Boo To You!!!

I love this time of year.  It can be so fun.  I always think of so many things to do with my kids, but we just can't fit it all in.  Some things we do every year, and some things we change up, so that over the years we can get in all that "fun stuff".  I really can't believe how fast this month really has gone by!  With two birthdays taking up half the month, I felt like Halloween just snuck up on me.  

One thing we got to do this year was to make our own decorations.  I pulled out the Cricut and all my paper.    

Jacob ran the Cricut.  He was so excited to be able to do that.  After he cut out all of the pieces that I needed he went to town doing his own thing.  It was a blast.

Here are the decorations we came up with.  I didn't get to take a picture of Will's.  He was so cute just doing his own thing.

A friend of mine gave me an idea using milk cartons to make "ghost pumpkins".  Jacob, Emma, and I all made one.

Spongebob 

Princess

For one of our family home evenings, we combined our activity and our treat.  While the kids were at school I made sugar cookies and icing.  So everyone got to decorate and eat cookies.  They had a great time.  

Wescott has become very independent.  I wanted absolutely NO help with the icing bag. Anytime we tried to help position it he would get upset and say "Doit! Doit!"  He was proud of each and every cookie he worked on.

I made black icing for pumpkin and ghost eyes and noses.  It sure made a mess with Will, the bag exploded on his plate.  I still have pinks stains on my table from the explosion!

Jacob worked very hard to make his cookies look like mine.  I was impressed with his patience and determination.

He is my little perfectionist.  It has to be just right.

Wes hard at work.

Emma did a good job too.  Her's weren't as intricate as Jacobs, but she did a great job with the icing and toothpick tool. :)

Of course we also carved our pumpkins.  I set it all up and got the knives out for Jeremiah and I to cut with. But while the kids were scooping out the "guts", he went to the garage.  What did he come back with?  A hole-saw   Oh, the kids thought that was great.  It made perfect circles for eyes, noses, and mouths.

Jacob stuck his hand in there just as I took the picture.  It actually looks like a tongue is sticking out!

Jeremiah using the hole-saw.

As soon as the carving was done, Will was asking to "put fire on his pumpkin".  So we took them out and lit them up!

Last but not least.  Trick or Treating.  William has been talking about getting candy when it is "Loneen Dark" for two weeks.  He has been so excited that it really rubbed off on Wescott too.  They both run around yelling "Loneen!  Loneen!"  As far as costumes go, it was pretty easy for me.  Fortunately with multiple children you can think of something and then just pass it down the line. :)  Jacob reused his knight costume, Emma was a pirate, William dressed as a ghost, and Wescott wore the dragon costume.

Will was very insistant that he was not a bad or mean ghost.  He said he was a nice ghost that helped people.  His exact words were "saved people".  Jacob said, "Hey! that is like the Holy Ghost!"  I said "uh yeah, I think Will can be Casper, the friendly ghost."  Will was totally on board with that.  He is such a good boy, he doesn't like to do anything that would make him seem otherwise.

I went to put on my costume makeup in the bathroom, and when Wes came to find me he was a bit taken aback.  It wasn't until I began to talk to him that he finally decided I was ok.  I guess it would be kind of scary to see your mother look like this for the first time.  The other kids have seen me dress up for Halloween before so it didn't even phase them.

I always like to fix a fun special dinner for Halloween.   This is a Mummy Calzone.  Something quick and easy to go with all that candy.

We sure have had a good time this month.  With so much going on I have been very busy.  Now it is time to catch up around the house and get ready for the next big event.  Thanksgiving and Jacob's Birthday!  Whoo hoo.

Pumpkin Patch!

Every year we take the kids to pick out pumpkins at Joe's Place in Vancouver.  It is a small little place but so perfect for a family outing.  We grew our own pumpkins this year, but still wanted the experience.  The day was perfect.  Blue skies and lots of sunshine.

They stack up hay bales for the kids to run around and crawl through.  They have so much fun doing this.

Will having fun but acting shy.

Sweet little Wes.  Love this pic.

Picture perfect Emma!

King of the mountain

Then we went on the hayride around the farm.  Will and Wes were beyond excited to be pulled by a tractor on a wagon.  During the ride we got to eat apples, yummy!  Wes ate all but the stem.  :)

They also have a fort maze.  We let Jacob and Emma team up and go their own way.  It was a lot of fun.  Will and Wes absolutely loved running through the maze and looking at all the painted stand up characters.

Even without picking out pumpkins it was an awesome day.  Nothing like family time.

My Baby's Two!

My baby, my youngest is two years old!  The time has flown by so fast.  The amount of things that he can do just amazes me.  I guess it is because he is my baby.  He always will be.  He wants to be so grown up already.  He is a little shadow to William.  Jacob too for that matter.  Wes follows them everywhere.  Because the boys make their beds every morning, Wescott has decided to follow.  He is also very good at giving Maggie, our dog, commands.  He is under the impression that feeding Maggie is his sole responsibility, and lets anyone else who tries to do it that that is the case.  So, I guess he really is growing up.  

For Wescott's birthday dinner I made spaghetti and green beans.  I think that green beans are his favorite veggie.  It is the only one that he will eat first and ask for more two or three times.  After he thoroughly enjoyed his dinner we moved on to cake and ice cream.

Animals are a huge deal for Wes.  Anytime he sees them he gets this huge smile on his face and starts to make animal sounds.  When he picks books for me to read to him, they usually involve animals.  So this year I decided to go with a barnyard themed birthday cake.

I made a yellow cake with a strawberry cream cheese filling. 

 After slicing and layering the cake I started with the fondant.

At this point I was feeling kind of bummed about how the cake was turning out.  The humidity that rolled in over the weekend was causing a few problems with my fondant so it wasn't looking so good.  I really wasn't sure if that red thing on the top of the cake would ever look like a barn.

The next step was to make all the little decorations.  I was able to find some videos online to help me out on making the animals.  They gave me a general direction anyway.  So I started out with with the little piggies.  I had fun with these.

I also made a cow (which was the most difficult for me) and a few little ducks.  Wes's favorite animal is the duck, well that is his favorite animal to mimic anyway.

Here is the finished project!

Make a Wish!

He started quacking as soon as he saw the cake.

Loving the the fondant duck.

And so now it is time for presents!!!

Cars!  I think Will is pretty excited about this too. :)

Can't go wrong with Thomas!

Street play rug.  The boys have had so much fun with this!

It was a wonderful fun day.  We love Wescott so much and are so grateful to have him as part of our family.