Turning 2 and an early Halloween

Hello? Still there? I'm still here. Alive. Kicking. Most of the time wanting to kick and scream but I was told responsible adults are not supposed to do that.

Breathe. I need to breathe. And I need a break. I miss crafting. I miss sewing. And I miss my crochet hook, which I have only recently learned how to use. You know how work sometimes gets in the way of life?

During my absence from blogging, in a land far away... a little princess turned 2. We weren't planning to give her a party. We just prepared a little surprise for her. 

We set up her tents with balloons, banners and gifts. The tents were actually part of our gift. We bought it about a month ago and had it gift wrapped and everything... and when we got home, daddy handed it to her... a month before her birthday. The other gifts we bought for her ended up the same way. Including the gift from one of her grandmas (the doll from my Matching Dresses post). In fact, the night before her birthday, daddy wanted to give her all the gifts I managed to keep hidden... which was the bike that Andrea had been asking for every time she sees it at the mall, and a small toy. Oh and the gift from her other grandma.

When she woke up, we showed her the tents. She wasn't in a very festive mood though, not happy at being woken up. But her mood improved when she saw her bike :)

We ended up giving her a small party anyway. We had one party for her and my niece to celebrate both their birthdays (which was only a week apart) and also to welcome their Aunt Ela (my cousin) during her first visit to the Philippines.

Aunt Ela is only 7 years old. The other kid in the photo is Uncle Jerik... he's also 7 years old and also my cousin. And no one turned 32... but my niece turned 3 and my princess turned 2. We had a Minnie Mouse cake, a giant pizza, other stuff, party hats, balloons and loot bags. Everything was planned, ordered and bought a day before the actual party. Including the cake. I was so happy to find a bakery willing to make me a cake with only 24 hours notice. Everything store-bought... and there goes my credibility as a crafter. The only thing I made for the entire party was the flower on Andrea's hair :-/ I don't have a lot of free time outside work lately so... Anyway, we had 4 kids a whole lot of adults, but it was fun.

Aside from this party, we also attended another party.We had our Family Day/Halloween Party at my office last Friday. Our company sponsored a trip to Ark Avilon, a petting zoo, for the kids and after that, they went back to our office for Trick or Treat. 

I brought my daughter and my niece. My daughter went as a cow girl, and my niece as a pirate princess. Both costumes are store-bought too. Including that felt trick-or-treat bag with the skull my niece is carrying which I could have easily made if I had the time. 

Andrea's costume has a little touch of hand-made though. I told her she has to carry Stella to make her get-up more authentic. What's a cow girl without a gallant steed right? Stella is the felt horse I made a while back, which was supposed to be for the Toy Society, but ended up as a Halloween costume prop. And daddy made her belt with the gun holster. The costume did not come with guns but daddy wanted guns because he said cow boys in western movies have guns. So we bought her plastic guns (which was only used once for her costume prop and something I already put away because I don't want her playing with guns) and daddy made her the belt and gun holster using felt. 

And this is what we have been up to the past few weeks. I will be buried in work until December so I won't have a lot of time to craft. But Christmas is coming and I wanna decorate! So we'll see ;) Maybe I'll have some Christmas crafts ready in a few weeks. I need to clean my house first though :-/