Fall stuff

Two princesses, a knight and "Mutt" from Indiana Jones. They were just so cute! I did have fun with the decorating. We have so much candy. I think we have gotten more in years past, but the amount was perfect... enough that they were excited about it and I won't throw most of it away after a few days. 
After the decorations came down, I made a wreath out of things I already had. Go me! We have been really budget-conscious lately. It has been really pressing on me the way I spend money. It's a little here, a little there, until it gets out of control. I reason that a $2 thing won't break the budget, maybe $7, and before I know it, there goes $100! (Or more.) Anyway, I promised Harby I'd post a photo of the wreath I made. It came about because first of all, I've had the Southern Living door bucket on my door -  empty for months. It has bothered me, but I don't have anything to fill it with. So I took it down for Halloween, and wanted to replace the Halloween thing with something for the Fall. My neighbor had such a cute one. I mentioned to Jeff I "needed" one. He said, "Take hers." (That is so Jeff.) The neighbor said, "You can get one for like $5 at such-and-such store." But I knew I shouldn't, so I made one that night from things I had used in the past. Why didn't I do it sooner?? I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out! I think I got the pieces from like 4 different projects.

The past couple of days I have been doing some "not spring" cleaning. Since I pulled out winter clothes (for Jeff and me) I realized I don't have enough hangers. So I have decided to change the way I do some things. I folded my sweaters. Probably better anyway. I also took all the girls clothes away from them. They constantly have their clean clothes mixed with dirty and almost dirty clothes all over the floor of the bathroom, closet, bedroom and hall. It makes for tons of laundry, so I confiscated the clothing, put them in one of Maddox's closets, then took the hanging canvas cubbies and laid out clothes for the week in Maddox's other closet. So now I choose the clothes and give them clothes for one day at a time. My hope is to train them how to care for their clothes and gradually return responsibilities to them. I have been completely supervising/managing bath time for the last few nights, and that is working well. They have a clean bathroom for the first time since we've lived here. Not just once, but all the time! It's amazing how much more time I have when I invest in supervising certain activities. You live an learn. So without access to a plethora of clothing, the girls actually wear the same thing all day. If it gets a little wet, they wear it anyway. It also helps that I am using plastic bibs on the babies, as their clothes stay clean during meals. Imagine a bib doing that. Seriously... you'd think I'd be smarter than that. So we've been establishing baby-steps to routines. 

This photo was taken a few days ago when we went to Katy for a Tae Kwon Do tournament. This is probably one of the last times the older kids will fit into one of these things. Maddox is almost as big as Lacey!