Happy Birthday Cavy Babies #BabyGuineapigs #GravityFalls #PolarVortex

Meet Cheekums, Vortex & Charlie, the newest members in the ChiIL Mama family.   The first, Cheekums, the tan & white one, is named for a character in an episode of Gravity Falls, one of our family's favorite Disney Channel shows.

We dig Gravity Falls!   It's full of secret codes, cyphers and messages.   Check out a YouTube summary here.   Only the first season has aired and we're jonsin' for more.   Get your geek on and check out Gravity Falls.   The brainy tweens in Lane Tech's gifted selective enrollment Jr high love it and debate & discuss the episodes at length. 

Back to baby guinea pig land...

Vortex, the little grey & white guinea pig, is named for the winter weather we've been caught in this season in Chicago.   Polar Vortex has become a household name and has caused the schools that NEVER close (seriously, only 1 snow day in over a decade), to shut down for FOUR days due to brutal 50 below zero wind chills.   

This little grey and white fluff of cuteness incarnate was born between two polar vortex induced off days, in the middle of an unexpected 5 day weekend.   

The last of our 3 little piggies is a black and white one named Charlie, after my childhood guinea pig who was black and white too.  I got him in 1982, back when the Men at Work tune, Be Good Johnny was huge.   I have fond memories of singing this to my cavy boy, Charlie, subbing in his name for Johnny.   Ah... childhood memories.

Pre-Halloween 2013 #Halloween #PumpkinCarving

It's raining and we're still in the midst of jerry-rigging a narwhal for the boy out of a huge dog toy lizard tail, a knit skull cap, thread, wire, hot glue & a grey thrift dress.   Aaaaand we've got to find yellow grease paint for Miss Sage's Pansage face.   We've got the green makeup, & her costume's complete, so we're more than half way there.

Gotta catch 'em all... Pansage/Sage

Oh yeah, we're all going as the walking wounded too.   Sage landed full force on her right knee out of a flip in team practice and has been on crutches all week.   Fun fun... trick or treating with crutches in a downpour.   Dug's back got twingey this morning, cleaning up pumpkin guts & cardboard.   My left knee has been swollen & painful for some unknown reason, and Dugan fell and wrenched his left shoulder.   Oh joy.



At least our pumpkins look pretty sweet!
And as you can see, we had a fun family time carving 'em up.   We love the creativity Halloween inspires and we're all about DIY.   









































































The kids are big fans of Disney's animated series, Gravity Falls, so the last 2 years they've carved watermelons (ala Summerween from the show) in addition to pumpkins.   This year Sagezilla (who can be very Mabel at times) made hers a "puking pumpkin" with excellent use of the watermelon guts.   

 

I've carved a zillion pumpkins over the years and even won a contest as a kid, with my Christmas caroler pumpkin (complete with ear muffs!)   This year I made a first attempt at skinning the veggie and designing with the inner layer.   Here's my creation.  Go Blackhawks!