HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Since today is Halloween, I thought I'd share the Halloween themed fun from the small one's 8th birthday party. We decided to have a low key homemade birthday party this year. With that in mind, I borrowed an idea from my Christmas files and made a small graham cracker gingerbread house for each child to decorate. We do this every year as a family for Christmas, and I thought getting spooky decorative candies and using black royal icing would make a nice haunted house. The kids began decorating the houses as soon as they came in, and this gave them all something to do as the rest of the guests were arriving.

I just melted some sugar to use as "glue" to stick the walls and roof together.

I made royal icing and added actual black food coloring to it. It took alot to make it look black.

Here are the finished products:

This next fun game was cut out of a piece of MDF by my fabulous neighbor with his trusty saw. I enlisted the help of the first born to paint it and I think he did a wonderful job. I had seen some games somewhat like this on the internet and thought I'd adapt the idea to this party. I think it turned out great! We gave a point value to each opening in the face, and the one who racked up the most points in four throws got a prize.

The idea for this game came from Martha Stewart. She always has really great Halloween and party ideas. Go to marthastewart.com for her instructions. We played this one last, and the kids loved throwing the darts at the balloons. We filled them with confetti and some dum dum suckers.

For some reason, kids just love throwing sharp objects. Plenty of supervision was provided :)

We had red velvet cupcakes with a white swirl of frosting decorated with a ghost face (which was eaten before I got the picture taken) Oreo ice cream, and green "monster goo" to drink.

The birthday girl had a good time, the weather couldn't have been nicer, and the kids all left filled with plenty of sugar. All elements of a successful birthday party.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins!

The other night, we rounded up the kids and headed out to buy our pumpkins. Since we flat out failed at growing our own, we had to resort to enjoying the bounty of other, more successful, farmers. (Who can't grow a pumpkin? really.) We hunted down the man child who was off doing his thing, but is always a good sport to come along on family outings when dinner is involved. (Red Robin, YUM!) He was not, however, game to pose for more than one or two pictures, much preferring to take the pictures.

We found some really nice ones, and filled a wheelbarrow with the best picks.

There were two corn mazes to wander through. And even though they were fairly tame, (no chainsaw wielding maniacs) it was spooky enough for the small one.

There were areas set up and set aside for families to take fall pictures.

The weather was perfect, the moon was full, and the kids got along.

What more can you ask for?

A Haunting Holiday

It's coming... Can you sense it? Halloween!

I consider Halloween to be the official start of the Holiday Season, and as such, decorations are definitely in order :) This year, as I was hauling out the Halloween boxes, I was pleasantly reminded that I had gone to the 90% off sale at ShopKo last year and found a few great Halloween gems. One of my favorites is the mad scientist shelf decal. Because I have a blue brown and grey color scheme going in the room, I figured the few yards of blue and brown checked fabric that I had tucked away would work well for a draping on my sideboard. I filled an old glass vase with a bunch of acorns, (also procured at the 90% off sale for .79 cents a box). I snuck an electric candlestick out of the Christmas box, (shhhh) and set up my favorite feathery friends, Voila! an inexpensive and spooky Halloween display!

Whenever I come across a unique or interesting shaped bottle, I usually tuck it away in hope I'll be able to use it for something. This year I printed some free labels out from the internet and used water colors to make them look worn and dirty. I used elmers glue to paste them to the bottles and didn't worry if I smeared the glue around the edges of the labels or on to the bottles. I figured this made them look older and more spooky. I already had the bust of David and thought in the right environment, he could look spooky too.

A couple of white pumpkins resting on some sheer polka dotted fabric and I'm done.

I used the more traditional orange and black for the mantel in the family room. Even the small person's bobble head owl fit right into the decorating scheme.

The decorating is done on the inside, and now after a trip to the pumpkin patch I think we'll have just what we need to "spooky up" the outside too. I love Halloween an all the frightening fun that it brings. The addition of a full moon the last few nights has really made it feel like ghosts and goblins could be hiding in every shadow.

"Everybody Scream, Everybody Scream, in our Town of Halloween!"

Summer's Last Hurrah!

I believe I mentioned that I am loving this Indian Summer. Well, to take full advantage of what was left of it, our family took a quick trip up to Bear Lake last weekend. The weather was perfect, the skies were blue, and I was ready to just get away. On the way, we stopped in Brigham City to see the progress of the new Brigham City Temple. Hub and I were just in Brigham City a couple of weeks ago and didn't even notice it. (Seriously, how could we have missed it?) Anyway, it is gorgeous and seemed to be glowing in the late afternoon sunlight. There is just something about the sunlight in the fall isn't there?

We decided to stop in Logan before heading up the canyon to the lake. Everyone was hungry, and I had been wanting to try out the Bluebird Cafe in Logan. It's an historic little restaurant with an old time soda fountain/candy store. I love the charm of old buildings, and this one didn't disappoint. Go there. They have peach flavored gummy penguins at the candy counter.

Bear Lake is beautiful in the summer, but really, I don't think any time of year can rival the slow fall of summer into autumn up there. The leaves in the canyon on the way up were nothing short of spectacular. The evening light added a sheen of gold to everything and made the leaves glow.

The weather had been so nice that the rental shack on the beach was still open. We inquired to see about canoes to paddle out onto the lake, and ended up with a SeaDoo instead. The kids had a blast zipping across the nearly deserted lake, and even the small one got a chance to drive the machine with dad on the back.

After a day at the lake and a Raspberry shake at LaBeaus, ( a Bear Lake must do) we had to take a dip in the outdoor pool. It was the last day it would be open. We kept saying we couldn't believe we were swimming at Bear Lake in October.

All in all, it was a very relaxing weekend, and a great way to bid a fond farewell to summer. Now, I can face the reality that the heat waves are over, and falling temperatures are surely on their way. And come to terms with the fact that I will really have to start wearing shoes again...

It's Autumn Time!!

What beautiful weather!! I love Indian Summers creeping into Fall. So far it's been creeping so slowly, we've barely noticed it's almost October! Pretty soon the leaves will start turning in the valley and the air will stay crisp and clear all day; none of this 85 degree weather ;)

Last night we decided that it was time to take out the last gasping breaths of the garden.

Too many squash bugs destroyed the pumpkin crop and even the zucchinis.

The blackberry bushes had gone crazy and were reaching spiny tentacles out to encircle everything in sight. The corn stalks stood proud and crisp after drying in the sun.

We didn't get much purple broccoli or orange cauliflower and really, not one large tomato, although we got several small cherry ones which we were happy for.

No peppers and two small tomatillos rounded out our pitiful harvest.

Even though I wouldn't call our garden harvest a success, I love planting a garden.

And boy you can bet we have great plans to improve the yield for next year. (More on that later.)

I love being out in the yard and seeing the first tender shoots push up out of the ground in spring. I love the first zucchini in the summer and I love the clean up in the fall.

As we pulled our plants out of the ground and drew out all kind of new bugs and microbes from under the surface, our chickens had a hey-day pecking at the earth. For the first time in months they were allowed in the garden area to roam free and I think they were happy.

We built a fire in the fire pit and cooked hot dogs and roasted marshmallows when we were done and watched the chickens file back into their coops for the night as we ate our dinner. Our friend from next door came to join us and we looked at the stars and enjoyed a still warm, Indian summer night.

Not too many days like this left. Next up...raking leaves