Sunday, November 1, 2015

Halloween 2015

It's crazy how a year flies by.  One year ago today (halloween) we pulled into Mn to call it home.  We got in after lunch, checked into our hotel and headed to the Mall of America to trick or treat.  This year we had a great neighborhood with great friends to run around and snag treats.  Here's our crazy crew this year.
We have Darth Vador (great goodwill find!)
 Hey Mario....where's Luigi?  Oh here he is....
 And if you are wondering what T is and can't figure it out - he's a light up stick man.  As soon as I mentioned this possibility, T was all about it.  I gotta say it turned out pretty good.  Black clothing - easy.  Battery operated LED rope light - $5 on amazon.  Talk about a great deal.
 The darker picture shows it better.
And if the picture isn't enough - I had to video him running.  hysterical!
Happy Halloween everyone!

Little Boo Turns 6

My little Halloween birthday boy turned 6 this year.  Sad to see my little boo growing up but happy to see the cute sensitive kid he's becoming.  This year his birthday fell on a Saturday.  Thank goodness!  Do you know how hard it is to cram birthday dinner, cake and presents all in BEFORE trick or treating.  It's awful.  C was at the perfect age to have a great halloween party this year!  I decided to go back to an idea we had done for his 1st birthday - a Spooky Breakfast.  He wanted to invite all the boys in his class (twelve in total) so I knew a breakfast would be a good idea for everyone.  That way we could have the hype and then a long peaceful break in the day before the hype of trick or treating. HA!
I had so much fun planning this.  I knew that it needed to be good because next time his birthday actually falls on a Saturday - we will be looking at preteen years! GASP!  Plus kindergarteners are so fun to tease.  Here's the crew - all were asked to wear their costumes of course!
Here's my bunch pre-party.  My 5th grader thought he as too cool for this kinder party.  So....I gave him the job of photographer.  Which worked out great.  He took some good pictures and I didn't have to stress about it.  
 Even I dressed the part.  Like my witch costume?  S, on the other hand, dressed as himself.  Boring.
 I dressed as a witch because the whole breakfast revolved around a witch's brew.  Six years ago I found this idea over at another blog, and have loved it.  The kids made their own witch's brew from different cereals labeled fun stuff.  Here's what was included:
Raisin Bran - Dead Leaves with Witch's Warts
Honeycomb - Cob Webs
Honey Smacks - Chicken Toenails
Mini Trix - Frog Eyes
Coco Puffs - Bat Brains
 To bring in even more sugar....I added some spider eggs to the menu (aka donut holes).  You should have seen the kids faces when I asked if anyone wanted spider eggs to eat.  HA!
 To break up the sugar fest - I had a variety of fruit.  Mandarin oranges as pumpkins, bananas as ghosts and apples as monster mouths.  Surprisingly the pumpkins were the winner of the bunch.
 We needed a little protein so I made Little Mummies with cocktail sausages and crescent rolls as well as string cheese made to look like Witch's Fingers.  The nail was a sliced almond.
C requested the sugar cookie bars (click here for recipe) he loves for his birthday instead of cake.  So I baked in a round pan and turned it into a pumpkin cookie cake.
 I tried to keep the boys busy with organized activities the entire time.  I did not want my basement to look like a toy tornado (in fact I hid most toys in the guest room!).  First game was Feeding the Monster.  I put black garbage sack over our corn hole set and let my boys decorate it to look like a monster.  The boys had to throw the bean bags in his mouth.
 Next up, we made a huge spider web as a group.  We sat in circle and took a ball of yarn and tossed it to each other creating a huge tangled mess.
 Then we had a race to build Mr Bones.  Kids were split in two teams.  They had to use potato sacks to grab a skeleton part and race back.  Once all parts were gotten, the team had to work together to put Mr Bones back together.
 Here they are building Mr Bones.
 I also had a mystery box filled with yucky stuff that kids had to reach in and feel and guess what it was.  I got a lot of yucks when they reached in and felt wet spaghetti noodles as brains.  W didn't get any pictures of it.  After all our games were done, it was time to open presents.  I just love how kids this age get closer and closer to the birthday boy until he has no room to move.  HA!  They are so excited to watch!
 Then since the kids hadn't had enough sugar, we ended the party with singing happy birthday and eating yummy cookie cake.
I hope this was a party that C will always remember (and his little friends too!).  I can't tell you how many of them left thinking they were going to turn into a frog that night since they drank my magic potion.  I love this age!

Sunday, October 25, 2015

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

We found the cutest little pumpkin patch near our house.  It was a pick your own patch.  No fancy hayrides, no money making extravaganzas....just walk out and pick out your pumpkins.
 T looks unhappy but he wasn't - he just didn't want his picture taken.  ha.


And....this weekend we carved our lil pumpkins into masterpieces.  Ok, we didn't so much carve, but this year we bought a hole punch kit thing.  A little easier.  Cleaning the pumpkin is always the best....


And here's the result:
 T did a face.  S did a "J" on my white pumpkin.
C chose a spider and W did a spider web
And last but not least, I painted S's pumpkin like a candy corn.  He chose the perfect shape.  Happy Pumpkin Decorating folks!

Fall Fun

We've been busy this fall.  Love it here.  True Fall foliage and weather.  Can't beat it.  Now....if winter weren't so long....HA!  Here's what we've been up to.
Last week the kids were out of school a couple of days and we took advantage of some things close by.  First day we drove up to Interstate Park near the St.Croix River.  Had a picnic and then hiked.  Beautiful tree colors!

 At the park are several potholes that were created by glaciers back in the day.  It was pretty cool.  This one you walked down into and looked up through the hole.  Very interesting.
 Some potholes you could just pop a kid into and take silly photos.  HA!
 I forced S to pose for this picture.  But wow - what a great background!  W took a nice shot of us.
 Look at the beautiful trails.
 On our way up, we passed by this interesting sculpture park.  I looked it up and it was free admission so we decided to stop by on our way home.  Um....interesting to say the least.  It's so random and all these sculptures are just in the middle of this guys field.


On day two, we went to a pretty popular corn maze.  Apparently corn mazes are a big deal here.  They all have themes each year.  This year the theme was to honor firefighters.  Here's what the maze was designed to look like:
We brought along one of W's friends (although he looks like he could belong to us!)
 They had all sorts of fun from hay mazes, corn mazes, corn pits, ziplines and the ever popular, pumpkin chunkin' cannon shooters.





Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Apple Pickin'

Can I just say I LOVE living back in an area that has great farms for fall family fun?!  Living in the desert lacked this wonderful memory making time.  BUT we are back on it and found a great little apple orchard to visit here in MN.  The kids had fun but I must say, it just isn't the same as it was when they were all wee little ones.  C had a blast - the others, eh, just an ok time I think.  {sad face}
 Playgrounds made from old combines....come on folks - that's just fun.
 Feeding the goats and sheep and donkeys and llamas.  Always entertaining.

 Growing up too much!
 On the hunt for the perfect apples to pick.

 And what's going to a farm without the hayride?!?!?

Ahhhh....fall fun!