Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from my little pumpkins!

Here they are, the pick of the patch.

And trick or treating at Grandma's.

I hope all of your kids have a safe and fun evening.  I know my gang is looking forward it.

Gasp!! A Craft {sort of}

I am constantly amazed at the talent and creativity in blogland!  There are women with power tools out there and everything in between and I am impressed!

Well, I would not be one of them.

But I have figured out how to join Pinterest and have started to save some of the things that I might actually be able to do.

Case in point...

Cute Crayons

I bought this ice cube tray at HL and had to break some perfectly good crayons to put in here.  {Gone are the days when I had buckets of broken crayons:-) }

Pretty easy ~ I thought I would use red, yellow and green to make the leaf crayons.  I know, sooo creative!!

Just bake at around 250 for about 10 minutes, or until the crayons are liquified.  After they are cool, pop them out.

So easy.

I popped them in a bag and tied with a green ribbon to mimic the stem.  Do you see it?

  I know, my girls didn't either.

Paired with a coloring book, it makes a cute little activity for busy people.

Makes me wish I had stocked up on those 15 cent crayons!!

Spooky Sleepover and Boo Breakfast

This was a big day for our 4 grands!  And for Grandma and Grandpa!  

{warning~gazillions of pictures}

We have not had all 4 sleepover before.  But now that Jackson is 2, we really couldn't leave him out anymore.  The kids were intrigued by the invitation and wondered what the spooky would be.  I wondered too, as I don't really do "spooky." 

The big day was jam packed with activity.  We all began the day at Cooper's T Ball game.  

Then the girls and I headed to the store to buy the matching Christmas outfits and pajamas.  I still have to search for a few sizes, but it feels good to have that done.  I always buy jammies to hand out at Thanksgiving, and their matching outfits for Christmas.

Then it was home to get things ready for the evening.  I downloaded a children's halloween cd so I could have some "spooky" sounds.  I liked it because it had all the usual songs, ie Thriller, Monster Mash, and all were sung by kids.

Little treat bags are ready.  I didn't take a pic of the goodies, but they contained 2 books, a little Halloween toy, candy necklace, and our favorite, silly string.

The table.  At the last minute I gathered up some candles for the centerpiece so we could have some atmosphere.  Their favorite part was putting out the candles with the little cat snuffer.  That belonged to Bob's mom, and I think it is pretty old.  I have always loved it.

First we did some spooky cooking.

Can you see the witch hat cookie in their hands?

I think Jackson's is going in his mouth.

Yup, they didn't last long.

Good thing we made extras!

Next up was pumpkin painting.

...and a little baby painting...

After that we did some silly string, and I was heavily involved in the action so no pictures of that fun.  We had pizza for dinner and then settled in to watch the very scary FrankenPooh!!

Bob slept upstairs with Jackson and I had the 3 big kids in our room in sleeping bags on the floor.  They fell asleep fairly quickly and little Ben was talking to me at 4:30am!!  Needless to say we were all up early.

And hungry for our BOO breakfast.

I made scary Boocakes.  I got the pancake molds at Williams Sonoma.  Love them.

A special treat.

And I have to give credit to Bob for our Boo juice.  I had the 3 triangles on for the eyes and nose, and asked him to cut out a few triangles for the mouth ~ well he got very creative.  I didn't know he could do this!  LOL

After the kids were sufficiently sugared up we got them ready for church.  I'm sure their Sunday School teachers loved that.  We had to get a laugh out of the way Laura and Jessica were dressed for church ~ they haven't dressed like this since they were 10.

And final shots of our darlings as they rushed out the door to church posing with their pumpkins.

A good time was had by all, and I'm sure a new tradition was born.

Halloween Visitors

I spy with my little eye.....Alice in Wonderland!!
I was so glad that Halloween fell on a Sunday this year. Every year since we moved here to Texas to be near the kids, they have come to "surprise" us at lunch time on Halloween. I love hearing them in the front yard getting their costumes on and trying to be quiet.

This year was going to be different I thought, because Elizabeth is in all day kindergarten. {and I didn't think Laura would take her out of school to come trick or treat at our house!} Thankfully I was spared for one more year and was visited by these adorable children.

Alice is very excited about her candy.
Ben aka Buzz is always excited about everything.
And yes, we have another Buzz. Cooper was a firefighter at his neighborhood party with his trusty Dalmatian Jackson. But if Ben is Buzz, so is Cooper, so he was a lucky boy and got 2 costumes.
Isn't this the cutest puppy ever?
A thankful grandma to have them all here one more year. I won't think about next year.

Is That All?

Yep, this is about all the cleaning and organizing and decorating for fall that I have done. It's really disgraceful ~ except this was a bigger project that it looks. I didn't just hang up some towels and soap and call it good.

This is a Jack and Jill bath between the boys and girls bedrooms upstairs. It is nice to have but it is small. There are 5 doors in this little space and I am always bumping into one of them. When we moved here recently {ha ~ it was 3 years ago !} I set up Elizabeth's side and just put a lot of junk in the boys. {they were just babies after all } Didn't even clean out the drawers!! Anyone who knows me knows I like my drawers to be neat ~ even more so than the counter they're under. So, who knows what my problem was. {To confess, I think part of the problem is I just don't like this bathroom ~ I don't like the tile or the granite or really anything about it. And that is disgraceful because I am very lucky to have a space just for the grandchildren and I know it. Shame on me. }

Anyhoo ~ it's finally done. Drawers cleaned out, and lined with fresh paper, a trip to Target to buy drawer organizers {one of my favorite things:-) } and new toothbrushes, and princess bandaids and new black and orange towels for Halloween. All of the rugs are washed, etc, etc.

So here it is in all its glory. My camera is so messed up on color, the walls are yellow in here and those little towels are bright orange and green.

You have to have pumpkin soap ~ 1 on a rope and 1 for the tub.

This is Elizabeth's side.
There ~ all done. Now, I think I'll tackle my bathroom. Those cupboards are really yucky!!

Happy Halloween

Look what came knocking on our door around lunch time! A beautiful princess accompanied by 2 handsome knights and a very darling dragon.
I wonder what they want? The 2 knights are exploring their goodies.
I can't even get the princess to look away from her treats.
But I did catch them with some pretty silly lips!
A jack o lantern pizza made a pretty tasty lunch.
Look at the yummy ghost coming out of the haunted house...
I think he is a tasty treat!

Yum!
Happy Halloween!