Halloween

As you can see the kids finally have new Halloween Costumes.  They have been a pirate and a ladybug for the past three years.  Their costumes were just too cute, we were in a different state for every Halloween and the costumes worked well for school...comfy, no masks and not embarrassing.  But this year Elena was WAY TOO BIG for her little ladybug costume and Cody really wanted to be a ninja.  So we retired the costumes and found replacements.  Anyways so after the kids got home from school and all of their parties, we made sugar cookies.  I don't know if the kids are growing up or if I am growing up.  But I am becoming not such a perfectionist and actually let them just run wild with the decorating of the cookies.  I only did ghost and I frosted them all white and turned them loose.  They did a great job and I love the way they look!  Yes, I think it is me that is growing up.  Then I made mummy hot dogs and chilli for dinner.  We all wanted to go out Trick or Treating as a family, so we left a bowl of candy with a sign that said "take one".  We must have a very honest neighborhood, because much to our surprise, after an hour and a half, we still had five pieces when we came back home.  The kids had fun trick or treating and handing out candy once we got home.  One thing that I was super mad at myself for was we never carved pumpkins.  Saturday night I went to Walmart buy a pumpkin and they were completely sold out.  I wanted to go to another store, but we had ice cream in the car.  I asked the kids if they wanted to carve a pumpkin but have soupy ice cream or have hard yummy ice-cream and not carve pumpkins.  They chose the ice cream.  I still feel bad though.  Oh well next year right?  And for your enjoyment I have included yet another wonderful dance video, by the one and only..... C- DOG and LIL MISS.  Enjoy!!!!!

Elena's School

 

It worked out perfectly that I was able to go strait from helping at Cody's School over to Elena's School.  Her teacher had a short little Halloween program and then took the kids trick or' treating to a few neighbor houses. I am glad it all worked out so that I could go!  She looks soo dang cute all sparkly in the sunshine!!!! Earlier in the week she was also allowed to ware her Halloween Costume to dance.  She loved looking at herself in the mirrors as she danced.  Ahhh, I love it!!

Cody's School

I got to help at Cody's Halloween party.  It was fun and easy.  The second grade teachers work really well together as a team and do lots of stuff as a whole grade.  So each teacher took a project and then the kids all rotated rooms.  They had Halloween Bingo, decorate a pumpkin, make a spider hat, make a bat and make a Halloween hand.  I always love going into his class and I am so glad that my life allows me to go often.

Trunk or Treat

Trunk or Treat, was your typical get a bowl of chilli visit for a little while and then go around and get some candy or in my case give out the candy.  Cody all the sudden felt sick and fell asleep in the car..poor little guy!  Elena and Dad went around Trunk or Treating and our trunk was so lame and boring, because I couldn't find my bean bags ANYWHERE that go with my Halloween beanbag toss that I use every year.  Oh well, the kids really only want the candy anyways...not some fun/or not so fun beanbag toss.  Elena sure had fun with her friends, I wish Cody felt better so he could have run around more with his.  But the good news is rested over the weekend and felt great for Halloween Day and Night.

Vertuccio Farms

My favorite pumpkin patch is still Black Island Farms in Layton, UT...but this is the second year we have gone to Vertuccio Farms here in AZ.  There isn't anywhere in a two hour radius from our house that lets you actually pick your pumpkin off the vine,  so it is hard to compare what we have around here to others.  But for the price and how close it is to our house, we have really enjoyed Vertuccio Farms.  This year they added a couple more things to their assortment of fun activities.....now if we could just talk them into those cool slides from Black Island Farms.  The kids had SO much energy...I didn't even know having that much energy was possible.  Their favorite was running through this kids hay maze and jumping on this huge, I don't know quite what to call it...bigger than a bounce house.   It was pretty sweet, but didn't have a natural bounce like a trampoline or bounce house...it was wild and so fun for all of us.  Cody was all over the place, again TONS of energy. We did the corn maze and remembered to bring a head lamp this time. The hopping horses were new too. Any ways always lots of fun, great weather and a super family night! 

Elena's First "Friend" Birthday Party!!!

Elena was long over due for a friend birthday party.  I was planning on doing a party for her last year, but we had just put in our pool and we were scrimping every cent we had to pay off our high interest loan...and since we had just moved here, she was kind of lacking in the friend department, so we skipped it.   This year she has lots of little friends and we are not quite as tight on money.  I was trilled when party time came around.  I know that when you have a big group of kids...simple is the way to go.  The more simple, the better things are going to be. So it was an easy move to go with a Kindermusik birthday party.  I taught Kindermusik for 4 1/2 years, so it was a cinch to pull together.  I can have these little ones eating out of the palm of my hand for a good 45 min. We did punching balloons, sand blocks, rhythm sticks, scarves, bells, other various instruments, and even made our own tambourines. I LOVED seeing Elena's smiling face.  You can see there's not a doubt in her mind of how wonderful and how loved she really is.  After dealing with the Barbie Cake I needed simple for this party...I opted for some homemade cupcakes (rainbow in the middle per Elena's request) and a scoop of ice cream.  And then present time came and it was pure pandemonium and happiness all wrapped up together. (I am annoyed at blogger because they have changed the way they have you put pictures in...kind of easier and yet a lot harder for me to arrange them how I used to. I may need to change my normal formant.) Any ways it was a wonderful party for a wonderful little girl!!!  We Love You Elena!!! I have hopefully attached a video to this post so check it out! 

Parachute

Making a Tambourine

Scarves

THE CAKE

Elena wanted a Barbie Princess Cake.  I looked on line and saw some good ones and some not so good ones. I wouldn't go as far as saying I am a perfectionist, I do know my limits and that I am not a professional cake decorator.  But I want my cakes to look good, not just some heap of frosting with a doll stuck in it.  I was trying to decide if I should buy the $20.00 pan that makes a perfect skirt for the doll, it also comes with a little doll body on a pick, so you just stick that in...pretty simple.  But I am too cheep and creative for that...so I saved the $20.00 and worked it out on my own.  I wish I would have taken pictures along the way, like a tutorial, but I didn't.  I used three pans.  Two 9 inch cake pans and one medium glass bowl.  I also did rainbow colored cake batter.  I ended up filling the bowl too full and as it cooked it made a dome on the top.  This ended up being perfect for the cake. I layered the two 9 inch cakes, then cute the bowl cake in half and layered that on top.  Then I took the dome from the bowl cake that I had previously cut off and stuck it on the top.  Whala a perfect shaped dress for the doll.  (I also used a cookie cutter to cut the middle of the cakes so the doll would slip in easily and did a little trimming off of the 9 inch cakes)  I stuck the ceran wrapped doll in and went to work frosting her.  I did a quick frost and stuck her in the freezer for the night.  That next evening I frosted her and debated about putting her back in the freezer, but decided I would leave her out so she wouldn't be all sweaty from the moisture of the freezer.  I choose poorly...when we woke up Friday morning disaster had struck.  I could see the kids concern was more for me than for the cake.  (Oh how I love them!!!!)  I picked the cake up with the help of a big spatula and my bare hand and stuck her back into the freezer.  I finished getting the kids ready, got Cody off to school and then came home and went to work AGAIN on this blessed cake.  Surprisingly, she came together nicely for how bad she was.  Again...not perfect, but for my skill level of....not great, I was happy with how she turned out. And my princess loved it!!!