Crafts and Baking!

I don't know about other Mom's, but for me the longest hours of the day are from 4:00 to 6:00pm. Everyone is hungry, tired, and "bored". So, I like to entertain the kids with little crafts to make. Fall is the perfect time because every month there is a new theme. We made these turkeys using our footprints and handprints. I think they are pretty cute and they make my home look so festive hanging on the fridge.

I attend this recipe club once a month and this month was holiday breads. I tried this new recipe for a Danish Kringle (added some marashino cherries and almonds) and it turned out so pretty--and Delicious!!

Trav's Birthday

So Travis is turning 4 years old and it is so weird because I feel like we have had him forever, but its only been 4 years. He is just the best kid in the world and so funny. He makes me laugh all day long and he always tells me..."you crack me up Mom!" So cute! One day we were watching a cooking show and saw this really awesome volcano cake and so Travis picked this for his birthday and I was more than happy to make it because it was so fun.

Trav's vtech laptop (which he hasn't played with even once) when you scroll down you'll know why!

The making of the cake. I used two box cake mixes (one red velvet--one chocolate) and made 4 round cakes and then cut them down to size. I crumbled the leftover red velvet pieces for my lava rocks. The rest was just frosting and icing! Oh and of course, I cut a whole out of the top and inserted a votive candle holder with some dry ice in it-so it looked like the volcano was erupting. The kids loved it and thought I was magic! It's always fun when you can impress your kids.

Travis asked me if it was "really exploding?"

My cousin Kevin made this "super homemade" card for Trav's birthday! If you look close you can see it says..."more chips" --Trav's favorite phrase.

This is why Travis hasn't touched his laptop toy. He loves LOVES his Batcave!

Trick or Treat!

Trick or treat smell my feet...and so on... This is the night of our ward party! The kids had so much fun getting dressed up and this year was perfect because I didn't have to fight anybody about wearing their costume (except Jeff)! On Halloween, Jeff's parents came over to spend the holiday with us and take the kids trick-or-treating. We enjoyed having them here and it made our Halloween even more fun than usual.

Travis the Pirate! Aaargh Matey!

Caleb the Skeleton!

Martie is Super Girl!

The whole gang!

It's our Halloween tradition that we carve pumkins every year, so on Sunday we made donuts and jack-o-lanterns. For some reason my jack-o-lantern every year seems to end up looking kind of goofy and a little slow. Travis saw mine and said "Oh, is it sad?" That pretty much said it all. Martie's is suppose to be Scooby Doo, but it's hard to tell. Travis' is the most scary, Caleb's is the one with the little nose, and Jeff did the skull. I think they turned out pretty good! I've also been having lots of fun making fun foods for the kids to eat. My mom always sends me little cookbooks with fun recipes in them, so this year we've Monster Mouths with Ghostly Mashed potatoes, Cheesy Bat Biscuits, Yummy Mummy Calzones, and R.I.P. Brownies. The kids love it! Well, i hope everyone is enjoying Halloween as much as we are.

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch and got to do all sorts of things...face painting, feed the horse, corn maze, and pick a pumpkin. The kids has tons of fun running through the maze and of course, Caleb kept running ahead of us and I was worried we would lose Martie. The kids also got to feed corn stalks to a horse and they thought that was pretty cool. We searched all over the pumpkin patch for the perfect one for Caleb. (who know he would be so picky about a pumpkin)!

I offered to carry it for her but, Martie insisted on carrying her own pumpkin and only dropped it like 3 times!

Travis is getting a bat painted on his face. Martie got a frankestein kind of thing and Caleb got a pumpkin on his hand.

Trav showing off his BAT!

Caleb looks good in corn--I think he was meant to be a farm kid!

Kiddos

Caleb is humoring me. I discovered that as he was getting older, I was taking less pictures of him and I together. So recently I've been making him take pictures with me. What a good sport!

So I also noticed going through family pictures that Jeff isn't in very many of them. I asked him why he thought that was..."because I'm never around." Exactly. So I decided to make him take pictures with me too!