A Trick or Treating First

Last night was our church's Halloween Carnival and Trunk or Treat party. The kids had a lot of fun and brought home a ton of candy.

Tonight the kids asked to put their costumes on again to go out trick or treating in the neighborhood. Believe it or not this is a "first" for our kids. Crazy I know, but we have always done trunk or treating at the church and called it good. But this year the kids wanted to experience the real deal. We said okay, and they had a blast!

5 kids x 2 nights of trick or treating= a crazy amount of sugar!!!!

Once they got home and started counting their loot, we told them that rather than getting sick on junk food, they should consider turning their candy into the Cash-For-Candy project where dentists were collecting the candy and actually paying the kids by the pound, to bring their stash in and donate it to the Troops oversees. The decision was left up to them.

I guess our kids are motivated by money because they all chose to keep only a couple pieces of their candy and quickly gave the rest away in exchange for the MONEY!! They each made about 10 bucks a piece as a result of that "wise business decision".

Costumes for 2009

Alaina as an 80's rocker chick.

For Ky, doing a 2 person illusion costume again this year was a must. He was looking to win a prize this year because he missed the costume contest last year. He ended up winning 1st place last night at the Halloween party and Alaina took home 2nd place.

Hailey as Hannah Montana. Sing it Girl Friend :)

Kase as G.I. Joe.

Hudson as a dinosaur. Roooooaaaarrrrrrr.

Fun with friends at the church Halloween carnival last night.

Disney on Ice

Dan has been working a lot lately so I thought it would be fun to plan a little date night that he could surprise the kids with. Tonight I sent them out the door with tickets to Disney on Ice. They came home with a ton of fun stories to tell about all of the different acts. Here are a few of every ones favorites of the night.

Hailey's favorite moments in the show were...

-When all of the cars made so much noise that they fixed Mickey's car by waking him up.

-When Goofy was spinning and fell on his bum :)

-When Tinker Bell was trying to catch one of the weeds.

Kase's favorite part was when Lightening McQueen was driving out onto the ice because fire and flames shot out of 2 cups that were on the ice.

Alaina loved the very end of the show when all of these inflatable flowers popped up because Tinker Bell had saved spring!

Ky liked the really cool weeds that could run really fast and always messed everything up. He also liked it when the stampede of buffalo ran across the ice chasing Simba.

Dan's favorites of the night: Spending 3 straight hours with the kids (that's more hours than he has been able to spend with them in a whole week), watching the kids having as much fun as they did, and feeling like he was actually at Disneyland because of the concession stand prices...

4 handfuls of popcorn-$18

Snowcone- $23

Candy bar- $7

But just like any good Master Card Commercial Dan probably would say this evening was... PRICELESS :)

Pumpkin Carving Fun

We wanted to have a pumpkin carving night with a few families in our back yard next to a camp fire, but as the evening grew closer for the event we had planned, the weather wasn't cooperating. Last minute we moved the fun inside at the church and ended up having a blast regardless of the change in venue.

We started the evening with a potluck soup night. After the food we played some games and had some family competitions. The game pictured below was a contest to see who could throw the most candy corns into their team members bucket, which happened to be strapped to them

NO HANDS ALLOWED. Zach improvised and started catching them in his mouth and then spitting them into his bucket. The little turkey smoked his competition as a result of his genius.

Way to go stud!!

Next came the..."who can make the best mummy" contest with only 3 rolls of toilet paper.

Ky was our mummy. He did a great job.

Let the pumpkin carving begin.

Thanks for making this a fun and memorable pumpkin carving night for our family!

"Mom can we use you camera to make movies?"

Of course my answer is always YES to this question. Letting the kids use my video camera provides them with hours of fun, thinking up plays, skits, and dance routines to record and then watch back later. They love it, and I love that they are using there imaginations instead of frying there brain in front of the TV!

Here's 1 of the 15 short videos I found on my camera, taped by the kids today.

(Hudson, singing Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees. "Ah ha ha ha, Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive.")

Recorded sideways for your viewing pleasure :)

Adult Halloween Party

Tonight we went to an adult Halloween party at the Steward’s house. Dan and I dressed up as a “trailer trash” couple (excuse that politically incorrect term). Both costumes were fun, but what really made the outfits work was when Dan would totally get into character. With the perfect tone, and accent, he would start talking about his old lady, his 3 legged dog, and would even shout out, “Damn It, who took my beer? I’m serious….who took it? Bill, did you take my dang beer, this aint funny!!!"

Seriously, you had to be there. It was funny. On the car ride home and most of the evening after the party he wouldn’t break character, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. That’s for all of the fun tonight hun!

Hubba-Hubba

The boys tried on our teeth before we left for the party :)

Everyone looked fabulous in their costumes tonight .

The Stout’s took home the grand prize for there costume of Kip and Lafawnda from Napoleon Dynamite. Craig you made one FINE looking black lady :)

Kindergarten Fieldtrip with Kase

Kase took Hudson and I to the Pumpkin patch, with his Kindergarten class today, to pick out our pumpkins for Halloween. Even though the kids have been out to the Country Mercantile dozens of times, they still are always super excited to go and have a ton of fun while they're there.

Climbing the Straw Pyramid.

Choosing the perfect Pumpkin.

A news crew was out filming at the pumpkin patch today and Kase made it on the 5 o'clock news. He's famous! Here's the link below to check him out.

Elementary school students and fall activities

Kase finally gets to play soccer

Kase has been waiting forever to turn 5 so he could start playing a sport. His first choice was... SOCCER! Over the years he has patiently sat through many of his older siblings sporting events but now it's his turn for practices once a week, bringing the snacks on game day and being the Soccer Star. He is on an awesome soccer team with all of his friends from church so it's been a ton of fun for him. 4 games down with 4 more to go for this fall season, then he'll play with them all again in the spring. GO SHARKS!

Friday morning with Hudson Jax

In my 10 short years of parenting I've learned, that when you have a 2 year old in your home, there are many things you should put away IMMEDIATELY after use.

I've had to learn the hard way with... Sugar, butter, Salt n' Pepper, Flour, Frosting, marker, glue, shampoo, fingernail polish, and toothpaste. (Just to name a few) And now I can add syrup to the list.

Here is Hudson helping me clear off the breakfast table right after the kids had left to school this morning.

Time to get your groove on. LET'S DANCE!!!

Watching a little Dora and Mickey from inside the couch cushions.

"This Potty Training stuff is FUN!"

1 hour down. Another 12 entertaining hours to go :)

GOT Tomatoes?

Here's what the kids brought in from the garden today.

Holy Tomatoes!!!

What should I do with all of these???

After Cleaning, peeling, and cutting them, here's what I decided on...

Homemade Salsa

And

Tomato Bisque

Tomato Bisque

1/2 cup butter

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 to 1 cup grated carrot

1/3 cup flour

2 cans tomatoes (or fresh, quartered tomatoes)

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp basil

1 tsp marjoram

4 cups chicken broth

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp curry

1/4 tsp white pepper (black works too)

1 pint whipping cream

salt

In a large pan, sauté celery, onions and carrots in butter until cooked. Add flour and cook for about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, sugar, basil, marjoram and broth and cook.

Pour into blender and blend until chunks are smooth. (it will take several blender loads. Be careful to not get sprayed with hot soup. Use a towel to hold blender lid on.)

Pour back into pan and stir in paprika, curry and pepper. Salt to taste.

Add whipping cream.

Thanks for the recipe Linda.

YUMMY!