Halloween Party

While Charlotte napped today I got ready for our family Halloween dinner tonight. I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but the kids love it and I want it to be fun and special for them. So, I thought it would be fun to do a themed dinner tonight. And, yes, I know I'm no fun for not loving Halloween. It's just not my favorite holiday -- it's probably my least favorite, in fact. I love Thanksgiving and Christmas the most and I love love love fall.

 

For the record -- all the Halloween is going down on Thursday and Christmas is going up next week! :) But, I digress. Today was all about Halloween at our house. I told the kids when they left for school this morning that we'd have a surprise tonight when they got home. And they were thrilled to walk in and find this. 

 It was fun and simple and easy to do. I think I spent all of $12 on decorations. :) I made a simple dinner -- Boo-Ziti, Salad, and Ghost crescents. :) The crescents were a huge hit! I'll definitely be doing those again next year more than once.

 And, for dessert I made spider cakes. Harrison was complaining last week that we only do pumpkins for Halloween and why can't we do spiders and mummies, etc. So, I made these little spider cakes just for him. The kids LOVED them.

 And, they made for some funny dessert time and conversation.

 After dinner, we had a dance party in the living room. I put on our favorite Halloween CD -- seriously this is such a cute CD! The kids have loved listening to it all season, even though it's pretty hokie. :)

I bought glow sticks/bracelets and we turned out the lights and turned up the Monster Mash and danced in the dark. It was a blast! There was even a conga line. :) Such a fun way to lead into the big day tomorrow!

Pumpkin Carving

Friday afternoon Matt got off a little bit early and we decided it was a perfect time to carve our pumpkins. The kids actually had the entire day off from school because it was parent conferences and they had been counting the minutes until Daddy got home and we could carve! 

 

 I think they turned out pretty cute! It was fun to do something different from the usual jack-o-lantern.

 

Witches Movie Nite

We had a fun Friday night a couple of weeks ago to get us into the fall and Halloween spirit.  I'd planned a "witch themed" movie night and the kids loved it! We started with a fun craft/food project that afternoon after school (and after we'd gotten into our "comfy clothes!") We made witches' hats out of cookies and kisses. They turned out pretty cute and the kids had a fun time making them.

I did some witch hat cupcakes as well. :)

I found these orange cups in the dollar bin at Target -- I added some pumpkin faces to be more festive. I'm not an artist, but the great thing about little kids is that they don't care. :) They turned out cute when filled with popcorn.

And, our movie was witch themed as well -- we watech Bednobs and Broomsticks for the first time. I haven't seen this movie in a long time, but it was quite a hit with Madeleine & Harrison! Madeleine even watched it again the next day!

It turned out to be such a fun, lazy evening for us at home! These are the best times -- where the 5 of us are all together snuggled up on the couch. I love moments like this and I treasures these times. I know they will pass all too quickly.

My Sweet Girl

I heard Charlotte in her room talking this morning and went in to check on her. I found her and her baby all tucked into the bed. She was talking to her baby and telling her it was time for nite-nite and I went to sneak a pic and she saw me. :) She's such a little mommy! I love it! 

Cowboy Day

Charlotte's preschool had cowboy day a couple of weeks ago. They got to make some fun cowboy crafts and then the real horses came to their school and they got to see and pet them! She was so excited and she talks about the horses every time we head to school now!

 

We didn't have any cowgirl gear -- I'm not even sure we have anything that isn't pink or purple! :) She's just a girlie girl. So, I made her a little t-shirt with a "C" on it and we did some jeggings with it. That's as "cowboy" as we get at this house. However, since I don't sew I think it turned out pretty cute. 

31 Days

I can't believe that October is already here! This fall is flying by and I'll be putting up our Christmas decorations in just 6 short weeks -- yes, 6 weeks. I love Christmas and especially since we have little ones the season just doesn't last long enough, so I'm drawing it out this year. :)

But, for the month of October, we are trying something new around our house. We are doing 31 days of eating at home. We've done a lot of eating out/takeout lately and quite frankly, I'm tired of it. So we are going to be eating at home for the next 31 days -- or at least trying and making a good effort to do this. I realize that sometimes things happen and I already know that we'll be traveling one weekend, but it's a start.

We are trying this for several reasons. First it's gotten stinkin' expensive for us to eat out lately. Madeleine and Harrison are both old enough now that they need to order their own meal and too big to haul in sippy cups from home too. Add 2 adult meals and we typically spend at least $30 on a meal out which kills me since I can cook several dinners for that amount. Second, eating out with Charlotte right now is no. fun. at. all. She's just in that training phase and it's such work to take her out to eat. I usually end up eating with her on my lap and scarfing down my food and it's just no fun. So we are going to spend the next 31 days eating at home and training her on better table manners. :)

I'm kinda excited about this! It means I have to do a better job of planning and shopping for our meals and I'm excited to try some new foods. And, the crockpot will be getting put to good use!

So, here are our meals for this week:
M: French Dip Sandwiches, grapes
T: Spagetti with mini(turkey)meatballs, salad, breadsticks
W: Leftovers from Mon/Tues for me and Matt, Mac N'Cheese for kids (homemade)
T: Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken, garlic potatos, peas
F: Chicken Tacos (slow cooker), Black Beans, Queso
S: lunch: leftover tacos, dinner: Beef Stew (slow cooker) with crusty bread
S: lunch: leftover stew, dinner: Ham, biscuits, eggs

Oh, yea, and I made a yummy cinnamon cake! :)