This years pumpkins feature a few scary faces, boo which was created with a drill, a pumpkin popping out of a pumpkin, and a momma pumpkin with her crazy kids.
Nightmare Before Christmas Halloween Decorations
This year, for Halloween, I made all new Nightmare Before Christmas decorations.
Oogie Boogie and Zero are just cut out of poster board which I got at the Dollar Store for $1 for two pieces of paper. Put them in the window and they block out the light at night. Super easy for minimal effort.
Jack is made out of cardboard covered in black duct tape and then attached to the garage with magnets. I got these little magnets that are extremely strong and have been holding it really well. Granted, you need to be smart about where you stick things to the garage door. I’m able to open the garage with no problem as nothing sits across two panels. Jack took some time to cut out and cover, but he’s holding up pretty well.
If you’re wondering how to draw things nice and big, what I did was found a big photo online, printed it as big as I could, then either traced around it or I created a projection by cutting out that print off and placing it between a light and a wall so that it projected nice and big up on the wall. It took some testing but I’m pleased with the results.
The only thing I’m really missing is Sally. I’ll have to figure out something for Sally next year. Maybe on the small garage door.
Had a T-Rex Cookie Today. They’re Huge! @TrexCookie #sizematters
At work they brought in T-Rex cookies and they are some of the biggies cookies I’ve ever had.
They’re a half pound cookie and come in all sorts of amazing flavors. From Monster to Hot Cheetos, Carmel Oreo, Boston Creme Pie and so many more.
I highly recommend checking them out if you’re in the Minneapolis area.
Photo a Day Challenge
On January 1st I started a photo a day challenge and you can see my photos over at stormwp.wordpress.com.
I’m not following any sort of list or recommendations but rather just taking a photo a day.
Turns out that taking a photo a day is both easy and hard. Some days I see lots of things and take lots of pictures, others I forget about it until the last minute and have to find something at 10pm to take a photo of. Either way, I am enjoying it.
I also was using my photo a day it as a way to test out WordPress.com and see if it was any better than self hosted WordPress sites. Turns out it’s basically the same. I was hoping for more traffic from WordPress’ built in network, but nope. I also feel restricted by the theme options as I’m not overly a fan of the layouts I had available. Granted I’m sure I could change things more if I paid.
My goal is to make it though the year taking a photo a day and then we’ll see what’s next. I am enjoying the challenge and there’s a lot of good things to take photos of out there.
5th Grade – Let’s Do This
Time just keeps marching on and Lily started 5th grade this year.
Last year our school moved the 5th grade to the middle school so now she’s a middle schooler. I still can’t quite comprehend that.
Now that she’s in 5th grade she’s required to have her own Chromebook, a trapper keeper, has a band instrument, and so much more. Her backpack isn’t big enough for all this stuff.
The good news is she’s getting a lot of new opportunities and she’s enjoying it. As much as I want time to slow down, it’s amazing to watch her grow up.
Starting the day off right with a pork chop on a stick!
At the Minnesota State Fair.
I Built A Bat House
I recently built a bat house. It even has a Bat Girl sticker.
Bat House 
Bat House – Bottom View
Since I hear bats eat mosquitos, I thought it may be a good idea to attract a few. Plus we had a bat living in one of our vents a year or two ago so I thought it’d be easy to attract them. Turns out, I haven’t attracted any bats yet.
Of course, it could be because I used my own design. I looked up a few bat house plans on the internet, but thought they were more complicated than they needed to be so I used them as general guides.
I used the boards I had lying around and I figured out measurements as I went. It’s basically four walls and a roof. On the inside I used some wire fence that I thought the bats could grip onto. This was easier than scratching the insides of the bat house as some plans recommend. Overall, I thought it was just as good as the vent they lived in a while back.
I’m not quite sure why the bats aren’t coming, but maybe they’re not looking for homes this time of year, or maybe it should be more in the sun. Either way, I’m happy with it.
Happy 10th Birthday Lily!
Happy Birthday to my sweet girl. This time it’s double digits!
Lily had a great time with her family and friends over the past few days. First, we had grandparents and uncles up for some yard games and ice cream cake. Then we had a family day. Followed by a trip to Valleyfair with a few friends and a piñata cake.
This year Lily is going into 5th grade which is middle school and I don’t know where the time goes. She’s still my little girl and always will be.
Wife made birthday cake waffles for Lily this morning. They’re delicious.
Basically you use cake mix instead of waffle mix.
No Soliciting. Seriously, don’t make it weird.
There’s a lot of contractors going door to door since the hail storm so we put up a sign. So far it’s been pretty effective.
Here is the full size version of the Grumpy Cat No Soliciting Sign if you want a copy.
It’s good to note that I didn’t create this, I found it on the inter webs and I’m not sure who created it in the first place.
