welcome, october.

I love October. And I love Halloween. In fact, I love Halloween so much so that I put up our decorations last week. Truth be told, however, those decorations went up a touch on the early end because my friend Alice and her son, Oliver, came to stay with us, and half the boxes in the spare bedroom were full of Halloween decorations. (The other half are Christmas decorations. True story.) So out came the Halloween decorations to make more room for Mr. O. 

Another thing arrived last week: Cecile's "Halloween Lights" Kiwi Crate. Boy, was I happy I had that craft in my back pocket when Thursday turned into an all-day rain fest, confining us to the great indoors. It provided us with a nice little activity.

There are several totally awesome things about Kiwi Crate. For starters, there's no need to schedule an out-of-the-way trip to Michael's or Hobby Lobby, or wherever else you go for craft supplies. Everything you need for the craft is delivered to your doorstep in a neatly packaged green box. Second, because everything you need arrives in the box, you don't end up with crazy amounts of extra supplies to junk up your craft drawer. Lastly, the crafts are really cute! And you don't have to be a Martha Stewart to have dreamed them up! 

^^Ali giving a Modge Podge tutorial.^^

I first heard about Kiwi Crate a few months ago through a friend. After witnessing how excited her son got when a new green box arrived for him in the mail, I signed Cecile up for a three-month trial. The crafts have been consistently cute, and now Cecile, too, gets very excited when the box arrives at our door. But Kiwi Crates are aimed at four- to eight-year-olds, and the projects have ended up being just slightlyyyy more hands-on for this mama than I'd prefer. So when I read Kiwi Crate was launching Koala Crate later this month--a similar concept geared towards three- to four-year-olds--I jumped on the subscription. I can't wait to see what activities they dream up for my little girl, as I'm sure they will be great ones. 

As for our little Halloween project (which wasn't part of our monthly subscription, by the way), it went well! Cecile will walk by "the project," as she calls them, and point out who made what--Oliver the ghost and spider, and her the bat and pumpkin. Then she exclaims, "Spooky!" It's adorable. So hello, October, and hello, Halloween. We're ready for both your tricks and your treats :)))

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