaters candy all by ourselves.

We all do what we can do.

Last year we were able to make the most of our Halloween day at home, dressing-up the stuffed animals in homemade Halloween costumes:

and turning clementines into Jack-O-Lanterns with Duck Tape.

But the reality outside was that Halloween really wasn't gonna happen.

So this year, call me first-world, but I am really hoping my kids get a good Halloween.

Even if that means I get less candy.

Because us mothers? We're selfless like that.

Happy Halloween and wishing safety to all riding out the storm.



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31 Days of Hallowen: Day 25 - "Photos" from our family trip to the pumpkin patch

Oh, my dear husband.

Who can't use his iPhone.

We made the annual family trip to the pumpkin patch, and I realized I had forgotten my camera.

But I remembered the huz had a new iPhone, and could... save the day!

So he dutifully took a pic of each kid and a pumpkin, and today I asked him to email them to me, and he did.

Each adorable, 1-second video.

On the plus-side, they downloaded really quickly.

Other Stuff I Wrote Last Week: Back to School Shoes, Books and a Last Hurrah of Summer

This week I'm shifting from summer to fall. The kids are back to school on Thursday, and while I'll miss the sun and the fun, I feel like it's time.

I wrote about our trip to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor for BaristaKids.com, and while it wasn't the best day out ever, it was pretty fun.

For back to school, I covered See Kai Run, maker of great kids shoes. Here's my son modeling his pair from (gasp!) last season:

And here are some of the hipster styles from See Kai Run for this fall:

I also shared three of my favorite books about the first day of school. 

Marco Goes to School, by the hilarious Roz Chas, has particularly grown on me over the last 1,816 times I've read it to my enthralled son:

Next up, getting my own three kids back to school.

What are you doing this week?

Great Back to School Looks with Cookie's Kids

My daughters go back to school in a few weeks - I can hardly believe that summer is almost over, not to mention that come fall there will be a full-fledged 2nd-grader and 4th-grader in my house.

Time flies.

With school around the corner, we've started looking at what clothes still fit from last year, and what new things they'll need for the year ahead.

I was thrilled to join a program with Collective Bias to do some back to school shopping at CookiesKids.com to find some great pieces for my daughters.

The Cookie's Kids website has lots of options both for "regular" school clothes - what my kids wear to school - and school uniforms if that's what your kids need for the school year.

I went straight to the section labeled "Girl's Dept." which is easy to navigate by choices like tops, bottoms and shoes. Each item has easy drop-down boxes to see size and color availability.

For my daughter, Magpie - age 8 and soon-to-be fourth grader I picked out an orange and gray striped tee shirt (orange is her favorite color) for $8.99 and comfy gray leggings ($5.99) that will be perfect for days she has gym class.

For my almost-second grader, Kay, who likes fancier garb, I found a ruffly shirt that suited her fashion sensibilities while still being practical enough for school. The layer top ($7.99) came in a choice of black, purple or fuchsia, and after some deliberation I went for her favorite shade, fuchsia.

When the Cookie's Kids package arrived, I showed my kids their new clothes and both girls were delighted. (Phew.)

I wonder how many more years I'll have the fun of picking out clothes for my girls as a surprise, and having them love there new things.

I'm guessing not too many, but hopefully a few more before the real teen years are here.

On Polyvore (my new addiction) I had a lot of fun putting together their new kids clothes from Cookie's Kids in a kids fashion collection - I can see creating a lot more of these in the future!

Happy Back to School everyone, here's to a great year!

Where do you like to shop for back to school clothes? What is your kid's style?

You can see more photos from my shopping experience at CookiesKids.com in my Google+ album here. You can also like Cookie's Kids on Facebook, follow them on Twitter @CookieKids or via the hashtag #CookiesKids.

A little background about Cookie's Kids - now in its 40th year!

In 1972, a young man named Cookie and his brother Marvin went into business together. They rented a 1600 square foot store in Jamaica, Queens, fixed it up, bought inventory and Summer and Fall, and opened a day after Thanksgiving with a full stock of holiday toys. The toys were a success and they put the extra money toward buying children's clothing for the next season. When that did well, they bought more clothing. The business was on it's way.

As the brothers Cookie, Marvin and Sonny, who had come in as a third partner in the business, began to open new stores in new locations, inventory expanded. Besides the latest fashions, our customers wanted shoes, toys, backpacks and accessories and we were prepared to deliver.

By the late 1990's there were six superstores throughout the NYC area, and though they previously had different names, by that time they were all named Cookie's Kids. Also in the late '90s came an important addition to Cookie's Kids' inventory: school uniforms. It was the steady success in uniform sales that paved the way for founding CookiesKids.com in 2007, which originally sold uniforms and soon after the entire Cookie's Kids Inventory.

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and CookiesKids.com. #CBias #SocialFabric



Fall Feet {Wordless Wednesday}

Footwear choices in Picture 1: Native water shoes (inspired by mutterschwester), Michael Kors boots, Mommy's Tretorn galoshes and pink Uggs.

Footwear choices in Picture 2: Puma sneakers, Diesel galoshes, Trumpette rain boots (borrowed from his big sister) and Nikes.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Ziggy in the Pumpkin Patch

And yes, better late than never, I have discovered a new addiction Picasa.

Sukkah in the Suburbs

Our friends up the street made a sukkah for Sukkot - for those of you who are not observant Jews or do not have children attending a Jewish preschool, Sukkot is a Harvest Festival of many customs, including building a little hut (literal translation is "booth") to remember the time spent wandering in the desert all those many years ago.

In addition to building a small, makeshift building in your yard another tradition of the holiday is to eat meals in the Sukkah that celebrate the fall harvest, favorite recipes include butternut quash lasagna, stuffed zucchini, sweet potatoes in orange cups, pumpkin cookies and apple custard pie.

For those observing, Chag Sameach!

Who Wore It Better - The Frog Halloween Costume

Both my daughters were a frog for their first Halloween. So of course I have to ask, who wore it better?

My son insists he wants to be a cat this year, and will not carry on the proud tradition of the Halloween frog.

I'm trying to decide* between these:

Yes, those are the choices that come up when I searched for "toddler cat costume." I'm kinda appalled.

*I'm not really trying to decide between these options. I would not let a ten-year-old girl wears these get-ups, let alone a two-year-old boy. What has happened to our world that these things are even for sale for toddlers?

Incredible Pumpkins - Halloween Gone Good

Last year, I spent much of October complaining about Halloween - the slutty children's costumes, the over-the-top yard decor... in short, the commercialization of the holiday.

But not this year. No, this year I am just going to publish post after post of ridiculous Halloween stuff I find and call it Halloween Gone Good.

Today, I present Incredible Pumpkins - clearly some people think there are better ways to create a Jack O'Lantern than just hacking up a pumpkin with a kitchen knife. And while I admire them and their handiwork, there is not one of these pumpkins I think I could make myself.

I love this Polka-Dot Pumpkin, made with an apple corer, and putting pieces of one cored pumpkin into the other pumpkin:

Photo from Better Homes & Garden

Here is a close-up of the polka dotted pumpkin:

Photo from Better Homes & Gardens

In fact, Better Homes & Gardens as a whole slide show of fantastic Super-Fast Pumpkins with No-Carve Designs but there would be nothing super-fast about me doing any of these - I feel like it would take the better part of a day for me to even find an apple corer.

Better Homes & Gardens also has a slideshow entitled Quick and Easy Painted Pumpkins though  again, if I was the one doing the "quick and easy" painting it would actually be slow and agonizing... just look at these incredible pumpkins!

The Silhouette Pumpkin:

Photo from Better Homes & Gardens

The Stenciled Design:

Photo from Better Homes & Gardens

I'm sorry, but those do not look quick - or easy - to me.

Real Simple had some spectacular (but easy! really!) no-carve pumpkins, too.

I love this Chalkboard Paint Pumpkin:

Nothing says fun like kids wanting to change their pumpkin every day from now till October 31.

And last, I really love these thumbtack pumpkins.

Real Simple has initial and house number ones:

Photo from Real Simple

And MadiganMade has these simply stunning gilded pumpkins that are completely covered with gold thumbtacks.

At least she has the decency to admit it was not easy and that it took forever to put in all those brass tacks. 

And if you, like me, find that all this pumpkin awesomeness has left you feeling perhaps a little bit inferior, I leave you with one last equally cool idea that luckily requires almost no execution: The Masked Pumpkin:

Photo from Country Living

Genius.

What's the most clever pumpkin you've ever seen? My husband's pick is this old favorite, the puking pumpkin:

October Handprint Crafts: Columbus Day, Pumpkins & Halloween

October brings many things - the Columbus Day holiday, fall weather, changing leaves, pumpkins and their patches and at the end of the month... Halloween!

Here are handprint crafts to celebrate it all:

Columbus Day is on Monday, October 10. Almost Unschoolers has this great Hand Print Mayflower Craft, which I'm thinking is the same style boat Columbus sailed over on, and can be re-purposed for this holiday, but to be honest I don't really know for sure. Any tall ships experts who can weigh-in here?

And it's really this boat or nothing, as I'm guessing none of you really want to make handprint crafts depicting genocide or the slave trade.

The end of the month brings a much more cheerful holiday - that's right, October 31 is Halloween!

First of all, how great is this handprint Jack O'Lantern:

And here's another cute pumpkin handprint from Little Giraffes, who have a whole Calendar of Handprints:

Ramblings of a Crazy Woman has these not-too-wicked handprint black spiders:

One of my favorite craft sites is Handprint and Footprint Art, and she has directions for a ton of great Halloween crafts from witches to Frankenstein to ghosts and candy corn.

I'm also a big fan of the handprint spider tie dye Halloween shirt.

And don't forget, pumpkins are the perfect surface for handprints! Full directions for these are also at Fun Handprint Art:

If you're looking for fall crafts celebrating autumn leaves and foliage, apples and apple trees, they're all in the post for September crafts. You can also see all the handprint crafts for the entire year here.

This post completes twelve months of handprint crafts, next month brings us full-circle back to where we started with the handprint-iest of all the crafts - the handprint turkey.

My Lil' Pumpkins and the Black Winter Coat - Who Wore it Better?

Who wore it better?

There's a lot of sibling clothes sharing in our house, sometimes even with little brother Ziggy. So I've decided to start a new feature, who wore it better?

So, who do you think wore it better? Magpie's on the left, and Kay (holding someone named Kelly's pumpkin) is on the right.

Winter coat from Lili Gaufrette via the one-and-only Natan Borlam in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They have incredible prices and service, and will even help you shop by phone.

{All opinions my own. No compensation received.}

Wishing All a Happy, Healthy & Sweet New Year

This Wednesday night at sundown begins the year 5772 on the Hebrew calendar. My newly school attending son brought home the symbols of the Rosh Hashanah holiday: a bee, a red tissue paper apple, a watercolored fish, and this adorable pomegranate-embellished photo:

With his wee little handprint on the reverse side.

It was a perfect way to start a new year.

And because I like to celebrate all holidays with Animoto videos, I made one with photos from a few years past.

~ Happy Rosh Hashanah ~



And to all those observing...
Shana Tova Umetukah.

Happy First Day of Fall!

Today is the first day of fall.

The first leaves are starting to come down, and my kids eagerly reminded me that's it's almost time for "Leaf Village!"

What is Leaf Village you ask? It is a town I "let" them make last year out of the fallen leaves in our yard.

To create Leaf Village, one had to rake the leaves into neat piles that were then labeled "House," "School" and "Bench," the last one being designated the sitting-on pile. There was of course, also a town swimming pool. And yes, diving was permitted.

And even more ironic to me, all the neighborhood kids enjoyed helping to make Leaf Village - our yard being the only on the block where the leaves weren't miraculous blown away from a garden service while the kids were at school.

I can only imagine what their parents thought.

Handprint Crafts for September - Apple Trees, Fall Foliage and the Rosh Hashanah Holiday

Here in the northeast, September is all about apples, much like October is all about pumpkins. (Note: I am not jumping on the Halloween-in-September bandwagon. There will be no talk of Halloween here until October 1 at the earliest.)

There is no shortage of handprint crafts focusing on apples. In addition to the back to school apple handprint craft featured here last month, there are also lots of great options for making handprint apple trees.

I love this family apple tree from I can teach my child, where each person can add a red painted-fingerprint apple to the tree made from green construction paper handprints - each person gets to add one of these, too.

I also love this handprint tree from Three Peas in a Pod which really captures the changes colors of the fall foliage, I know my kids would love to make this one. The leaves are made with fingerprints. Too cute.

I also love apples and honey to celebrate the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. This year the holiday falls on September 28-30. Creative Jewish Mom always has the best holiday crafts, and Rosh Hashanah is no exception. Two of my favorites are:
the wine cork stamp apple cards:

and the bubble wrap apple cards:

To see lots more great Rosh Hashanah ideas, visit Creative Jewish Mom.

This month also brings the autumnal equinox on September 23, but I'm not sure how exactly to celebrate that with a handprint craft. So if you have any ideas, please let me know.

Happy September crafting!