Halloween Night

We started the night out by making jack-0-cheese pizzas for the kids and home made broccoli cheese soup for us.  Taylor was a "princess Angel" and Blake was a Star War guy.  Tay couldn't wait to get dressed up, but Blake was a bit embarrassed...what?  He's only in second grade and already feels silly dressed up in a costume???  This makes me a bit sad to think that he's growing up so fast, but thank goodness he has a little princess angel to take trick-or-treating!  He kept saying, "Come on, Tay"  I love to hear that!

A spooky neighbor!

We keep it simple, walk around the block in our neighborhood, hit all the houses with the porch lights on, visit with the ones we know, and head back to the house to give out goodies.  The first thing they do is, run into the house and dump their candy out to admire the loot!  They pick several favorites to immediately munch, then wait for trick-or-treaters to come knocking.  They love to hand it out as much as they love to get it.

We let them get their pj's on, crawl into our bed and watch, The Mask, Jim Carey is so silly!  Billy and I watched our own scary movie in the living room, Insidious...which totally freaked me out!  It was a fun and spooky Halloween!

Mars needs Moms AND so does Blake

Lately, Blake and I have been butting heads! I ask him to do something around the house and he literally throws a fit...slumps his shoulders and lets out an "UGHHHHH!!" I cannot stand to hear that sound! 


In this movie, it starts out with a Mom doing her job of "parenting", the son acts up and eventually says, "I wish I didn't have a Mom!", all because she tried to get him to eat his broccoli...he starts feeling bad about it and by the time he tries to say sorry, it's too late....she's gone.  The entire story, he is trying to SAVE HIS MOM, and in the process, teaches aliens (and himself) what Moms are really all about. 

Throughout the movie, he kept noticing that he is alot like the boy in the film and he'd look over at me with a look that said, "Yeah, yeah, I know...". Then, at the end, the Mom tried to give her own life to save him...YES, I cried...I usually do! lol!! As the movie came to an end...Blake turned to me, throwing up his arms, like he is finally going to surrender,  "I give...I do need you, even if you are mean sometimes". Awww...who knew that this movie would have hit home like it did! A must see for the family that sometimes forgets how important each other are. We loved it!

Jack-0-Cheese please!!!

Both kids love to make jack-0-cheese pizzas. We make them with whole wheat tortillas, i let them paint on the pizza sauce, sprinkle cheese, and then cut out pepperoni eyes & nose...usually we use black olives too!
We make mexican ones the same way but replace the pizza sauce with refried beans, then add the cheese, and black beans & olives.

Ghost stories by flashlight

The kids and I are solo on Thursday nights after dance, because Billy has band practice.  Since the kids are out of school tomorrow, we decided to make it a late night to tell ghost stories by flashlight, under our homemade tent!! 

Blake's peekin out!

Sophie's trying to get in!!!  She wont fit!

Tay is ready...popcorn & flashlight!



"What?!?!?....I'm not scared"



Blake read stories to us, and made some up....his was
more funny than scary.  The night of the living sled,
I think from a club penguin game...made us crack up!

Taylor picked her favorite scary story...the
body book...after all, it DOES have bones
in it!! lol!

We sat under the tent with our flashlights as we read spooky books, munched on popcorn, told Halloween jokes, then got a bit scared for real...the kids had to turn off every light in the house and I guess that spooked the dog, because she started growling and barking ferociously...I asked Blake is he was sure the front door was locked, he "thought" he was sure...my hand was behind him,he grabbed it and was holding on, when I asked him to hand me my drink...he said he didn't want to let go of my hand, and I said, "you're not holding MY hand", he felt the hand he was holding and jumped so bad...poor kid, it was my hand, but a little joke won't hurt, right?!? 

We took turns telling ghost stories and I had to retell one that we told around a campfire on our last camp trip..."do you hear the sound of the frogs all around?  Sounds innocent...except the fact that these are vampire frogs with fangs that can rip right through a tent!!!"  Needless to say, he is curled up right next to me, in my bed for the night, snoozing away...way too scared to sleep up in his room!

To be honest, I felt just like one of the kids, a bit worried about why the silly dog was still growling...we all started laughing at each other for being scared...it was a great night! 

Pumpkin Carving Night

I LOVE carving pumpkins...I LOVE fall!!!  We carved one big pumpkin, and created characters with a couple others.  We made a ghost and a cat pumpkin, Taylor loves making these!  We dig out the creepy Halloween costumes and decorations, dress up, and carve away!  I always make soup for dinner to keep us warm.

Blake drew on the face as our guidline!

Diggin in!

Tay wasn't quite ready to reach in...



gucky!!!!!



The Ghost Pumpkin

Taylor with the ghost-kin & kitty-kin

Second Grade Fall Party

Blake had his 2nd grade FALL party!  It was a blast!  The kids loved to decorate their own leaves to play "pin the leaf on the tree"!  It turned out so cute, that the teacher is using it to decorate her room!  

We served them black and orange nachos with individual cheese cups for their snack.  They even got to make their own colored drinks!  They loved that! 

Mixing potions for drinks!





Playing "roll the squash" without your hands!



What's a party without vampire teeth??!?!?

This was a great party!    This is a great year so far, he loves school, and I love getting to be part of it!  For more Fall PARTY ideas visit my  Money Saving Momma Blog !!!

 Happy Fall :)

Halloween Craft Project

Jar Jack-0-Lanterns

This was a great project to do with the kids!  They both loved it and took pride in their little creations!  We loved them so much that we had to make them as gifts for people.

Happy Crafting Kiddos

He took one to his teacher on Fall Party Day !!

He gave one to his friend as a "thank you" for
having him over to a Halloween dinner party!

We kept a few to decorate with!

I posted the exact directions for this craft on my Money Saving Momma Blog so check it out and show off some cutie lanterns!

Visiting the World of Bass Pro

Bass Pro used to be one of our most favorite places to visit.  When Blake was little, Billy and I would take our day off to go to Springfield, just to look all through the place.  It was exciting for Blake and we loved to shop, shop, shop!  Of course, we used to go fishing, camping, hiking, rafting, and Billy hunted too...now that he works for the company, he does almost NONE of that...what a bummer.  Anyways, since we were in the Kansas City area, we decided to take the kids to the new store in Independence.  They were really excited to go and see all the animals and fish! 





They had a blast.  We tried to be excited with them, but to be honest, the thrill is gone...it will be a while before we visit a Bass Pro for fun.

Nascar Baby !!!

Since I became a stay at home Mom, vacations have been cut down to a camping trip once a year...this year, we didn't even get to do that, so when Billy got the chance to take us to an all-expense paid Nascar race...we were in!!!  We have loved Nascar for years, and been to a couple races, but never with the kids.  Blake has watched the races every Sunday since he was ity bity, and has quite an extensive collection of his own race cars.  We knew he would be thrilled, but Taylor is a bit young...if we had family close, we might have left her behind... but I'm sooo glad we didn't!

We got hospitality passes along with our tickets, so we got to park in the preferred lot, right next to the gate entrance, ushered to a reserved chalet where we were showered with souvenirs, all the food/drinks for the day, and even got to visit and hang out with Jamie McMurray!  Bass Pro sponsors his #1 car, so he really treated us well.  Blake got his pic taken with him and we got some goodies signed. 

We got to go check out the "behind-the-scenes" stuff.  We went back to the garages, where all the cars were being inspected, gassed up, and ready to race!  We got to walk down pit road and check out the pit crews.  We even got to hang out on the field for a pre race concert.  It was all awesome, but Blake's favorite part was getting to sign the track and the wall!! 

Blake is four tires tall!



I love the shot of a soldier walking
down pit road under the army-
sponsored pit sign!



They both got to sign the white line!

Billy wrote this....awwww, how sweet!

Blake and Tay's signature...and his checkered flag

they are tiny on the track!

signing the wall

Taylor was pretty whiny, so we started to worry that she might not make it through the entire race.  It is sitting for about 4 hours...yikes!!  Right before the start, we headed for our seats, a man in front of us noticed Taylor and asked if we wanted to borrow his ear-silencer muffs (his little girl wasn't there)...I told him thank you, but I already brought headphones for them.  I knew that they weren't the same as earplugs/muffs, but thought that they were better than nothing and they might keep them on, at least... The ones he was offering were huge...bigger than her head, she was already shaking her head "no" to them, as he was asking. The engines started, and as soon as the warm up lap began, Taylor started to literally shake from the loudness, she happily agreed to wear the big ones!  We put them over her little ears and never heard a peep out of her the entire four hours!!!  She watched the race so intently, we were wowed!   I really want to buy a pair to have at home!  lol!  Both kids were awesome, the race was great, Blake's favorite driver won (go Jimmy!!), we are so blessed to have had this opportunity to take the family on this wonderful trip! 

Leaving the track, Taylor says, "Wow, that car thing was soooo fun"  that coming from our 3 year old (who we thought wouldn't appreciate it), makes the entire trip worth it all!!!