Happy Halloween!

On Thursday we had our last swimming lesson. In my quest to turn my children into the next Micheal Phelps I put them back into swimming lessons. I could not find lessons at the same time, so we have spent an hour and a half at the pool every Tuesday and Thursday for the last month. It has about done me (and Laynie) in, so needless to say, I have decided that my boys will have to find other ways to become Olympic Gold Medalists because I did not sign them up for the next session of lessons!

And, in preparation for Halloween we finally carved our pumpkins.

They carved the pumpkins all by themselves this year and did a great job!

And now on to Halloween!

Although the kids where not able to celebrate Halloween at school, Jacob's teacher held a fun luncheon today. Lots and lots of food (and sugar) to start the day out right!

This is my attempt at a scary Halloween dinner. It was supposed to be a mummy, but Jacob thought it looked like Frankenstein in bandages and Kelly thought it was a Skeleton. At least I get an A for effort, right?

Finally, here are the kids in their costumes. Laynie dressed up as Minnie Mouse for the Monster Mash, but it seemed like a lot of effort for tonight so tonight she just wore her pumpkin shirt instead.

Here are the boys trying to scare the trick or treaters! Ryan did win an award for the scariest costume at our school's Monster Mash last Friday! We had a great day and hope that you did too!

P.S. I know to some of you it may sound like no fun, but for us, our solution to the Halloween Candy is a life saver. The boys get to eat candy on Halloween night and then the day after they "sell" their bag of candy to us for $10.00 (it is great having children who think $10.00 is a small fortune!). They get to buy a toy and we don't have to deal with the sugar induced craziness that usually follows Halloween!

Silhouettes and Capes

My sister reminded me of the silhouettes we used to make in school as kids. She had read about an easy way to make these and so I decided to give it a try. I absolutely love the way they turned out. It really was easy and the best part? It didn't cost a dime.

Last night Kelly, Laynie and I went to a fun Halloween party. We had a great time, and how could we not with this gal in charge. We were asked to dress up as Super Heroes. I made a Super Mom Apron for me, a Super Princess cape for Laynie, and Kelly went as Psycho Therapist (a villian!).

Instructions for making silhouettes: Take a side profile picture of each child in front of a plain background with your digital camera. Download, change to black and white, and print on cardstock. Cut out along the edges of your child's profile. Paint entire picture with black craft paint (I turned mine over and painted the plain side). Let dry and glue silhouette to another sheet of cardstock. Place in frame. (I had white frames that I spray painted black). Am I right? This really could not be easier. I am kind of embarrased that you know how simple it really was. It doesn't make me look half as crafty!

Cammi

Kelly is blessed to have a wonderful, kind, and generous sister. She is my sister too and I feel blessed to have her in my family! She has the sweetest, most well behaved six year old twins and that is a testament to what an amazing and attentive mother she is. Laynie is named after her and we only hope she can be half as kind, organized, creative, and considerate as Cammi is. Tomorrow Cammi and her family leave for Pittsburgh. You can read more about why she is going here. She has a long rode ahead of her, but we know she has the strength and courage to meet all of the challenges that may come her way. We look forward to the day when she can make the trip to Denver to visit us. We want her to know that we are praying for her and hope that you will too!

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

I could show you pictures of us making these cute Halloween shirts, the boys marching in the Homecoming Parade, and Laynie eating rice cereal for the first time, but instead I gave our camera a little dip in the washing machine. Several weeks ago, while trying to multi task, I brought down a load of laundry with my camera on top. A few minutes after I had the laundry going I remembered my camera, and found it in the spin cycle! By the time we rescued it water was literally dripping from every crevice! Now it is being repaired and in the meantime, life is still moving on (with only a disposable camera to capture the moments with).

Thankfully, a good friend took pity on me and loaned me her old camera for the weekend. We visited Berry Patch Farms . . .

where the boys played Marimbas,

picked raspberries,

ran through a hay maze,

went on a hayride and chose pumpkins.

When we came home, we made smoothies with our raspberries,

and Laynie tried a little more rice cereal (yum yum!). The boys and Laynie are wearing the Halloween shirts we tie dyed for Family Night a few weeks ago (another Family Fun Magazine project which looked alot easier than it actually was!).

And finally, here is the Fall wreath I made for our front door. I saw a similiar one created just for Halloween and decided to create one that could last all season long. This was such an easy and inexpensive project (and I think it turned out pretty cute!)

Welcome October!

To celebrate October we . . .

made pizza,

watched It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,

and ate donuts and drank apple cider.

**Fun inspired by the amazing blog: http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

One Last Trip

(Cammi, Jacob wanted me to take a picture of him holding Laynie on the four wheeler just to scare you. I promise he did not actually take her on a ride!)

Well, we decided we had not done nearly enough during our "track off" so we made a quick trip to Utah to spend the weekend at my parent's cabin. The weather was perfect and the leaves had turned the most amazing colors. We went on lots of walks, rode the four wheelers, and ate our favorite cabin foods: Mountain Dew Chicken (thanks, Brandi!) and s'mores.


On our way home from the cabin, we stopped at my grandma's house. I have the most amazing grandma, and the boys absolutely love spending time with her. She spoils them rotten and will not let me tell them "no". What's not to love?




While there, we picked bags and bags of apples, peaches and plums. So hopefully my next post will be about all of the canning we have done (or, if not, how we are dealing with the smell of rotting fruit in our house!)