"It's just like one of those fancy dinners."

We dined by candle light tonight.  Just because.

Aspen made that comment  about the ambiance, not the dinner fare (BLT's and french fries are such fine cuisine:)


Actually, the candle stick is part of Halloween decor and I need to finish putting it all away.  And, since it gets stored in the attic, I didn't want to put the partly used candles up there just to melt and make a giant mess.  But I'll let them think we had candles just for fun.

It was fun.

Halloween Part 5

This will be the last of the Halloween posts, I promise.  It is more for me to document for myself, than for anyone else.  And since it is my blog, I can do whatever I please.

Isaac and Nate wanted to try the eyeballs this year.

For an Activity Day Girls activity last month we talked about how sometimes evil can be in disguise. And how important it is to choose good friends and good activities.  Then I took pictures of the girls in mustaches, wigs, masks/sunglasses.  Since Nate was out of town, I had to bring Isaac and Hazel with me.  So they got their picture taken too.  Kind of silly.

okay.  That's it.  Now we can move on.

Can you believe it's only 51 more days until Christmas?  This year is flying by!

Halloween Part 4

We threw a last minute Halloween Party for Hazel and her friends on Friday morning.  I like throwing little kid parties.  There's less stress; and the kids like whatever you do.  So Hazel, and 9 of her friends enjoyed playing games and eating spooky food.

We played some musical chairs and some pumpkin bowling.

Pin the wart on the witch (done with dots candy).  Put together the skeleton.

Eyeball on a spoon relay (kind of) just not relay style.

The we designed and colored jack-o-lanterns.

And had spooky food: monster mouth apple wedges, bread bones, poison brew (green hawaiian punch), and eyeballs (grapes).  We had sugar cookies for dessert.

It was all pretty low stress.  And everyone had a great time.  I had blue hair (hazel's is pink to match her pink princess outfit).

Halloween Part 3

We carved pumpkins on Thursday.  It is always lots of fun.  Isaac made sure we all did it together. (Aspen was babysitting and I wanted to go work on the nacho costume - but he convinced me to wait).  My favorite part of pumpkin carving though, is taking fun pictures.   The kids looked like this:

Nate's looked like this:

 

So here's some of my favorites:

 

Isaac is always so intense.

 

 

 

Love candle light for pictures.

Halloween Part 2

Aspen and her friends took Hazel trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.  They went as 80's girls.  Which I found ironic for many reasons.When we were looking for clothing for her to wear I found some of it new just at the store ('cause the 80's is back "in"), some other vintage stuff she deemed too ugly to wear. ( the '80's weren't exactly good looking).  But they all had a good time.

My hands after helping the girls color their hair.  That stuff gets everywhere.  I had to wipe down my entire bathroom because the color spray went everywhere.

 Isaac riding in a cape! I liked how he looked with the cape billowing out behind him.

Toby is the grim reaper in roller blades.  Toby was finally deemed too old to trick-or-treat so he and Isaac stayed home and passed out candy to the neighborhood. 

Hazel got lots of extra candy for being so cute.

Isaac couldn't eat any of the candy.  So in exchange I bought him his own box of NewmanO's (very tasty non-artificial oreos).  He made a LOTS-of-stuff cookie, and dunked the naked cookies in milk.  Tried to eat the whole box, but couldn't (thank heavens).

Hazel sorting her loot (Nate and I got all the chocolate (she's lactose intolerant and can't eat it - lucky us!)

Happy Halloween! Part 1

 Ten points if you can guess what Nate is.

Hint: A character on the TV show Big Bang Theory wore this to his neighbor's Halloween party.

 

Toby went as the Grim Reaper, Isaac as a Charlie Brown ghost (complete with a rock), Hazel is Super Girl.  Everyone called her superwoman - she corrected them every time.

Handing out candy at the ward trunk-or-treat.

Best husband ever...part 4

Nate came home from work yesterday bearing a gift!  I like gifts! Especially those that are unexpected and thoughtful.  This is a true show of love from Nate.

This book is the twelfth in a series that I love.  However they are pretty long.  And when I read them, the rest of my duties seem to just get ignored (it's hard to put down a good book).  I didn't even know that this book was out yet.  But Nate went and got it for me on its release date, even though he knows that once I start reading it, I'll likely be otherwise occupied for a couple days. I have the best husband ever!

Click here for info about the book.

Did you know...

That it's a felony to allow a chinese fire drill to occur in your car?

Yea, I didn't know that either -- until this morning.  I picked the boys up from seminary and they thought it would be fun to do a drill at a light.  I figured that it's a rite of passage being a teenager.  I did it as a kid. There wasn't much traffic.  So they did it.  Then, they did it again at the next light; but unfortunately, there was a cop right behind us.  (It was dark. I couldn't see it.)  Twenty minutes later she let us off with a stern lecture on safety.

Thank heavens for her compassion.  I'm still shaken. I could have been arrested!

Hazel

Hazel is so much fun.  I love this age.  Old enough to have a sense of humor, to do most things on her own, to want to help with everything, and still young enough to be super excited to see me every morning, give me lots of loves, willing to play all the time, and be my constant companion.

Schizophrenic weather

Texas weather can't decide if it's fall or summer still.  Today it was over 90 degrees.  But last weekend it was fall - 50 degree weather, rain, and coziness.  We got out the sweaters and slippers.  At church everyone was wearing corduroy, tights, boots, and jackets.  And we built a fire in our fireplace and sipped hot chocolate.  It was so nice.  Maybe it will get that way again before January.  You never know here.

randomness

I have been bad about posting.  I think i compose posts in my head, but then never actually do them.  Anyway, here's a little of the last couple weeks.

I went to a Halloween themed baby shower and brought these treats:  Click here for instructions.  I got the candy eyes at target in their halloween section.  I bought the pocky (for the legs) at World Market.  Very easy, quick and fun project for kids.  Not healthy though (ding dongs and glo balls)  but fun for October.

We've been having lots of rain lately.  Yay!!!  We found some tiny frogs in the flower beds.  That's Isaac's hand holding it.  So they are really teeny tiny.

On the way home from school last week, Isaac picked up this friend.  He's a three toed box turtle.  The next day Isaac brought home a red eared slider (another turtle).  It was nearly three times as big as this one!  But I didn't get a picture of that one.

Nate found Hazel on top of the piano playing with her petshops and polly pockets.  I guess it was the only clear space.

Pumpkin hat pattern

I used this pattern to make the pumpkin hat.  You need to register to have access to the site.  But registration is free.  The pattern is free.  Search for newborn side to side hat.  Look for the pumpkin verson link on the right. Super easy and basic.

This is what I've been up to

My friend is celebrating her 18th anniversary today with her husband.  I am babysitting.  It is a ton of fun with a perfect little baby.  He is 2 1/2 months I think.  He is just so cute!  Anyway, I wanted to take some pictures of him for my friend (she said she need some for her birth announcements).  Then I remembered that I had just crocheted this cute little pumpkin hat and I just had to try it out. 

I've been crocheting a lot lately.  Mostly baby stuff and smaller projects.  I have a better chance of actually finishing them if they are small.  Anyway,  maybe when he wakes up I'll have him model the other baby hats I've finished.

Cooking with Hazel

This past week it has kind of felt like fall!  Amazing for Texas this time of year. Usually it is still about 90 degrees. and sticky.   I feel like the Lord is answering our prayers for rain, and the cooler weather is a definite plus.  When the seasons change I want to start eating soups and breads and bake more.  So to celebrate the first week of fall, Hazel and I made chicken pot pie!  I wanted to make everyone their own pie.  Hazel had the idea of using my animal cracker cookie cutters to add animals to the tops.  What a creative little girl!  It was fun to bake with her.  Next time though, I'll use smaller bowls.  The individual pies were still a bit much food.