Halloween Recap

Posted on November 1, 2014 by Amy

Whew! Another Halloween is over. We had a fun week of parties, treats, and costumes.

Here’s a recap, mommy-blog style:

First of all, the issue of costumes almost became a big drama when we first started Halloween planning a few weeks ago. I told the girls that I was not going to buy them costumes for Halloween this year, because they each had gotten two new costumes for the Labor Day party in September. Why two costumes? I had already allowed them to pick a costume for the “Cartoon” theme of the party, and then my Mother-in-law requested that everyone in the family come as a Smurf, knowing that would make for an awesome family photo, so they got additional Smurf costumes.

I told them they could choose from the Smurf costumes, the other costumes they got for the party (Mulan, Ms. Frizzle, Sofia the First), or pick something out of our extensive dress up collection. Sis and Lass had no problem with this. Sis wanted to be Sofia again. Lass decided to wear her veterinarian dress up outfit. Miss, on the other hand, insisted that she wanted to be a witch. We don’t have witch dress up. We had a stand-off on the issue for a few days, until I found a witch hat in the Target dollar section. I conceded to buy her the hat, but told her we’d have to piece together the rest of the costume from things we already had. She agreed. And then Lass changed her mind and decided she had to be a witch too. Soooo, a different witch hat, also from Target, and plans for two witch outfits. Costumes decided, crisis averted.

The actual Halloween revelry started last Saturday when we were invited to a party by some lovely friends.

You might be wondering what happened to the witches and Sofia the First, yes? Well, I suggested to Miss that she might want to save her witch costume for her school party, since lots of the kids from her school would be at this family party. She agreed and grabbed her Elsa dress (which needed some last minute repairs). Then Lass decided to be Cinderella, but melted down because her Cinderella dress, which she got as a gift for her second birthday, is now too small for her. She did not want to wear Miss’s Cinderella dress from last Halloween, but Sis decided she’d love to be Cinderella instead of Sofia. Lass recovered from her devastation quickly upon catching a glimpse of her unicorn costume in the closet where it has been stuffed onto a shelf for the past year. So, no witches, no Sofia. Elsa, Cinderella, and a unicorn instead.

Are you still with me? Good.

The party was wonderful, with lots of games and pizza and treats. The girls had a blast.

^^ A last stretching leap to win her heat of the sack race. She’s not competitive or anything. . .

My Halloween torment began on Wednesday, when I had to roll up my sleeves and actually bake the treats I had envisioned after my Pinterest search last week. I think I mentioned that baking is not one of my talents. Cooking I can do. Baking? Not so much. And yet, I volunteered to bring the sweet treat for Miss’s school party. I’m sometimes not too smart, either.

So, what do you think? Did I nail it?

At least they tasted good. I helped out at Miss’s party, and most of the kids devoured them, and had no idea they had pumpkin in them.

Yeah, she decided to stick with the Elsa costume for the school party too.

Yesterday afternoon/evening was a whirlwind of carving pumpkins, getting costumes on, giving candy to early trick-or-treaters, and trying to find their pumpkin-shaped candy buckets.

^^ Last minute jack-o-lantern success.

We had to really bundle up, because it was extremely cold and windy here last night. Miss and Lass each wore one of my sweaters as a witch “dress.” We managed to fit costumes on over bulky coats, so no one’s outfit was hidden for the sake of being warm. I crimped the older girls’ hair to make it look “witchy.” That was my favorite part.

We never did find the pumpkin buckets.

Miss insisted on pulling her sisters in the wagon, and off we went.

“Trick or Treat!”

It was really, really cold and the witch hats wouldn’t stay on because of the wind. The houses in our neighborhood are kind of far apart, and there were many with no lights on. We only made it to four houses before calling it quits.

The girls didn’t care that we didn’t go to more houses, and we would have ended up with the perfect (small) amount of candy for the night. Except that it was so cold, very few trick-or-treaters came to our house to take our candy.

Right now our huge bowl of leftovers is “hidden” in our laundry room. Unfortunately I can’t hide them from myself. I’ll be donating all of it somewhere ASAP.

It was a fun Halloween. I hope you had a fun one too!

Halloween Fun

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Amy

This is a big photo post to share some fun Halloween pics.

We had lots of fun doing pumpkin and Halloween stuff in school the past two weeks.

We did marble painting to make spider webs

Or spoon painting…

Lots of other stuff too:

Sis loves the felt board.

We even had a Halloween costume party with our preschool co-op this morning. They were so excited to get their costumes on first thing.

They did crafts and played games and had white-chocolate-covered banana ghosts.

We managed a family photo before trick-or-treating tonight.

I didn’t think the little gnome would keep her costume on,

but she did the whole time!

It was pouring while we trick-or-treated.

It was so yucky out, we only went to four houses. The girls really didn’t care though. Miss kept saying, “Mom, I just love trick-or-treating!”

They loved the candy too.

The quote of the night came from Lass. After they got their treat from one of our kind neighbors, she very loudly said, “He’s really an old man!”

I hope everyone has had a fun and safe (and dry!) Halloween.

All Things Pumpkin

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Amy

We have been a little pumpkin crazy here this weekend.

We did P is for Pumpkin in school last week and are continuing it through this next week. So over the weekend, we did a few fun pumpkin activities. Of course to start, the girls helped carve their jack-o-lanterns.

Naturally Daddy did most of the work, but they did help quite a bit, especially with creative direction.

Miss helped me season some pumpkin seeds for roasting. I’m actually not a fan of pumpkin seeds, but I thought it would be a fun thing for the girls to do. We made some with just salt and some with salt and brown sugar and cinnamon. They turned out okay.

I know Miss enjoyed helping me make them. And she said she liked eating them, though she didn’t eat more than one of each flavor. Lass wouldn’t even try them.

I’m not sure that the result was worth the time I spent cleaning off the darn seeds to get them ready to roast (is there some trick to this that I’m completely missing?). I think next time I’ll just have the girls clean the seeds themselves.

But that’s not all the pumpkin-y goodness we’ve got going on around here.

I am sometimes a fan of a pumpkin spice latte, so I decided to use this recipe to make my own crock pot pumpkin spice syrup today. It’s yummy and will be good in coffee and smoothies. I also soaked some pepitas to make spiced pepita milk.

A week or so ago, I did not know what a pepita is (a pumpkin seed without the shell, FYI). Then I saw the recipe and had to try it. I use almond milk in my coffee, and thought this would be a fun alternative for fall, so I made some tonight.

It’s so yummy I can’t wait to try it in my coffee.

I’m also planning to make pumpkin spice smoothies and paleo pumpkin pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.

We’re reading pumpkin books and doing pumpkin crafts and singing pumpkin songs. I was going to make some pumpkin pies, but I decided to wait until Thanksgiving for those.

Like I said, pumpkin crazy over here.

Miss asked to make pumpkin cookies to eat after trick-or-treating, but I drew the line at that. I’m pretty sure we won’t be needing cookies to eat after tromping through the neighborhood gathering a bucket-full of sugary treats on Thursday night.

Preschool Dropout

Posted on November 1, 2012November 1, 2012 by Amy

Yesterday was Miss’s last day of preschool.

Recently, my husband and I decided that we would take her out of preschool and just start our homeschooling journey with her now. It was a little hard to make the decision to take her out, but only because I really love her school. It’s such a wonderful little place and her teachers are fantastic. When my husband and I decided in May that we will be homeschooling our girls, I thought that I would want to keep Miss in Preschool until the time for her to start Kindergarten (and send Lass and Sis when they got old enough). My reasoning for this was that she enjoys school and could have some good experiences in a fun learning environment that is more under my control than regular school would be beyond the preschool years. I could choose to send her only two mornings a week. I could choose the days she goes (LOVE this about her school). I could take her out of school to travel whenever necessary.

Additionally, her school is small, with mixed age groups and a really wonderful environment. It’s a mix of Montessori and traditional preschool styles that I think is really great. And I know of at least one instance when the owner of the school, after trying really hard to help a disruptive child, decided that the child could no longer attend because of the disruptions to the other kids. It’s not that I loved the idea that a child was asked to leave her school, but I was super glad that it was an option for her teachers to remove a child who was causing problems, when attempts at correcting the issues were unsuccessful. That would never happen in many other school settings.

I have always felt comfortable with and confident about Miss’s preschool, and at the time it seemed like the right thing to send her back at the start of this school year.

Problem is, her school is about 25 minutes from our house, and this fall juggling the younger two girls while getting her to school just seemed like more than I wanted to do. Sis’s schedule tends to get screwed up on school days. I never had as much time to run errands and get things done while Miss was at school as I thought I would.

Plus, I just want her home with me.

So I decided she would be done with school at the end of October. I talked with her about this, and she was fine with it. Her last day was the school’s Halloween party. It was a fun way to close out her preschool experience. All of us girls were in attendance.

Miss was super excited to show Lass her school.

I love seeing how much their relationship has grown just since last school year. The last time I had Lass at Miss’s school she seemed so much younger than the kids there. This time she fit right in.

They are the best of friends. I can’t wait to see how they grow together now that we’ll be starting “preschool” at our house.

And speaking of growing, our littlest ballerina is getting ready to move.

I’m so not ready for mobility.

Her first Halloween was lots of fun. She snuggled right in to go Trick or Treating with her big sisters. Or as Lass says, “Trick or Tricking”

It was pretty chilly last night, so we kept asking them if they wanted their hoods up. Miss said, “Nope. I like to feel the breeze in my hair.”

They were a little bit shy at the first house we visited.

But after that they were such funny, outgoing little trick or treaters. They actually stepped right into the second house on our route!

We did a quick sweep of our little neighborhood and rushed home to get into jammies and hit the road.

We’re at the Farm for the next week and a half for deer hunting.

It will be our first week of home preschool, and we’re going freestyle.

Tonight we watched five deer out the window. We talked all about does vs. bucks and had a cool experience when Miss banged on the window and the buck on the lawn looked right up at her. She was excited when I explained that he had heard her and was trying to figure out what the noise was. We watched him run off a few minutes later.

I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to actually get a preschool curriculum or just go with some of the things that are easily available online, some of the stuff that Miss did at her school, and lots of playing. I’m leaning towards the latter. I’m a little bit nervous about “doing it right,” but I think we’ll be okay.

I’m excited about having my oldest girl home with me full time again.

Weekend Family Fest

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Amy

It was cold and rainy here all weekend. But our house was full of warmth and sunshine.

We took full advantage of being home together for a full weekend. We played, and made music, and colored Halloween cookies.

Yes, that’s a tear on her cheek. She had been very upset about something just before climbing in her seat to color her cookies. Probably that I made her take off her sister’s Snow White dress for the activity…

I had shown her how I bit off my ghost’s arms. She laughed and showed me her ghost, “Mama, I bit off his butt!”

We hunkered down for some much needed home time. Lists and agendas went out the window as we spent time just enjoying each other. It. was. awesome.

We did puzzles and played games and watched football. The girls knew the appropriate teams to cheer for (mostly “GO BLUE!” of course, but a little bit of “Yay Hawkeyes!” in there as well so their Daddy wouldn’t feel bad).

We got out paints and went to town. My girls love to paint. I love seeing how they each have their own way of doing it.

Miss decided that finger painting was in order. When I told her I wasn’t going to get out the finger paints (not my fave activity), she improvised. Tricky girl.

So, they made some great handprint art. It was messy. I don’t love messy, but I went with it. It was fun and I survived and they loved it.

It was a lazy jammy weekend. The only reason any of us got dressed all weekend (other than hubby and me when we went on a date Saturday), was that the girls got paint all over their jammies from the finger painting.

Of course we couldn’t get through this weekend family fest without carving our pumpkins. The older girls each had a pumpkin to draw a face on.

Daddy carved them while the girls looked on excitedly.

I forgot to buy one of those little pumpkin carving sets, so he was working hard and having a bit of trouble with my relatively large knives. Then he got smart.

The girls chose to do Mad (Miss’s), Scared (Lass’s), and Sad (Miss’s choice for Sis) faces on their pumpkins. I love how they turned out. It was a fun ending to a wonderful weekend.

Happy Halloween

Posted on November 1, 2011December 31, 2013 by Amy

The ballerina costume was a hit! Miss loved the embellished leotard and tights. So much so that I almost couldn’t get her to put on her tutu because she didn’t want to cover up her tights.

But once we got to her party at school she did put on the whole get up. She looked beautiful and was loving being a ballerina. she even seemed to forget about her desire to be a bear. It might have helped that I didn’t dress Lass in her bear costume for the party.

I was afraid she’d get too hot, the costume wouldn’t fit well in her car seat, and I also wanted to give Miss a chance to bask in her ballerina-ness at her school party before getting them both dressed up for Trick or Treating tonight. Lass didn’t seem to care.

They both had lots of fun at the party. There was so much for them to do, but Miss just wanted to play with these orange balloons.

It was fun to see her in her school environment and to see some of the kids she is becoming friends with. The costumes were great too.

When it was time to Trick or Treat we started getting warm layers of clothing on. It was pretty chilly tonight. I knew Miss would have to wear a jacket, because there was only so much we could put on under her leotard and tutu. I barely got her to let me put these pants on but convinced her that they wouldn’t show under her tutu, and they didn’t.

I got a couple of layers on Lass, knowing that she would be nice and snug in her fuzzy bear costume.

Fuzzy bear costume…

After Miss decided she wanted to be a ballerina for Halloween, I thought for a long time about what costume to get for Lass. I kind of wanted something that would go with a ballerina, but couldn’t come up with anything. When I saw this bear costume, I figured it out. A bear. In a tutu. A dancing bear. What could be a better costume for my tutu-loving girl??

I was happy with the way the embellishments turned out that I added to Miss’s leotard and tutu. The felt flowers were cheap and easy, and I just pinned them on so they can easily be removed and the leotard can be worn for gymnastics class and possibly future dance classes. Plus they helped tie the unmatched pinks of the leotard and tutu together a little bit. I didn’t realize how different the colors would be when I ordered them, but hrough the magic of felt rosettes, they work just fine.

All ready to go!

Gotta love a wagon.

I think Lass looks a lot like me in this photo. Sometimes I see it and sometimes I don’t. I see it here. Am I crazy?

Trick or Treat!!

The girls did a fantastic job going up to the doors of our neighbors and following the drill. Miss said, “Trick or Treat!” and “Happy Halloween!” and “Thank you!” very appropriately. I was proud of her and couldn’t help remember last Halloween how we could not get her to say, “Tick-a-Teek!” for anything when she went up to the houses.

The girls enjoyed the fruits of their efforts this evening.

Happy Halloween!

During the Commercials…

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Amy

It’s been a great weekend.

Quality time was plentiful.

Daddy’s girls.

To top it off, tonight is the premier of “The Next Iron Chef.” I’m typing this during the commercials. It’s an awesome show. You should watch it.

I managed to finish working on Miss’s ballerina costume just before the show started. I had to make the best ballerina costume ever to convince her that she wants to wear it instead of her sister’s bear costume. Hopefully she’ll love it. A little sneak peek.

A while ago a drew my Chopped ingredients of canned tuna, panko breadcrumbs, and tomato paste. I made dinner with them tonight. Panko-crusted tuna cakes with roasted red pepper and corn relish (the tomato paste was in the cakes and in the relish). It was yummy. I only have a few minutes during the commercials, so I’ll post the recipe later. Here’s the dish.

Halloween tomorrow. Miss’s school party and trick or treating with both girls. Can’t wait!

A Week??

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Amy

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since my last post. I have had a lot of work come my way and a 2.5-year-old who hasn’t napped all week, so I guess blogging has escaped me for a few days. I always miss it when I don’t post for a while. I love sorting through and choosing the photos for a post and then writing about my favorite thing in the whole world, my family. So, what have we been doing this week?

Going to preschool with absolutely no tears whatsoever.

A little bit of baking and cookie decorating.

A fabulous play date with wonderful friends, where the cookies were gobbled up.

Trying on Halloween costumes. Miss has been planning to be a ballerina for weeks. Last night we tried Lass’s bear costume on her, and now Miss wants to be a bear. I should have known that would happen. But she is still excited about being a ballerina when I tell her about how we’re going to do her hair and what she will get to wear. She loves wearing a leotard and has a special fondness for tights. Plus I told her she can play with Lass’s costume after Halloween if she wants, so she seems happy with the current situation. For now at least.

We’ve been enjoying fall.

The weather has been crisp, but we are trying to still get outside a bit before it gets really cold. The girls love to play with our pumpkins.

And while showing off her muscles power lifting pumpkins, Miss saw this:

Then she just had to show off her hunting/stalking skills.

Lass got in on the fun for a minute, but seemed to not really notice or not care about the bunny, because she ended up walking on by.

Miss got pretty close to the little guy before he did this funny little stretch and hopped into the middle of this big evergreen tree.

The girls just moved right on to the next fun thing. Most of the leaves are gone from our yard, and I’ve pretty much closed up the sand box for the year. I guess mulch is the next best thing to play in.

We’ve just being doing our thing here. Watching “Go Blue” today. Happy weekend.

Vacation at Home

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Amy

For the past week, my husband has been on vacation. Usually when he has time off work, we go somewhere. We live far away from our families, and think it’s important to see them as much as possible, so we are often traveling to visit someone. This week, for the first time in a long time, we vacationed at home. It was wonderful.

We got to spend lots of great quality time with the Daddy. He was able to come to Miss’s gymnastics class and to the girls’ music class.

I think he really enjoyed observing both classes. Miss has really blossomed in her gymnastics class and both girls really get into their music class. Miss loves to sing and play the instruments and Lass is a total ham.

Today we went to brunch, where we got to carve pumpkins for Halloween. Miss and Daddy did all the work on our pumpkin. Last year the Daddy did it all by himself, but this time Miss was able to really participate.

She helped scoop out the guts

and decide what type of face to draw for the Jack-o-lantern.

Lass enjoyed wandering around and looking at some of the other pumpkins.

Miss was even able to help cut out the pumpkin face.

She was pretty happy with the finished product.

We also spent lots of fun time with Daddy at home. Tonight Miss got to try out her new dot markers by drawing with Daddy.

They drew snakes and faces and lots of grapes and blueberries.

It has been a great week.

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Amy

Today I got some cheap white pumpkins for the girls to paint. I had been meaning to make sidewalk chalk paint with my $1 tub of sidewalk chalk from Target for quite a while. It was a gorgeous day for painting outside, so we took full advantage.

This was Lass’s first experience with painting. I knew it would be messy. I was just hoping to keep her from spilling or eating the paint.

That didn’t work out so well for me. Oh well. We made more green paint. And she didn’t eat much of it…

Miss was really showing her creativity. Both girls did a great job with their pumpkins.

Lass had as much fun playing with the tub of chalk as with the actual painting.

But Miss really encouraged her to paint, so they did it together.

And then Lass dumped over my bucket of water and the painting was abandoned for splashing and swirling water.

I love painting outside. Especially with a 13 month old. This was a Come-in-the-door-take-clothes-off-immediately-and-put-them-directly-in-laundry-room activity. And we all had fun doing it.

And if getting messy once today wasn’t enough, well, Lass enjoyed the mac’n’cheese’ for dinner tonight.

Thankfully it was bath night tonight!