Halloween 2016

We carved our pumpkins last Sunday, we typically wait until the last minute due to the temperatures here being hot and muggy... our pumpkins were already significantly moldy when I tossed them in the trash on Tuesday night. 

Tyler got into helping clean out the pumpkins this year -- he did his fair share of scooping out the "guts." Boys! 

 James was more interested in trying to holding the pumpkins, which of course is a fast track to cracking it when it gets dropped. This almost always happens, but this time it didn't.

Daddy is our chief carver, although, I do try to help out when I'm allowed. In the picture shown, he was trying to work on the Texas A&M pumpkin. 

Tyler's pumpkin didn't show up with the knife in the head when it's lit up in the dark. We put that there because there was a blemish on this pumpkin, so we thought this would be a funny way to make that work with the design.

I put them all on the entry table and did our big glowing pumpkin reveal. We leave them in the house until just before trick or treating, again trying to get as much longevity out of them as we can. It's like 80 degrees here on Halloween -- so you do what you gotta do. Just once, I would love a nice cool Halloween... but this year we were prepared. 

James wore two different costumes this year because we had a homeschool picnic with some trick or treating earlier in the day. All of the kids dressed up and went around to each table for some treats. James was in his dinosaur costume from 2 years ago. This guy... he grows taller, but no bigger in the waist... so I let out the straps and it fit him JUST fine! 

(Clockwise) James, Tyler, Grace, and Kadence... Grace is the first name that comes to mind in our house when you ask, "Who is your best friend?"  I try desperately to explain that their brother is their best friend, and that your brother is the only person that will know all of the craziness that went on with you while growing up... and will still stick up for you. 

For our nightly trick or treating... let me present -- Superman and Darth Vader! Tyler dressed as Darth Vader for the picnic earlier too, but he wore a different shirt and no cape. We had him wear shorts this year for trick or treating and it seemed to be much more successful than his Ninja Turtle costume debacle from last year. He was so hot after going around our block that we had to quit trick or treating and just hand out candy at our house.

 A good time was had by all... I'm so glad that they enjoy all of this -- it's so much fun too see them dressed up and going house to house. Thankfully Daddy was home this year and was able to go around with them while I sat in the driveway to hand out candy to the masses.

I saw the CUTEST baby costume -- they dressed this baby girl up as a Cabbage Patch Doll, and her stroller was decorated as her "box" -- I mean, so cute and clever!

Turkey on the Table

Lately, I've noticed my kids are just totally ungrateful for the blessings that they have in their lives. I know this isn't an uncommon phenomenon in our culture, but I really want them to be thankful for all that we have - so I'm working on a strategy to help them see that they have it pretty darn good. In school, we've been talking about praying for others and being thankful for the things that we have.

With November coming up -- I remembered something I saw last year, by the time I saw it though - they were sold out of their inventory.

This is directly from their website:

Did you know that gratitude is a learned behavior? Turkey on the Table^® is a book & activity that encourages the whole family to express and display their gratitude.  Our goal is to turn thankfulness into a daily routine.  As parents, we want to instill values in our children that help them understand and appreciate all of life’s blessings. Cultivating a grateful heart helps create a happy child!
Not only will your family experience the benefits of being thankful, you will also experience the joy of giving, knowing that 10 meals will be provided to someone in need with each Turkey on the Table^® sold. To date, over 102,000 meals have been donated by Turkey on the Table^® through our partnership with Feeding America^® .
I absolutely love that they've combined the program with giving back to give meals to those in need. I can't imagine a better learning lesson than to talk to the kids about how some people don't know where their next meal will come from. I've looked into taking them to pack lunches for school kids that can't provide their own - it's a sack lunch program for needy children in our area - but they aren't old enough yet to go help with packing them.

So, we're going to try this - I love that when it comes time to do it again - you can just get new feathers from them in all sorts of different styles. We will start it on November 1st, and go until the end of the month. I'll read them the book in school on November 1st, and set him out on the kitchen table -- then we will add to him every night when they're having dinner. It'll be our new family tradition, and it doesn't hurt that the turkey is super cute!

I can't wait to see what sorts of things that they answer because I'm not going to let them use the same answer everyday like they've done before -- in order to get a feather it has to be something new to add. I haven't opened the box yet to preview the story, but I'm sure that it will be great too.

I would encourage y'all to get one for yourselves -- you've got a week and a day before it's time to get started -- so order TODAY, and share in the journey with us!

Leave a comment below if you've used Turkey on the Table already -- or if you're planning to start it this year!

I also have been loving my personal hair color that I get from eSalon - I took a survey that told the colorist some things about my coloring and skin tone, and sent them a photo of myself so that they could custom mix my color for me. They auto-ship it to me every 12 weeks... and all I have to do is take the time to put it on. Easy peasy!

Friday Favorites - School Treats/Lunches

Today we're going to talk about School Treats & Lunches on this 'ol blog. As a homeschooler - I don't have to worry about peanut allergies and such as much as other families do, but we do occasionally have parties and things that we worry about allergies. The truth of it though is that lunches for kids are so easy to get caught in a rut. I know my kids are just picky enough that it's normally the same old thing.

1) The first idea that I love is having a snacking station or lunch making station in your house -- where there are good ideas for your children to choose from and grab on their own. Have several options and allow them to choose for themselves. I've even seen it where they have categories where the kids choose 1 item from section A, 2 from B, and 1 from C... that sort of thing is great for empowering your kids to make their own healthy choices.

2) I also love the idea of using those silicone cupcake liners to help make a bento style lunch with lots of little things combined into one lunch. I've never tried this, but I've even heard when you're at home if you serve a lot of little things in muffin tins -- kids will eat more than they would off of a plate. For this discussion though, I like the idea of them getting a little variety of things - think of the possibilities if you just change out one item everyday. For instance - if you send them with berries, a quesadilla, some crackers, and carrots... if you just change the berries and carrots to celery -- it's a whole different lunch with the same crackers & quesadilla. You get the idea. You could make the same main dish for the lunch and make several of them... then just change out the sides for that week.

3) I love the clothespin butterfly snacks too - which could easily be added to your child's lunch too. I've seen them with grapes, strawberries, goldfish, and cheese... but you could use whatever your child likes. Raisins would be good in this too blueberries, cherry or grape tomatoes, cereal, whatever you can fit in the bag. Use a snack sized bag -- put one item on the left side and one on the right. Then you put a clothespin in the middle and it looks like a butterfly. I've seen the faces just drawn on different color clothespins and antennas added... but I thought these with the pompoms were super cute!

4) I love that there are so many options these days, I mean when we were kids -- you were stuck pretty much with a sandwich, chips, fruit, and a cookie... or some small variation on that. Now parents are much more creative, and you can almost do anything. I wasn't a sack lunch kid very often when I was young, but occasionally - I'd take some soup in a thermos... now you can do that... you could make a big batch of mac & cheese on the weekend and let them take that. You can send them with soup, you can send just about anything and keep it warm these days.

5) The same goes for ways to keep lunches cool. I love the idea of freezing a damp sponge and packing that with your child's lunch to keep things cool... and as it melts, it naturally sucks up the liquid back into itself. I used to freeze my water/juice box/Caprisun to keep my lunches cool. I've also seen some smoothies being added to lunch boxes for the same purpose... it's genius! By the time lunch rolls around -- unless your child is the unlucky ones that have to eat at 10:30 -- it's defrosted and perfect for their meal.

6) I'm all about the freezer cooking these days -- so I also saw this link of recipes you can freeze ahead of time for lunches. I hope that this helps some of you get on top of lunch for the week by prepping it on the weekend. Any of you into the whole food movement over the prepackaged items will love this set of recipes -- it's from the 100 Days of Real Food blog. I've also seen corn dogs made out of mini hot dogs in muffin tins -- those would be a GREAT prep ahead item!

7) For sports teams and school parties -- you just can't go wrong with rainbow fruit cups, fruit cups that are store bought then decorated with the theme, or any of these ideas from pinterest...

- Peanut Free School Lunch Ideas

- Classroom Halloween Party Snack Ideas

- Thankgiving/Fall Classroom Snack Ideas

- Grinch K-Bobs (#4 on the list)

- Christmas Treat Ideas

- Birthday Cake Popcorn

- Creative Team Snacks

- Healthy Team Snacks

- 10 Healthy Snack Ideas for Sports Teams

- More Creative Team Snack Ideas

Remember to check with your school or coaches to find out about any food allergies... it's no fun to be turned away after making something special for the kids... or to be the one that can't participate because of an allergy. 

Next week we will be talking about our Favorite Animated Movies... so start thinking about what your favorites are either new or old.

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Final Christmas of 2012

Our last Christmas celebration always takes place the weekend of or weekend before the New Year. We typically play games and stay up late laughing during this celebration with my Dad & Sisters... this year was a bit different for lots of reasons, but even without the games -- we enjoyed ourselves.

I always think my Dad's house has an amazing tree... and this year I learned that he is entirely responsible for it - the kids decorate one upstairs, and this one that is the most visible in their house is done completely by him.

James loves drinking from a straw... so he isn't picky and will steal a sip from anyone that will let him. This particular offense was just water from Starbucks -- so I didn't worry about it. Thankful to my niece, Brittany, for indulging him.

I believe that Tyler had just gotten caught playing in the dogs' water bowl... so he was getting his hands washed, but was having so much fun he wouldn't quit. Stinker! 

Everyone decided to let the boys do their Christmas separate from everyone else -- so we let them open gifts before bed, and then once they were asleep the rest of us opened. So these are a couple of pictures from their opening.

The boys both got one of these fuzzy heads, and loved them. They really are cute and are meant to be pillows they can use in the car -- mainly they were used by the adults as weapons. HAHAHA!

These were the biggest hit... pillow racers. We got an airplane and a firetruck - the boys LOVE them, and they also have them for girls. I love that they can run into the walls and there isn't any damage. Win/Win for all of us.

All the stockings lined up -- there are 15 of us -- so it does get obnoxious! We typically open them first... so this was a picture I got while they were waiting for us to come down from putting the boys to bed.

Still waiting... then the frenzy began. Paper and boxes everywhere! 

As a group we worked on a puzzle over the 4 days we were there, it was mainly my Dad... then John and I...and my sister jumped in at the last minute. HA! 

We got it finished the night before we left, so it was a successful mission. Last year we tried to do the same puzzle, but Tyler didn't cooperate on the sleeping so I wasn't able to work on it much at all. 

My sister, Cindy, taught me how to make our Grandmother's cookies over this break too -- so I'll be making them in all sorts of shapes for all sorts of holidays now! 

We ended the trip with more pillow racing, and testing out their new camo pajamas that my brother in law gave them. He is an avid hunter and always talks about getting the boys their first gun and teaching them to hunt. We shall see what the future holds... but I'm not eating it or having stuffed heads in my house!

Christmas #3

Back to the Christmas Wrap Up coverage... only one more after this one... except for maybe a baking recap...

Celebration #3 was with John's parents and his sister's family. It was just a few minutes after we opened the first few of our gifts to the boys -- we broke things up because the girls were excited and the boys had lost interest. We broke for breakfast and then got back to the festivities. Quickly followed by the rush to get the meal finished... and a huge feeding frenzy.

We finally got to meet our youngest niece, Aspyn... she was born on December 5th, but we didn't get to meet her until the 24th! That was probably one of the harder moments that living far away caused us this year... along with missing my Mom's knee surgery... and in 2013 -- I can already think of two things that will cause the same homesickness. 

The proudest big sister I've seen. She's also just plain gorgeous... this is the first of our two nieces named, Taylor -- she is two months older than my sister's daughter named Taylor. I guess that was a REALLY popular name in 2002?! 

Taylor helping Ty open a gift. Once you get it started for him -- he gets after it! I was chasing James back into the room -- so there aren't too many photos from the actual gift opening... 

John's parents got the boys both tricycles -- so they had to try them out. I am WAY anti bikes in the house, but it was freezing, and we had to get dinner made... so I made an exception. Now that we are home -- they are in the garage.

James getting on his trike too - we taught them how to pedal -- so they are all set. We're a little in between sizes for Tyler - we got two different trikes, but Ty's is a little big... while James' is a little small. I think we're still trying to decide if we should just get another one in the smaller size for now and just keep the other one in storage. 

My sweet little buddy... this kid slays me. No matter what is going on - if you make eye contact with him, he will light up with the cutest smile & dimple combo. 

Christmas dinner, Aspyn style! She slept through the whole thing, I miss those newborn days -- the nights are hard, but the sweet sleeping baby to cuddle is priceless. 

Taylor read us the Christmas story from the Bible (okay, it was via a Bible app) before we prayed over our dinner. She did a great job. She is certainly turning into a special young lady, and it's been an amazing thing to watch -- even from afar. 

Lets eat!! Tyler barely ate anything -- until John came over and kinda forced the issue... James tried everything. He is a much better eater these days -- at least in terms of trying new things. Tyler will eat a ton of things that he knows and is used to... but getting him to try something new is a booger. He gets lock jaw. Crazy kid! 

James and PawPaw playing with our iPad. I wonder who is really running the show there... my bets are on James. 

Everyone together -- a growing family... but we are blessed! I am amazed every year looking at how much the girls have grown up in such a short amount of time -- and now seeing it in my own children - it's just stunning.

This picture is a recreation of a photo that I took in 2004ish. I lost all of our photos for several years because of a hard drive crash... but basically, the original was in this same exact spot with Frosty... it was Taylor and my inlaws only. Photo was a fluke, but was very cute... this the same photo with 4 more grandchildren added. 

James and Tyler fell in love with the movie theater popcorn popper in the game room at John's parents house... so we decided to fire it up the day after Christmas. They loved watching the popcorn pop out of the kettle... and I think they loved hearing the pops too.

James' first taste of popcorn... I've been really hesitant to give it to them because neither of them are good chewers... but as with everything else, James took to it faster than Tyler did. 

Tyler did come around though -- I was terrified that he was going to choke himself since he is the barfinator... but he did really well. 

Just before we left to go to our final stop of the trip... John's Dad was headed to the doctor that morning and will be having a knee replacement on January 14th... we won't be able to be there with him, so I know that will be a hard day full of prayers.