Playing Beauty Parlor Again

Aspen has been begging to get her hair cut for months...well planning to cut it for months and begging to actually do it for the last 2 weeks. So rather to setting up an appointment, taking her 45 minutes away, and paying $$$$ for Scott to do it, I decided I would give it a shot. I figured that I would only be out a half an hour of my time if it didn't turn out and I could then turn to Scott to fix it. I think it turned out decent. Obviously, Scott would have done it better, but hey, she's 10 and not so picky, and I saved $$$$ and 3 hours of my life. It's been a win-win day.

Before:
90 seconds later:
The end result: side view
back view:

It's over...for now

Isaac had a great season. His team made it to the semi finals for the season. He didn't play in the last 2 games because they were played on Sunday, but they got 3rd place. Isaac is a really good ball player and we'll be playing again with the same team in the spring. Yippee:]

Texas Maize Maze

The kids didn't have school last Monday so we went on a little outing to the Sweet Berry Farms. In the fall they sell pumpkins. There are also hayrides, pumpkin painting, horses, and this really cool Maze. It is planted in the shape of the state of Texas and grown out of maize (corn). While in the maze, the goal is to find 12 stations and get your card punched. Then the card gets you a soda (not that terrific a prize, but motivating for kids all the same.) Anyway, I thought the maze would be really easy. Not! It took us almost 2 hours to find all the spots to punch our cards. The older three had a lot of fun. Hazel was a little scared. I thought it was pretty cool.

Then we went on a hayride.

Run towards the light children!!!

Hazel came home with her very own pumpkin!

Hazel's Nail Salon

I went to change the laundry from the washer to the dryer. It took about 2 minutes. Hazel was around the corner from me about 5 feet away. She had found the black nail polish, sat down on the carpet and opened it. The proceeded to paint her own nails. Luckily, she did a fairly good job and none got on her white shirt or the floor. So we finished the job. I guess out of sight is truly out of mind with a two year old.

Happy Halloween

I was going to wait until tomorrow to post, but Nate, who is sitting right next to me, keeps checking our blog, waiting for me to update our blog. So I guess here goes...

Here's our jack-o-lanterns, carved for FHE last Monday (a tradition).


Here's the front porch all decked out for the trick or treaters. I got lots of compliments, which is always nice. But I can't take all the credit, most of the ideas came from Martha Stewart (who does a great Halloween). It's kind of a bad picture, but there are bats hanging from the ceiling and one battery operated one flying in circles, the white balls are spider egg sacks and there are lots of spiders in the webs on the wals. Then the black lights around the door and the jack-o-lanterns. There was also music playing and some of those paper luminarias lining the side walk in front. Maybe I'll take a better picture tomorrow in the daylight.

Hazel and Isaac trick or treated in our neighborhood.
Here's a video of Hazel practicing her door approach. (forgive the sideways angle...I always forget that I can't turn the camera sideways when I shoot video with it:)





Aspen dressed up as Red Riding Hood. (I love making capes - they are the ultimate dress up item! and easy to sew.) She trick or treated with her friend, and scored a ton of candy.

Hazel was Snow White. Originally she wanted to be a yellow princess, but I didn't finish her costume before the ward party last week. So I bought her this one. I finished the Belle costume today and she wants nothing to do with it. Snow White's dress had enough yellow for her. She also really got into the trick or treating. Also liked handing out candy. As long as the kids stood there with open bags she would put candy in them.


Toby went to the ward party as a lawn. Green hair with bugs in it. I forgot to buy Aquanet so it didn't stand up too long. But it was fun anyway.

Tonight Toby was some kind of combination of things. But he put it all together, I just did his hair. And he went trick or treating with his friend. came home with way too much candy.

Isaac was an archer. Or a ninja archer (reason for wearing all black). He was a good sport to trick or treat just on our little street with Hazel. He was going to go out with Aspen later, but she came home too late and everyone had turned out their lights.

All in all, it was a fun evening.

Boo Pops

Tonight we made ghost lollipops. Very easy, very fun. Just melt some white chocolate chips or vanilla candy wafers, and, using a spoon, spread into ghost shapes (or whatever you like) then use mini chocolate chips for eyes. Makes a great FHE activity.

Nate made a charlie brown ghost and Toby made "Skeletor".

Here's some of the finished ghosts stuck into my dead rose wreath.

Here's Hazel smiling again. (I'm not fond of this stage.)