5 on Friday

Happy Halloween month!!

I'm not so into fall decorations (I think that statement might get me kicked off Pinterest) but I love Halloween! As soon as I turned the calendar over to October, I gave myself the green light to start celebrating. I've been enjoying a festive mantle,

Making cutesy spooky breakfasts (toast + cream cheese + currants), 


Decorating Parker's nursery (I copycatted a Garvin and Co print for his chalkboard),

 Dressing little man up in festive outfits,

And baking yummy treats. 

How are you spending the spookiest month of the year?


Linking up for 5 on Friday!
Darci + April + Christina + Natasha 



And also for Friday Favorites!
Momfessionals

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Gone Girl Movie Review


I was way late hopping on the Gone Girl bandwagon. As in, I just read the book this year. It's written in such a way that the chapters jump back and forth in time until two perspectives meet up at present day. The style makes it unique, but author Gillian Flynn also throws in lots of turns and twists. I loved GG so much that I had to read Gillian Flynn's other two books, Sharp Objects,




even though I was warned they were super dark. This was definitely true (they are dark in a sick, twisted, psychotic sort of way) and yet, like GG, they are written in such a way that the whole time, you are speculating a million different scenarios as more and more clues are unraveled about the characters and timelines. To me, this made them so intriguing! I felt like I had to emotionally remove myself from these last two books, but I really liked the "mystery" component to them.


On to Gone Girl the movie! I've been waiting for this since I finished the book. I really had some doubts as to how they would adapt such a unique written format to film, but I still made sure I had tickets for opening night! I've talked before about my love of Studio Movie Grill, but I'll say it again: this is the best way to see a newly released movie, especially on opening night. The idea of standing in line and having to fight for seats gives me major anxiety, so I love that seats are reserved (and really love the call-button for cocktails mid-movie!).

I was pleasantly surprised that the movie was extremely close to the book, and included tons of details (so much so that the beginning of the movie was on the verge of seeming "slow"). The actors were very well chosen and did the written characters justice (Neil Patrick Harris made an especially intriguing Desi, though the role was a minor one). I watched the movie with two friends, one who had read the book like me and one who had not read it. I realized during the movie what different experiences we were having - there are a few big "shocks" that the story gives, and you can only experience these surprises once, be it via film or via written text. It's cliche to simply say "the book is better than the movie", however this film adaptation made me really appreciate how the book let you savor the turns and twists over pages and pages and thoughts and details, instead of being thrown at you in scene after scene. My friend who hadn't read the book still liked the movie, but if she goes and reads the book now I feel she'll be robbed of the true nail-biting, "just one more page" experience of reading GG for the first time.

The movie is also Hollywood "dramatized", which I actually didn't mind since it was a motion picture competing with other films. I had read somewhere that the movie's ending was going to stray from the book's ending, and I was excited at this notion as the book ending is highly frustrating. Sadly, this was not the case and I left the theatre with that same frustration I had upon finishing the book! Not necessarily "bad" frustration, more "I'm going to keep thinking about this twisted story" frustration, because yes, the storyline is that good.

If you haven't yet read the book or seen the movie, pick one and get to it!
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Toddler DIY Pumpkin


I knew for Halloween this year I wanted Parker to create his own pumpkin masterpiece. Since carving was obviously out of the question, I picked up a little white pumpkin to have him paint. I exacto-ed a masking tape "P" to place on the pumpkin with the intention to peel it off after he was finished to reveal a white "P" for Parker - a reverse stencil. 


Just like everything, the paint went straight into Parker's mouth. I anticipated this and purchased Veggie Tempera paint over something more permanent and toxic. 

He needed some prompting from Mamma and Dadda, but little man got the hang of it and painted with both his fingers and the correct side of the brush (not shown in this photo, ha!).

And when he was done, he was done. He wanted to hold his paintbrush still, but began walking about the yard, checking out the sprinklers, the bushes, the ants. He painted a good half of the pumpkin (and of course as his mommy I thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen).


Since the paint Parker was using was veggie based (as well as non-toxic and completely safe to eat) I wasn't really sure how it would hold up, or if it would paint at all. It was more important to me to get something safe since I knew it was going straight into Sweet P's mouth. Turns out that it worked, but dried a bit dusty and flaky. While you definitely won't mistake the finished project for traditional Crayola paint, it did do its job placing color on the pumpkin and Parker wouldn't have known the difference anyway. After reading lots of reviews, I went with the Wee Can Too Veggie Tempera Paints. It seems like anything safe to eat is not going to be the same as regular paint, so expectations have to be adjusted. The veggie paint also seemed pricey (about $7.50 per tub) however the paint comes in powder form, so you can mix (with water) just what you need and save the rest for later. I think they will last us a long time! 


After letting the paint completely dry, I carefully peeled off the monogram "P" off the pumpkin and voilà! Parker's first masterpiece! 


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5 on Friday

Five on Friday is back!! Link up here to share your what's on your mind this first Friday in October!

1. First, Dada is back this weekend! Holla! I love my sweet son, but my goodness teething is a monster. So happy to be a two-parent household again for a while! (And of course I'm elated just to be in the same state as my husband *heart*)

2. Max and Sweet P will be having Boys Night this evening as I head out with some girlfriends for the opening night of Gone Girl! I'm twelve kinds of excited about this movie! Have y'all seen the previews? They are making the movie look super spooky, while I did not find the actual book to be that scary. Ten points for getting our tickets to Studio Movie Grill. Great seats we don't have to wait in line for and cocktails with the movie? Score!


3. Speaking of Girls Night, a girls dinner out at Binkley's in on my October calendar! It's one of the local restaurants I really want to hit up before moving out of state, and I've never been. Owner Kevin Binkley studied under Thomas Keller, but his approach seems much more avant-garde and eclectic. Us girls decided that the husbands wouldn't appreciate it like we would (Max is more of a big steak with potatoes kind of man) so we are heading there without the men. Also, my plus-one is living on the other side of the U.S. right now so it works out perfectly. So. Excited.



4. Have you heard of Kate Hudson's new clothing brand, Fabletics? I find it curious that she's the spokeswoman and is shown "working out" in the clothes, yet she's on every talk show saying that she hates working out and instead dances around the house. Anyway, I have a $25 Fabletics yoga outfit coming my way. For the price, I just had to try it (though I am pretty partial to Lululemon because their pieces last forever).

5. It may be fall in your neck of the woods, but October in the desert simply means we can go outside again (you know, after a summer of temps so high you need to either be in a pool or inside). The weather has actually been gorgeous, and so we did Boys Club at Scottsdale Quarter this week and enjoyed their splash pad! It's seriously the poshest splash pad around - we were camped out on the grass right outside the Kendra Scott store.

Can't get enough of this little man and his love of all things water. Hope your weekend brings just as much happiness! 


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