Halloween 2012!!

I thought I'd share some pics from my family's Halloween celebrations last week!  We are one of those families that love to dress up...I never really out grew it, I guess, and I love coming up with creative ways to make a character!

We'll start out with the kids first!  Let's face it...our youngest doesn't really care what she dresses up as...so I went with something that the kids could use in the dress up box Post-Halloween.

Mimi went as a a Flower Fairy Princess!

The skirt was fromt he thrift store!  The shirt, tights, and shoes are some from her own wardrobe.  The wings, wand and crown were from Walmart.  The wand, wings, crown and skirt went right into the dress-up box after Halloween!

Next is Maddie as Cinderella!

She wore a dress with an overskirt, both from the thrift store.  She wore her own turtleneck and tights, and wore thrift store shoes that I glittered using ModPodge.  Her crown and the ribbon around her waist were from Walmart. 

I crocheted her Cinderella hair/hat...it's actually the Rapunzel hat I made for her worn backwards with the hair pulled around into a bun!  

Lilly is next, as a simple Black Cat!

The best thing about this costume is that it cost nothing!  We already had everything in our costume box to make this one: Black fleece jumpsuit (I think I got it from the thrift store several years ago...it's one of those great basic costume pieces that works for so many things!), cat ears (also from years ago), and a simple hat I crocheted!  The rest is just make-up and cuteness!  

Ben wanted to be Harry Potter for Halloween this year, which was another fantastically easy costume! 

He wore his own church slacks, shoes, and sweater, and topped it off with borrowed glasses, a decoration broom, and a black cape from the costume box.  I made the scarf myself, so the cost of this was FREE, since I already had the yarn on hand for the scarf!

Ellie was the trickiest of the kids to outfit this year.  She always has the most outlandish ideas on what she wants to be each year.  (She's been a Sea Monster, a mermaid, a Phytosaur (a large semi-aquatic Late-Triassic reptile - NOT A DINOSAUR! ), a Hippogriff, Charlotte (from Charlotte's Web), Ludvig von Beethoven, and 13 (the black cat from the Zimmer twins)! Oy.)

This year was no exception!  She wanted to go as Steampunk Napoleon Bonaparte!  Sheesh!

Her costume was constructed using mostly thrift store finds and some items from the costume box.  The shirt and sash were from our costume box, the boots are her own, and the jacket and pants are from the thrift store.  I took a ladies blazer jacket and cropped it, making a tail-coat, adding braiding and fringe for epalets, etc.  I also added brass buttons to the jacket and front of the pants. 

She's got my Grandpa's stop watch safety-pinned to the jacket as well as a crest made of felt, shiny metallic flowers, bottle caps, alarm clock parts, ribbon, and wire. 

The hat is made from felt that I sewed into to right shape, stuffed, painted with a gold stripe, and added a badge made from more clock parts, ribbon, scrapbook supplies, buttons, and feathers.

All in all I think it came out splendidly...and her expression tops it off perfectly.  She really sold it!

Tomorrow I'll post about my own and Marc's costumes!

Hope you all had a very Happy and safe Halloween!!

Happy Jacks!

Here are the fun Halloween creations the kids came up with for our pumpkin carving activity this year! We took these shots using the 'candlelight' setting on my camera!

Ellie's Steampunk Skull and Cross-bones:

Ben's Harry Potter Lightning Bolt:

Lilly's Cute Cat face:

Maddie's Ariel:

Mimi's Cheesy Smile Punkin:

And the whole gang together!

And the creators with their creations!

Quote of the Week ~ 2/17/12

For a snack yesterday I made celery sticks with peanut butter.*

Maddie's response when I told her she had to eat the celery...and not just lick the peanut butter off?

"Celery is disgusting.  Peanut butter is delicious."

There you have it.



*I LOVE this combo...always have...but then I really do like celery by itself.  Mock if you will.

A Snail Party!

I posted about this on my other blog...but I thought I'd share it here, too!!


Here are a few pics of the Snail-themed Birthday Party I planned for my six-year-old daughter, Lilly!

I know.

Snails.

Really.

Anyway...

We had a lot of fun playing some silly snail games like "Slug, Slug, Snail" (which is basically my made up version of "Duck, Duck, Goose," modified so that they have to go slowly...and crawl instead of run!).

We also had a "Snail Race!"  All of the kids colored their very own snail and wrote their name on the back.

You can find this cute little snail clipart HERE.

I set up a "path" for them to follow from the living room to the dining room, where a Snail Feast awaited them.  The path was made of green construction paper leaves, black paper rocks, and blue paper puddles taped to the floor.  Each child took turns rolling a dice, and moving along the path according to the number on the dice.  If they landed on a rock or puddle they had to wait another turn (because it's tricky for snails to get around rocks and puddles, you know).

After the party my daughter turned the rocks and leaves into a tree on the door! :)

When each snail reached the table they got a little Fruit by the Foot roll, and some "mud" - ie chocolate pudding - to dig in.  We also added some gummy snails to the mud to make it fun!

Sorry for the crumby picture...for some reason it was really hard to get a pic of the gummy snails in the mud! ;)

When everyone finally got to the table we ate our Snail Feast!

There were Snail Shell crackers:  These are just swirls of Easy Cheese on Ritz crackers!  A big hit! ;)

Sweet and Savory Snail Roll-ups:  The sweet ones are tortillas spread with peanut butter, cream cheese and apple-cinnamon jam.  The savory ones are tortillas spread with cream cheese, avocados, and deli turkey.  You just roll them up and cut them into little pinwheels!

Sweet Snail Roll-ups!

Savory Snail Roll-ups!

And finally Hot Snail Dogs:  These are hot Dog wrapped in Crescent Roll dough.  Then we added little chow mein noodle eye stem thingies.  The serving platter was drizzled with honey to make the "snail slime trails."  I got the idea for these on Pinterest, here.  Aren't they cute?  (And sort of disgusting?  There's no accounting for taste.)

Hot Snail Dogs! 

See the little snail trails? Tee hee!

After our meal we opened presents and then it was time for cake!!

The dirt on the cake is made from crushed up chocolate sandwich cookies (like Oreos), with the squishy white stuff removed.  (I saved that stuff for another part of the cake!)  The grass is made from coconut tinted green with food coloring.  Rocks and flowers are made from jumbo gumdrops...the flowers have lemon drop centers.

The snails are my favorite part!  Their bodies are made from the white Oreo filling...I just kinda rolled it into little snake/slug shapes!  The snails shells are made from Hershey's kisses with the tops chopped off...and then swirled with edible writing gel.  The little eye stems are those chow mein noodles again!

All in all it was a great party!  I'm just glad I was able to make a snail-themed party work!  I mean, whose kid ask for a snail-themed party?

Oh, right.

Mine.  :)

Happy Birthday, Lilly!

Quote of the Week ~ 2/8/12

Ellie, age 10: "Mom, is there a way to make skim milk turn into good milk?"

Quote of the Week ~ 1/22/12

Lilly, age 5, describing junior mints:  "These taste like heaven...and smell like chocolate."


Well said, little one.  Well said.

The Valley of Goblins

On Monday we took a family trip to Goblin Valley State Park.  We didn't tell the kids where we were going.  We told them we would be getting up early and going for a long drive to a very fun surprise destination.

Ben woke up at 2:30am.  He came downstairs wearing his clothes, shoes and coat.  He asked if it was time to go yet.  Oy.  

Anyway, after sending him back to bed we actually got off at about 7:00 am.  And drove, and drove, and drove.

And then we arrived.  And the suspense was totally worth it!!  The kids thought they'd died and gone to heaven! It was pretty windy and chilly...but we bundled up and went on a trek!

Goblin Valley

Mommy and Amelia

My favorite little backpack!  Amelia was such a trooper!! 

Riding 'Saddle Rock!' 

Queen of the Hill 

Daddy pretending to be stuck in 'Fat Man's Curse,' while cute little Goblins surround him

Maddie...posing.  Oy, that kid. 

A goblin tunnel.  Ellie's goblin nickname was Red Rock. 

'Parkour!' 

Cave dwellers 

Oh, Maddie.  That face says it all. 

Ben's goblin nickname was Climber Rock-Tracker 

Ellie.  It ws pretty hard to get pics of this kid...she was everywhere! 

"Smile?  Mom, It'm trying to be a goblin here."  Oh, Lilly.  What a nut. 

Mommy and Daddy 

"I'm a Zombie-Princess-Goblin!" 

"I LOVE pumpkins!" 

Marc, up in that little window!

Ben looking out from the same little window! 

What an amazing view!! 

Our little hikers at the bottom of Carmel Canyon! 

And here they are again at the top of Carmel Canyon!  The rock formations in the back ground of both of these pictures are the same ones!!  Pretty cool!  They were really great hikers!! 

Mommy found 'Nordy Rock!'  (So named after her beloved stuffed duck thingy, of days gone by.) 

At the top of 'Goblin Dome'

The kids are so excited to go back and explore some more!!  Next time we plan on going down for a couple of day and spending the night in one of the yurts at the campground!  :)