Showing posts with label Gravity Falls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gravity Falls. Show all posts

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Halloween 2015 Recap Chi, IL Style

Hope everyone's Halloween weekend was a blast. Despite a chilly, rainy start here in Chi, IL, things cleared up around 5pm and my Rainbow Puking Gnome from Gravity Falls and my Steampunk made the rounds with a pack of friends. Then they returned to a party filled with loads of food and new and old school friends dating back to their preschool days.





Things I learned this Halloween:
  • My MIL didn't know narwals existed. "Are those actually real or is it some Star Warsie kind of thing?" 


  • There IS actually a candy called Zombie Food with quote unquote "milk chocolate brains, heart & feet filled with oozie red caramel"
  • Teens can make a seriously scream inducing haunted basement on a shoe string budget.

  • The rejects from the Jelly Belly Factory in southern Wisconsin are repackaged and sold as "Belly Flops". Those misshapen mashups are just as tasty.
  • Steampunks are not as well known among the general populace as they are in our circle of friends. Dugan got a lot of bewildered, blank stares and a few educated guesses on his costume like.... Are you: Time Traveler Dude, Watchmaker's Apprentice, Gears Guy, Steamboat Punk?
  • You're never too old to dress up for Halloween!


The party full of tween & teen kids made an amazingly creepy cool haunted house in the basement then stayed down there to hang out and get some space from the parents upstairs. Meanwhile, we caught up with loads of our favorite families we never see face to face anymore, now that the playground pickup days are past. 





The kids hung till around 11:30 and my husband was right, that's the longest time we've been at anyone's house without seeing one or both kids popping up and saying "I'm bored. When are we leaving." We finally had to drag the kids home because our son was leading early school tours for perspective 7th graders and their families in the morning.





We dropped the kids off, let the pups out, and hit the final 2 hours of our usual haunts, our friends' annual party on Bernard Street. This two block stretch is a renowned Chicago trick or treat mecca, where the neighbors dress up and deck out their homes in a big way. There are hundreds if not thousands of trick or treaters and our friends always have a big bash till the wee hours of the morning. It was midnight, so we almost didn't chance it, but we called over there and things were still half way hopping.

The husband and kids were asleep already, but amazingly enough, the wife was still up and there were about 10 friends left standing, and they enthusiastically begged us to come over. Better late than never, so we swung for a few beers and rocked their strobe lit, living room with a drunken, group Rocky Horror "Sweet Transvestite" sing along. Meanwhile the wife went upstairs to wake her husband to come down and say hey to the latecomers but she fell asleep in the process, while he rallied and came back down to hang out. Around the 3rd time in 2 hours that their iPod began to loop and play Ministry's "Every Day is Halloween" and Thriller yet again, we grabbed a few cookies and Affy Tapples for the kids and hit the road.

Check back soon. We'll have a big photo and video recap of our adventures at the first teen Redmoon Skelabration party on Friday night.

More Fav Pixs:






























Sunday, March 9, 2014

DVD “DreamWorks Dragons: Defenders of Berk Part 1″ Arrives March 25th

What We're Watching:

Dragons: Defenders of Berk is one of my tweens' favorite shows and I must confess... mine too.  It's a blog stopper.  There are three shows my kids dig that I'll stop work for and watch with them.  Dragons: Defenders of Berk, Phineas and Ferb, and Gravity Falls.  They're all excellent, have great animation, they're entertaining, and they are so well written. So, we're super stoked to announce that “DreamWorks Dragons: Defenders of Berk Part 1″ arrives March 25th on DVD!!  We're also more than a bit excited about the film sequel coming in June.  



Dragons: Defenders of Berk Part 1
Release:  March 25, 2014
Running Time:  242 minutes
Studio:  20th Century Fox

DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon  fans can soar higher than ever before when Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment releases on DVD the first part of the award-winning top-rated TV series, DreamWorks DRAGONS: DEFENDERS OF BERK. 

Available everywhere March 25, the DVD kicks off the franchise’s “Year of the Dragon” which will continue with the highly anticipated film sequel arriving in theaters this June as well as Dragon game apps, books and other fan experiences releasing throughout the year. The DVD of the 2013 Annie Award winner for Best Animated Television Production for Children is loaded with exciting bonus content for the whole family to enjoy and contains 10 epic adventures and four all-new dragons.

Based on the DreamWorks Animation Academy Award® nominated movie How to Train Your Dragon, DRAGONS: DEFENDERS OF BERK PART 1 follows Hiccup and his fellow dragon trainers as they battle to protect their island home. The young Vikings must put their dragon training skills to the test to defeat dangerous and surprising new enemies! The series features original voice talent from the film including Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse and will include, Zack Pearlman and more.

Defenders of Berk, and the previously released Riders of Berk, is a must-own for any Dragons fan to catch up before the summer event when How to Train Your Dragon 2 hits theatres June 13th! The DVD is jam-packed with special features that dive deeper into the exciting world of Dragons, including Dragon Tracker Part 3 featuring an in-depth look at the Screaming Death, Fireworm Queen, Flightmare and Skrill dragons; Evolution of Screaming Death, a featurette with visual effects supervisor David Jones who explains the history behind this interesting and scary dragon; and the “SuperFly” Dragon Mash-up music video. When it comes to action and excitement, the sky’s the limit in this high-flying animated TV series.

Fans that purchase the DVD will also get a Digital HD UltraViolet code for the title and an offer for exclusive battle gear and one month’s free subscription to School of Dragons, the online game from JumpStart based on DreamWorks Animation’sHow to Train Your Dragon franchise. With cinema-like graphics and an immersive 3D world, it takes more than courage to train a dragon but brains as well. For more information, visit http://www.schoolofdragons.com.

DreamWorks Dragons: Defenders of Berk Part 1 DVD Features:
  • Dragon Tracker Part 3
  • Evolution of Screaming Death
  • “SuperFly” Dragon Mash-Up
  • Sneak Peek

BUY IT:  You can buy Dragons: Defenders of Berk Part 1 on Amazon now for $16.98 or look for it wherever DVDs are sold.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Cavy Love #BabyGuineaPigs #PhotoFeature #GuineaPigFeeding #GuineaPigPregnancy

Here's your cute, baby animal pix fix for the weekend.  It's been our great pleasure to raise 3 adorable baby Guinea Pigs from birth.  



If you follow us on Facebook, ChiIL Mama's FB Page or Twitter, you've already seen quite a bit of them.  If not, meet:


Charlie 

Vortex (born during the 2nd Polar Vortex/adopted during the 3rd one)


and Cheekums (the keeper)


We're keeping Cheekum (kids' choice) and her mother, Bweep, and big sister, Brave. Sage was vocally wishing throughout the pregnancy for an orange girl to keep who would resemble Cheekums from one of their fav TV shows, Gravity Falls.  She got what she wished for!



Since we were maxed out with 3 Guinea Pigs, 2 big dogs, and fish, we found new homes to adopt Charlie and Vortex this week.  I hadn't expected it to be soooooo hard for the kids to give up the babies.  They've been through the deaths of pets before with more of a stoic response.  


Sage (10) cried for hours after we dropped Charlie off with a gymnastics teammate of hers. Vortex may be renamed Retro and he'll be hangin' with a couple of awesome homeschooler sisters.  


I was sad to see 'em go, too, (Charlie was my favorite).  I had a black n white Guinea Pig named Charlie as a kid, that my mom gave away to a school class because she thought I wasn't cleaning him often enough.  I cried & when I asked to go visit him a month later she said he'd caught a virus in the class and died!!  I was devastated.  My own kids named the little black n white girl Charlie after my childhood cavy.

I was sad to have to give up Charlie Guinea Pigs TWICE, but I'm very happy we found loving, kid filled homes for them, instead of having to sell to strangers and wonder how they're being treated.  That's a relief!  Hopefully Charlie #2 will live a long and lovely life.

 Newborn #BabyGuineaPigs 1/28/14

The whole accidental litter thing was a deja vu to my own childhood when my sister's albino mouse unexpectedly gave birth to a bunch of little, blind, naked babies.  They were so small at birth all 5 fit in the palm of my hand.  We had a blast playing with them in the doll house & driving them around in our Honey Hill Bunch Cart.  Here's my sister with our mice in 1980.  We named them Hickory, Dickory & Doc, Estella & Evangeline.


We bought 2 Guinea Pigs as a Christmas gift for Sage and didn't know our Guinea Pig mom was expecting when we got her.  They nurse for 3 weeks then start right into sexual maturity, and the moms can get knocked up right after birth and have a litter of 2-7 in 2 months!  The babies are relatively huge & hairy at birth and have their eyes open.  #GladI'mNotAGuineaPig

Newborn Guinea Pig in relation to a Brussels Sprout: 

Mama Bweep & newborn Charlie

They nurse 3 weeks but start solid food at 2 days & are remarkably self sufficient. It was a great experience for the kids, nurturing the babies and researching diet and care.  The cavy babies were better than my kids about eating kale, Brussels sprouts, and carrots for the high vitamin C content.  They make awesome pets and love to snuggle up with people.  Downside: they do poop and pee a LOT, and will do it on YOU if you're holding them, so a towel under them is helpful.  



Upside: They make adorable squeaks and purring noises, are quite affectionate, and are patient when kids put them in toys cars, armor and whatnot.  If you can put up with a bit of Timothy Hay mess, and don't mind doing a weekly cage cleaning, we highly recommend them as pets.

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