Halloween 2011

This year for Halloween Frances wanted to be a cat. She actually created her own costume from things she already had. We did end up buying her a tail and ears, but the rest was her own creation.

Henry waffled back and forth about a couple of different things he wanted to be. He finally settled on a dog (big surprise, huh!?!)

And since cat and dog were already taken, I decided to make Benjamin a mouse.

Since Frances' costume was homemade, I bought a brown sweatsuit for Henry and a grey sweatsuit for Benjamin.  I found some felt in the craft box and added some details with the hot glue gun.  I think they turned out rather nice. And I spent more money on candy than I did on costumes!

 We went out to visit Daddy at work for our first stop.  I always get a little giggle about visiting Ken at work. I really wonder what people think about this lady dragging her three little kids with her into the liquor store!!  Last night as I was getting Benjamin out of the van, the guy parked next to me made a comment about trick-or-treating at the liquor store.  I laughed about it and commented, "When Daddy's gotta work, this is our only choice!"  Incidentally, this might be my favorite Halloween picture this year:

Especially the way one ear is flopped backwards!!

After visiting Daddy, we went over to my work because the girls had asked earlier if we would stop by.  They got some candy there and banged around on one of the computers before we headed over to Franklin Street to collect candy. We parked at a friend's house and walked down the street and back up.  When we got back to the van, Frances said, "Where are we going next, Mommy?"  Ummm..HOME??  She had enough energy to keep going, but her brothers were definitely spent (and so was her mom!)

Incidentally, I couldn't find my big plastic candy bowl that I usually set out on the porch, so I took two McDonald's buckets from last year and filled those with candy.  We are not usually home when the majority of the trick-or-treaters are out, so I just leave the bucket on the front porch.  It is actually pretty rare for us to get trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, which is why we go a few blocks over.  Anyway, when we got home, both buckets were empty (yeah!) so I refilled them and put them back out on the porch. I heard a few rustles out there while I was putting the kids to bed and then later when I was sitting on the couch.  When Ken got home at 9:30 I asked him if there was any candy left in the bucket. "What buckets?" he says!  Turns out somebody took not only the candy, but the buckets as well!!  Well, the jokes on them-I was hoping to get rid of those things anyway!

And just in case you think Ken and I are no fun, we did dress up.  We didn't get to spend any time together on Halloween, but we spent weeks planning our costumes and collecting pieces, so here we are:

Dr. Temperance Brennan of the Jeffersonian Institution and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth.  You can't see the "cocky" belt buckle I bought him, or the shoulder holster he was wearing, but I know they are there and that makes me happy!

Super Scary Sunday Supper

Halloween is Monday, but we all have work and school, so I decided to cook up a Halloween meal on Sunday this year.  I had a ton of fun getting everything ready, and it was a pretty well balanced dinner too.
We had:  Mummy Dogs,

 Witch's Fingers,

 Monster Mouths,

 Goblin Eyes,

 Ghosts,

 Zombie Brains (I forgot to take a picture of the steamed cauliflower, sorry), and Peek-a-Boo Brew.

That clock is wrong, btw, but it keeps getting unplugged and I refuse to keep setting it!

Frances LOVED it!!

 

 Henry (who was over tired from lack of a nap) whined that he was "scared of his dinner," but finally acquiesced.

And Benjamin?  Yeah, he was over tired from his lack of a nap as well. He licked the Nutella and white chocolate chips out of his Monster Mouth and then tried to throw the rest of his food around the room while screaming.  I put him in his bed to chill out and he fell asleep (and slept through until morning!)  GOOD TIMES!!!

**This stuff was all pretty easy to make. If you want any directions, just let me know!**

Halloween Snow?!!

I really didn't want to believe all the hype I was seeing on Facebook and hearing from friends, but my denial didn't matter.  We had a Halloween Snow!! It started late Friday night with some drizzle and freezing rain. By the time we work up Saturday morning, it was a Winter Wonderland.  Except that it's still Fall!! And will be for another 7 weeks!
I frantically dug through all the winter boxes in the basement to find snowsuits and boots. Poor Benjamin didn't have anything I could find. I tried this, but he HATED it!  He couldn't even move!!  I only took one picture before he started BAWLING and I rescued him from it. We all laughed hysterically as I was trying to get it off.  Is that wrong??

 

Once we all got suited up, we ventured outside to check things out. The bigs had a good time jumping in snow and throwing it at each other. They tried to build a snowman, but didn't have the patience to finish.  They did enjoy playing hide and seek with the pumpkins on the picnic table that had ended up buried!

Benjamin just stood in one place and looked around.  He dropped his pacifier a few times and cried until I picked it up for him.  But basically he just stood there.

I noticed that our immediate neighbors on both sides lost some trees. We don't have anything in our yard that would be big enough to worry about, really.  I did clean the snow off of our dogwood so it wouldn't break.  Thankfully it looks like there was no housing damage done.

My neighbor's tree hit her house, but I don't think it broke anything.

After all that, we went inside to eat lunch and take naps. By the time the kids woke up the snow was mostly melted and we were left with just wet and cold.

The Things I Hear Every Day

Children are creatures of habit and as such they tend to do and say the same things repeatedly. My children are quite typical in this.  Sometimes it gets annoying, but honestly,. most of the time I just smile. I know that some day I won't hear those sweet little voices saying those sweet little phrases.  Here's a sample I want to be sure to remember:

Henry (each morning as he gets dressed): Mommy, do I leave my underpants on??

Henry (while putting on his shoes): Are dees on the wrong feet?  [I don't know why he always asks in the negative--Nine times out of ten he has them lined up correctly.]

Benjamin: Ball! Ball! BallBall! [Repeated ad naseum whenever he sees something round.]

Frances: Mommy, where does this go?? [Said while holding the same thing she asked about the day before]

And my personal favorite: Here's the back story. Every evening on the way home we pass a trendy clothing store downtown.  There is a traffic light at the corner and we usually end up stopped right next to the display window. In the display window there are three outfits that are changed regularly and an old fashioned looking bike that is a permanent fixture.
Henry: Mommy, which one do you like?
Me: Ummm...I like the (fill in the blank) one.
Frances: I like the (completely different one from the one Mommy picked!) one.
Henry: I like the bike!
Frances (giggling): Henry! You always say that!!
Henry: And you always say that!
Everyone in the car dissolves into giggles!

Henry's Field Trip

Henry's class had a field trip this week. They got to go to a local pumpkin patch to play and pick pumpkins. They have a big sandbox near the entrance that everyone loved. 

 They also had other games to play. This maze (below) had different colored hoses to step over. The instructions said to step over them in a specific order, but us chaperones couldn't figure it out!!

 There are a bunch of these cutouts around as well. I have several years' worth of the kids pictures in various ones. I'll have to go searching for them!

 Another perennial favorite is the junk orchestra. Lots of metal items are suspended from the frame above and there are sticks in the green bucket to hit them with.  Amazingly enough, no children were harmed in the taking of this picture!

 Being a farm, they of course have animals you can interact with. There are feed dispensers you can pay for, but this goat seemed pleased with the grass Henry offered.

 We also got to watch a pig race. The girl in the green told her own version of "The Three Little Pigs" and had the kids join in on the repetitive parts.  Then the pigs "raced" around the enclosure. I use quotations because out of the eight pigs that were supposed to race, only 3-4 of them actually run. The others just came off the starting blocks and started nibbling on grass and acorns.

 The "best" part of the whole trip was when we got to ride a tractor up to the pumpkin patch and Henry spent 10 minutes looking for the perfect pumpkin, only to finally decide he didn't want a pumpkin after all!  Stinker!!

Saturday Soccer Star

Henry had another soccer game Saturday.  He still acts like a cut up and falls down on purpose while running down the field (Thanks, Ryan!!) but we have managed to get him to go out onto the field and that is a huge accomplishment for us!!
It was also my week to bring snack, so I made the kids some spider web treats in honor of the upcoming holiday. They turned out pretty well, but they were kinds fragile and some of them broke before they could be served. Most of the kids didn't care because they could still eat the pieces. I plan on making them again this week for a snack.

Halloween Door Decoration

The girls at work invited me to Pinterest--even though I told them not to! Because we all know that I don't need another internet addiction.  So, of course, I wasted spent some time there looking at lots of fun pictures.  [If you are unfamiliar with Pinterest, it is basically an online cork board. Anytime you are online and see something you like and want to remember for later, you can "pin it" and it will be saved to your board. Then you can go back later and see what you have pinned. You can also look at what other people have pinned for ideas of things you might like to try. People have boards for craft ideas, wedding ideas, recipes, books to read, and all kinds of other stuff.]

I also added this post to a Pinterest Challenge Link up over at YoungHouseLove, so check out all the other people who have decided to stop pinning and start doing!!

Anyway, I saw this cute wreath that was basically a wreath form wrapped with a black and white polka dotted ribbon and tied with an orange bow. Frances is always bugging me to decorate for all manner of holidays and Henry's soccer gave had been cancelled due to rain, so we headed out to the craft store.  I bought our supplies and set up a craft station at my dining room table.  I thought I would photograph the process, so someone else can try it out. We had a lot of fun!!

You will need:

• Styrofoam wreath form (apparently you can also use that grey plumbing insulation that come in a roll, but I have never tried that!)
• Ribbon--the amount you need will vary by the size of your wreath and the width of the ribbon.
• Hot glue
• Foam stickers (optional)

I think our wreaths are 12" across. We used two spools of the thin ribbon for each wreath.

First I glued one end of the ribbon to one flat side of the wreath. This is now the back side of the wreath.  Then I wrapped the ribbon around, leaving space as I went.  When I got all the way around to where I started, I glued the ribbon down on the same side and clipped the excess. 

The I took a second, coordinating ribbon and wrapped it around the same way, filling in the spaces. I glued the ends of this ribbon in the same way that I glued the first one. 

Then I gave the wreath to my 18-month old, who, with some help from his big sissy, put seasonal stickers on it.

I repeated the same process to make a green wreath for Henry, 4.

At 8, Frances was old enough to do her own. She had picked out purple spider ribbon for hers. Hers was not wrapped perfectly, but that wasn't my goal, so it didn't really matter.  Plus, adding the stickers filled in the white spaces.

 After all three wreaths were done, we took a quick lunch break...

Then I used some of our left over ribbon and and glued the wreaths together in sequence and hung them on the front door.

The kids all had a great time and were so proud of their contribution to our Fall decorations.