Jiggly Wiggly Brain

Remember I mentioned on Halloween that me, Char, and Allie were brewing something up?!  Well, we made this lovely Jello Brain with worms.  We've had the brain mold for a few years, but kept forgetting to make it.  This year I remembered, although I'm not sure how with my befuddled brain.  However, we forgot to eat it on Halloween!  Tonight for dessert we served up a slice for everyone.  It was super dense and not really to our liking.  I guess that is because we don't care for jigglers.  Next year we are going to try just regular jello in it to see if it will work and be a bit more enjoyable.  Even though it didn't work out it was fun to make, and doesn't the sight of it give you the creeps?

Pumpkins and Ghosts

Russ and I love the tradition of having carved pumpkins out on our porch for the trick-or-treaters.  But we both agreed that this might be our last year of doing the fancy carved pumpkins.  The amount of work and times it takes is getting out of hand.  Last night Russ spent a good portion of the evening carving out the pumpkins.  He carved everyone's except mine and Lily's.  Lily worked quite diligently on her cat.   Russ showed her what to do and she went at it.  We were quite impressed that she was able to get the details done with messing it up.  We put jelly on the pumpkins so they would last overnight.  Then tonight Russ set them out and lit them.  We got a lot of comments from trick-or-treaters and their parents about our "cool pumpkins".  Also, I was surprised with how many comments we also got on our ghost luminarios as well.  I caught quite a few people taking pictures by both our pumpkins and our ghosts.  It was exciting to know that we had a "cool" Halloween house. :)

Russ's moaning ghost and my cute owl

My owl and Lily's cat

Allie's dog{aka wolf} and Char's cute skeleton.

Char's cute skeleton and Bree's cute smiley pumpkin.

Our ghost pumpkin luminaries.

Costumes & Trick or Treating

Note to self...don't ever have a baby so close to a holiday ever again!  Whew, this year was a bit stressful pulling costumes together.  After last years disaster with me sewing Lily into her purchased costume I vowed to sew one this year.  That was bit difficult with a newborn to care for as well! {eeks!}  But I took the task on anyway.  I asked Lily what she wanted to be and she replied Jessie from Toy Story.  I said okay and dived in.  I under estimated the time it would take to make her costume mostly because I thought I had found a pattern to follow and it turned out that it wasn't a pattern and I kinda just winged my own pattern.   Turns out that I did okay winging it, even if I was sewing all the up to trick or treating time.   I'm proud of the whole outfit but I particularly love the hat!

Allie's costume was a bit more manageable.  She asked to be Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  We were going to use an old pirate costume we had, but Allie insisted that it didn't look like Izzy.  So after checking clearance racks we put together an Izzy costume.  Daddy helped out and made a pixie.dust bag for her.  Allie loved that part of the costume.  She's been sprinkling us with pixie dust all day!  I was worried no one would recognize who she was, but quite a few mom's said to her or me that she made a great Izzy.  Phew!

Charlotte didn't get a choice.  I decided she was going to be a lady bug since we had the costume on hand.  I had to buy new wings {thank you Dollar tree!} and make her antennas but that was it.  Easy peasy!  She turned out soo cute too.  The costume was adorable on her.

Bree didn't get a choice either.  She was our little flower this year. 

I made sure to get a sister picture of them all dressed up, and it worked!  The girls were all on their best behavior and smiled!  That could have something to do with Charlotte feeling better...just maybe.

Lily and Allie insisted on taking a picture holding Bree.  I can't believe how much they fight over who gets to hold her.  Oh well, at least I get some cute  sister pictures out of them fighting.

While I was busy taking these pictures Charlotte noticed something was in her bucket and kept herself busy.  I love this series of photos.  You can see Charlotte's little mind working in them.

Puh-eeesss????

We finally got around to trick or treating.  Our neighborhood is awesome and most everyone is out in front of their houses passing out candy.  The girls get loads of candy!  Since Russ wasn't feeling 100% he opted to stay home with Bree and hand out candy.  Here we are walking around our cud-de-sac.

I was going to go out and walk Charlotte around a block or so and bring her back.  Turned Charlotte loved trick or treating.  She managed to walk about 5 or 6 blocks before tuckering out and needing me to carry her home.  Russ and I switched off and he took the girls out for some more.  Charlotte really enjoyed helping me hand out candy.  Everytime the doorbell would ring she would run to it and yell, "HELLOOO!!!"  We were kept quite busy handing out candy.  Eventually we ran out and I had to turn off the light.

Around 7:30 the girls and Russ came home and checked out their haul before going to bed.  It was such a fun night for the girls, I'm glad we could pull everything together for them.

Something is Brewing!

It wouldn't be Halloween without making something totally disgusting looking to eat for dinner right?!  Allie and Charlotte helped me brew up something today.  It was my first time cooking with Charlotte and boy that was an adventure.  She did really well until she starting stirring to fast and wouldn't give the wisk back.  She had to be removed from her helping stool, which she wasn't happy about.  But at least she got help some.  Check out the pictures and see if you can figure out what we concocted.  It still is brewing or else I would show it off!

Watching Allie pour in ingredients left Charlotte in awe.

Time to stir...

...and stir...

...and stir!

Lil' Pumpkin

While mom was visiting she bought Breanne this cute little outfit.  She didn't end up wearing it for her costume, but she did wear it all day today. Mom didn't get to see her in it so I snapped this picture of her and sent it to her.  Doesn't she make the cutest Lil' Pumpkin? {The flower is on there for added insurance that she didn't get called a boy!}

Carving Pumpkins: Part 1

Carving pumpkins this year is going to be a bit of a process.  We have such limited time at night we know there is no way to get the pumpkins cleaned and carved all in one night.  Why must Halloween fall on a weekday?  Ok enough whining...Anyway, we decided to clean the pumpkins out tonight and carve them tomorrow.  Bree was needing to be rocked so Russ took on the brave job of cleaning out all the pumpkins with the three girls.

Lily did great and got right into hers.  She wasn't afraid of the goo, and actually do a relatively good job at cleaning it out.  Russ only had to help her out a little.

Allie was terrified of the goo.  She was content on sitting next to daddy and letting him scoop hers out for her.  It probably was the best since she  has such sensitive skin.  I'm sure she would have broke out in a rash like I do when touching pumpkin.

Charlotte didn't touch the pumpkins either.  She was content on playing with the non dangerous carving tools and making faces at Lily.  Yes, I realize she is playing with a carving knife in this picture.  We realized right after I took the picture what she was doing and removed all the knives from her grasp before any blood was spilt.  PHEW!

Our pumpkins are now hollow and will be waiting for us to carve them tomorrow!

Monster Dash

One of our favorite traditions around Halloween time is the kids fun run called the Monster Dash.  Each year we get up before the sun is even up {6:30 or so} and head over to MacLean park.  This year we signed up all three girls.  We figured we would give Charlotte the opportunity to run, and if she didn't, oh well!  

Allie and Charlotte were in the under six race together.  Russ decided to tag along with Charlotte to help her out.  Allie was super excited that her friend Maeby was there to run with.

Go Allie and Maeby!

Charlotte borugh up the rear of the race since she was the youngest running.  Lily was so excited for Charlotte that she ran out and grabbed her hand and ran with her.  It was beyond cute!  It was one of those moments that melts a mother's heart.  Unfortunately I only got a blurry picture of it, but it still captures the scene quite nicely.

At the end of the race the kids each get a medal.  They are always so exited to receive these.  I'm more excited about them receiving their super cute Monster Dash shirts.

Lily went next and ran a longer race.  Even though she brought up the rear of the group I was quite proud of her.  She was having fun and ran her best.  Unfortunately I lost my pictures of her running.  When Lily finished up we had back home and had hot chocolate and toast for breakfast.  Yes even if Texas it gets cold enough to want hot chocolate!  In fact Monster Dash day is typically the first cold morning of the year.  This year didn't disappoint it was quite chilly, hence the hot chocolate.

Trick or Treat

What a go, go, go type of day!  The morning was spent cleaning the house and running errands so that tonight could be all about fun and games.

The fun was supposed to start with making a Jack-o-Lantern pizza for super.  Around noon as I was going around gathering my supplies for lunch I realized I was out of yeast.  So on to plan B which was a Frito pie type meal.  Lily got home later in the afternoon and rushed her to get her homework started while I started the frito pie.  I had everything timed out in my head, making it so that we would be done eating my 5:00 so I would have plenty of time to get the girls dressed in their costumes.  Then I realized that I had misread the recipe I was making.  It was going to take 1 hour 30 minutes to make, NOT the 30 minutes I thought it was going to make.   I was going crazy inside but then I remembered that Russ started his outage hours today and that he would be coming home earlier than normal. He soon arrived and took Miss Fussy Pants {aka Charlotte} and kept her busy while I cooked dinner and started doing the girls hair and makeup in between stirring dinner.  In the end we didn't finish eating until after 5:30 but all worked out.  I had forgotten that it isn't crucial to get out early here in Texas like it is in Utah and Idaho.

We finished getting the girls dressed, with me debating whether I should sew Lily into her costume.  I finally just let it go and figured it was going to be dark out and no one would notice.  Russ took all three girls out to go around our culdesac while I sat outside passing out candy. 

 

At the end of that he brought Charlotte home to me so she wouldn't get cold and cranky while they were out.  For awhile we continued to stay outside while Charlotte entertained herself chewing on some of the unwrapped candy she had gotten.  We went inside when we her bald head started getting swarmed by mosquitos.

While I handed out candy and put Charlotte to bed, Russ and the girls continued to wend their way through the neighborhood.  I kind of wish I could have been there since I've never been trick or treating like that.

7:30 rolled around and Russ brought the troops on home.  They checked out their haul, which was HUGE, then went off to bed.  We continued to get trick or treaters in a steady stream until 9:00!  What a fun night we had!

Milk Jug Ghost Luminaries

Last year I saw the coolest idea for a decoration on the Family Fun website.  I never got around to doing it but I made sure to bookmark.  Early this year as I was cleaning out my bookmarks to transfer them to Pinterest I came across this decoration idea again.  I bookmarked it my mind and when September hit I started saving milk jugs.  We quickly accumulated enough and I set Russ to work with his wonderful doodling skills.  Lily helped me fill in all the doodles.  This was REALLY exciting for her since we let her use a permanet marker {I know, we are crazy!}  One string of lights later and we had made...

Ghost luminaries!  The girls loved running outside at night to check and see if they had turned on.  We enjoyed them and apparently so did some of the Trick or Treaters.  We caught a few parents taken photos of them!  These guys will definitely be making a reappearance in the years to come.