Halloween Happenings.

The last few days have been filled with Halloween fun. Carving pumpkins. Trying on costumes and making sure we know how we're going to wear our hair, make-up (this being Elizabeth), who we're trick-or-treating with, getting food ready for parties at school, getting the house clean for company, etc.


Monday evening was spent carving pumpkins. I have decided that there is a market for cleaned-out, ready-to-carve pumpkins. I hate having to empty the guts and scrap them out. I'm always ready to move on to the fun part of carving. ;) Elizabeth chose a cat pattern for her pumpkin but it was such a small pumpkin that I ended up free-handing most of it. Andrew and Wade chose a silly pumpkin face.

On Tuesday evening we finally held our first official PTO meeting at the school. I was voted to be the president-elect until spring elections. I think my face was as red as a beet but I knew it was coming. Lorrie had talked to me about it a couple of times. She nominated me. :) The Holiday Craft Fair we had been organizing was readily approved by all the attendees and they are excited about it. I hope the rest of the school is as receptive toward it. I think they will be.


I went to Nannie's house to help Mom clean out her building on Wednesday. Nannie moved into her house about a year ago but with it being a smaller house a lot of boxes were left unpacked in an out building. I thought it would be super cold there because it had been staying in the high 40s the days prior so I dressed in a wool sweater. I always make that mistake once a year before I learn my lesson. It got up to 60. Ugh! I drove to pick up the kids in my tank top I had on under the sweater (it was a cardigan) with my sunroof open! LOL I cooled off enough to get "dressed" before getting the kids.


Thursday was my day to get my fall highlights. I know Jennifer, my hair stylist, had something different in mind but what she had originally planned turned into me sort of going back to my "roots". I'm back to being a complete red-head. She covered my old highlights from this summer with a medium auburn glaze. I think it's a semi-permanent color. I liked it okay and I think I was in shock the first day. It looked fake. BUT after a good hair washing I lost the fakiness and it looks good now. I do like playing with my hair and trying different things. I don't want to ever change hair colors completely but enjoy doing highlights, lowlights, etc.

I found this cute recipe/idea for the brownies I made for Elizabeth's class at the Box Tops for Education website. Here's the link for the Halloween brownies. Pretty easy, right? Well, I have decided that I am utterly icing inept. I can cook and really bake almost anything and it turns out great but give me icing to put on a cake or even just heat and drizzle on a marshmallow, and I just stink. I think I desperately need to take a cake decorating class to overcome this problem!! LOL I know my sister and one other friend on Facebook said they would join me. :) (P.S. The photo below is NOT the ones I made but from the website. Instead of the octopus, I made a pumpkin one.)

Andrew had his last soccer practice that evening (Thurs) so while he and Wade were gone, Elizabeth and I watched several videos on You Tube on how to do a bun. We tried several times but her hair is very silky and kept falling out. I'm sure I could have wet it and gelled it and it would have worked but I knew on Halloween night that we wouldn't be getting to give her a shower before bed so I didn't want to put that in her hair. I put my eyeliner, mascara and lipstick on her as well as some blue eyeshadow from one of her make-up kits. She thought she looked good, let me tell ya!! LOL She was looking at herself in the mirror and told me, "You know, I like this mascara and eyeliner." Some photos of her from that evening.

So yesterday was the big day. Halloween. Andrew was up and in my bathroom as soon as he heard me up with the water on. When I went to wake Elizabeth, there was none of the usual going back every 3-5 minutes. She practically jumped out of bed. I got ready and then put her make-up on and fixed her hair. When I got home, I finished cleaning the house, started the Tomato Bisque for supper that evening, finished decorating a few brownies, washed clothes, etc. Then around one I had to leave for their parties at school. Here's one photo from Andrew's party. He was dancing with his good friend, Canyon. They were being so silly. :) He had got hot and taken off the shirt from his policeman costume. (I am going to have to do a post-holiday photo shoot of him in that, by the way!!! LOL)

Daddy, Mom and Nannie came over to eat a little before 5 yesterday evening. I made grilled cheese sandwiches to go with the Tomato Bisque. After we ate, Lori, Jon, Jeremiah and Tyler arrived to go trick-or-treating. We met up with Lorrie, Abbie, and their friend from school, Rachel, with her little sister and parents. We had quite the crew out going door-to-door. It makes it fun that way, I think. Notice HUGE pumpkin at the one house we visited!

We went around just one circle in our neighborhood and decided we the kids had plenty of candy. We had a couple of more stops to make for the night still. Mom took our minnows home with her. She is going to put them back in the creek. I told them they'll go back to the creek telling all the other minnows about the adventures they had and the nice warm place they lived for about a month. I think that would make a cute children's story. ;) We were back from trick-or-treating around 6:45 (yep, just 45 minutes) and left around 7 to go to Griff and Dallas' house. From there we went to see Steve and Jeanette and finally made it home around 10:15. The kids were pooped and ready to sleep. The adults were too.

Our poor children are such a product of their parents. This is what we found this morning when Wade and I finally rolled out of bed. Elizabeth's candy. All organized.

Andrew's candy. Made into an obstacle course.

Andrew's last soccer game today was a very good one. We didn't win but we tied AND with the way the other team played with bad attitudes, I say we won! One kid even got pulled off by his dad and I think was given either a good ear chewin' or a spanking. On the way to the game Andrew said he wanted to celebrate the game by eating at Phil's Dream Pit (BBQ). Elizabeth had a sleepover birthday party to go to after the game so after I took her to that, we went there to eat. Our kids love being the "only kid" when one of the them is at someone's house for the night.

I went to scrapbook tonight and who just HAD to join me? He wanted to make a book so I cut three sheets of cardstock (he requested the primary colors) in half and sewed them down the middle. He wanted to make a "touch and feel" book. Carefully inspecting my scrap room, he found felt to make a "soft" page, sand paper to make a "rough" page and I helped him find some other things to make a "bumpy, squishy, smooth, [and] sticky" page. He made two and plans on giving one to his cousin, Stone. I'll have to take some photos to share later. I am going to blog about last weekend's mini vacation later too. :)

Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight!