Bloggy Love

I've received some awards recently, and it's time to pass on the bloggy love! What's really fun is that all three have come from completely different blogging "circles"!

1) Thank you so much to Everyday Adventures for the Brillante Weblog Award! I am continually learning from mothers of autistic boys how to be a better mother to my SPD son.

Here are the rules:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog
2. The winner must link to the person from whom they received their award.
3. The winner must nominate at least 7 other blogs for an award.
4. The winner must place links to those blogs on their own blog.
5. The winner must leave a message on the blogs of the people they’ve nominated.

I nominate the following 7 people for this award. Check out their blogs:

1. Amy
2. Charity
3. Christi
4. Kristen
5. Stephanie
6. Sunneye
7. Tasha

2) My next award came from Pam at You're Gonna Miss This, who's blog often reads as a Psalm. She is such a gifted writer!
The instructions with this award are to list 6 things that I love and then pass the award on to 6 more lovely bloggers… 6 Things I Love...

1. Hubby
2. Timothy
3. Samantha
4. Dallas Cowboys (Atlanta, please lose the rest of your games)
5. A clean laundry room
6. Christmas decorations

6 People to pass this award to...

1. Allie
2. Amber
3. Michele
4. Sarah
5. Sharon
6. Tara

3) And my 3rd award comes from Katey at My CF Journey With God. Samantha is going to grow up knowing about Katey...a beautiful woman who trusts God each day with her CF and embraces His plan for her.

Here are the rules....

1. Post the award on your blog
2. Link me for giving it to you
3. Link the originating post nominating you here
4. Pass the award on to 5 more deserving people
5. Post these rules for your recipients

And I thought I would pass this award on to 5 families who have preschoolers with CF. It's great getting to know you guys!

1. A Cure 5 Lil' Chris
2. Fighting CF One Day at a Time
3. Mugga Bugga
4. Phoenix's Fight
5. The Schellenberg's 3 A's...Alli, Ashley, and Adoption

Thanks for the awards, and I sure hope you all pass on the love!

The Painful Reality of Cystic Fibrosis

One significant change in my life that has occurred this year because of blogging is that I am now part of a Cystic Fibrosis community. It is precious to me and has brought me a great deal of joy. Tonight I recognize the fact that when you are part of a community, you also hurt when anyone in that community hurts. I learned today that Robyn, a beautiful woman w/CF I met through blogging, passed away today. I felt a strange connection to her...not only did she have CF, but she was a military wife. And her daughter's name, Lola, is what my children call my mother. It breaks my heart that she did not receive her badly needed transplant in time, and I ask you to pray for her family as they begin the grieving process.

Book Review: Christmas Night Fair and Bright

I bought this book yesterday and couldn't put off telling you about it because it's on sale at Berean right now for $5. In short, it's a must! Here is a great description:

With simple words and rhyme scheme ideal for children ages 4 to 7, Julie Stiegemeyer recreates the sights and sounds of the first Christmas. Christmas Night emphasizes the two natures of Christ -- His abject humility and His ultimate divinity. With each verse, Jesus' perfect life and death on our behalf is underscored.

Most of Christmas Night takes place in the humble stall as a paradoxical setting for the birth of the King of kings and the Lord of lords: "Jesus has no kingly hall. Jesus has no fortress tall. Home becomes a cattle stall for Jesus, born for us. So sequined stars become a crown, night, a robe to wrap around, God's own Son to earth came down, He's Jesus, born for us."

Christmas Night predictably recounts the events of that first Christmas, but it also includes the flight to Egypt, an event not typically found in children's Christmas books. This additional information helps children begin to see Jesus' birth as the beginning of a life story that will culminate in His ascension into heaven.

My favorite part of this book is that they pointed to the cross in the middle of the Christmas story. "Jesus, born to us" is the last line of every "verse", and half way through the book Timothy was asking to be the one to say that line. I love it! This book kept my preschoolers' attention while communicating the gospel and has gorgeous illustrations as well. It is a welcomed addition to our Christmas library!

FYI: In addition to this picture book, there is the Jesus Born for Us Christmas Service CD-ROM, which basically is an entire worship service planned around this book. Here is a sample.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have a simple day ahead, but it includes some wonderful thanks!

1. Dan was supposed to have duty, but instead gets to be home with us!
2. I woke up this morning to the sound of rain. It doesn't get better!
3. Football-seriously it's like someone invented this holiday for me.
4. Top the day off with Christmas decorating!!!
   

1 Corinthians 15:56-58 (NIV)

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Cystic Fibrosis Facts

Talana, an adult CFer who lives in Oregon, blogged yesterday about an incident that happened at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, on Monday. The school hosts an annual fundraising event called Shinerama for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (ccff), which started at the school 24 years ago. Evidently, the student body leadership decided next year they would like to raise funds for a different cause so ...

"In a meeting Monday night, CUSA members voted 17-2 to approve a motion to look at donating the frosh week fundraising money to other charities because 'cystic fibrosis has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men' and 'all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve their diverse communities.'”

This information is wrong! I want to communicate the facts:

1. Race: Cystic fibrosis is the most common life-limiting autosomal recessive disease among people of European heritage. In the United States, approximately 30,000 individuals have CF; most are diagnosed by six months of age. Canada has approximately 3,000 citizens with CF. Approximately 1 in 25 people of European descent and 1 in 22 people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent is a carrier of a cystic fibrosis mutation. Although CF is less common in these groups, approximately 1 in 46 Hispanics, 1 in 65 Africans and 1 in 90 Asians carry at least one abnormal CFTR gene.
2. Gender: Cystic fibrosis is diagnosed in males and females equally. For unclear reasons, males tend to have a longer life expectancy than females.
   

Since Talana's post popped up in my google reader, I have read several newspaper articles and various other blog posts. Obviously, there has been an outcry from the CF community, and according to this article one of the board members will encourage an emergency meeting to "reconsider their decision" since "the information provided to the panel prior to the vote was factually incorrect". They will probably revote and still decide to switch charities, but at least it will be based on the truth.

And the question that keeps nagging at me: Since they have been fundraising for the CF foundation for so long, why did no one in the room catch how false these statements were?

What's on your Nightstand?

I'm so excited to finally participate in this 5 Minutes for Books carnival. I have an eclectic group on my nightstand right now!

1. The Paper Bag Christmas by Kevin Alan Milne-This was a giveaway over on Tara's View on Books and someone else won it. Miriam Parker, who works for the publisher, saw that I entered the contest so she emailed me asking if I would be interested in a review copy. The book looked intriguing to me, so I said yes! I will be reviewing this book soon.
2. Heroes at Home by Ellie Kay-this is the only one I'm actually reading right now! It's written for family members of our military. It includes practical tips to simplify military life and personal anecdotes of what others have been through. I was given this book at MOPS!
3. The New Language of Toys by Sue Schwartz and Joan E. Heller Miller- I won this on 5 Minutes for Special Needs Books, and plan on putting it into practice quickly. It deals with using play to encourage speech and language.
4. Boomtown: Chang's Famous Fireworks by Nowen N. Particular-Stephanie told me that Thomas Nelson Publishing is building a team of Book Review Bloggers. Any blogger can receive free products in exchange for writing reviews. I was given 4 options initially. Two were thrillers, 1 was a book on tape, and this was the 4th one. I have to admit I'm drawn to the name of this author!!! This book is on it's way, but it will be on my nightstand shortly!
5. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens-I want to participate in next week's online book club, right here at 5 Minutes for Books. I can't quite remember if I've ever read A Christmas Carol (high school?), so I'm excited! I told the librarians yesterday that my favorite movie version is The Muppets. They both said, "It's the best one!"

Because I'll be having a steady stream of books, I've added the Shelfari widget to my sidebar that I've seen on many blogs.

Celebrating 8 Years of Marriage!

Dan and I opted to celebrate our anniversary last night since there was Parent's Night Out at the YMCA, and both kids love it. Makes them feel that the 4 1/2 hours away from us is for them! In a highly unusual, highly exciting twist, Dan told me he had a surprise planned for the night. He would be wearing his Dress Blues, and I needed to buy a dress! The search for that dress is a post all to itself, but thankfully I found one!

There was a great deal of "buzz" in our home as we were getting ready. Samantha was sleeping, but Timothy could definitely tell this was not a normal night. He's never seen either of us work so hard to get ready for something! And he was our little helper. I had him take 2 necklaces to Dan to pick out which one would be more appropriate for this secret place! Before Dan and I were ready, Timothy was begging us to open the presents: "Are we (WE?) ever going to open these?"

We let Timothy address both cards (every chance to practice writing):


I wanted Dan to open his first:

I'm the resident picture taker, but we've been planning on getting him his own for his upcoming deployment. I decided to make it a little early, and he was happily surprised. That's always fun!

Then my turn to open this...an 8 inch digital picture frame!!!!!


It's very cool and can hold a ton of photos! I love that we got each other photo related presents. It's too funny! Next we rushed the kids in the car to get to our "6:30 appointment time" that was not dinner reservations. I was so curious...and then we pulled up to Sears Essentials. Dan had booked an appt for us to get our pictures taken together...just us, no kids. What an amazingly thoughtful present. I was kind of beaming (like I'm not always), but I'm still just smiling thinking about it. We had a nice photographer, and we came away with some pictures that I'm very pleased with...

This on the ground pose thing was so cheesy, but it turned out to be my favorite one! Dan and I never had engagement pictures taken (we were living in 2 different countries), and there are really very few wedding day photos that are just bride and groom! I don't even know how to put into words how grateful I am for this sweet gift Dan gave to me. Thank you, honey!!!

Timothy tried to obey!!!

Last night was a late night for us, so we all slept in this morning. I slept in until 8:20, which is I can't believe! Yippee!!! When I woke up, I heard no noise coming from Sam's room and "play noise" coming from Timothy's. Very nice. At 8:39, Timothy came out and said, "Mom, I've played and played, and the number never shows SEVEN!!!!!!!!!!!" (Do you feel the angst?)

Oh, it made me laugh so hard! He also slept in later than he usually does, so by the time he woke up his clock had an 8 in the front. We have a rule that he doesn't get out of his room "until it says 7" because the days that he wakes up at 6:30am mommy still needs alone time before I start the day.

I never thought he would ever sleep until 8, and I would have to be specific enough to say "7 or HIGHER". But I have now, and so we got a mini-lesson/review in what higher and lower is. But I'm so glad he didn't know before today! The fact that he thought he needed to stay and play allowed me to sleep until 8:20 and still get 20 minutes of me time!!! And my son really worked hard to obey the rules. It's a good way to start the day!

Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY

Red is Samantha's favorite color, and I would give ANYTHING to win this one!!! She would be in heaven!

Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!!

Bronze Anniversary

Eight years ago today, Dan and I tied the knot! After last year's lengthy anniversary post, I can wrap year #8 much more succinctly. It's been the best by a mile!! As we get older, I'm more willing to let my picture be taken and Dan is more willing to smile! See how this marriage thing brings us together?

Kid's Picks: The Hat by Jan Brett

Mom: Timothy, what is your favorite Jan Brett book?

Timothy: The Hat

Mom: What do you like about The Hat?

Timothy: It has a border trim!

So I have some work to do on the whole "interview" process, but Timothy's pick is a great one! This is a wonderful book. Brett's illustrations are intricate and beautiful. Not only that, in all her books she creates a "border trim" of drawings that actually have their own story line! In The Hat, the pictures in the border give you a snapshot of what is coming (which is great for building prediction skills in young children)! It's so fun and all her books are like this! These border trims will also show you other "subplots" of the story. It's remarkable how she weaves the story and pictures together! She's extremely talented.

You can get a list of Jan Brett's books on her website, which is packed with activities and information. And since it's almost Christmas time, I thought I would point out these two books: Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends. The cover nor the description do the books justice. You have to see them for yourself!

For more Kids' Picks, head on over to 5 Minutes for Books.

Samantha and Meds

I've really been trying to give Samantha and Timothy words to use to describe all the treatments and medicine for her Cystic Fibrosis. As they start to explain it in their own words, we've had some conversations that are a little poignant to me...

Samantha was kind of complaining about taking enzymes a couple of days ago, and Timothy said, "That will make your sickness go away." Oh, if that were only true! But of course we pray that one day CF will stand for Cure Found.

Samantha was complaining about treatments when she woke up this morning (see a trend?) I told her, "We have to do it so that you can breathe better". In a very resigned voice, almost to herself, she said, "It makes the cough go away."

Commissioned Watercolor Portrait GIVEAWAY

This is an amazing giveaway. If there has ever been one I've wanted to win it's this one!

Commissioned Watercolor Portrait GIVEAWAY!!!!

Saturday of Fun

Saturday was a playful kind of day. We took the kids to see Madagascar 2. There are tons of jokes the kids would never get in a million years, but they enjoyed it nonetheless. Dan and I both liked it as well, so I recommend it for the whole family. I was going to link to the site, but I was given the option of adding this widget to my blog! I've never done that for a movie, and since I'm just loving the whole bloggity world I had to do it.

Next we went to Amber's going away party. I'm still in denial! I have so many pictures of the kids together and her and the kids, but we finally got one of us!

Last I attended a Baby Shower! In Little Rock I had one almost monthly, but in the 3 years since I've lived there, this was my first one to attend! We did something I thought was so clever. One of the hostesses purchased a bunch of plain onesies and pants. In addition, she had girl themed iron on transfers and fabric paint. We were teamed up with another person to design a baby outfit! They all turned out so cute! The guest of honor ended up with 11 original outfits, and she voted on her favorite 2.

Tip Junkie's 12 Days of Giveaways

Tip Junkie is having a 12 Days of Junkie where there will be 2 winners announced each day for the next 12 days!

It's to help promote the women who are selling their products in the Mom-preneur Shop-a-thon. So be sure to head on over to Tip Junkie and enter the contest and check out all the amazing gift-giving possibilities in the shop-a-thon!

Nordic Bo Peep and Long Lost Sheep Costume GIVEAWAY

Nordic Bo Peep and Long Lost Sheep Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!

Children's Classics: Caldecott Medal Winners

I've been meaning to do it for a while, but this is my first time to link up to 5 Minutes for Books. The 2nd Tuesday of each month is Children's Classics, and this month it has a Caldecott Medal Winner theme. My son, Timothy, just started kindergarten this year. Every 2-3 weeks the class focuses on a different author. I've learned so much! Since Timothy 's class is reading several books by each author, we go to the public library as well and check out every book on the shelf. Through this process, I was introduced to an author by the name of Kevin Henkes...

• Winner of the 2005 Caldecott Medal for Kitten's First Full Moon (Timothy's favorite Henkes book). Kitten sees the full moon and, believing it is a bowl of milk, tries unsuccessfully to obtain it! It's a sweet book, but I don't know that I would have picked it out as "best of year" if I didn't know beforehand. I actually prefer the story of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, which is one of the Honors books from the same year. Since Caldecott winners are determined by illustrations, though, I'm sure the charcoal black & white drawings in Kitten's First Full Moon tipped the scales.
  

• And winner of the 1994 Caldecott Honor for Owen, which is one of the books in Henkes' darling Mouse Books Collection. Each book presents a different issue that preschoolers deal with. I'll give a synopsis of the ones I've read:

Owen-he has a blanket that he can not live without, and his parents receive all kinds of neighborly advice about how they need to handle it
Wemberly Worried-fantastic book for a child who has fears-addresses starting school
Lilly's Big Day-assumes she'll be her teacher's flower girl (Lilly has huge pride issues!)
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse-takes purse to school
Julius, the Baby of the World-Lilly has to learn to accept her new baby brother
Chrysanthemum-deals with being made fun of by others

I got this excerpt of an interview with Henkes from his website:

If you had to sum up in one word the characteristic you most admire in each of your mice—Chester, Chrysanthemum, Lilly, Owen, Sheila Rae, Wendell, Sophie, and Wemberly—what words would you choose?

Chester:	reliable
Chrysanthemum:	sensitive
Lilly:	exuberant
Owen:	centered
Sheila Rae:	brave, of course
Wendell:	clever
Sophie:	tenacious
Wemberly:	thoughtful

I do think Owen deserved the Caldecott honor, but I just don't know how they plucked it out of the whole series. I think if you're going to read it, you'll want to enjoy all the Mouse Books.

Henkes has many Picture Books that you and your kids would enjoy thoroughly!

What is your favorite Caldecott winner?

Which book do you wish was a Caldecott winner?

Veteran's Day

Timothy and his classmates were carrying these when they left school today. In the middle are the lyrics of a song the kids learned:

VETERANS DAY SONG

For freedom is precious
We love it, and we need it!
We would like to thank our veterans
For keeping us free!

The National Guard, the Army,
The Air Force and the Navy,
And the Coast Guard,
And forever the Marines!

Timothy was showing it to me, and after he read the song he said, "I'm going to give it to my dad." I don't know if his teacher told the kids to thank a veteran or not, but I'm glad Timothy thought of his dad.

Dan, I know you're not far, but since you're not here and I don't know where you are it feels far. I don't ever take the time to tell you, so today is a good time to thank you for serving my country. You are a veteran in the truest sense of the word (I just read it to make sure!) Your career of over 12 years has both peace time service and war time service to include the gulf. I know it doesn't feel heroic, but nonetheless our country states that "Veterans Day is a day to honor all Americans who have served in the U.S. military, both during wartime and in peace". Since you're the one that Timothy and I know best, we say thanks!

Click here for the President's Veterans Day Proclamation.

Winning Stuff Is So Fun!

I just won a book that I'm very excited about called "The New Language of Toys". And I won it through a fantastic blog called 5 Minutes for Special Needs (button is in my sidebar). The button says "support...insight...inspiration," which has definitely been my experience. I highly recommend this site for anyone with special needs of ANY kind, but you will enjoy it even if your kids don't have special needs. A recent post about special needs kids and going to church was extremely powerful to read. Take the time to read the comments.

CF Videos

I'm late again for the 2nd month in a row-this time a surprise visit from hubby. It was wonderful! The breathing treatment videos are way too long, so I'll have to figure something else out. In the meantime, I thought I would talk about the digestive side of things.

Samantha takes Creon-10 and Prevacid daily.

For the last 3 years, we have opened up the capsules and dumped them in some kind of food (yogurt, applesauce) and fed it to her. A few weeks ago, she started doing this....

.

For those of you who have to do this, I don't have to tell you how this has revolutionized our life!

Yes, I'm more than embarrassed by how short I am with Samantha in this video! It's awful! I think I was trying to hurry it along because I was taping, but Samantha was having too much fun watching Timothy ham it up for the camera.

What a Great Post!

I've probably given BooMama a shout out before. If you aren't familiar with her blog, you're in for a treat. She referenced a "must-read" post from The Christian School Journal, and I have to say I couldn't agree more. Click here to read it.

It's Dry!

I shared in my last post that it rained today. It was so lovely-a nice steady rain, heavy sometimes, light others, lasting for hours. It's only the 3rd time I recall rain this year (not that you should trust my memory), but there clearly hasn't been much. The local news just gave San Diego's rain stats: The average rainfall by this time of the year is .89 inches (or inch?), and this year we are only at .32 inches so far!

"Because you are Americans!"

Last year, our little family of four walked together to the voting booths. Dan and I did our best to explain the voting process to our 4 & 1 yr olds! Well, this year Dan is gone and had to vote absentee, so I decided to vote after taking Timothy to school. I figured 1 child would be enough to handle while I filled out my ballot!

Being from Texas, I'm used to living in a state that's not exactly considered "battleground"! And yet, voting is so exciting to me! And to top it off, it's raining today!!! That's my favorite weather, and it happens about 5 times a year in San Diego! My voting location had about 12 or so voting booths, and I would say almost half of the people there had preschoolers. So child friendly! Here are some pics from our voting adventure.

I was trying (failing) at getting a picture of us in line, and the girls (in their 20's?) in front of us offered to take our picture! So here we are in front of the voting rules.

It was getting quite chilly, so I waited to take the "I voted" pictures until we got home. I can't get Samantha just to smile at the camera. If I say smile, she says, "CHEESE!" As you can see...

But this is my favorite...

In case you can't understand her...when I ask her "Why did you get to vote?" She says, "Because you are Americans!"

Talk to Me Tuesday: Halloween Show and Tell

I thought I was done with all my Halloween posts, but the Tip Junkie is doing a Halloween Show and Tell, which I thought would be really fun! Timothy decided out of the blue he wanted to be Super Mario, and a quick search showed buying a costume was out of the question. Well, it ended up being so much fun to put together and it was affordable!

Let's break it down:

Red Angels ball cap-Walmart $5.00

Red & White pieces of felt to make the "M"-craft store $.20/each = $.40

Mustache-black eye liner or black face pencil (since Timothy was wearing his costume at school, this made more sense than a stick-on mustache)

Red long sleeved shirt-borrowed from friend

White gloves-borrowed from friend

Overalls-size 5T from Target $16.00 (More than I wanted to spend, but couldn't find them second hand in the size I needed)

Buttons-punched out from yellow paper

Missing: Mario's boots-Kohl's had them for $27 and Payless had them for $23, but thankfully my son was cool with his tennies!

Here are 2 ideas that would have been really fun:
1. Mario and Luigi (for brothers or even twins-so cute!)
2. Mario and Princess Peach-I really wanted Samantha to be a princess so we could do this, but she already had her feline ideas!

Alicia Gets Political

Those who know me know that I'm not very politically motivated. Opinionated, yes, political no. This post is not about expressing my opinion on how you should vote Tuesday, but there is something related to voting that I want to comment on.

I took the picture below at my front doorstep. A few days ago this sign appeared in the patch of grass in front of our home. As you can see I live at the end of a dead end street, and I guess someone decided this spot is pretty visible for a political statement. In this case "Vote Yes for Prop 8". If you don't live in California, I guess this sign doesn't mean much to you. (Here it's all we hear about!!)

Prop 8 is the ban on same sex marriage. Voting yes means you define marriage between a man and woman. Voting no means you want marriage to include same sex partners. And because we live in a democracy we get to vote on Tuesday to decide what the majority of Californians want. Whatever that is will be the law in California. That's how it works which is why I'm bothered about these 2 things:

1) A California judge already threw out a ban back in March, which is why several famous people got married this year. I'm confused by the fact that a judge basically instituted law before we all get to vote on Tuesday. Really confused.

2) Last Monday, the San Diego City Council convened to vote on this issue. Click here to read about that. I rarely listen to local news, but just happened to that night and was pretty disappointed to hear our city council voting on something when their vote doesn't determine the outcome. That will be decided by the state's general population on November 4.

But to be encouraged about our democratic process...the same issue was brought before the La Mesa City Council (a suburb of San Diego) on Tuesday. They voted 5 to zero to "take no action at all when it comes to Proposition 8". Thank you, city of La Mesa, for placing the power back in my hands, the American voter. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that, and I will show that appreciation by being at the polls on Tuesday!

Tropical Tree Frog Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!

Get used to seeing these posts. This amazing talent has giveaways every two weeks! And all the clothes are for girls 2T-5T!!!
Tropical Tree Frog Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!

Halloween Costume Ideas

So Thursday night Timothy said, "Mom, I know what I want to be next year for Halloween."

I braced for it.

"Underdog"

Do we have a red/white/blue theme going on here?:



Or does he just really like long sleeved red shirts?

Go to 5 Minutes for Mom to see all kinds of costumes!

Halloween Day

The kids were allowed to wear costumes today, and here is 1/4 of his class! There was also a "fall festival" party where I got to hear Timothy scream every time he didn't win musical cheers. Good times.


After school we went to the "Pirate's Cove" (Sonrise Community Church's fall festival). Impressive event. Timothy saw this half way down the street. They were giving people rides about 10 feet in the air.


You don't have to tell Samantha twice to get on a ship. She LOVES climbing on Daddy's ship.


Look at that tiny captain (it was a HOT day, and thankfully we were costume-free).


They had 7 or more bouncy things. I think Timothy did this one about 30 times:






So when we started the day Timothy was dressed as Mario. But as the day went on he took off his hat, gloves, shoes, and socks. Mario's mustache wore off, and my attempts to wipe off the batman mask that was painted on at the school party just look like he's been rolling in dirt. Then I plopped him on a horse which completed his transformation to a country bumpkin!