Saturday, October 31, 2009

TOTS day 3...

The fearless volunteers dressed up as crayons.

My favorite little brother and sister combo costume. They danced with me during the Monster Dance Party after story time.

Felipe looks shocked. He stole my hat, so I took his picture.


Bonnie as a Devil. She's the office manager and one of my favorite people.
We call her the office mom.

Dana the swimmer, me as a witch, and Mallory as Little Bo Peep.


The swimmer, the cowboy/sheriff, and Bo Peep


Gwen & Kim selling those memberships.


Cole as the Scarecrow. He's Bonnie's teenage son, so comes to volunteer a lot. He needed a costume, so I busted out Jesse's old Scarecrow costume from 2yrs ago.


The snow is melting the sun is out and the carnival has been restored
to outdoors where it belongs.

Amy & me as witches.



Me and my friend Little Critter after our story time together.

Compare and contrast... This is what Jesse had to scrap off the car this morning... minimal frost. Big difference form 2 days ago.
Happy Halloween Everyone!
The day is nearly over and we're almost to the 4,000 mark. Woo Hoo! Go Team CMD!

Friday, October 30, 2009

TOTS day 2...

The lovely front desk ladies of today. Luigi, a pirate, and a cowgirl.

Even giraffes like trick or treating @ the museum.

Winnie the Pooh dressed as a vampire and protects our pumpkins.

The 3 little pigs, Farmer Luke, and Little Critter doing a Thriller Dance Party with the kiddos after the Little Critter story time today.

Super Grover! One of the best homemade costumes I've seen in a long time.

I gave some free passes to our old neighbors and they brought their son Christopher today. It was so great to see them and catch up. Christopher is getting so big. He still remembers me and still loves me. He played shy for a minute, but it wasn't long before he was taunting me and trying to get me to chase him into the tunnels. Mary got a good picture of the 2 of us together that I will post after she emails it to me. What a cutie!

2 Woodland Fairies.


The 3 Little Pigs. Straw, Sticks, and Bricks.

Monsters from the Mad Monster Lab aka the Ready Vet Go exhibit with monster dolls instead of stuffed animals.

Snow White (me) & Pinocchio (Luke). Disney characters unite!

Heather as Rainbow Brite so perfect.

2 days down and 1 more to go. Yesterday with the late start and the continuous blizzard we didn't even break the 500 mark on visitors, but today picked right back up with nearly 2,700 visitors. I'm sure tomorrow will be a record breaker since it's the weekend and things have really started to warm up around here. Most of our snow is melted right off.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Trick or Treat Street with a side of snow...

The living room window photo revisited the next morning.

I swear there used to be lots of big beautiful bushes in our yard. They were covered in pretty leaves that just started turning red.

The view from the front of our building this morning. :( No fair! nearly 2 feet of snow in the city, nearly everyone else gets a snow day, but not us.

Luckily Jesse headed out to the car with out me and scrapped her off and warmed her up. What a good guy. Reminds me of my dad.

Jesse attempting to scoop off some of the walkway. We both cleared a path behind the car, so we could get out of our parking spot this morning. We were definitely drifted in. Poor car. We wish you could stay a summer car forever, but sadly you are our only car and we live in Colorado and we don't have a garage.

The Museum van was buried too. Most cars looked like marshmallows all day and still do. Most people were smart enough to stay home and enjoy the day at home where it's warm.

A view from one of the museum's windows over looking the parking lot after they scrapped it. To bad it kept snowing all day. I'm still not sure it's stopped snowing.

A view on the museum's balcony. Please compare and contrast with yesterdays shot of nearly the same view.

With the big scary flu bug going around the museum has spared no expense in trying to stop the spread of germs. Healthy Habits stations have sprung up all over the museum in the last month. They seem to be loved by the public, because they are always being used and we've had no outbreaks of sickness, so far.

So today we decade day... Luke and Dana were real troopers and actually dressed up. Most folks didn't, because they had to face the storm. Please! I dressed up still with minor modifications to my outfit of course.

Sort of an 80s look. I was originally slated to be an 80s homecoming queen, which I am still hoping to be on Saturday for the Ideal Father's Party, but the storm had me making last minute weather adjustments to my outfit. I wore tight pants rolled up with my neon socks and funky tennis shoes from last year. I also wore some pantyhose underneath it all to keep in some warmth. I figured a dress and heals probably wouldn't work on a day like today.

My 6 bracelets annoyed me so much through out the day, but they really helped keep me in character. I also sported some dangly earrings and a big scarf wrapped in a giant bow on my head.

Peter came as Fred Flinstone. Well I guess he didn't come into the museum looking like this, but you have to give the guy props for wearing that when it was arcticly cold today.

The Monster Carnival was supposed to be outside on the plaza, but that idea was scrapped due to the weather, so they moved some of the activities inside. Like the monster bean bag toss.

Like I said very few staff dressed up, but luckily enough the front desk girls were showing their holiday spirit.

Little Critter was there to save the day. He is here all of TOTS and is supposed to be attending all the story times. Unfortunately today we didn't have any volunteers to bring him to life. Over 1/2 of them called in and enjoyed there snow day. Lucky for us we have an awesome new porter named Vanessa, who saved the day... I mean story time.

Some Monster Bats. One of the craft activities during TOTS. These are some of the examples kiddos made today.

One of my favorite costumes thus far. A mom mad this little puppy costume out of an old stuffed animal. It was hilarious, because the legs are so short and ever time he walked he waddled. The waddling made his bottom swing and his puppy dog tail wag. It was one of the cutest things ever. I actually took video of it, but my video quality is poor. I really just wanted Jesse to see what I was talking about. It makes me smile just thinking about it.

So far this little guy is my hands down winner for the cutest costume. He was a lawn gnome. He's a toddler and a total cutie. Mr. Personality to boot. The funny thing is... like his auntie said "If he wasn't wearing the hat with the beard you might just think he was a nerd." Love it!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow...

Jesse scraping off the car this morning. Minimal snow at the time.

The patio @ the Museum mid-day. The snow is starting to pile up.

The walkway to our apartment around 5:00pm. It's still snowing. Thank goodness someone scrapped the walk.

Even the power lines are thick with snow. It's a heavy snow and they're talking about branches on trees possibly snapping off over night.

The classic photo out our front window. It's supposed to keep snowing through the night and the morning tomorrow. Most schools were closed today and most businesses closed by 2pm. Not the museum or Jesse's work though. We did leave early than normal, but we got home by 5pm and normally we get home just before 6pm. Tomorrow is supposed to be the 1st day of the museum's Halloween celebration Trick or Treat Street. Hmm... they say we aren't opening late if we can help it, but most schools and businesses are already calling in the late start or closure. I'll be interested to see how the outdoor Monster Carnival does in 29degree weather with snow as high as the kids are tall. Wish us luck!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Crafting Costumes Continued...

Here's what the masks all started out as. I think we did a pretty good job transforming them into Day of the Dead Skulls.

Tissue flowers or tissue floor covering. You be the judge.

Floral Sombrero for Jesse's costume.

It takes roughly 10 flowers to cover the sombrero. We have 2 sombreros to cover & a million other flowers to make as decorations for the party.

The Blue mask is finally finished. When I purchased the masks there were only 3 and we of course needed 4. Jesse and I drove all the way to Arvada in hopes of hunting down the final mask, but returned empty handed. Imagine that all the Hobby Lobbies being sold out of make your own masks just before Halloween. Anyhow we completely lucked out when a co-worker of mine told me they lived near a Hobby Lobby and they wouldn't mind checking. Bingo! Luke saved the day. As soon as the paint and glue are dry we'll be shellacking it, so it's nice and shiny and all ready for the party next weekend. I can't wait to take pictures of all the guys in their get up, but unfortunately the party starts @ 5pm and I will be at work until 9pm. Hopefully the guys will all still be in costume and the costumes will still be intact by the time I get there with the camera.

*Either way there will be lots and lots of Halloween pictures to come.